Anon00
Premium
join:2001-09-25
USA
| [Newsgroups] Why quality still counts...
Or why, two is better than one.
Thought I just share my experiences after switching primarily as a Giganews user to Astraweb ($11 for life deal).
For the most part, Astraweb is great. Speeds are maxing out my line (25-30mbits) and completion is fine. Incompletes here and there, but nothing Par files can't handle. However, I normally don't pull anything over 100days
Lately, I've been trying to pull some rather large archives from Usenet that are over 240 days. Even with pars, still large incompletes, unusable archives. It's at those moments that I'm glad I kept my Giganews account (lowest), just bump it up the lowest price for their normal retention rate (Bronze), and even though some files still may be incomplete, there at least "more complete"... enough for a repair.
While I wish Giganews would make SSL standard... I do appreciate a quality Usenet service. But like I said in my opening... sometimes two is truly better than one.
--
"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"'It's the law' is just an excuse for the unintelligent and unimaginative to remain that way" - Me |
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Ryan
Premium
join:2001-03-03
Attleboro, MA
| Two services?? Seriously?? Regarding the large archives obviously the person didnt know what they were doing. To properly post it should have been split better with the proper par %. From my experience you should have NO problems downloading something 240 days UNLESS it was intentionally pulled from the servers due to DMCA takedown request.... |
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hroo772
Darkness Fears Me
Premium
join:2002-04-05
Mclean, VA
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Anon00
I still have giganews even after all these promo's hit. If I'm going to be relying on one service, I'd rather just pay whatever and know I'm gonna get the best there is. Since I see newsgroups as an investment that pays for itself, I'd rather not skimp on it, when the better service pays for itself after some use anyway. |
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Bark
join:2006-03-19
Grand Junction, CO | reply to Anon00
Two servers may be necessary for DMCA takedowns where only the first article of each file is removed, but the 2nd server can be only a non-expiring block account which is cheap. |
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Anon00
Premium
join:2001-09-25
USA
1 edit | reply to hroo772
said by hroo772  :I still have giganews even after all these promo's hit. If I'm going to be relying on one service, I'd rather just pay whatever and know I'm gonna get the best there is. Since I see newsgroups as an investment that pays for itself, I'd rather not skimp on it, when the better service pays for itself after some use anyway. I definitely don't use Giganews as my primary service. I've just been holding onto it as a backup.
For the people assuming the corruption is due to DMCA, I'm aware of what the Usenet providers do to comply... doubtful as the part missing count varies and most of the split archive files are intact. Just not enough.
And I've run into it quite a bit, enough for me to question the completion rates on Astraweb's servers to bump my Giganews plan up to get ~438 days retention.
I thought I'd just mention since I've been thinking it was about time to dump my 3 buck plan completely. Usually anything under the 30 day count can be repaired so the Giganews server hasn't seen much use.
Honestly, if GNews did $19.99 Unlimited+SSL I'd use them as a primary and just use Astraweb block account as a fill server.
PS Does a Giganews reseller (same retention) do Block accountsl?
--
"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"'It's the law' is just an excuse for the unintelligent and unimaginative to remain that way" - Me |
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Inflex
join:2002-09-05
| reply to Ryan
said by Ryan :Two services?? Seriously?? I used to have three, I let one of my block services expire, so I'm down to two. |
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unoriginal
join:2000-07-12
San Diego, CA | I thought block accounts didn't expire. Isnt that supposed to be one of the reasons to have one? So that you can use it whenever you want to? |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
 ·RapidVPS
·surpasshosting
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·VoicePulse
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| said by unoriginal :I thought block accounts didn't expire. Isnt that supposed to be one of the reasons to have one? So that you can use it whenever you want to? True block accounts (as they have been known all these years) do not expire....you bought the bandwidth, use when you want.
Although some demon-ey competitors expire there new accounts after a year for whatever reason...Others charge per month, so I can see how many who arent familiar with them can become confused.
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Block Accounts | UseNet Now |
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metalhawk
join:2007-02-06
Nepean, ON | reply to Anon00
I have pulled 10 GB of data from Astraweb last week that was over 410 days old with almost no block missing. |
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Inflex
join:2002-09-05
| reply to unoriginal
said by unoriginal :I thought block accounts didn't expire. Isnt that supposed to be one of the reasons to have one? So that you can use it whenever you want to? Okay, I should have said I didn't renew when I used it all. |
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crese24
join:2007-12-27 | reply to Anon00
Having two usenet accounts would get a little spendy. |
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kalone
Premium
join:2002-07-02
Lexington, KY | reply to Anon00
For years there was only one "Premium Usenet Provider", but now it seems all that really makes GN stand out is their "Premium Price", and users attitude that only Giganews can provide high quality usenet service. |
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Anon00
Premium
join:2001-09-25
USA
| said by kalone :For years there was only one "Premium Usenet Provider", but now it seems all that really makes GN stand out is their "Premium Price", and users attitude that only Giganews can provide high quality usenet service. I don't know if Giganews can really justify their price difference. I mean $10-15 more than Astraweb. SSL isn't free...
But IMHO, their quality is certainly better than Astraweb. I've just started to pay more attention and even newer posts need Giganews to fill in some missing pieces. Again, sure par will take care of it, hence why I never noticed before, but that doesn't excuse the fact of missing articles. The rates seem really low (at least from the 2-3 days I've been tracking), maybe 1-2% but it is what it is.
Astraweb will still remain my primary, which reminds me I need to bump my Giganews account down.
--
"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"'It's the law' is just an excuse for the unintelligent and unimaginative to remain that way" - Me |
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thender
crackberry storms
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Anon00
I had that experience with astraweb. They're cheap, and a lot of the time, it's good, but there are so many things I can download with UNS that will not complete with astraweb.
usenetserver is a few bucks a month more, which I can justify for never having to see a failed download.
--
Macbook repair in NYC |
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unoriginal
join:2000-07-12
San Diego, CA
1 edit | How much are you paying for UNS each month? You can get it for $10/mo thru this link:
»https://accounts.usenetserver.com/special/ |
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Vamp
5c077
Premium
join:2003-01-28
MD | reply to Anon00
hmm never had a problem with Astraweb here, my last downloads were large 5-10GB files that were between 250-350 days old and none of them even needed a repair.
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20/20 FIOS || MSN Msgr: scott001^gmail_com |
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