Unlimited USENET access 10.99/month Thundernews

[psynce]

now, i know the astraweb special has its fans, me being one of them a time ago, but i signed up for the 50% off plan for thundernews that made me switch after this
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=40&threadid=2304096

since then, i got on with support, and they gave me a link for even cheaper access
10.99 a month (usually 21) for an unlimited plan
http://www.thundernews.com/special_unlimited_offer.php


the special link seems to be something support is only giving out from what i can tell. dont know how long it will last cuz of it.

what makes it better than the astraweb deal is that theres higher retention and no throttling caps.

reviews on providers
slyck.com
newsgroupservers.com
newsgroupreviews.com

 

[samboy]

I signed up with these guys last time and found that, for me, they capped the bandwidth after 2 days of downloading (16Mbps to something less than 2Mbps).
I emailed support and they did not deny that they had throttled the capacity. Switching to SSL or Euro severs helped for around 20 seconds and then the cap would kick back in.
Not to say that they had caps in place, but the effect was the same for me (and a couple of other people) and I didn't have the same trouble with Astraweb or Newshosting with the same ISP/setup etc. This is simply my first hand, personal experience (which is what forums are for right?).

I canceled and signed up with Astraweb and have had no trouble since.

It is good for people to realize that there are some good deals out there right now and this may be a good choice for some people.

 

[Cabages]

What exactly is SSL?

 

[brianmanahan]

why not just use google, its free

 

[joutlaw]

Google is great if you want to read, but if you want to utilize .nzb files you need newsgroup server access. comcast only gives you 5GB or so... if you want more you have to find a provider. Also you can get SSL options to encrypt the binary data you are grabbing.

Newsgroups are great b/c technically you never upload anything like bit torrent. They have been around forever and were really the first way to chat, essentially the first forums, and the first way to share files.

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: psynce

what makes it better than the astraweb deal is that theres higher retention and no throttling caps.

How is 380 days retention (thundernews) > 390 days retention (astraweb)?
Also, I do not see anything on that thundernews link mentioning/guaranteeing no bandwidth caps.

 

[samboy]

Originally posted by: Cabages
What exactly is SSL?

Essentially keep any eavesdroppers out (in theory)

SSL Explained

 

[zerogear]

Originally posted by: Cabages
What exactly is SSL?

Secure Socket Layer, which means encryption.

 

[zerogear]

Originally posted by: joutlaw
Google is great if you want to read, but if you want to utilize .nzb files you need newsgroup server access. comcast only gives you 5GB or so... if you want more you have to find a provider. .

Actually, Comcast removed all usenet access. They no longer have a contract with Giganews.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Actually, Comcast removed all usenet access. They no longer have a contract with Giganews.

I'm on Roadrunner (Time Warner) and they also dropped usenet about 2 years ago.

 

[California Roll]

I'm on the $11 unlimited Astraweb plan and it's been perfect. Retention is fine, no throttling, and SSL.

SSL for usenet is a joke btw. Don't ever pay extra for it.

 

[PKPunk]

Originally posted by: California Roll
I'm on the $11 unlimited Astraweb plan and it's been perfect. Retention is fine, no throttling, and SSL.

SSL for usenet is a joke btw. Don't ever pay extra for it.

Why is SSL for usenet a joke?

 

[slugg]

Originally posted by: PKPunk

Originally posted by: California Roll
I'm on the $11 unlimited Astraweb plan and it's been perfect. Retention is fine, no throttling, and SSL.

SSL for usenet is a joke btw. Don't ever pay extra for it.

Why is SSL for usenet a joke?

Paying extra for it is a joke. The SSL itself is great. Without it, my university would royally screw me.

 

[California Roll]

Originally posted by: slugg

Originally posted by: PKPunk

Originally posted by: California Roll
I'm on the $11 unlimited Astraweb plan and it's been perfect. Retention is fine, no throttling, and SSL.

SSL for usenet is a joke btw. Don't ever pay extra for it.

Why is SSL for usenet a joke?

Paying extra for it is a joke. The SSL itself is great. Without it, my university would royally screw me.

Yeah, SSL itself seems like a good idea. It encrypts the transmission so snoopers (ISP, CIA, hah) can't see the gigs of pr0n you're downloading. If you're doing this at school, it's probably a good idea to use it but you generally shouldn't need the encryption.

What it doesn't do is hide the fact that you're download tens of gigs of stuff every day, if that's what you do. If you have a crap ISP that likes to throttle your connection based on heavy usage, encryption won't prevent this.