1 TB Usenet Deal from News Group Direct for October $35

Related Stores

News Group Direct

• 

  [Deactivated] on 16/10/2014 - 06:37

  Ive been using these guys for a few years, but lately there's been a lot of missing parts to stuff only released within hours. Make sure you suppliment it with another provider on a different backbone such as tweeknews,

  • 

    googolplex on 16/10/2014 - 10:40

    Same, I've had an account with them for years. Increasingly finding missing parts, download performance has dropped as well because they have oversubscribed their available bandwidth. Not as noticeable on an ADSL2 connection but definitely noticeable on 100mbit cable.

    Also just a warning, I do not recommend this provider because my credit card details were leaked because of their weak security (they don't even have SSL encrypted login), if you bought a block/account mid-year then you would have been affected (see below):

    http://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/comments/2a8fj4/newsgroupdire…
    http://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/comments/2a8eru/newsgroupdire…
    http://blog.newsgroupdirect.com/2014/07/09/important-newsgro…

  • 

    snuke on 16/10/2014 - 22:24

    Or make sure you use a program (Sickbeard, NZBDrone, Couchpotato etc) or Dogs Watchlist to get items immediately. I use NGD as primary and Astra as backup, pretty rare for Astra to be used. 152GB so far this month, 5.6 GB via Astra, all else via NGD.

    • 

      4agte on 17/10/2014 - 02:28

      They probably are already using programs like sb cp and sab. If you did not have your Astraweb backup you would ended with more incompletes.

      If you switched NGD to your backup up it would hardly ever be successful in filling missing parts.

      My stats since running my NAS
      Tweaknews 2.8TB (main)
      Astraweb 210GB (backup)
      NGD 5GB (backup)

      Majority of the fill from Astraweb and NGD is due to retention.

      NGD has made up approximately 2.5% of my fill and unfortunately that hasn't always lead to completes.

      • 

        snuke on 17/10/2014 - 10:23

        Never assume people are using the available tools, it took me ages to start using Sickbeard, and I never touched CP or similar. Seeing the constant “How to Use SB/CP etc” post on r/usenet from long time usenet users I almost expect people to not be using these programs.
        I use Dogs Watchlist, so stuff is pushed as soon as it’s available , I don’t have to wait for programs to do API scans every 15+ mins, no doubt that helps. That 5.6GB from Astra is me getting a very old item, so no surprise, that entire figure is just one program, so outside of that it is 100% NGD.
        I had SAB setup incorrectly and Astra wasn’t kicking in automatically for more than a year as the Wiki wording is a little wrong. So I would have to manually set the Astra servers to grab. It was pretty rare that I had to, and again quite old programs, or a specific sporting organisation that was quick to get the pay per views taken down.
        NGD are one of the quickest to do takedowns (they're Highwinds reseller, so it's expected), but for me they have been super reliable, and as they are seemingly the cheapest block accounts (2TB for $60 on special) I am happy to keep them as my main with the occasional use of Astra required. I know Astra is used most when I am grabbing old movies, and as I average 10GB per movie I still use Astra a decent amount.

        Unfortunately I had cleared counters, although I think since I did a clean install a 6 months ago it is accurate.
        Below numbers out slightly due to rounding.
        Total 1.6TB
        NGD 1.3TB 81.25%
        Astra 299GB 18.69%

        For you, NGD only makes up 0.1658% of your grabs.
        Total 3015GB
        Tweak 92.8%
        Astra 7%
        NGD 0.1658%

        Both of our examples show why you need at least one backup account.

• 

  squidly on 16/10/2014 - 08:39

  what is this used for?

• 

  gizmomelb on 16/10/2014 - 08:43

  downloading from usenet. personally I use a Dutch provider for top ups and 100% completion - the Dutch providers pretty much ignore DCMA takedown requests.. so the new/popular stuff is always available. Pricing is usually better too.

  • 

    falzoni on 16/10/2014 - 15:50

    Care to share this provider? DM if you prefer :)

    • 

      Click_It on 17/10/2014 - 10:29

      I asked the same question, no response as yet… Maybe he's referring to tweaknews, not sure.

    • 

      snuke on 17/10/2014 - 11:21

      +1

      See this - http://www.ngprovider.com/euro-based-usenet-providers.php

      • 

        Click_It on 17/10/2014 - 12:26

        Thanks snuke

      • 

        Click_It on 17/10/2014 - 13:54

        I'm now thinking Eweka is worth trying after reading through that site

      • 

        snuke on 17/10/2014 - 14:59

        @Click_It:

        Another article to read - http://www.ngrblog.com/dutch-usenet/

      • 

        gizmomelb on 20/10/2014 - 13:57

        sorry guys.. wasn't on here for a few days and didn't see the request - yes, Tweaknews is the Dutch provider I use for removed articles, otherwise I use usenetserver (another Highwinds reseller) with a $97 USD a year unlimited account.

      • 

        jimbler on 22/10/2014 - 05:23

        @gizmomelb:

        OT - Just saw an old message where you said that you've got 80+ copies of Zzap!64 in storage. Would you be interested in selling them, and if so, for what price?

      • 

        gizmomelb on 24/10/2014 - 23:31

        @jimbler:

        Yes, I still have them.. along with either complete or nearly complete collections of every Amiga magazine, about 15 years worth of C&VG (from issue 2, from memory) and lots of other rare magazines (all 22 issues of CD32 Gamer, and lots of Amstrad magazines for example). They've been in storage for the past 18 months while I've sorted out my divorce and housing, but I'll be moving into a new place soon so I can get them out of storage and then sort / document / list them all. I sold an almost completed second collection (70 odd issues) of ZZap!64 a few years ago for $10 each issue. But open to decent offers. Then I'll start clearing out my boxed console and game collection (Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Colecovision, Intellivision, some NES, lots of C64 and Amiga boxed games.. most still factory shrink wrapped).

• 

  4agte on 16/10/2014 - 09:08

  I have old block accounts from Astraweb and NGD. I run them as backups. Never does NGD fill missing files. Going to wait till Black Friday sales for an Astraweb block special. It's a good price but can't recommend NGD at any price due to the frustration of incomplete.

• 

  aimbot on 16/10/2014 - 09:21

  The block plans are good, but I like the subscription at Tweaknews.eu (<$15AUD, or $5p/m)

  NB. You need to sign up to their free trial, and they will offer you these prices just before it expires. Each quarter when it's about to expire, they send another email with the rates, I've been doing this for 18months.

  I pay 9.95 Euro per quarter (works out to be <$15AUD, or $5p/m)

  This gives me unlimited data, 10 threads, 10Mbit (meaning you get around 1Mb/s download, good if you only have ADSL2), SSL, and since they are based in Europe, less likely to bend to DCMA takedown's (like gizmomelb refers to).

  If you want faster, they have a 50Mbit service with 30 threads for 17.95 Euro (<$27AUD, or $9p/m)

  Horses for courses though.

  • 

    4agte on 16/10/2014 - 18:08

    Tweaknews are great. One of the best priced unlimited accounts with far less takedowns. I find a lot of cases which I assume might be CDMA takedowns only have a few blocks removed. With par files I still very completes without even using my block backups. NGD is by far the most frustrating provider I have used for incompletes