I was looking for usenet plans because of my move from Internode to TPG.
Found this on Astraweb, which is much better than other usenet providers who offer data blocks viz., Thundernews, Blocknews etc.
Other plan for consideration
Unlimited 3 Months for USD$20 speed limit 10Mbit/sec (won't bother many)
They look like new plans so I don't think they have an expiry
Astra appear to have $10/month or $20/3months for unlimited download at 10Mbps with over 3.5 years retention. Sure it's not unlimited speed, but not many people have a 10Mbps+ connection in Australia.
The 3 month bundle ends up $80/year versus the SuperNews at $144/year. Almost half price.
Search around the net, I think you can find a $96/year plan with Astraweb. You're welcome.
Um. Considering I was talking about an $80/year one from Astraweb… ?
Or you can have "Unlimited DSL Plan Special Offer - No Setup Fees" from Astraweb with unlimited speed and downloads for $11 per month with this limited time only special thats been avaiable for at least a couple of years if you want to pay by the month.
It's 10 Mb(its)/sec not MB(ytes)/sec which would give you an effective d/l rate of 1250 KB(ytes)/sec. On astra's $96/year plan I am able to comfortably sit on 2.25MB/s (ie 18 Mb/s). I would think there would be enough people in Australia that can easily saturate a 1.25MB/s connection.
My vote would still be for the $96/year plan.
Yeah, everyone knows the difference between MB/s and Mbps.
Unless you're under 1km from the local exchange on ADSL2+ with no complications or using the higher bandwidth cable you're not likely to be getting a 10+Mbps pipe.
The majority would see no benefit. Some people would. Luckily in both our comments the speed is clearly stated so people can make an informed choice.
So I guess that $96/year plan is unlimited speed? If only soupiejr had mentioned that, I wouldn't have replied as I had…
If you go to http://www.supernews.com/super-special/ you'll get it for $10/month not $12 (or $99/yr)
Me
SSshhhh! SHH! NO ONE, OKAY? NO ONE USES USENET ANYMORE!
we don't use it, really we don't, no one uses it.
If you do use it, read the rule book (rule #1: tell no one)
I do, much easier to use than torrents for things that are 2 years old with barely any seeds anywhere.
lots of people. it beats Bittorrent as it's much harder to trace back to you. Other advantages of usenet over BT include instant maximum download speed and no uploading or ratios to consider.
Actually the main reason why usenet is 1000x better is that with bittorrent you are distributing material which is very illegal.
With usenet you are not, as well as the fact that usenet is SSL encrypted.
Me, I'm with Supernews for $9.99 a month. http://www.supernews.com/super-special/
Last month i downloaded 702GB ;)
I'm not joking when I say that all the days TV Shows and Movies magically appear on my computer when I get home from work. I don't have to do anything but press play.
How exactly do you manage that? what controls the downloading (e.g. which content etc.)?
Google can help you, but start your search with "Sick Beard" and "CouchPotato"
sabnzbd
sick beard (TV shows)
couchpotato (movies)
headphones (music)
Me - $5 p/m Thundernews Unlimted.
Astronomically better value than anything torrents can offer.
Same here, been using a Thundernews $5/month unlimited account (from their Black Friday offer) for about 2 years now. Get a consistent 11-13MB/s using Ultimate Cable. I have an Astraweb block account as a backup too, but retention on Thundernews is good enough that I've barely touched it. :)
Any way to get a $5/month account now? That would be the price-point where I'd join newsgroups again without a second thought.
@dkmvs_com
Don't think so, but hopefully they'll offer a similar deal again when Black Friday rolls around this year (November 23). :)
Thundernews still offer the same unlimited account for $10.49/month, and they also have a $5/month for 75GB account, but I don't think either plan represents particularly great value: http://www.thundernews.com/thundernews_blackfriday_deal.php
Yeah, nabbed mine on black friday too.
Maxes out my connection with ease.
They may offer it again this year, not too sure : /
Been using the same $5 deal for the last couple of years. Probably one of my best ozbargain purchases. Has paid for itself a million times over. Being able to download anything at 2.5MB/s instantly on my connection is great, bring on the NBN.
Hows does Supernews compare to Newshosting or Astraweb?
They are a reseller of Giganews if that helps.
They aren't a reseller, they are owned by Giganews to hit a cheaper price point.
I used to think the same thing too, until I discovered Sick Beard and SABnzbd. Heaven.
Anyone who wants rapid, reliable, encrypted downloads without having to maintain P2P IP-blocklists.
Not that would ever dream of DLing anything, but let's just say that when I peruse the interface looking for totally non-copyrighted stuff, I notice that new episodes of (say) Dexter, South Park, Archer, and so forth are on a.b.teevee an hour before they're on BT-sites' RSS feeds.
Plus, whenever I use it for things totally completely different from downloading recent TV shows just after they finish airing in the US… uTorrent peaks at about 1.2Mb/sec, whereas UseNeXT is often almost twice that.
TL;DR: more speed, more pseudo-anonymity/security, more content, no concerns that some 'seed' is actually the black vans… and the related fact that ISP's can't traffic-sniff and choke you.
noob
Sarcasm is obviously not available on usenet.
/noSarc (need to stress that).
Gold. Rare gold - the best KIND of gold (say that in your best Denis Cometti voice).
I didn't neg you to begin with, but I hereby +1 you for making me appreciate that the art of trolling in subtle and alive.
Reading your initial post with isSarc==1, your post becomes Level "Over 9000!!" trolling.
You got me, and I pride myself on being the getter more often than the got.
Well played, sir. (doffs cap).
First rule of Usenet, No talking about Usenet. :-)
the second rule is don't vote it up :)
thundernews randomly throttled me real bad on the $5 plan when i was hitting 700GB-1TB
they denied this and said i should cancel my account which i did
I think I've read similar complaints on Whirlpool. Personally speaking I don't download nearly as much (400GB/month at the very most, but usually around 200-300GB, and have never experienced throttling issues on the $5/month Thundernews plan, so it still suits me perfectly. fingers crossed :)
lol… max i download is 5-10gm/moth
Five to ten giga megs per moth?
Gojirra?
Lol, cooldudechand better watch out, the MPAA & RIAA might be watching him with a Gamera! :o
That's an awful lot of porn, fella.
If you're after completion, Usenetnow or blocknews are the best. Astraweb claims 1000+ days of retention, but if you try to download something 600 days old it is very incomplete. Even with all the PAR2 files available, you are unlikely to be able to repair the archive. Giganews is only slightly better.
I had no such problem with usenetnow and it still maxes out my ADSL2+ connection.
People also have problems with Usenetnow though, I don't think there are any perfect hosts out there.
The easiest solution is to buy a 10GB block from someone else and use it as a secondary server if your client finds something incomplete.
I just use a free usenet server at xsusenet.com
but that is too slow… i get max 100kb/s
100kb/s is plenty for a few random missing articles.
I didn't mean to say you should ONLY use that, just as a backup if your primary provider has missing articles on a particular post.
You can stack accounts from what i've seen.
I use my free binload account + xsusenet as a backup and I never have problems with repairs.
I'm currently using 4 accounts at xsusenet for around 550-600KB/sec + astra as backup.
"People also have problems with Usenetnow though, I don't think there are any perfect hosts out there."
I have completed 900 day old binaries with blocks to spare using UNN. I have never completed a 600 day old download with astraweb. There's never enough blocks. A large number of entire files are missing, not just blocks.
With AW you pretty much need a secondary block account. But using just UNN, I don't need a secondary account. It's drawback is that it's not the fastest server, but for AU broadband standards, I don't think anyone fails to max out their connection.
I've been with Astraweb for years and have completed numerous downloads over 1000 days old without a problem.
One of the best providers I've used, on a par with Giganews, AFAIAC, but hell of a lot less cost.
The quality of your download depends a lot on the quality of your nzb, (if you use them), and how much traffic is in the newsgroup you're downloading from.
One thing I do is specify their servers individually with the other as a backup - I've found it to be more prone to completion than just using ssl.astraweb.com
I use Giganews Diamond $35 a month for unlimited 50 connections, MIMO, Vyprvpn and 50GB of premium web storage.
If there is ever a problem, I have fixed it with minimal fuss using only Giganews. Downloading 22GB 700day old movie with non par use? Awesomesauce.
I'm trying to work out exactly what Usenet is, could someone please explain to me what it is?
Looks good though, i've sorta got an understanding of it.
ditto. I used to use BBS's back in the 80's but Usenet is like "what?!"
do I subscribe and dump my regular telco ADSL?
Think of usenet as an alternative to rapidshare or megaupload. It's a distributed collection of newsgroups through which files are distributed. You'll need to find other websites which provide you "links" to the files, usually in the form of nzb files.
I'm over-simplifying this, and ignoring the text-based newsgroups as the people interested in multi-gigabyte plans usually aren't interested in the text-based groups (check out google groups if you are).
You used BBSs but you don't know what Usenet/Newsgroups are? That's… confusing.
I was a teenager - I slept alot.
Usenet (UUCP) was one of the original newsgroup BBS protocols from the early 80's, it gained more support when they introduced the NNTP protocol allowing TCP/IP & it hit the internet. The use of alt.binaries newsgroups allows the transfer of binary files…ie, movies & shit.
It's recently been discovered by a new generation of youngsters as a whole new fad. As you can see don't they just talk it up like it's the most elite use of net bandwidth since sliced bread! As with a most internet/tech related crap, lot of folks just buy into the hype! There are plenty of ways to fill your bandwidth that don't cost you a monthly or annual fee! :p
Honestly, if you want to save the cash & have at least half a brain, there are plenty of other methods to get your bootlegs for nix! Torrents are one other way, and they aren't too bad if you have a little commonsense. Use private sites where possible, look for trusted uploaders & use a peer blocking list or program…it ain't rocket surgery! ;)
I'm waiting for all the new kids on the block to (re)discover FTP or Gopher! :p
main difference between usenet and torrents for me personally is with usenet I'm not 'sharing' anything, and as anything I upload counts towards my monthly ISP quota, usenet is much more efficient than a private torrent site where I'm expected to maintain a reasonable ratio.
Hmm, there's ways around that too tazo! ;)
I've said it before & I'll say it again…counted uploads blows chunks, period!
Yeah there are ways around it but, assuming we're talking about torrents, they either screw up the idea behind bittorrent, or mean you end up with really slow download speeds.
I'm more than happy to pay $10/month, and I pretty much get a 5 Megabyte/second download speed on anything I want, as long as it's within my usenet retention preiod (around 3 yrs).
…they either screw up the idea behind bittorrent, or mean you end up with really slow download speeds.
Not the case at all, you need to do some homework dude! There are also free alternatives to torrenting as well if you look hard enough! :)
I'm more than happy to pay $10/month
I'm not, but I am notoriously stingy since I'm already paying for bandwidth…especially since there's free alternatives that max out my downstream speed anyway! I also refuse outright to do the counted uploads thing!!! ;)
tried to contact you to take this offline, but you're not accepting messages..
either way, I'd be interested in what exactly you're referring to. For me personally, I've found usenet to be very cheap once I factor in my time. If you think there's a better alternative, I'm all ears.
Just ask around in a couple of scene/warez forums, or preferably on #IRC; the old hands will be able to point you in the right direction once they know you're not a total goose.
At the risk of buying into the whole "Fight Club" meme thing, I do tend not to discuss these alternatives in public forums because it was flooding that shifted the paradigm with Usenet. What was once free is no longer so because of the influx of noobs happy to pay, which is galling to someone stingy like me who has used it since the 80's for nix! :(
[edit] Neg away, but I'm of the opinion that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day; teach him to fish & you feed him for life! :)
why say 1000gb? why not say 1000000mb?
@ samfisher… how is it you have all the tv shows appear randomly when you get home each day?
Check out these 4 programs:
sabnzbd
sick beard (TV shows)
couchpotato (movies)
headphones (music)
Exactly what Hintswen said.
Couple this with a WD Live box or similar, and you come home from work and sit on your couch and watch everything :)
Cheers mate!
hmm I use to use usenet alot until a few years ago it seems everything you download has a great potential of having a trojan or virus.. Used easynews.com for years, but figured Bit Torrent was better since ppl can comment on .torrent files before going ahead and downloading.
people can comment on nzb's too.
Use a good Usenet indexing site where files are vetted, commented on, indexed for easy browsing/searching, and compiled into an .nzb so your NZB client can download it without you having to manually download headers: http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/nzb-sources
it seems everything you download has a great potential of having a trojan or virus
That's a very good point!
Rapidshare et al have long been suffering the same problems, often caused by simple statistics…the more users you have (popularity), the more scumbags (proportionally) putting malicious crap on the servers. It's not just a correlation, it's literally causality! ;)
Simply no.
Virus's are very rare if you use a proper index site, if you are searching Usenet in Raw then you are going to find all kinds of things, don't forget that Usenet is open to be posted to by anyone.
Rapidshare is no issue as well as long as you use a proper index.
Virus's are very rare if you use a proper index site, if you are searching Usenet in Raw then you are going to find all kinds of things, don't forget that Usenet is open to be posted to by anyone.
Agreed, however I think that using the adjectives "very rare" & "no issue" is drawing a pretty long bow. :p
To clarify, what you're saying is that Usenet is also subject to the same problems as all other public P2P & sharing networks; and that a trusted & well moderated index site (much like a private torrent tracker) will alleviate these issues! ;)
Hey guys new to posting, but i found on oz bargain by clicking on the usenet tag this post
" http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/58021 "
which links to this page
http://www.thundernews.com/thundernews_blackfriday_blowout20…
and i just bought myself Unlimited per month @ 50 connections for $5 per month, better than this deal i guess.
maybe they haven't taken it down or whatever, but this offer can be bought which i just have.
Now i have to find and fiddle on how to use, usenet smoothly. I have used it before by signing up for trial periods, speeds were fast but i haven't gotten my head around it yet. Any pointers anyone?
edit: I just had another look and on the website it stats that there are limited number of plans available and currently for each special offer there are
(Plan Name - Cost) (Available Offers)
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $5.00 293
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $6.50 327
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $7.50 383
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $7.99 452
Wow thanks buddy!
Just ran out of credit on AstraWeb, perfect timing!
In fact I suggest you post that as a seperate deal as I believe allot of people will be interested!
it'll be a repost i think if i do post the deal as it is technically this bargain: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/58021 which is still active.
Looks like unlimited for $5 pm has been sold out, good job ozbargain
129 days old would definitely not count as a re-post!
I can repost it if you feel uncomfortable doing it, just thought you might want to do it as you are the one that discovered it is still available.
NM.
Looks like the good old fashioned ozbargaining worked and the deal has been ozbargained without even being published… oO lol
Thanks for heads-up.
Payment went through OK.
Note there are less groups available if paying with PayPal.
Why does Thundernews want my address and full name and a heap of details to sign up?? Think i'll stick with astra, but nice spot and good deal for thundernews!
thanks for the heads up got an account :D
Indeed well spotted!
Noticed that the number of deals has now gone down to 46!! Well done OzBargainers!
But why they need my address?
And why Paypal has fewer groups?
Well if you can make it before the remaining deals reaches 0 and you are willing to part with your personal and CC details then Thundernews is a thundering deal.
It's because PayPal's terms and conditions prohibit it being used to pay for certain things (such as the pornography groups).
Thanks @askjeebs!
I learn something new everyday. Thank my stars for OZBargain :)
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $5.00 - SOLD OUT
UNLIMITED/Mo SSL - $6.50 - 289 remaining
Nice spot mate! Signed up for the $6.50 plan and will look again on black friday for the $5 one!
is 50 connections enough to max out on at say 24MB/s
Even 10 or 15 connections should be enough to max that out. The law of diminishing returns kicks in before you reach 50 connections - You get to the point where your connection is maxed, and adding more connections doesn't increase the speed, it decreases it (more overhead).
8 connections should be more than enough
I've been using Astraweb for a while, along with NZBMatrix.com and Binsearch.info for searching. I don't download much, so their $25 for 180 GB has lasted me well over two years. :)
Just found this deal…It is still active…
Unlimited DSL - US$ 96 every year
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/voucher.cgi?t=zgufplhx…
Honestly, that's not a good deal
I would instead use this http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html
$11/month for unlimited downloads/speed
This is just if you are a big downloader as I am, and you are looking to use services such as SickBeard, CouchPotato with Sabnzbd etc. If you aren't a big downloader I still think you shouldn't pay $50 for 1TB
I just bought the $50 for 1tb plan, and since I usually download around 100gb a month, this is great value.
Do Astraweb offer a better service than http://www.supernews.com/ ?
If you have a big data appetite, Supernews has unlimited data, "unlimited" speed and 3.5 year retention for $12/month.