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What's Your Favorite Newsgroup Provider?
Now that ISPs have stopped offering it as an added perk...

For years, ISPs have been either outsourcing their newsgroup access or eliminating it as a perk altogether. That shift only accelerated with NY AG Andrew Cuomo's recent child porn "crackdown," which ISPs admit doesn't have them doing anything differently, but has given them a nice scapegoat for newsgroup elimination. AOL stopped offering newsgroup access three years ago, Time Warner Cable just announced they'd be scrapping access, and AT&T is pulling access to the entire alt.binary hierarchy.

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In an effort to pick up the fleeing "refugees," newsgroup operators have been running promotions on newsgroup access. Newsgroup Direct is offering Time Warner Cable, Sprint and Verizon customers 20% off their usual rates. NGroups is offering a $30 per quarter "Roadrunner special" until July 31. Of course, there's a fairly vast difference in pricing, features, retention and quality of service.

Users in our Time Warner Cable forum are engaged in an interesting conversation on the best and least expensive newsgroup services out there. There's also a significant number of newsgroup review breakdowns out there.

Does your ISP still offer complementary newsgroup service? If not, do you have any recommendations for our users?
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UsenetUser
@swbell.net

UsenetUser

Anon

I use

iUsenet.com

graysonf
MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL

graysonf

MVM

Altopia

I recommend Altopia »www.altopia.com

Us old timers know them as alt.net

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

1 recommendation

wifi4milez

Member

Never used one....

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.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: Never used one....

said by wifi4milez:

as far as I can tell all they do is offer a place to get pirated content or questionable image files.
You don't see the big deal in that

graysonf
MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL

1 recommendation

graysonf to wifi4milez

MVM

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 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.
Don't take this personally, and no offense is intended, but your view is exactly typical of those who are completely ignorant on this subject and who voice an opinion based on absolutely nothing whatsoever - by your own admission of never having participating in the Usenet.

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

wifi4milez

Member

Re: Never used one....

said by graysonf:
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.
Don't take this personally, and no offense is intended, but your view is exactly typical of those who are completely ignorant on this subject and who voice an opinion based on absolutely nothing whatsoever - by your own admission of never having participating in the Usenet.
So do you mean to imply that the vast majority of people visiting newsgroups do so for completely legal, non shady purposes?

Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium Member
join:2001-06-11
Downers Grove, IL

Phil

Premium Member

Re: Never used one....

If you were to exclude the alt.binary newsgroups, yes.
Stevert
join:2001-10-23
Algonquin, IL

Stevert

Member

Re: Never used one....

said by Phil:

If you were to exclude the alt.binary newsgroups, yes.
And not even all the alt.binary ng's are "bad".

I'm a railroad fan, and alt.binary.pictures.rail has to be one of the most family-friendly places I've ever visited.


MRGOOGLEABC
@cox.net

MRGOOGLEABC to wifi4milez

Anon

to wifi4milez
yeah, try visiting news.google.com for proof.

jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium Member
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast XFINITY
Asus GT-AX6000
Asus RT-AC66U B1

1 edit

jbob to wifi4milez

Premium Member

to wifi4milez
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.

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

stomp357

Member

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.

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

ncherry to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
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.
Expand your moderator at work

supergirl
join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL

supergirl to graysonf

Member

to graysonf
said by graysonf:
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.
Don't take this personally, and no offense is intended, but your view is exactly typical of those who are completely ignorant on this subject and who voice an opinion based on absolutely nothing whatsoever - by your own admission of never having participating in the Usenet.
Had one of them. Almost all was pirated content. GigaNews seems to be the best one though.

v35_pilot
Whoops, there goes another AMU
Premium Member
join:2005-12-12
Fayetteville, NY

v35_pilot to wifi4milez

Premium Member

to wifi4milez
said by wifi4milez:

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.
Very stimulating and friendly discussions.
wispalord
join:2007-09-20
Farmington, MO

wispalord to wifi4milez

Member

to wifi4milez
well, there is a lot of support in there from ectrything from computer issues to medical issues, dating ect, and news groups are not well pc specific a old xt pc on a 2400boud modem in a 3rd would contry can access them, so it has it's perks.

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium Member
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX

1 edit

Doctor Four to wifi4milez

Premium Member

to wifi4milez
Such a narrow minded view of Usenet.

Sure, you can find copyright infringing material (or in your
mistaken belief shaped by MAFIAA propaganda "pirated content")
on there, but that is only in the binary groups. And some of
that content is not infringing (open source, creative commons
licensed, etc.)

Long before forums such as this were around, and even before
the Internet as we know it today, Usenet provided help and
discussion groups for everything you could possibly think of.

And it still does. Though some groups are so filled with
flame wars, spammers and trolls, that it makes them
practically unreadable.

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

fuziwuzi to wifi4milez

Premium 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 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?
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.

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

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

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?

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

Scatcatpdx
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR

Scatcatpdx

Member

Horse and Buggy Technology

The explains use net to me.

I see this ISP using the crackdown as an excuse so they would not have to waste time on a vocal minority. The web a la Blogs, and Social networking killed USENET. I haven't installed a Usenet reader in two years. Today most groups I was involved with are unused or just spam. What next for you Karl, we bring back Gopher.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

2 recommendations

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Horse and Buggy Technology

said by Scatcatpdx:

The explains use net to me.

I see this ISP using the crackdown as an excuse so they would not have to waste time on a vocal minority. The web a la Blogs, and Social networking killed USENET. I haven't installed a Usenet reader in two years. Today most groups I was involved with are unused or just spam. What next for you Karl, we bring back Gopher.
Seems you don't "get" usenet then. The problem with the web is that people don't want to go to a bunch of different forums to discuss X,Y,Z with other users. People don't want to browse long blog diatribes by self-important writers. Usenet provides perfect, centralized discussion for the entire planet. Instead of thousands of servers with millions of independent forums, you have thousands of servers mirroring the same discussions, making the same discussions available worldwide. If i'm on usenet and i'm curious about conservatism, i'll lurk the conservative groups. If i'm on the web, i'm FAAAR more likely to stick to websites i know or that i'm linked to, because there's too much hassle in browsing random forums looking for that one rare forum with good discussion, where people won't berate you your first 100 posts for being a newbie, etc.. etc..

Usenet aint perfect, but it aint obsolete either.

Scatcatpdx
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR

Scatcatpdx

Member

Re: Horse and Buggy Technology

I have to disagree, I been on line before the days of the net starting with BBS, CompuServe and Prodigy. The message traffic was insane at times. The came came the Internet and Usenet. I would spend a good half hour downloading 100s of messages over dial-up. But as the web became more popular I notice message traffic would decrease even thought the growth of the internet was rising exponentially. I remember many fan and popular groups had hundreds of messages became virtual ghost towns.

Human nature tend to isolated into smaller cliques rather to be part a larger community. Why should the use USENET when one can have their very own "pimped out" MySpace page.
Darkk8
join:2003-10-03
USA

Darkk8 to Scatcatpdx

Member

to Scatcatpdx
said by Scatcatpdx:

What next for you Karl, we bring back Gopher.
Shhh... it's been back for a while now, but don't tell anyone. Blazingly fast, efficient, and unusable for M$ IE users. What could be better.

The M$ browser IE can't display Gopher at all, and Firefox doesn't quite correctly, but Firefox is better than nothing. There are good ways to display Gopher+ still today.

Call it the new underground.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

2 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

Some links for those looking for best Newsgroup providers

A few links comparing the different newsgroup services, showing price, features, etc.:
»www.newsgroupservers.net/
»www.newsgroupreviews.com/
»www.slyck.com/ng.php?pag ··· sort=all

The ones the editors like best:
»www.newsgroupreviews.com ··· ice.html

»www.slyck.com/ngnew.php?page=3

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Re: Some links for those looking for best Newsgroup providers

Slyck, in my opinion, is the best non-biased resource so far for comparing servers. Most of the other ones will play up whoever can give the best affiliate/referral payouts.

halo5
join:2000-07-20
Dayton, OH

halo5

Member

Newshosting

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.

kenneth_banya
@dsl.bell.ca

kenneth_banya

Anon

Re: Newshosting

Couldnt be happier with »www.blocknews.net here. They have all the standard features like SSL and account types plus you can get weekly unlimited accounts for like 5 bucks. If you can save up your downloads, this is the way to go.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

Jeff to halo5

Premium Member

to halo5
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.
Started with Giganews, moved to Usenetserver, finally settled on Newshosting and have been there about three years. I recommend them.

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

Jaime to halo5

Premium Member

to halo5
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 .

Dread
On course
Premium Member
join:2005-02-28
Bronx, NY

Dread

Premium Member

Giganews

Well worth the premium

•••••••
pathfinda
Premium Member
join:2002-09-11
Chicago, IL

1 recommendation

pathfinda

Premium Member

NewsHosting...

..all the Way. Been with them for five years, no problems, love the support.

fatmanskinny
Premium Member
join:2004-01-04
Wandering

1 recommendation

fatmanskinny

Premium Member

The Atlanta Journal Constitution.....

All my news is grouped into one paper.

FatalClaws
@impulse.net

FatalClaws

Anon

Tera News

I have a free account (initial $3.95 set up fee) from »www.teranews.com/

The download limit is 50MB per day, but if you only want to read and post news you can't beat them. 50MB doesn't give much room for downloads, but music files would be fine if you kept an eye on the usage.

texans20
Premium Member
join:2002-09-28
Texas!

1 recommendation

texans20

Premium Member

Powerusenet

They're a Giganews reseller, with less retention but also a bit cheaper. They have the same speed and reliability of Giganews.

•••••
kenyg
join:2001-02-09
Hatboro, PA

kenyg

Member

Newshosting

Another thumbs up here.
c33v33
join:2003-10-14
Chicago, IL

c33v33

Member

Re: Newshosting

I also use Newshosting.

bobrk
You kids get offa my lawn
Premium Member
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA

1 recommendation

bobrk

Premium Member

You mean warezgroups?

I've walked away from USENET, although my ISP seems to have pretty good service. They're pretty good for getting filez I guess, but they suck for discussion now.

Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium Member
join:2001-06-11
Downers Grove, IL

Phil

Premium Member

No favorite here...

I'm currently using blocknews.net, but with a couple of outages lately they're not my favorite. That said, they do provide unlimited downloads maxing out my 15Mbps connection at little over $14/month.

Sebehk
USN Retired, 1993-2013, yvan eht nioj
Premium Member
join:2002-02-09
Pueblo, CO

Sebehk

Premium Member

NewsDemon is my favorite.

I have been using NewsDemon for about 3 years. I highly recommend them. Check out their various monthly plans.

--->Robert
8-)
jsnwtlr
Premium Member
join:2004-12-16
Carrollton, TX

jsnwtlr

Premium Member

I "Use" EasyNews

I've been using EasyNews for six years. I'm able to max out my 15mb FIOS line and download pretty much everything that I might want. It's very reasonably priced, too.

PCInTech
keeping art alive since 1953
Premium Member
join:2004-06-07
Massena, NY

PCInTech

Premium Member

Forte Agent Premium News

»www.forteinc.com/apn/index.php
Forte Agent Premium News

They have redundancy and retention that's amazing. I was one of the first subs when they started up, after several years w/ Alt.net (Altopia) until they jacked up the prices and limited bandwidth.

nanoflower1
@comcast.net

nanoflower1

Anon

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.

ARGONAUT
Have a nice day.
Premium Member
join:2006-01-24
New Albany, IN

1 recommendation

ARGONAUT

Premium Member

?

I never understood why anybody would pay for news group access. It seems like a big waste of money.

•••••

Stem Bolt
Ancient Astronaut Theorist
Premium Member
join:2002-11-08
Metropolis

Stem Bolt

Premium Member

AstraWeb

AstraWeb for me. »news.astraweb.com/

$13 a month unlimited, plus free SSL.

Astraweb Statistics

Retention: 140+ Days across ALL groups
- Retention is being upgraded. Keep watching it rise!

Completion: 99%+

Connections: 20 connections (Unlimited Plan)
50 connections (Pay-by-download Plan)

Servers: United States (us.news.astraweb.com)
Europe (europe.news.astraweb.com)

Network: Level 3
Tiscali
Cogent

Anonymity - No logs are kept, Anonymous Group Requests, Anonymous Posting
Uncensored News - No Discussions are Censored
SSL Enabled - SSL Available now on ALL accounts. No extra charges.
Completion - High number of peers. 99%+ completion
Speed - Multiple Links to High Quality Providers
Connections - 20 Simultaneous Connections
Retention - Long retention, always increasing.
Posting Propagation - Well connected peers ensure excellent propagation of posts
US & EU Farms - Serverfarms in the US and EU

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

Jigsaw

Premium Member

Re: AstraWeb

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

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

neonhomer

Premium Member

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!
kd6cae
P2p Shouldn't Be A Crime
join:2001-08-27
Bakersfield, CA

kd6cae

Member

easynews isn't bad

I personally use Easynews, as I think they are the only provider with servers here on the west coast which is good for latency and speed. Plus for those wanting to download files via a web interface, Easynews allows that, and in many cases no pieceing the parts together. When I use a usenet provider, I'd like someone who can max out my line with as few connections as possible, and someone who either runs their own network of servers such as Easynews or Giganews, or a reseller that's connected to a good network of servers. Giganews and Easynews are probably the best options. I use to use Supernews, but I think they're outsourced to the highwinds network now.
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