fonzbear2000
Premium
join:2005-08-09
Saint Paul, MN
|  [Newsgroups] astraweb has some of the best prices i've ever seen
»www.news.astraweb.com/plans.html $10/month for unlimited if you don't mind being capped at 1 mbps and even uncapped is still better than giganews!
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i wish qwest would die! i want FIOS! |
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nfx
The Wire
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Vancouver, BC
clubs: | Re: [Newsgroups] astraweb has some of the best prices i've ever
Um, ok.
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nfx |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
1 edit | reply to fonzbear2000
Ahh i wouldnt say best prices ever, but really competitive prices. The average price for unlimited usenet right now is about 15. giganews is way overpriced, but you do get a lot for what you pay like double the retention of most providers. You missed out on the ngroups.net deal last month that I signed up for which is 10 a month unlimited with ssl and no capps.
Oh i would just like to add that for me astraweb service was excellent. Barely had downtime and speed was always maxed for me. There were only 2 things that astraweb lacked.
First thing was at the time they only had 68 days of retention which wasnt bad it just wasnt as much as usenet-news.net. They have now increased it to 110 or something around that. The second was no ssl which they still lack. Other then that though they are a great provider and not bad for the money.
Oh just remember the $10 plan would limit you to 100kbps while for $5 more a month you max your connection. |
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Neo
@on.net | reply to fonzbear2000
I agree with what Ryan said above.
I also joined up last month with the NGroups lifetime Unlimited for $9.99 and am really happy with both speeds and retention  |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY
 ·Insight Communicat..
1 edit | reply to fonzbear2000
Ngroups and Usenet-News are sister/partner companies (no idea what relation they have). Both of them are resellers of usenetserver.
Has anyone tried or known anyone who has used www.newsrazor.net ? They're promotion is $10.95 for unlimited 10 connections for the first 3 months if you're a new customer. From my research they appear to be related somehow to newsreader.com, claim to have 100+ MSG ID retention (nzb) and are very new. |
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Dread
Macs suck
Premium
join:2005-02-28
Bronx, NY
·Optimum Online
| reply to fonzbear2000
said by fonzbear2000  :» www.news.astraweb.com/plans.html $10/month for unlimited if you don't mind being capped at 1 mbps and even uncapped is still better than giganews! No
You fail
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48-27 |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
2 edits | reply to ep1taph
said by ep1taph :Ngroups and Usenet-News are sister/partner companies (no idea what relation they have). Both of them are resellers of usenetserver. Has anyone tried or known anyone who has used www.newsrazor.net ? They're promotion is $10.95 for unlimited 10 connections for the first 3 months if you're a new customer. From my research they appear to be related somehow to newsreader.com, claim to have 100+ MSG ID retention (nzb) and are very new. They're resellers of highwinds actually.
Ive never heard of newzrazor though its also only 10 for 3 months then how much is it?? Might want to go with something that has a better reputation like the ones mentioned above or swintec provides »blocknews.net/ which you can count on getting top of the line support. |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to fonzbear2000
No real difference, just who's selling it to you and for what price.
I don't think it's possible to count the amount of UNS resellers on both hands.
It is of important note that nntp5.usenetserver.com is also newsfarm.atl.highwinds-media.com, what is the relation of UNS and highwinds-media?
Yeah, I've never heard of newsrazor either. No idea what to expect, really, and am not about being a test subject. I also just don't download very much so unlimited accounts are overkill. My ISP provides 30GB through Giganews every 30 days and I've never even used it all.
I'll sporadically purchase block accounts if I need something quickly, mostly through Usenet-News in the past. The last time I had one the speeds would range from 300KB/s to maxing my connection at 1,200KB/s. Most of my friends that have NewsHosting say it's great but I can't justify spending that much on a service I won't take full advantage of. |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
| So from what i understand your saying usenetserver is also a seller of highwinds or usenet-news is a reseller of usenetserver. Last I heard they were highwinds reseller and heard it straight from the horses mouth not too long ago. Not sure how that relates to usenetserver I had always assumed they hosted their network themselves. |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to fonzbear2000
I honestly don't know. All I can see is that the service that you get from either of the three listed above will be identical (usenet-news, ngroups, blocknews) since they are all just sending data from the same location. Obviously their contractual agreements may vary but you are pulling your data from the same physical location. From where I'm sitting they all look identical resolving to the exact same location.
Try doing a tracert to news.ngroups.net, us.usenet-news.net and news.blocknews.net and see where they all end up in the end -- for me they all end right at nntp5.usenetserver.com.
I'm not really sure how highwinds comes into play, if you know or find out let me know, I'm curious!
For some reason if you ask the companies directly they go through great lengths to obfuscate the truth and avoid telling where they get their feed from and who is actually hosting the data and servers. I think there should be a really good resource to see which providers are selling what in reality.
So in conclusion I'm not really sure how things play together and you shouldn't take anything I say as truth -- just logical theories. Perhaps since Swintec seems to be affiliated with blocknews he can explain a bit more about how it works. |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
| Ohh okay I gotcha I was a little confused with your wording. I know all 3 listest ngroups usenet-news and swintecs blocknews are highwinds resellers which is not a bad thing higwinds is excellent imho. Im just not sure why it points to usenetserver which I had always assumed they had their own service. Your right though im sure swintec would know the answer to this one. |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
 ·RapidVPS
·surpasshosting
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·VoicePulse
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to ep1taph
For the most part, due to cost, there are only 3-4 major players when it comes to Usenet FEEDS. As I said, the cost alone in bringing an efficient and reliable Usenet system online takes a lot of $$$. Then you got the bandwidth costs and all that fun stuff. Almost all providers are essentially reselling in one form or another, of course I am sure you knew this.
At the same time, every reseller has there own contracts and pricing that they negotiated in the beginning, which explains the vast differences in end user pricing across the board between all providers. To be honest, it wasnt even possible (well it was if I wanted to lose my shirt) to offer unlimited accounts when I first got Blocknews off the ground. Now I have the ability to not only offer them, but also a few cents cheaper per month then most others.
I know what you mean when you say providers go through great lengths to cover up there tracks, I was irked by this to...but i realize now its to save our own behinds. I could end up saying something unintentionally not so true about so and so and before I know it I have to deal with them for spreading FUD all over the internet or so and so's customers start going up the chain for technical support because they know they resell highwinds or usenet server. Even worse, it could be something that wasnt suppose to get out.
What you see in your traceroute is true, nntp5.... is owned by Usenet Server but as someone also pointed out you can see in traces to news.blocknews.net that you end up at "newsfarm.atl.highwinds-media.com" All I can say is to take that at face value. Highwinds is monstrous and has many different levels of service, heck look at the OOL thread about there ongoing Usenet service.
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BlockNews.Net- Quality Usenet Block And Unlimited Accounts |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to fonzbear2000
Sounds like a lot of what I was thinking was true. I'm still somewhat in the dark about the real structure of the present day Usenet system, but it's becoming more clear.
Someone needs to make an accurate map of it! 
Care to elaborate on the 3-4 FEEDS you are referencing? I know what a feed is in the Usenet system, but I don't know who specifically is responsible for them or what they are named.
Thanks for taking the time to explain, I appreciate it. |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
·RapidVPS
·surpasshosting
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·VoicePulse
·RoadRunner Cable
| I shouldnt have used the word feed in that sense, it is more so backend server systems, these backend server systems are then resold to other smaller providers. Example being Highwinds to OOL or Charter. There are a tad more than 4....more like 5 or 6 but then again i do not really know who was sold to who and all that good stuff.
I am sure you have all heard of these backend systems, some of them are Giganews, Highwinds, NNTP server, Supernews.
Someone said there are an incredible amount of UsenetServer resellers however I cant seem to find a list and such, anyone have that info freely available?
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BlockNews.Net- Quality Usenet Block And Unlimited Accounts |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to fonzbear2000
The following appear to be linked to UseNetServer:
news.flashnewsgroups.com
news.blocknews.net
us.usenet-news.net
news.ngroups.net
news.meganetnews.com
news.newsgroupdirect.com
Ones I'm not so sure about:
news.newsguy.com
news.nntpjunkie.com
Both of those end up in Atlanta by the same route but have different IP's and may be separate operations.
I had said "I don't think it's possible to count them on both hands" and for now I appear to have lost in that regard. |
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fonzbear2000
Premium
join:2005-08-09
Saint Paul, MN
| reply to Dread
said by Dread :said by fonzbear2000 :» www.news.astraweb.com/plans.html $10/month for unlimited if you don't mind being capped at 1 mbps and even uncapped is still better than giganews! No You fail 
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i wish qwest would die! i want FIOS! |
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Dread
Macs suck
Premium
join:2005-02-28
Bronx, NY
·Optimum Online
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48-27 |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
| reply to swintec
said by swintec :I shouldnt have used the word feed in that sense, it is more so backend server systems, these backend server systems are then resold to other smaller providers. Example being Highwinds to OOL or Charter. There are a tad more than 4....more like 5 or 6 but then again i do not really know who was sold to who and all that good stuff. I am sure you have all heard of these backend systems, some of them are Giganews, Highwinds, NNTP server, Supernews. Someone said there are an incredible amount of UsenetServer resellers however I cant seem to find a list and such, anyone have that info freely available? I know there are usenetserver resellers I have come across them before, but they seem to be slipping my mind. Here is another reason why I thought usenet server was a separate entity. Check out this page »www.top1000.org/#stats which lists the peering or retention sharing of the different servers. Usenetserver and highwinds are separate.
»www.top1000.org/#stats |
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ep1taph
join:2006-12-01
Erlanger, KY | reply to fonzbear2000
Pretty sweet page.
I give up, it's a rats nest! |
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