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Comments on news posted 2008-07-23 16:15:35: For years, ISPs have been either outsourcing their newsgroup access or eliminating it as a perk altogether. ..

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nanoflower1
@comcast.net

nanoflower1 to PCInTech

Anon

to PCInTech

Re: Forte Agent Premium News

And since Forte APN switched over to Easynews as their actual provider they are with one of the best NSPs as far as service goes. Well worth looking into APN (if you need an unlimited connection) or Easynews if you are willing to accept some monthly download limits.

Scree
In the pipe 5 by 5
join:2001-04-24
Mount Laurel, NJ

1 edit

Scree

Member

newshosting.com

newshosting.com - One of the oldest and original (meaning not a reseller) with good specs and a very cool discounted yearly deal. And they still carry groups services like giganews decided to no longer carry (yes, "questionable content" or whatever ones).

alanhdsl
Premium Member
join:1999-10-09
Phoenix, AZ

alanhdsl

Premium Member

Too much trash

I used usenet for a long time (notably misc.transport.road, alt.fan.cecil-adams, alt.tv.simpsons), but the spam and net.kooks drove me to moderated forums. My killfile was getting enormous, and it still wasn't helping. There are guys willing to open hundreds of accounts and post thousands of trash messages for years (example, though this is only a small percentage of his messages).

I was never in it for the binaries. Although I somewhat miss it, moderated forums like this one are way better.

Jigsaw
Stardust We Are
Premium Member
join:2000-10-21
Cleveland, OH

Jigsaw to Stem Bolt

Premium Member

to Stem Bolt

Re: AstraWeb

Been using them for a while they are a good Provider IMHO.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to wifi4milez

Premium Member

to wifi4milez

Re: Never used one....

said by wifi4milez:

In all honesty, I have never once used a newsgroup in all the (many) years I have been on the internet. I dont see what the big deal is anyway, because as far as I can tell all they do is offer a place to get pirated content or questionable image files.
So what else that you admit you know nothing about do you feel qualified to comment upon?

Jaime
Premium Member
join:2001-06-03
Huntington Beach, CA

Jaime to halo5

Premium Member

to halo5

Re: Newshosting

said by halo5:

Been using them for years. The guys that started it also had an ISP here in Dayton for years that I worked at.

Probably assembled 1/2 their server farm over the years.
I have them as well, only a few short outages and it keeps up with my 20/5 service .

techlte
join:2003-01-01
US

techlte to dvd536

Member

to dvd536

Re: Powerusenet

said by dvd536:

Only thing with resellers is the fingerpointing and nothing getting done when issues arise.
I've never had a single issue in all the years I've had Powerusenet. I honestly didn't even know news hosts had downtime until I read it here. Powerusenet just spoils me I guess..

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

said by techlte:
said by dvd536:

Only thing with resellers is the fingerpointing and nothing getting done when issues arise.
I've never had a single issue in all the years I've had Powerusenet. I honestly didn't even know news hosts had downtime until I read it here. Powerusenet just spoils me I guess..
oh im not knocking power, i suppose as long as giga isn't having issues their service is probably as good.
kwilsonjr
Premium Member
join:2008-04-15
El Cajon, CA

kwilsonjr

Premium Member

Giganews

Giganews rules the ether. Been with them for 6 years now. ISP newsgroup servers have always sucked, with almost no retention time, fragmented postings and limited newsgroup offerings.

The ISP's are doing you a favor by eliminating their 'coverage'. They give anyone using an ISP provided newsgroup access an extremely poor example of what is out there.

stomp357
join:2003-04-13
Lake Charles, LA

stomp357 to jbob

Member

to jbob

Re: Never used one....

said by jbob:

I have been using USENET for over 10 years. In all that time I have never gotten or downloaded anything illegal from them.
For the uninformed like you the USENET was around long before forums like this one to post in and get help. There are still many users out there who prefer text based message boards like one finds on the USENET. I see advantages to both.
The ones you seem to be thinking of are WAREZ and Binary Newsgroups. There is so much more out there than that.
You really need to get your head out of the sand.
Usenet is still where I get alot of my PC building help. Because most usenet users are of the "techie" bunch, I find it to be of a great asset. Hell, I still use FidoNet.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to wifi4milez

Member

to wifi4milez
i've never used on either and to be frank I'm not sure what the point is. Maybe 12-15 yes they had a purpose but today? sicne I've enver used one I would like someone to explain to me what LEGAL way I could use a newgroup for that somehow I couldn't find anywhere else on the net.

Lowtarget
Premium Member
join:2003-12-22
Alger, OH

Lowtarget

Premium Member

hmm

I used newsgroup a handful of times. What I found mostly was spam about get larger pills. Plus other dumb stuff along those lines.

I can live without newsgroups. Thats what google is for.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to 88615298

Premium Member

to 88615298

Re: Never used one....

said by 88615298:

i've never used on either and to be frank I'm not sure what the point is. Maybe 12-15 yes they had a purpose but today? sicne I've enver used one I would like someone to explain to me what LEGAL way I could use a newgroup for that somehow I couldn't find anywhere else on the net.
Again someone who admits to not knowing what a newsgroup is feels qualified to comment upon their relevance. What other items that you know nothing about do you ponder whether they should exist? How many illegal ways can you use ANYTHING in your household, but you don't question whether or not you should have them?

If you offer nothing to a discussion, why do you enter it?

Harddrive
Proud American and Infidel since 1968.
Premium Member
join:2000-09-20
Fort Worth, TX

Harddrive to Dread

Premium Member

to Dread

Re: Giganews

Ditto. Been using Giganews going on 4 years.
blackstarinc
join:2006-01-19
Fort Lauderdale, FL

blackstarinc

Member

Newsdemon Best After Tests

I have tried a number of different Usenet providers over the 7 years I have used them. I've gone from Newsfeeds to Giganews and tried everything in-between.

I've stuck with Newsdemon. Why? Although they do not boast the 240 days of Giganews or offer dedicated newsgroup server addresses, they're fast and reliable. And over the years, that's whats mattered the most.

Newsdemon just doesnt have the hiccups that other Newsdemon providers have, and even recently, I am more attached after the extensive customer support I've received.

Yeah, it sounds like a commercial, but its all true. Also, if anyone is running from an ISP thats just turned off service, they're offering 15% off the subscription price for the LIFETIME of the account. I know of no other that is currently doing this either:
»www.newsdemon.com/blog/2 ··· -usenet/

neonhomer
Dearborn 5-2750
Premium Member
join:2004-01-27
Edgewater, FL

neonhomer to Jigsaw

Premium Member

to Jigsaw

Re: AstraWeb

Same here... Earthstink's newsgroups were going down the gurgler with retention problems. I went over to Astraweb and use their prepaid plan... Works great for me!
Darkk8
join:2003-10-03
USA

Darkk8 to flyingjoey

Member

to flyingjoey

Re: easynews customer here.

said by flyingjoey:

do people still use IRC and Gopher?
Yes, they sure do. Lot of folks use IRC, but not many know about the Gopher underground. Gopher+ still alive and kicking though, and open source now.
markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO

markopoleo

Member

I use usenetserver.com

I been using usenetserver.com for about 2 years, love it.
67845017 (banned)
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL

67845017 (banned) to Scree

Member

to Scree

Re: newshosting.com

said by Scree:

newshosting.com - One of the oldest and original (meaning not a reseller) with good specs and a very cool discounted yearly deal. And they still carry groups services like giganews decided to no longer carry (yes, "questionable content" or whatever ones).
I believe Newshosting.com is now a Highwinds reseller. At least for a few months now.

I've tried many, but Giganews and their resellers are the current best I think.

Who I've had over the years (in rough order of use):

alt.net
Newsguy
Easynews
Airnews
Randori
Teranews
UsenetNews
Supernews
Newsfeeds
Newshosting
Astraweb
Giganews
Powerusenet

The last four on the list I had for relatively long amounts of time (Powerusenet is fairly recent though). But, there was a spell where Usenet providers were really not very good in general. So, I burned through a lot of them really quickly during the early days.
nygfan
Premium Member
join:2004-07-08
Springfield Gardens, NY

nygfan

Premium Member

Long time Easynews user

I've been using Easynews for over six years and its still reliable although not nearly as cost effective as most of the other providers in terms of price/retention. I enjoyed using Giganews for awhile as well but I just didn't use it enough to justify the cost. The rollover gigs do help for those of us who don't download that much on a monthly basis, but I would recommend Giganews or Newsgroup Direct for the heavy users.

DrewCapu
Giant Diehard
join:2001-12-19
California

DrewCapu

Member

dslreports.com

ftw
Typhoon1k
join:2008-04-27
San Antonio, TX

Typhoon1k to mworks

Member

to mworks

Re: Usenet usage isn't down because its obsolete

said by mworks:

The other thing that hurts usenet is that it is not as user friendly as the web. It requires knowledge of things people have to learn, and people just want to click, they don't want to learn.
Back then I was into fidonet, then fidonet / usenet. At one time even ran a point. Now it's internet forums.

Yeah people now just want to only click for anything, no work or thinking wanted. When I first heard of usenet / internet years ago, I had to learn use command lines and shell prompts. DOS was what I first used for access and you didn't call tech support they only knew windows (3.x / 95).
Michiman
join:2005-08-09
East Lansing, MI

Michiman

Member

usetnetmonster.com

Been using »www.usenetmonster.com for about 5 years. Never noticed any outages and tiered pricing starts at $2.95 per month (5GB) with ROLLOVER GIGs! It looks like unlimited is just $13.95/mo.

If you do signup with them, toss me a bone and use referral code: UM48048MC1

0zero01
Premium Member
join:2000-08-01
Bremerton, WA

0zero01

Premium Member

My Fav.

Newsreader.com

30gig for $10 month. Go there for details. Hassle free.
99.999% up time. Been with them for 4yrs. My first experience with Usenet was in my dial up days. a.b.g.golf baby!!! on AOL no less (links LS courses). . .lol, with 3 modems shotgunned, it was freakin awesome! I can't imagine anyone who's been around for it all saying Usenet is obsolete? Sell out punks (management material)! Who needs pretty pictures and one click gratification? It's quite lame and unfulfilling . . .

ncherry
Premium Member
join:2003-07-13
Monroe Township, NJ

ncherry to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob

Re: Never used one....

said by jbob:

I have been using USENET for over 10 years. In all that time I have never gotten or downloaded anything illegal from them. ...
I have, just once, I downloaded my own book (see sig) in PDF. That was an odd experience.

I remember downloading Perl when it first came out. I thought it was odd and couldn't see the value of another shell language. Odd how I use it daily to do all sort of things. Hindsight is 20/20.

Oh for those who have no idea, Perl is open source so downloading it is not a problem.

joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
552.8 23.8

joetaxpayer to wifi4milez

Member

to wifi4milez
said by wifi4milez:

In all honesty, I have never once used a newsgroup in all the (many) years I have been on the internet. I don't see what the big deal is anyway, because as far as I can tell all they do is offer a place to get pirated content or questionable image files.
This just came to my attention on DSLR. I will concede that Most people under 30-35 may have never used Usenet. But when the internet started, there was an internet before a graphical browser. I was on newsgroups before there was web surfing. I still frequent financial discussion newsgroups which have decent traffic, i.e. number of posters and actual posts.

I understand that NG can post illegal items, but it actually seems archaic compared to torrents. The newsgroups / usenet for discussion isn't so bad. It's important to those who use it, and will find another way to access. Too bad.

Joe
Expand your moderator at work
satoru3
join:2007-04-19
Wellesley Hills, MA

satoru3

Member

newshosting.com or giganews.com are great

I use newshosting.com with my FIOS account, since the one Verizon provides is pretty unimpressive. I use their 8 connection one for $14.99/month, and it is the only service that can consistently saturate my 20mbps connection on a constant basis. Also they've had very few outages in the 3 years I've been using them.

Giganews is also a great provider that Comcast used to use. They're a bit more expensive though.

jblAZ
Premium Member
join:2008-09-19
Elfrida, AZ

jblAZ

Premium Member

Using giganews

I think counting by users, the illegal /questionable stuff is relatively low level. The main problem has always been the amount of traffic used for the binaries; as a percentage of throughput, it is of course huge. The 'useful' part of usenet is, I think, if not measured by bandwidth, is still a significant part of Usenet.

I have used it since the mid-80s, when text mail was the rule and text on Usenet was not much different. I'm still comfortable in that mode. I suppose it's telling that since I no longer have a unix-like setup (I started using variations on rn, then switched to a package in emacs), I get my mail and my news from the same client, Forte Agent.

I'm not sure how many paths to Usenet I have at the moment (I have several ISPs, though now I access them via the network rather than via direct connect). Some of them may still offer Usenet, but only to directly connected users, so I can't tell. Some allow remote access to Usenet by requiring user authentication.

My current access is via cybertrails, an Arizona ISP which began life offering dial-up service to lots of small towns in Arizona that were remote from Phoenix and Tucson. Judging by the headers in the Usenet articles, they are also providing (I don't say reselling, because it doesn't cost me extra) giganews.
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