For those who love Usenet…
500GB / 550GB (10% header allowance) block account with no expiry date. Up to 50 connections, SSL, US and EU servers. Deal is valid until 3 pm 4 July.
This is similar to http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/71000 but that deal has expired.
The URL above is affiliate free. If you would like to send some love my way to help me buy more block accounts, here's my affiliate URL;
http://www.newsgroupdirect.com/?aff=75933
The choice is yours. Just happy to post a deal.
Is to stop +ve, delete your reply, shut up and quietly sign up
Do they allow multiple IPs?
what do you use usenet for these days?
If you do not know, you can not use it!
lol…..Sickbeard, Couchpotato or Headphones should pretty much cover why you use Usenet these days.
Don't worry about it. You'll hate it anyway.
Fantastic, my 500GB Blocknews account had just expired and this is over $30 cheaper then with them.
Hopefully the quality of the service is good, Blocknews has been fantastic.
I should also mention, I'm tempted to downvote this because of the "first rule". :)
I have no idea about the reliability of these guys but I use Astraweb who have always been good with regards to lack of issues with file sets.
Astraweb are also doing a 1TB block account for $50. That is their standard pricing and includes all the usual (including no expiry).
Just throwing out a reliable alternative……
I find the service to be as good as Astraweb or better.
NewsGroupDirect is a Highwinds reseller, so it should be as reliable as any of their resellers, which are many. If you want to know more about Highwinds, read here;
http://www.newsgroupservers.net/usenetserver_newshosting_hig…
For those of you who don't know much about Usenet or where to get started, here's something I wrote for a friend. Hopefully it will be helpful for you too;
To get super quick downloads, you'll need three things. Initially it's more difficult than clicking on a torrent, but stay with me, once it's set up it's easy.
ACCESS TO USENET
Usenet is a subset of the internet, separate from the world wide web. Up until five years ago, it was common for your ISP to have their own Usenet server, as well as offering access to the WWW. Nowadays that is not practical. You see, whenever someone posts a comment or binary file to Usenet, it is sent automatically to every other Usenet system on the internet. Therefore there is no centralised point of administration and messages / posts get distributed and propagate quickly.
The downside is that with hundreds or perhaps thousands of TBs of information being uploaded every day, no Australian ISP can afford to download that much information, let alone host it. Only a tiny percentage of their customers use Usenet, so why put all the time, effort and expense of maintaining your own servers?
Luckily, there is still a convenient way of accessing Usenet. There are many companies in the USA who specialise in offering Usenet access, for a fee. Some used to be a lot better than others, but there has been a lot of consolidation in the last few years with one company (Highwinds) buying up smaller providers. There is one company that is supposed to be the absolute best, but it charges Telstra style charges. I always use the ones that offer Optus / TPG style prices and have found that over the last ten years, I haven't had any problems and the speed has always been very fast and never wished I spent more than double what I do…
So, which Usenet provider to use? That's your choice of course. I have used several, EasyNews, NewsHosting and NewsGroupDirect. They are all owned by the one large company that I mentioned. much like resellers of Optus. There are a few differences but not majorly significant.
There are two ways to buy Usenet access, either on a time basis (month to month, year to year) or on a block basis (XGb for $Y, such as 500 GB for US$40). If you're just dipping your toe into Usenet and don't want to spend too much, I would suggest;
http://www.newsgroupdirect.com?aff=75933
Yes, that's an affiliate ID right there. I'll get about $10 for sitting on my backside writing this for you if you click on it. Scroll down to "The NGD Blog" and click on "Summer Block Sale". Up until 3 pm today (4/7) they are offering half price off a 500 GB block of Usenet, so $20. That is a bargain and will keep you going with Usenet for a few months at least probably unless you are a very heavy user, so pretty cheap way to test things out.
SUBSCRIPTION TO A USENET INDEXING SITE
OK, so you've bought your access to Usenet. Now how in heck are you going to sort through hundreds of TBs of posts a day, let alone what else has been posted in the last 1000+ days or so? Well, that's a problem us old Usenet users used to face, but no more. There are several companies that index what has been posted on Usenet, much like a library database you use to find books.
Some of these companies are free, but I've always found the best one to be ;
http://www.newzbin2.es
It costs 30 UK pence a week, so less than 50 Aussie cents. The standard charge in their drop down menu is 50 pence, but you click on 30 pence if you choose. There is no difference in service level between the two prices. If you ever had the torture of trying to work out what was posted prior to these indexing sites popping up, you would know that was a bargain. If you do subscribe, work out how many weeks to Christmas as they usually have a half price Christmas sale for about a week before Christmas up until the New Year.
Once you have NewzBin2 access, you can search through the majority of what has been posted on Usenet for the last 700+ days. It's not a perfect replica of everything posted, but almost all the major materials that has been posted will be indexed for you. If it's not, there is a way to even search for unindexed material easily. Once you find something you would like to download, you click the little icon that looks like an open book to the left of the post. That "bookmarks" that post for your software to download.
SOFTWARE TO TIE EVERYTHING TOGETHER
Your Usenet provider and your Usenet indexing site don't know anything about each other. They are like ships in the night. To get them working together, you need an introduction agency. Unlike dating agencies who charge an arm and a leg, the Usenet dating agencies are cheap or free. There are naturally many options to choose, but I chose the free solution and I like it the best.
It is called SABnzbd+. A catchy name to be sure.
But look past that and it works wonderfully. It is easy to set up, including a setup walkthrough on the website as well as a manual there too. It runs as a service, unlike a normal program that has its own interface. You interact with through your web browser of choice, much like you would if you were viewing a webpage, except that that webpage is being hosted on your computer. You tell it your Newzbin details and your NewsGroupDirect details and it takes it from there. It fetches the tiny pieces of whatever you are downloading, fetches more if some are missing or corrupt, puts them all together and puts them in the folder of your choice on your computer. It is probably as fast as your ADSL line will allow and it is a very well developed and capable bit of software. Very occasionally things go wrong with a download and you have to manually do things to make it work, but I've found that to be less than 1% of the time. You can decide whether to learn the inner workings (which aren't too difficult) if that 1% bothers you.
So, in essence, that's Usenet. Most people don't even know it exists, let alone how it works. It suits my needs very well and even though it is slightly more difficult than clicking on a torrent to set up and you have to pay for some things, it is completely worth the advantages it brings.
And what is the first rule of Usenet? Not to talk about Usenet. May the Usenet deities have mercy on my soul.
Thank you. that was a great read.
But what ARE the advantages?
Cheers
No P2P sharing goes on unlike other forms of downloading from the net.
I have never read about anyone being sued for thousands of dollars for usenet use…….
Speed, security and selection.
If it is posted on Usenet, you can get it at however fast your 50 connections can download it at, which usually the speed of your line or faster.
There is no centralised Usenet authority and with SSL encryption, downloads are as close to anonymous as is possible.
Everything that is posted within the last 700+ days is available.
Highwinds is fast as a main server, but bad as a fill server. If I'm after a main server, I'll go one of the Unlimited for $10 servers. It will work out much cheaper for me that way.
If I'm buying blocks, it would have to be as a fill server only because I will burn through it too quickly otherwise. Unfortunately, Highwinds is not that great as a fill server so I will have to pass on this deal.
Has anyone used these guys before?
Love to hear some feedback before diving in for a block…
Never used usenet, but for $20 it's worth a shot!
I wish this bargain can get deleted. Go away people, nothing to see here :)
I needed a new block account to backfill my normal one, affiliate link used so you should see some love shortly.
Who are you using as your normal one?
If they are both using the same reseller, then it's not going to do anything for you.
For a fill server you want to go with a slower server with higher completion. That is the anti-Highwinds. And I don't know what service can gain from being backfilled by Highwinds.
Which server do they resell?
higwinds
Thanks OP. Bought using your affiliate link, so love should be on its way.
Saw this the other day and grabbed one
These guys are highwind resellers so they go well with my astraweb account
if my net connection just max 600kbps (i saw this when downloading few items with utorrent, total d/l speed is around 600-650kbps). is it worthed to pay and use usenet?
I would. Even if I could max out my download speed with a torrent, I would still use usenet.
thanks. now i remember i got free xusenet from http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/54198?page=1
is that enough to just try to feel usenet? i just got synology and planning to download 24/7
No. Free account is speed limited and GB limited. It won't capture the feel of real usenet.
so do you just get news post with usenet?
the spill was hopefully in how to use it, but i've still no idea what you would use it for?
The first rule of usenet…
Bugger, missed it. Daabido, next time something like this from NGD comes up, can you post again? I was going to get on board this evening via your referral link, stupidly assuming the time stated in the tile was US time and I had until like tomorrow morning to get it sorted. Whoops.
So what you're basically saying is that Usenet is great for pirates nowadays? And people like TezBiAn are worried that some dirty little secret will get out?
Internode customers should be aware that they have free access to Internode's usenet servers included as one of the standard features of their broadband service. (Also Internode's secure smtp servers.)
the first rule of usenet…