 |
Check out these cool
t-shirts, mousepads, mugs, and stuff we made in our free time
|
 |
Some of Anchordudes'
friends on the web: |
AnchorDudes Usenet Newsgroup
Server FAQ
|
|
|
|
|
| Best Usenet Service Providers (last updated April 30, 2008) | ||||
| Category | Provider | Plan | Price | Notes (If viewing from Europe - check out the European Usenet service providers table too!) |
| Web-Based
thumbnail viewer service |
SkinVideo
NOTE - The sign-up page is NOT office safe! |
Standard | $15
/ mo $ 40 / 3 mo |
If your primary interest is "adult" content and you don't want to mess with a newsreader program on your PC, the easiest access to adult Usenet pictures and video (OK, porn - there, we said it) is SkinVideo. They collect content from the alt.binaries.erotica.xxx and other adult newsgroups and convert it so you can view it directly online with thumbnails and video viewers - or download it in different formats for your PC or iPod. If this is what you're looking for, look no further. |
| Unlimited NNTP downloads WITH SSL Security (Requires a newsreader program) | ||||
| More
than 120 days retention
"Best of the Best" |
Giganews | Diamond | $30 / mo $10 off first month | Giganews
has the longest retention rates, hands
down. At least 5 months' storage in all binary groups caches (avg
200+ days retention overall > 6 months!) and
more than 4 years of text-only groups. They also have the
industry's best completion rates. (They
are the largest T1 Usenet provider) If
you missed a part and it's fallen off your normal service, Giganews
probably still has it. Giganews service is
uncensored and the SSL connection makes sure your ISP can't
snoop on you.
Binary retention is 200+ days and this account supports up to 10 simultaneous connections. You can use either their US or Amsterdam servers, and can choose which backbones to use to connect to maximize your message download speed. Giganews offers an optional usenet header compression tool to speed up downloading headers. It makes things A LOT faster. Click here to give it a try. Giganews also offers a European based server for overseas users. |
| Less
than 120 days retention
Best bang for your buck if privacy is a concern |
PowerUsenet | Power | $15 / mo $5 off for first 2 months |
Powerusenet is operated by Giganews. They use a separate set of servers for Powerusenet customers, which provides 100+ days of binary retention. You get up to 6 simultaneous connections with this newsgroup plan. Powerusenet's service is uncensored and the SSL connection makes sure your ISP can't snoop on you. |
| Usenetserver | Monthly Plus | $15 / mo $40 / 3 mo |
Usenetserver
is operated by Newshosting, a long-time
favorite of the Anchordudes. Binary
retention is a healthy 100+ days and
since the new owners took over, its reliability has been quite good.
You get up to 10 simultaneous connections
with this newsgroup plan. Usenetserver's
service is uncensored and the SSL
connection makes sure your ISP can't snoop on you. You can also select
different backbones to maximize your message download speed.
It's really a toss-up between Usenetserver and Powerusenet in this newsgroup service category, so we called it a tie |
|
| Unlimited NNTP downloads WITHOUT SSL Security (Requires a newsreader program) | ||||
| More
than 120 days retention Best quality |
Giganews | Platinum | $25/mo | All the same retention (200+ days), completion, and speed features as Giganews Diamond, but without the SSL feature. Definitely the usenet service to go for if superb up-time is a concern or having the ability to grab parts of old files is a high priority. |
| Less
than 120 days retention
Most cost-effective services |
Usenet.net | Unlimited 5 | $14 / mo |
Usenet.net is operated by Giganews. They use a separate set of servers for Powerusenet customers, which provides 100+ days of binary retention. You get up to 5 simultaneous connections with this newsgroup plan. Powerusenet's service is uncensored and the SSL connection makes sure your ISP can't snoop on you. |
| Usenetserver | Monthly Plus | $15 / mo $5 off for first 2 months |
This
is the same full SSL
encryption plan listed above
- we just included it with the non-SSL plan ranking because it is so
close in price and
performance to the Usenet.net plan. We feel it's a good
value in this category too. Save yourself a buck a month and go with Usenet.net, or take a few bucks off your first few months with Usenetserver.com - it's your choice. |
|
| Metered NNTP Plans (Fixed amount per month) (Requires a newsreader program) | ||||
| Less
than 120 days retention |
Easynews | Standard | $10 / mo | Easynews
has been one of our all-time favorites and is rock-solid.
We love their search and thumbnail preview tools
and overall support of the industry. Their advertised plan only says
20GB / mo, but if you use their new Beta servers,
you get 60 GB / month. Includes SSL, unlimited connections, and 60-90 days retention depending on which server you use. |
| Newsguy | Express | $10 / mo | Newsguy
has also been in the industry for a long time. They've had their ups
and downs as far as reliability, but things have been pretty
smooth for the past few months. Their Express plan is cost effective
with 50GB per month. The plan includes SSL, up the 32 simultaneous connections, and up to 90 days of binary message retention. |
|
| More than 120 days retention | Giganews | Silver | $13 / mo | Full
access to Giganews 200+ days of retention, with a 25 GB monthly
limit. The ideal plan for fills to complement
the service from your ISP, or as an addition to a smaller
unlimited plan from another provider. This plan does not include SSL, but does support 200+ days of retention and 10 concurrent streams. |
|
| Big
List of Newsgroup Server Company Reviews With a few exceptions, all the usenet sites on the market are actually selling or reselling the same 6 or 7 sets of backend newsgroup servers under different names. Basically, resellers buy gigabytes of access at quantity discounts, then resell it to end users. These resellers must provide their own billing and access control systems, as well as their own support organizations - if something goes wrong you have to go through the reseller, not the back-end provider. Generally, we don't recommend usenet resellers unless they are wholly owned by the backend company - they have the capital to install top end equipment and, most importantly, take full responsibility for support. Many times a back-end server is working fine, but the reseller's front end has failed. And while not all resellers are underfunded, many are, meaning that they often become the weakest link in the chain. It may be tempting to save a few pennies with a reseller, but in the long run, we hear the fewest complaints from people who buy directly from the primary usenet providers. This big comparison list is REALLY hard to keep up with as companies pop into existence and wink out again, and many resellers change back end newsgroup providers quite often. You may also notice that some usenet resellers appear on the list with multiple back ends - this is often how they sell different plan levels by buying from different newsgroup server back-ends. A word about usenet and uncensored versus censored newsgroups. All the major companies provide uncensored access to the newsgroups they carry. They don't monitor (except to block spam) what is posted to those groups. But the big three backbone providers (Giganews, Highwinds, and Pathlink) and most others, have recently dropped all the groups that may be associated with under-age pornography. We do not feel this is an infringement on anyone's freedom of speech (as restricting an MP3 group would be) because the content itself that would be posted is illegal, unlike general music and video which is not. |
||
| Backend Provider | Sold As | Comments |
| Giganews Q - A C - Highest R - Highest S - Highest |
Giganews.com Powerusenet.com Usenet.net Rhino Newsgroups Adelphia (ISP) Speakeasy (ISP) |
In
our opinion, Giganews
is the strongest back end newsgroup provider.
They've been around for 6+ years with nearly flawless uptime in spite of
big growth in the past years. They also have nearly 4
months binary retention even on the largest movie and mp3
binary newsgroups, and multiple high speed backbones for good
speed from most corners of the country plus both US
and Netherlands servers. Giganews provides both the
backend and front-end when purchased
through Giganews, Powerusenet.com, Usenet.net, and Rhino
Newsgroups, although the retention through the GIganews
premium service is almost twice as long as on
their other services.
Giganews does not offer their services
through any other resellers except the ones they wholly operate
themselves. There are some ISP's that use Giganews as part of
their service though (Adelphia, Speakeasy). |
| Highwinds | Newshosting.com Usenetserver.com easynews.com newsdemon.com anonymousnewsfeed.com blocknews.net buzzardnews.com flashnewsgroups.com iunsenet.com maximumusenet.com meganetnews.com news4u2.com newsfeeds.com newsgroupdirect.com ngroups.net teranews.com thenewsgroups.com thundernews.com tigerusenet.com titannews.com uncensorednewsfeed.com usenet.com usenet.se usenetguide.com usenet-news.net usenetrocket.com cox.net (ISP) |
Newshosting
has been a long-time favorite with
the Anchordudes. Last year they merged with Highwinds, another
very large usenet back-end provider, and also bought out
Usenetserver.com and Easynews. Buying through Newshosting,
usenetserver.com, or easynews.com means you are getting the whole
service directly from the provider. Highwinds has servers in the US and Europe for both speed and quality reasons. Not all their resellers have access to the European servers though. Newshosting also sells to resellers, most of whom are listed at the left. A number of these resellers are of questionable reliability and in general we do not recommend them. However, there are a few that we feel comfortable recommending because they have been around a long time and have been reliable. Look for names in bold a the left for our recommendations. |
| Thumbnail
Only Different for each Company |
Guba.com Skinvideo.com thumbnailednewsgroups.com ucache.com diiva.com newscat.com usenetbinaries.com xusenet.com |
There
are a number of companies that sit somewhere between
a standard NNTP newsgroup service that requires PC Newsreader
software, and a regular HTML website with
pictures and movies. Almost all have full uncensored
access. Most of these services are pretty good, but we
have some favorites: Skinvideo stands out for us - rock solid reliable, unlimited downloads, very usable web interface, and good retention and completion. They're on on Recommend Usenet Service list. Note: Usenetbinaries advertises as free, but you actually have to pay to use their service (they tell you after you create an account.) Seems a bit shady to us. |
| Pathlink Q - B C- Highest R- Highest S- Highest |
Newsguy.com nntpjunkie.com |
Pathlink
is another grandfather in the usenet
provider industry. They were one of the first to
implement spam filters (Spam Hippo)
, but had not been keeping up with the industry in retention, speed, and
uptime. Last December they did a huge upgrade to all their
email and usenet services that increased retention (now over 120 days
retention in some binary groups), and completion has taken a big
jump forward too. They also have a cool usenet file search engine
making it easier to find old parts without having to re-download all the
headers. We still get reliability problem reports from users every
so often and header downloads take 3 times as long as for other
providers, and the web interface gives server timeouts often.
Still, we think they are on the right path (pun intended) and will get
things smoothed out later this summer. Pathlink provides both the backend and front-end when purchased through the Newsguy site. |
| News-Service Q - B C - High R - High S - Highest (in Europe) |
Eurofeeds.com news-service.com usenext.de |
A
Netherlands based usenet provider - Binary
retention 14 - 25 days depending on group. From the
reports we've gotten from users, their completion
is quite good, which is no surprise since Amsterdam is pretty
much the biggest single hub for usenet peering. Speed is pretty
good if you're in Europe, but can be a bit slow from the US. We also recommend Giganews for European users because they have Amsterdam based hub too. |
| Newsfeeds Q - B C - High R - Med S - High |
newsfeeds.com newsgroups.com usenet.com alibis.com usenet-access.com |
Newsfeeds
has been in the usenet industry for quite a
while, and at one time had many, many resellers.
Recently they reduced the number of resellers and seem to concentrate on
selling newsgroup access through their 3
primary websites: newsfeeds.com, newsgroups.com and
usenet.com. Great domain names, but reports from users are that
the service is only so-so with occasional speed and reliability
problems. Some users have reported that their retention claims are
over-rated as well, although we haven't confirmed that.
|
| Supernews Q - B C - High R - Med S - Highest |
supernews.com simonnews.com core.com usenext.com airnews.com |
Supernews's focus is on reselling and outsourcing newsgroup server service. They have great connectivity so speed is rarely a problem, but their retention and is quite a bit below the usenet industry leaders. If you have them as the backend for your ISP you can probably get by without an extra service, but they aren't outstanding enough to warrant getting an account directly with them or one of their resellers. |
| NNTP
Server Q - B C - Highest R - Med S - High |
nntpserver.com ultrafeed.com teranews.com bubbanews.com onlynews.com sonicnews.com ultrafeed.com valuenews.com yottanews.com |
NNTP
Server has a large number of resellers, but
is not on the same scale as Giganews or Newshosting. They run
their own custom news server software
and sometimes deviate from standards causing problems with some
newsreader software. They are known for good completion rates,
which was a differentiator a couple years ago, but now almost everyone
have high completion rates. The industry seems to have standardize on $15 a month for unlimited, so you might as well go with someone well established.
|
| smsusenet | smsusenet.com download2day.com xsnews.com |
We don't know much about this service - we're researching it... |
| Owner Unknown | active-news.com athenanews.com newsrazor.com newsreader.com usenetmoster.com |
We're not sure who owns the backend, but all 5 of these usenet services point to the same news server farm. Some people have have had good luck with them, while others have reported to us that binary newsgroups like the MP3 group are often very incomplete or have short retention. |
| Independent
/ Other Different for each Company |
newsgroup-binaries.com newsville.com astraweb.com altopia.com eweka.nl octanews.com |
With
a few exceptions, most of these are
relatively small usenet companies.
With less capital and monthly income to fall back on, they have less
redundancy in their equipment and connections, and have a hard
time recovering from crashes and hardware failures.
There are a few companies that stand out
because they have better funding or have been around for a long time: Octanews isn't outstanding for retention, reliability, or any other reason than that the owner has a great history in the usenet industry and is well liked by most everyone. Astraweb may not have a great reliability rating, but they have been around for a long time and many people seem to like them. We think you're better off spending a bit more for Newshosting unlimited usenet though. Eweka is a Dutch firm with pretty good newsgroup retention and completion. Everything is in Dutch though, and worse yet, access to their servers is blocked from many countries. Try a tracert to newsreader1.eweka.nl before signing up to make sure you can access them. |
| Key
to abbreviations: Q = Quality / Reliability (A,B,C) C = Completion (Highest = 99%, High = 95%+, Med = 90%) R = Retention (Highest = 75+ days, High = 50+ days, Med = 25+ days) S = Speed (Subjective, based mostly on server loads, not backbone connections) |
||
|
Check out these cool
t-shirts, mousepads, mugs, and stuff we made in our free time
|
|
Some of Anchordudes'
friends on the web: |