Usenet Newsgroup Server FAQ & Price Comparison
Jump to: Best Unlimited Usenet Plans |
Jump to: Best Usenet Bundles |
Jump to: Best Usenet Websites |
|
Usenet and Newsgroups - They've been around since well before there were browsers and the internet as we know it. Usenet was the original discussion forum platform, and in fact was the way much of the discussion about the World Wide Web was held. Usenet works as a huge message database, broken down in different topics or "newsgroups." The database is hosted on monsterous servers around the world - with individual users logging in to any one of the servers to read new messages and add responses. The servers constantly compare against each other to make sure a new message added to a Hong Kong server gets copied to all the other servers world wide so someone connecting to a server in Virginia, USA sees the new message within moments and can respond to it. The servers used to be housed mostly at universities, research facilities, and ISP's but as Usenet grew larger and larger, private companies started setting up servers to improve reliability and accessibility. While there are still many, many servers running through schools, most people rely upon the privately managed Usenet servers. For most people connecting to a Usenet server requires using a Usenet Reader program. Once connected, they request a list of all the new message subject lines for their favorite newsgroups, and when they see specific messages they want to read, they select them and tell the newsreader program to download just those messages. What's really cool is that over the last 10 years or so, Usenet has been improved to support file attachments, so conversations that need to reference a picture, sound, or video clip can do so. You'll find groups that include "binaries" in their name to be filled with attachments. The hardest parts about Usenet are choosing a newsreader, and choosing a Usenet provider. That's where Anchordudes comes in. Since 2002 we've been reviewing newsreaders and usenet providers in simple, everyday language, offering our advice on the best usenet provider for each category of user: Pro, Neophyte, and somewhere in between. Check out our recommendations for usenet providers below, and read our newsreader review page for software suggestions. We also have sections on how to select a provider based on usenet account type, reliability, speed, and retention. To make your life even easier, we also have guides on how to decompress usenet files, NZB files, and privacy concerns. |
Major Provider Usenet Specials
Premier Diamond Service 1/2 off for month. Includes VyprVPN security for all your internet activities too!
Both have special $10 rates through the Anchordudes page |
|
|||||||
| Best for: | Usenet Provider / Plan | Price and Features | Notes | ||||
|
RAW and BEST |
Supernews Usenet |
$10-mo / $100-yr 30 SSL connections 1220+ days articles and headers |
When it comes to basic, unlimited Usenet Newsgroup access, the best raw NNTP Usenet package has to be Supernews at the $10 special Anchordudes price. It's just straight NNTP access, but you get a full 1220+ days of article AND header access. Supernews has been around in one form or another since 1995, primarily providing Usenet service to major ISP's. Only in the past few years did they change their back end system and start letting end users buy newsgroup service directly - and at a very attractive price! Supernews just added another access point in Amsterdam to make European access even faster. |
||||
Usenetserver High Speed Plus Plan |
$10-mo / $95-yr 20 SSL connections 1175+ days articles X-Trace headers removed Web-based global search |
Usenetserver.com is the other great way to get cheap unlimited NNTP usenet access and we've lined up a special $10 discounted Usenet price just for Anchordudes' visitors. Usenetservers' systems have 1175+ days of retention, although the header index is limited to 500 days (depends on the group). Most newsreader programs need headers to access articles and attachments, but if you use a program like Newsbin Pro with its index service you can get to all 1175 days worth. The service also includes a nifty web-based global lookup feature that will let you do a Usenet Search across all the newsgroups for about 200 days back. Its best feature is that it can produce an .NZB file that you can feed to your newsreader program instead of having to download and search through headers. This is a REALLY useful tool! Usenetserver is managed by Highwinds and uses their backend servers to feed up content. |
|||||
|
BEST |
Giganews Diamond |
$35 / mo 1230+ days articles and headers Free MIMO Newsreader & DumpTruck backup service Free VyprVPN VPN Security Service |
Giganews has been the most consistent provider in the newsgroup service industry for over 10 years. Redundant systems, heavy investment in infrastructure, and a commitment to service have made them the benchmark everyone else is compared to. Giganews was also the first newsgroup provider to hit the 1000 days of retention mark. Thassalotta retention days! As Giganews adds new products they bundle them with their flagship Unlimited Usenet service (Diamond) to create amazing service bundles. Our favorite is their Diamond plan. It includes:
|
||||
Newshosting XL Powerpack |
60 SSL connections 1175+ days articles Free Easynews Web-based usenet add-on account
|
Newshosting is the flagship Usenet for the Highwinds group. Over the last 5 years Highwinds has bought up a lot of the smaller Usenet providers and tied them into their massive newsgroup server system. In their Newshosting XL Powerpack bundle you get:
If maximum Usenet Newsgroup effectiveness is your goal, this is the bundle you should get. |
|||||
NewsDemon Special Anchordudes Deal |
50 SSL connections 1175+ days articles Free NewsRover newreader software Free 60 GB Online data backup service with Storage Ninja |
NewsDemon is one of the oldest and most respected Usenet resellers in the industry - and to date the only one we've been willing to endorse. We know the owners and trust their integrity, and believe us, there are a lot of unethical players in this field! Their back-end data provider is Highwinds so the service is top-notch, and to our knowledge they've never screwed anyone over on billing like some other resellers have.
|
|||||
|
BEST ONLINE GRAPHIC USENET SERVICES |
GoGo Usenet |
$15 / first mo Web-based interface 800+ days retention |
If you just want a dead-simple way to get Usenet content, our recommendation is GoGo Usenet. No special software is needed - you do everything in a web browser. It displays previews of any kind of media in the major Usenet newsgroups - Pics, movies, etc. You just click and it displays the whole attachment for you to save to your PC. Searching the newsgroups is easy (make sure you click the "File Type" selection box to include the attachment types you want) and enter whatever search terms float your boat. If you want to limit your Usenet search to a specific group, the search fields let you do that too. Their retention is excellent, although if you are looking for an obscure usenet newsgroup, it may or may not be there. They are very focused on porn, so you won't find anything from alt.binaries.locomotive at GoGo Usenet. We have to admit, it's one of the best usenet thumbnail sites we've ever seen and really makes using Usenet easy. |
||||
Easynews Classic |
20 GB / mo 150 day retention on web Web-based global search, preview, and download system |
Easynews is closely affiliated with Highwinds and uses their back end services for its Web-based newsreader access. Whoop-dee-doo you say? Easynews does offer regular NNTP usenet access you can use with any newsreader, but it's real claim to fame is that its web-based interface has the best newsgroup search and preview service. Just type in whatever you're looking for (you can limit to specific groups, topics, or attachment types) and it returns thumbnail previews of any attachments. Just click the box beside each and download them as a zip file, or have it create an NZB file that you can use with your newsreader program. Easynews is running a special on Free Trial accounts that gives you 10GB of data transfer for 14 days. Retention is based on which usenet plan you choose and unlimited plans are available too. Read more about the company that provides the back end services for Easynews. |
|||||
A Usenet Overview:Usenet has been around since before the World Wide Web - and the Anchordudes have been doing newsgroup server reviews since 2002. Usenet was the original online distributed discussion forum. Messages posted on one newsgroup server were compared against other connected servers, and together they shared what each was missing so that within an hour or so, a message posted on one server was duplicated on all Usenet servers so everyone connected could read and reply to it. Over time techie-geeks figured out ways to include attachments, which has kept Usenet as a viable discussion medium even well after the World Wide Web exploded in to general use. What will you find in Usenet Newsgroups? Special Interest Group discussions on Pinball Machines, favorite music artists, and of course, porn - lots of porn. Some ISP's include very basic Usenet access with your normal Internet connection, but to get to the best Usenet Newsgroups, you'll need to subscribe to a Premium Usenet provider. Although people use the term "Usenet" and "Newsgroups" interchangeably, Usenet is actually the architecture, and newsgroups are the individual forums that are shared. Either way, our Usenet Ratings have been trusted by newsgroup readers worldwide for nearly a decade. In addition to the Newsgroup Server reviews, we also do an annual back-trace on all the providers to see who is actually reselling another company's services - so you know who you're REALLY buying service from. The pages on this site try to explain Usenet and Newsgroup Services in normal, everyday terms - primarily focused at normal Windows and Mac (i.e. non-geeky) users. As a general rule, you'll find the results of our Usenet Reviews recommend only Newsgroup companies that are either completely controlled by or closely associated with one of the big three super-newsgroup-providers. We regularly re-evaluate the available plans, cross-check the providers' claims, and then recommend the best usenet plans for different categories of users. You decide which user group you fit in, and we help you decide which newsgroup server company and plan fits your needs best. |
Best Newsgroup Server Companies - Summaries (updated 11/7/2011) |
|||
| Back-end Usenet Provider | Sold under | Specials | Summary Of Company History and Strengths |
| Giganews |
Giganews PowerUsenet Usenet.net
|
Giganews is the overachiever in the industry. Their support desk is available 7X24. They have the longest retention (over 1100 days!) and the best system redundancy. And they have servers in the US, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong. If anything fails anywhere in their system, its mirror can kick in immediately or worst case they can re-load from another location. The multiple locations also means users world-wide can choose the newsgroup server closest to them. Most of Giganews plans are more expensive than their competitors, but you can get Giganews service levels for less. Giganews offers Silver and Bronze plans where downloads are capped at 10 or 50 GB a month - or through its related companies like PowerUsenet, where it cuts off the retention at a lower level. Giganews also launched a new VPN encryption service that works on ALL your internet traffic, not just Newsgroups. They sell it for $15 a month, or it comes free with their top-end Diamond Usenet plan. |
|
| Highwinds |
Newshosting Usenetserver
Easynews
|
Free Trials at |
The Anchordudes have had a long relationship with Highwinds - even before it was Highwinds! Usenetserver.com was the first Newsgroup Server company we actually paid for (besides our ISP) and was our first site reviewed. Highwinds was a software and infrastructure company that has bought up many of the independent Newgroup Server sites over the past five years (including Usenetserver) and built an empire by taking the best features of each service it bought. Newshosting and Usenetserver are now the flagship retail services for Highwinds. They also supply the back-end services for many, many of the reseller sites out there. Because their network was built by combining many individual services, they have had hiccups in service through the years, but standardization in 2009 had smoothed things out. One thing to note about all the sites that use Highwinds back end services is that the headers (the short desriptions that newsreader programs download) are not stored as long as the actual articles. So while they have 1100+ days of article retention, the headers only go back about 500 days (which is well over a year - plenty long if you ask us!). You can get at the full 1100+ days of articles if you use a newsreader that has its own indexing service like Newsbin Pro or use an NZB index service. |
| News-Service |
Usenext Eurofeeds Sonic-news |
News-Service WAS the third of the Big Three usenet providers worldwide. Unfortunately, the Dutch Media watchdog group BREIN has forced a judge to shut them down. Most of their resellers have moved to new suppliers, but expect hiccups for a number of months until they get their underlying technologies aligned. | |
| AstraWeb | Astraweb | $11 / mo unlimited Special |
Astranews is something of an enigma wrapped in mystery surrounded by styrofoam peanuts. We've been tying to get in contact with them to learn more about their operation, but so far have had no luck. We know they are running their own newsgroup servers, which they supplement with purchased services from at least 2 of the Big Three for really old articles. Sometimes their website is slow or unresponsive. But they have a loyal following of subscribers. They certainly have low prices. Normally we wouldn't include them in this listing because of their size and use of reseller services, but their users' loyalty means they must the right choice for at least a certain niche of Usenet users. Be careful of their unlimited plans - the entry level newsgroup service rate speed limits you to 1Mbit / sec - OK for dial up or old DSL, but not for cable modem users. |
| Resellers | Hundreds |
There are hundreds of resellers out there, buying and reselling services from Highwinds, Giganews, and News-Service. Most buy a huge block of data usage and then hope the people they sell it to don't use it up every month. Others buy a certain number of simultaneous connections and hope they don't have too many of their customers try to use them all at once (like an airline over-selling seats). There are some good resellers out there - trustworthy and well funded. But for the most part our experience with resellers has been not so good. Many have billing problems where they charge the wrong amount or don't stop charging when you cancel your account. As month-end approaches users get more "unable to connects" and encounter bandwidth limiting to slow down how fast they use up the reseller's quota. That's why we only recommend services sold directly by the Big Three, or their closely related partners (listed in the table above). We get hate mail regularly regarding this policy (as well as offers to pay us big bonuses to give them favorable treatment), but time and time again it's turned out to be the safest bet to not recommend them. No hard feelings guys... |
|
Check out the European Usenet Service Provider table too! |
|
|
| The list of all the newsgroup server back-ends has gotten so big that we had to move it to its own page. So if you want to see who's actually providing the newsgroup servers for the usenet provider you've chosen, follow the link HERE. |
Copyright 2001-2012 - Look4, LLC
Administrator Login