- Four things really matter when choosing a
binary newsgroup usenet server provider:
- What you need to know:
- Newsgroup Provider speed is now the
second most critical feature when evaluating a Usenet
Provider. The 20mps that many home connections provide is
much larger than corporations used to have only 2 years
ago. A fast internet connection is no good if your
Usenet Provider's servers are slow or traffic is getting
bottle-necked before it gets to you.
- Speed is made up both the speed of the provider's servers
and of the network backbones used.
- Backbone network speed problems are a factor of how congested
the backbone provider is, and how many hops (routers) occur
between you and the provider's servers. It is also
possible for a provider to overload one of their backbones if
they do not buy a big enough connection to a backbone provider
- You can check the network speed and number of hops by
running a Tracert. Many provider's support pages also
provide an on-line reverse tracert on their support
pages. They may also list alternate backbone routes from
their servers (Covad may have fewer hops to your house than
UUnet). Giganews,
Newshosting,
and others allow you to choose which backbone is best for you by
using a different port when connecting to their server.
- Speed at the Usenet server farm is also important. Many second-tier
providers have over-loaded their equipment, so databases
take longer than they should to sift through headers and
articles before sending them to you. Especially with
large binary groups like the DVD groups, it can take
forever to download headers if the usenet provider's servers
can't find and send data, regardless of the network speed.
- In general, the Anchordudes' analysis of speed is based on
servers and header download speeds, as we feel most network
problems are transient and can be addressed by connecting
through a different port and backbone.
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