Usenet News

Usenet and usenet industry news collected here. Articles are listed in reverse chronological order.

• 2010 NANOG Meeting

  February the 21st sees the 48th NANOG (North American Network Operators Group) meeting. The focus of NANOG is to monitor, highlight and solve problems which arise from the operation and expansion of the internet.

• Newzbin Under Fire

  Newzbin has been around a long time, it was one of the very first USENET indexing services to spring into existence. Now they are coming under fire.

• Mac USENET downloading tips

  Three tips that will be of help to Mac USENET downloader

• France Getting Tough on Anti-Piracy

  France is getting tough on Anti-Piracy with their three strikes and you are out program. Learn about some solutions here.

• Secure Internet Access in China with VyprVPN

  How to secure and encrypt your Internet access with a VPN service. Particularly good if you live in a restricted country like China.

• Black Friday Usenet Specials

  Black Friday Time Limited Usenet special offers

• Is Astraweb Slow

  You maybe wondering if Astraweb service is slow ? Well not according to our tests. Check out our article and video review for details

• Newshosting Unlimited and Website Relaunch

  We think the newshosting unlimited is the best plan. Click here to find out why and get access to a special discount.

• Usenet Retention Increases

  Most of our recommended Usenet services now offer OVER 400 days of binary retention.

• September Usenet News and Usenet Giants

  Its well past September 2009 now but here are some recent Usenet related stories.

• Usenet Net Neutrality

  There has been a lot of talk recently about Net Neutrality recently. In UsenetReviewz's opinion, net neutrality is a good thing for Usenet, usenet providers and usenet users.

• Verizon Usenet Specials

  Some special offers from various Usenet providers now that Verizon has closed down their Usenet access.

• Supernews Upgrades their Usenet Service

  Supernews has upgraded their usenet service and is now offering one simplified plan with a lots of nice features.

• Usenet News for August

  Usenet news for August 2009. New specials for Verizon usenet customers and related industry news.

• Usenet Resource Downloader

  Usenet Resource Downloader or URD - announces their version 1.0 which is a Usenet downloading software written entirely in PHP. Details here.

• Binverse Free Usenet Account

  Free 20 GB binverse test accounts available. No Credit card needed. Details here.

• Giganews Binary Retention Increases

  Giganews broke new ground by going beyond 365 days of binary retention for all of their 100,000-plus newsgroups. More details here

• Power Usenet Service Upgrades

  Power Usenet announces services upgrades. 100 additional retention days added immediately. Plus 12 more connections - now 30 total. Details and analysis here.

• ThunderNews Upgrades

  ThunderNews has increased retention times and the number of Usenet newsgroups. Read about the upgrades and get a coupon for Thundernews here.

• Giganews Connection Increase

  Giganews has upgraded to 50 simultaneous connections and 20 per basic users. This is good for all Usenet users because Giganews is setting the new connection standard.

• ATT Discontinues Usenet Access

  Some deals and Usenet specials for ATT / Cox users who have had their Usenet access terminated.

• Advantages of Usenet

  Usenet has several advantages over other filesharing networks including privacy, anonymity and high speeds downloads

2010 NANOG Meeting

February the 21st sees the 48th NANOG (North American Network Operators Group) meeting. This event is going to be hosted by Giganews, who are arguably the world’s leading Usenet provider, and Data Foundry, who have been a global provider of outsourced data recovery for many years. The focus of NANOG is to monitor, highlight and solve problems which arise from the operation and expansion of the internet. Continue reading»

Newzbin Under Fire

Newzbin has been around a long time, it was one of the very first Usenet indexing services to spring into existence. It also designed and developed the popular .NZB file format, which has made Usenet so much easier to use for a wide range of people. Continue reading»

Mac USENET downloading tips

Here is a list of tips for Mac OSX Usenet users. Continue reading»

France Getting Tough on Anti-Piracy

It seems that France has succumbed to the pressure to create a three strikes and you are out system for file downloading. French users online will find that if they get caught they will get a letter warning them to not be naughty and not to do it again. As a result, many people will look to find ways that they can download files without getting into trouble.

Usenet is one that has been listed by TorrentFreak.com. They say that the savvy users will instead turn to Usenet. By paying just a few euros a month, they can get access to information without the fear of their internet being shut off. We do not condone illegal file sharing, but Usenet is being hailed as the last bastion of free information sharing!

Secure Internet Access in China with VyprVPN

If you live in China or another country which prevents you from accessing the unfiltered version of the Internet. One solution would be to use a service like VyprVPN. Continue reading»

Black Friday Usenet Specials

Its Black Friday and here is a listing of Usenet Specials:

• Thundernews is running a 50% off black friday special. Just type in the word BLACK50. This discount will be a permanent 50% off monthly term accounts as long as the account remains active. Read about Thundernews here or visit Thundernews by clicking here.
• Newhosting and UsenetServer have black Friday Usenet Specials also – Click here to visit UsenetServer and click here to visit Newshosting.

Continue reading»

Is Astraweb Slow

You maybe wondering if Astraweb service is slow ? Well not according to our tests. Be sure to check out our video on Astraweb on our Astraweb review page but if you have a good Internet connection in the United States or Europe then you should not notice any problems.

Astraweb is plugged into Level 3, LimeLight Networks and Savvis Intenet backbone servers, and as Level 3, Limelight and Savis are everywhere you should have no problem (especially if you are in a major city)

Often I hear people say they are having a hard time time accessing Usenet newsgroups and typically this is because people don’t use the right software application – Usenet newsreader.

To get Usenet working well you need a good Usenet Newsreader. Also, many people are unaware of how Usenet newsgroups function and how Usenet works. This lack of knowledge can definitely be the issue.

Some facts about Astraweb – Astraweb’s binary retention has now reached to more than 440 days(November 2009). Also Astrweb runs their own servers and they are not resellers. Finally, Astraweb stands out among the top three Usenet providers currently worldwide.

If you are having issues, first do a traceroute on their website here and that way you can judge that how fast you can connect with their servers. Continue reading»

Newshosting Unlimited and Website Relaunch

Newshosting (one of our Top recommended Usenet Providers ) has just relaunched their website and also newsworthy in our opinion,  Newshosting ( as of November 1rst, 2009 ) has over 425 days of binary retention  – this has increased to days for current stats either read our review of newshosting or visit Newshosting.

Anyways, on to the newsworthy information – the newshosting website redesign looks much nicer and, at a glance, you can see and clearly understand the three plans that they are offering.

All plans offer the same amount of binary retention  presently 425 days of binary retention. In summary the plans are as follows:

• NHXL Powerpack -  Unlimited Transfer, SSL  and 60 Connections.  Monthly $20. Discounts for longer term contracts.
• Newshosting Unlimited – Unlimited Transfer, SSL  and 30 Connections. Monthly $20.
• Newshosting Lite - 2o GB limit, SSL and 15 Connections. Monthly $10.

In our opinion, we are recommending that you do the free trial and then signup for the year for Newshosting Unlimited plan or signup for 2 years for about $8/month (link only available here). Newshosting is one of a handful of big Usenet providers and is here to stay so they will be in business a year from now and you can realize a price of about $10 by taking advantage of the yearly plan Continue reading»

Usenet Retention Increases

As of  late October 2009, most of our recommended Usenet services now offer OVER 400 days of binary retention. Continue reading»

September Usenet News and Usenet Giants

Its well past September now but here are some recent Usenet related stories.

http://www.pcmech.com/ Pcmech points out that Usenet can be useful for Linux support questions and Usenet is in fact the largest unmoderated discussion group in the whole world. Another note, if you have a particular rare health problem and want support Usenet is the place to go.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/— new Usenet newsreader released. Mozilla Sea Monkey  -web browser but also an email client, IRC client, instant messenger, newsgroup client and HTML editor in the application. The newsgroup client isn’t as full featured as Newsleecher or Newsbin but the price(free) is right.

http://trog.qgl.org/ — Points out that Giganews accelerator needs work but is also pretty neat.  We  like Giganews accelerator here especially as you can save a few dollars and not have to pay for the additional SSL when you use it.

http://www.crunchgear.com/ — Crunchgear, an excellent blog, writes about how to use RSS and Usenet together.

Continue reading»