- Four things really matter when choosing a
binary newsgroup server provider:
- What you need to know:
- Unlimited Access Usenet Account
- If you plan to use a newsreader
program to download lots
binary files (note, we did not say Warez), an
unlimited newsgroup account is a no-brainer.
A good unlimited account with
Newshosting will
set you back $15 a month, while a metered account with
most providers will run $10. Rock-solid,
super long retention unlimited usenet can be found at
Giganews from $25 a
month.
- Unlimited plans sometimes
are often offered with different server options.
One example is Newshosting, which offers a medium and a
long retention service. Typically, the longer
retention service also gets faster updates from peers and
may have more redundancy built in to it to reduce the
likelihood of hardware failures.
- Some "unlimited" usenet
accounts will actually slow down your connection
or cut you off altogether if you pull down too much
during the month. This is especially a danger when
buying through a reseller, who has to pay the
actual service provider for whatever their customers
download.
- Unlimited usenet accounts at most
providers are often bare-bones, with no special
web interfaces or add-ons. Those extras are
usually reserved for their metered or block account
users.
- Metered use newsgroup providers:
.
- Metered use accounts are
generally considered accounts that allow a set amount of
downloading either daily or monthly. Accounts
spanning more than a month are typically considered
Block accounts.
- The most common type of metered
account allows a user to download up to a specific
amount (pricing depends on the limit selected) per
month. When that limit is reached, you cannot
download any more until you pay again (either
automatically with an "auto-refill" option, or wait
until the next monthly billing cycle.)
- Another type of metering
limits you to a specific amount per day. We
particularly hate this type of packaging.
On paper it looks good because the total available over
31 days can be much more than the monthly plans, but you
only get that if you log on every day and download to
the limit. No-one does that in the real world.
We recommend you stay away from daily limit
plans.
- Most metered accounts are "use
it or lose it", but some do roll your unused GB
into the next month. This is a particularly
valuable feature - although keep in mind that most
companies only let you keep the extra as long as you
are a paying customer. If you cancel your
account, you usually can't live off your excess into the
next few months.
- Some of the usenet companies let
you build up extra GB's by answering surveys,
recommending friends, or contributing CPU time to
charity.
- Metered accounts are the VIP
accounts at most usenet companies. If there is
a special web interface or priority help desk, it is
often restricted to metered account users only.
Easynews'
thumbnailer and zip manager tool can really save you
alot by letting you preview pictures and movies, then
having them compressed into zip files for easy
downloading (of course they have traditional
NNTP
newsreader access too)
- Block plans
- Block plans
let you buy a specific number of GB with no time
limit, or a time limit of more than a month (3, 6
or 12 months) on when you must use them.
- These plans
are really nice as a backup to another monthly
plan, in case the other plan has a hardware failure, you
always have something to fall back on.
- Block plans are also a good supplement
to a standard ISP newsgroup server. If your ISP's
usenet server is fairly good, but retention or completion are a
problem, consider picking up a block account and configuring
your newsreader
software to read from both services, with your ISP as
primary.
- Web-Interface / Thumbnail preview services
- Some users just don't want to be bothered
with setting up
newsreader software, or downloading headers to pick from.
Usenet services are now available with web interfaces
that let you browse thumbnails of pictures and movies so
you can easily pick and choose the specific ones you want.
- Often times a newsgroup may see a flood
of 1000 attached pictures or videos. While only 20% may be
of interest to you, with a traditional newsgroup program you
must download them all, or at least an index picture (if the
poster uploaded one) to select which messages to
download. That's a lot of wasted bandwidth.
Thumbnail previews let you use your time and bandwidth wisely.
- Multi-part messages are pre-joined to
create complete files on the server. No need to learn
how to RAR,
PAR,
HJSplit, etc.
- Two very good options for this type of service are
Skin
Video and
Easynews.
Back to the newsgroup server list
|
|
