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internetguy
25-11-2008, 18:22
Hey

I used their usenet service a while ago, apparently now they use highwinds-media. Does anyone know what the current retention is? :)

Also, what is completion like?

Stabhappy
25-11-2008, 18:23
God aweful. I'm using it till I get enough cash to pay for giganews again, and the retention is about 110 days however there are many missing articals. You can pick anything after 4-5 days and there's a good chance it doesnt exist anymore

Thomas.Fisk
26-11-2008, 00:52
7 day binary retention.

zing_deleted
26-11-2008, 00:54
God aweful. I'm using it till I get enough cash to pay for giganews again, and the retention is about 110 days however there are many missing articals. You can pick anything after 4-5 days and there's a good chance it doesnt exist anymore

give astraweb a look at

HSp8
26-11-2008, 09:52
give astraweb a look at

seconded - it's a billy bargain

I forced myself to use VM newsgroup server for one week to see how I'd get on - not abysmal, but not good enough

broadbandking
26-11-2008, 10:57
I used it when I was looking at using newsgroup I found it fine but you have to check NZB's sites regularly

nemesis01
27-11-2008, 22:40
I was using Giganews, great retention but Astraweb is far better value, less retention but rock solid full speed downloads all the time, I got it on a deal, $11 a month forever or something, bout £7.

Good stuff.

toothy
04-01-2009, 14:48
I was using Giganews, great retention but Astraweb is far better value, less retention but rock solid full speed downloads all the time, I got it on a deal, $11 a month forever or something, bout £7.

Good stuff.

Seconded. Another good value (though less brilliant performance) service is Usenet-News http://usenet-news.net/ You start trying it at 2 dollars for a non-expiring 2 GB block. That's one heck of a lot of text messages!


==toothy==

deakin
04-01-2009, 19:16
If i can't get what i'm looking for from virgins own server i use usenetserver. they have a $3 for 3 days package.
i mostly get the full 20Mb speed from them also they give SSL in the price. Slight downfall is that they only have
105 days retention but for about £2 i think it's quite good value.

browney
04-01-2009, 19:27
£2 for 3 days.

Astraweb is $11 (About £6.80) for a month

Jonathan90
04-01-2009, 19:46
Are you sure its 7 days? i got stuff of there 40 days.

Argy1
04-01-2009, 19:51
keen to sign up with astraweb, want to pay with Visa Electron...emailed them to ask if they take Visa Electron but no answer...anyone know if they do? says on website they take Visa, but that doesn't mean they take visa Electron

homealone
04-01-2009, 20:02
Are you sure its 7 days? i got stuff of there 40 days.

Assuming you mean the VM servers it will be binaries with 7 day retention, text groups will probably be longer. It also depends on how many posts a group gets - the groups with most 'traffic' will have the lowest retention, simply due to the storage capacity being limited.

General Maximus
04-01-2009, 20:13
Visa is Visa (credit card) and Visa Delta (debit card). I think very very few places accept Visa Electron and Solo these days and if they do, they have a separate logo for them and emphasise the fact that they accept them.

Can you pay through paypal or something instead?

Stabhappy
04-01-2009, 20:30
Most places accept solo, actaully.

cook1984
04-01-2009, 23:18
Retention of binaries is definitely more than 7 days, even on the high traffic groups.

The problem I have is just with them being slow. Sometimes you can max the connection out, at other time (like right now) it fluctuates between full speed and stalled completely.

Argy1
05-01-2009, 19:29
Visa is Visa (credit card) and Visa Delta (debit card). I think very very few places accept Visa Electron and Solo these days and if they do, they have a separate logo for them and emphasise the fact that they accept them.

Can you pay through paypal or something instead?

got an answer today from astraweb, they do take Visa Electron, just signed up

ontheball
05-01-2009, 19:34
I think if you just select visa and enter visa electron details your be fine. Ive used it on a number of sites which dont specify exact visa type.

smalltime
05-01-2009, 23:45
Newbie here ~ Extremely cheesed off with virgins attitude to the usenet problems, which appears to be 'not our fault, 'guv, it's these pesky people we outsourced it to..', which ignores the fact that they should be kicking up a fuss with them rather than collectively shrugging their shoulders. It's interesting to note that Virgin appear to think the customer should suffer so as to not inconvenience the supplier, rather than the other way round. Anyhows..

Thanks for the info on astraweb. I've just signed up and will give them a go for a month. Giganews was getting a bit pricey for me, once you'd factored in SSL, etc, so this lot look like good value.

homealone
06-01-2009, 00:03
Newbie here ~ Extremely cheesed off with virgins attitude to the usenet problems, which appears to be 'not our fault, 'guv, it's these pesky people we outsourced it to..', which ignores the fact that they should be kicking up a fuss with them rather than collectively shrugging their shoulders. It's interesting to note that Virgin appear to think the customer should suffer so as to not inconvenience the supplier, rather than the other way round. Anyhows..

Thanks for the info on astraweb. I've just signed up and will give them a go for a month. Giganews was getting a bit pricey for me, once you'd factored in SSL, etc, so this lot look like good value.

While you are not wrong regarding the 'attitude' it is due to the historical implication that the VM service provides internet access,only - anything else from them, email, newsgroups or website space they consider to be nice to have extras.

If your experience of Astraweb is similar to mine I'm sure you won't be disappointed :)

:welcome:, btw

Facade
06-01-2009, 07:43
The reason that I have 20mB in the first place is the (previously) excellent usenet. If it goes then I will certainly downgrade my speed.
In the meantime, I've been loking around, Thundernews looks good at $21 a month unthrottled unlimited SSL, with a 20% lifetime discount through newsgroupreviews, but I think I'll join some of you with Astraweb 120GB for $25.

ontheball
06-01-2009, 11:43
Ill jump on the bandwagon Astraweb as well

Facade
06-01-2009, 18:16
Woohoo they take Paypal! 120Gb is mine, set to master to pull down the headers, but only use if no other server has the post.

£17.86 though, what the hell has Brown done to the exchange rate?

Actually Paypal are taking £1 for the really difficult job of converting my pretend money from pretend pounds into pretend dollars.

cook1984
06-01-2009, 19:07
Woohoo they take Paypal! 120Gb is mine, set to master to pull down the headers, but only use if no other server has the post.

£17.86 though, what the hell has Brown done to the exchange rate?

Actually Paypal are taking £1 for the really difficult job of converting my pretend money from pretend pounds into pretend dollars.

You can avoid the PayPal tax by choosing to have your card issuer do the conversion if you pay by card. You usually get a better exchange rate too.

It's not Brown's fault either, it's just that in times of crisis investors favour the most stable currencies. Since we are one country/economy compared to the vast Euro and Dollar zones, we loose out. If anyone is to blame, it's the Euro-sceptic's and the Daily Mail.

deathtrap3000
06-01-2009, 19:24
It's not Brown's fault either, it's just that in times of crisis investors favour the most stable currencies. Since we are one country/economy compared to the vast Euro and Dollar zones, we loose out. If anyone is to blame, it's the Euro-sceptic's and the Daily Mail.
You are probably the only person in Britain apart from Gordon Brown and his gang to not blame Gordon Brown for the economic problems in Britain.

Facade
06-01-2009, 21:55
I got the pound from rounding the difference between the XE.com conversion figure (£16.73) and the Paypal charge (£17.86). The robdogs at the HongKong & ShangHai Banking Corporation make up their own rate anyway, and then rip me off for 2% on top, so I gave PP a go.

The point being that as it is pretend money transferred electronically, it shouldn't cost anything whichever way it gets done.

The sooner we have a world currency the better.

Anyway, at least I can download NCIS tomorrow! ;)

Update: now I've grabbed the headers from Astranews, Sanctuary is downloading via VM at a steady 4.5mbs, using headers from Astranews by the newsbin Pro logs.

Kymmy
06-01-2009, 22:19
If using astranews on newsbin make sure you have HEADER COMPRESSION checked (on the server properties and the headers will come in at approx X10 speed :)

Facade
06-01-2009, 23:25
If using astranews on newsbin make sure you have HEADER COMPRESSION checked (on the server properties and the headers will come in at approx X10 speed :)

Thanks for that. After a search I found this appears only on the beta 5.50, not on the stable 5.42.
I've installed the beta, and ticked the box now I'm waiting for all the broken springs to start shooting out of the back of the monitor :erm:

homealone
06-01-2009, 23:25
Woohoo they take Paypal! 120Gb is mine, set to master to pull down the headers, but only use if no other server has the post.

£17.86 though, what the hell has Brown done to the exchange rate?

Actually Paypal are taking £1 for the really difficult job of converting my pretend money from pretend pounds into pretend dollars.

Astranews & Astraweb are not the same, as far as i know

Astraweb is $11 per month, unlimited downloads, SSL

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html?gclid=CIaj7pj9-pcCFQsh3godjQW4DA

- That made my last bill £7.74 at the end of December.

Facade
06-01-2009, 23:51
It is Astraweb I joined.
Yes, I looked at the $11 a month, but if Highwinds fix our usenet I won't need it.
The 120GB don't expire, and headers don't count towards the 120GB, so it could last me years.
I just need my fix of upto date US TV.

homealone
07-01-2009, 00:06
It is Astraweb I joined.
Yes, I looked at the $11 a month, but if Highwinds fix our usenet I won't need it.
The 120GB don't expire, and headers don't count towards the 120GB, so it could last me years.
I just need my fix of upto date US TV.

ah, right, I wasn't familiar with that option - although at 1.2 GB per 45 minute 720p episode I doubt it would last me 'years' even just for TV - sorry for any misunderstanding, though :)

Rik
07-01-2009, 00:22
but I think I'll join some of you with Astraweb 120GB for $25.

Without sounding rude you would have to be mad to go with that, when you can join the best Usenet provider in the world and have Unlimited for just $29.99.

20 Connections
SSL 256Bit (Port 443 & 563)
European and USA servers.
Best retention in the business (240 Days)
Best completion rates in the business. (99%+)
Top notch speeds, maxes out my 100Mb server (11.5MB/s)

http://www.giganews.com/why.html

www.giganews.com (http://www.giganews.com)

EDIT I See Astraweb claim to have 99%+ completion/20 Connections/Europe and USA Servers and SSL, seems bargain price for the unlimited $15 ($10 speed capped to 1Mbit)
Im very wary at that price tho, it seems just too good to be true?
Also the abscence of any speed test rings alarm bells for me.
Do you guys ALWAYS get your 20Mb maxed out? and im mean always, no dips etc.

I see you have gone for the 120GB option for a reason :)
Soo your not mad lol :D

PS Dont forget the 10GB 14 Day free trial Giganews offer ;)

Tezcatlipoca
07-01-2009, 00:44
I'd rather have unlimited + 20 connections + SSL for $11 than for $29.99. Does that make me mad? :)

Giganews may win on retention, but Astra win on price, and that's more important to me.

General Maximus
07-01-2009, 00:48
at 1.2 GB per 45 minute 720p episode I doubt it would last me 'years' even just for TV


that is what we need 50mbit for :)

homealone
07-01-2009, 01:03
I'd rather have unlimited + 20 connections + SSL for $11 than for $29.99. Does that make me mad? :)

Giganews may win on retention, but Astra win on price, and that's more important to me.

same here, I recently swapped from Giganews to Astraweb purely for that reason - and have noticed no difference apart from the Giganews 'accelerator' made Grabit downloads slightly more reliable when starting. Otherwise for nearly a third of the price the actual download speeds are exactly the same - and retention is increasing all the time ...

---------- Post added at 00:03 ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 23:53 ----------

that is what we need 50mbit for :)actually 20Mb does me fine - the overhead of storing the downloads, let alone finding time to watch them is a challenge enough at 20Mb, 50Mb is 'overkill' with my current kit - 50Mb might be relevant for 25 GB Bluray downloads, but just running quickpar & decompressing would take too long, even assuming I had somewhere to archive the results - it is easier to rent the film ;)

HSp8
07-01-2009, 10:22
I'd rather have unlimited + 20 connections + SSL for $11 than for $29.99. Does that make me mad? :)

Giganews may win on retention, but Astra win on price, and that's more important to me.

who says Giganews wins on retention? :)

Astraweb announces 270 day retention - all for $ 11

http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=viewnews&newsid=12

Rik
07-01-2009, 10:38
I'd rather have unlimited + 20 connections + SSL for $11 than for $29.99. Does that make me mad? :)


Does if you are talking about the $10 plan as thats limited to 1Mbit Speeds (Ouch)
The $15 plan I must agree with you all sounds amazing value for money :)

---------- Post added at 09:35 ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 ----------

who says Giganews wins on retention? :)

Astraweb announces 270 day retention - all for $ 11

http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=viewnews&newsid=12

Giganews have also mentioned on their site they are increasing retention (again) ;)

I expect them to pull ahead again soon.

Theres no denying it tho Giganews is quite pricey when compared to other Usenet providers, but I beleive they are the best, or were.

I may have to give Astraweb a bash and compare the two and post back with my findings

---------- Post added at 09:38 ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 ----------

50Mb might be relevant for 25 GB Bluray downloads, but just running quickpar & decompressing would take too long

A lot of the Bluray downloads arent even compressed or archived now so that would solve that problem

Gimme 50Mb please!! ;)

I have to agree with the finding the space to archive the downloads problem lol, ive shoved in a Samsung 1TB about 3 weeks ago and its now full what with all the HD stuff I download.

General Maximus
07-01-2009, 13:14
that is the thing. I can remember buying a 60gb Seagate Barracuda V for £120 8 years ago (still got 2 of them now, a testament to Seagate's quality for you). Now for the same price you can buy a 1.5TB hdd. Get a few of them and you are sorted for a while.

cook1984
07-01-2009, 21:21
ah, right, I wasn't familiar with that option - although at 1.2 GB per 45 minute 720p episode I doubt it would last me 'years' even just for TV - sorry for any misunderstanding, though :)

Just use Astraweb for fills and VM's servers for your main downloads. That way you get all the new episodes from VM's servers, and Astraweb is only used for older stuff and the occasional fill.

I find I can get stuff 20+ days old from VM so my 90GB Astraweb account has lasted me two years already.

that is what we need 50mbit for :)

No it isn't. On 20 meg you can download a full HD episode in under 10 minutes. Realistically there are only ever going to be maybe three new episodes you want to watch per day, so you would have to be pretty impatient to need more speed. What you really need is no STM nonsense.

General Maximus
07-01-2009, 21:43
Realistically there are only ever going to be maybe three new episodes you want to watch per day

Tuesday: Prison Break, Heroes, Terminator:SCC, Big Bang Theory

Tezcatlipoca
07-01-2009, 23:55
Does if you are talking about the $10 plan as thats limited to 1Mbit Speeds (Ouch)
The $15 plan I must agree with you all sounds amazing value for money :)

$11 plan = the $15 plan at a discount :)

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

cook1984
09-01-2009, 00:14
Tuesday: Prison Break, Heroes, Terminator:SCC, Big Bang Theory

Man, you watch a lot of crap ;)

Rik
11-01-2009, 01:06
Man, you watch a lot of crap ;)

:D lol

BBT is good.

cook1984
11-01-2009, 20:03
Never seen BBT, but Dexter is good. I watch Terminator and Heroes too, but gave up on Prison Break in the second season. Luckily I only borrowed the DVDs from a friend so no big loss.

General Maximus
11-01-2009, 20:34
if you are into sci-fi and a bit of a nerd you'll love the Big Bang Theory. You have to watch it from the beginning to understand the characters but you'll get through them quick enough. We are half way through season 2 atm and they are only 20 minute eps like Friends.

cook1984
12-01-2009, 20:00
It's out on BluRay so I'll check it out.

deathtrap3000
12-01-2009, 20:19
if you are into sci-fi and a bit of a nerd you'll love the Big Bang Theory. You have to watch it from the beginning to understand the characters but you'll get through them quick enough. We are half way through season 2 atm and they are only 20 minute eps like Friends.
I cant stand the big bang theory, the only good thing about it is Kaley Cuoco.
Everything else you mentioned is great though.

General Maximus
12-01-2009, 21:40
She is a cutey, i hope Leonard gets her in the end. He isnt as socially retarded as Sheldon and shows promise :)

internetguy
20-04-2009, 01:27
Sorry to bump an old thread of mine.. but has anyone recently tried virgins news server? I've just been taking a look at it, theres a huge improvement. All the good binary groups are there, even stuff as old as 187 days is complete! theres lots of stuff older but it starts getting incomplete.

Check the picture i've attached, I use nzbval to check a post. It's 187 days old and its complete! :D

Mick Fisher
20-04-2009, 02:10
Its still Highwinds and Highwinds are crap. When it works it works and when its broke it stays broke for literally ages. And its more often broke than it's not. The same goes for all Highwinds resellers.

These days that just leaves Astranet and Giganews as the only ones worth comtemplating.

cook1984
20-04-2009, 14:45
The best thing to do is to have an Astranet pay-as-you-go account. You basically buy a chunk of downloads, say 120GB. Then set Virgin Media as your primary service and use Astraweb just for fills of stuff not on the VM servers.

Even before VM's servers improved a 90GB chunk of Astraweb lasted me over a year, since most stuff was recently posted TV shows. Now their retention is better I'd expect to be on this chunk for years.

ShaneC
20-04-2009, 17:44
There was a post someonewhere about virgin increasing the amount of days from 7. I use the newshosting service (that virgin use) and I never have a problem with it. They are offering 400 day retention at the moment, not sure if that will be passed on to virgin customers, doubt it but 100 or so would be useful :)

Rik
20-04-2009, 20:35
I highly recommend AstraWEB

http://www.news.astraweb.com/

greeninferno
20-04-2009, 21:42
i recently saw similar.

You can download headers for 7 days currently however if you use nzb files you can get completed archives as far as 200 days old.

BUT you cannot get anything from 7 days to about 60 days :confused:

internetguy
20-04-2009, 22:28
deleted

bubblegun
28-05-2009, 21:34
i recently saw similar.

You can download headers for 7 days currently however if you use nzb files you can get completed archives as far as 200 days old.

BUT you cannot get anything from 7 days to about 60 days :confused:

I'm downloading something 220 days old at the moment but any time I try between 8 and 100 days old its missing too many parts to extract.

I expect anything up to the newshosting.com current 257 day limit will be available and eventually their 400 day target.


257.8 day old .nzb is downloading now, 319 day didn't work yet though

Down the Pub
28-05-2009, 21:38
Visa is Visa (credit card) and Visa Delta (debit card). I think very very few places accept Visa Electron and Solo these days and if they do, they have a separate logo for them and emphasise the fact that they accept them.

Can you pay through paypal or something instead?


not quite - i think it's a case of more and more are taking electron cards, when i use my electron card i just put it through as a visa debit card (which it is logo or not) and i don't think there is a recent time when it hasn't been accepted. all i can say is just try it - my giganews is paid on mine.

Jazz
29-05-2009, 13:08
I'd highly recommend Astraweb, they are putting their retention up to 365 days and on my 20mb it always maxes my connection, for $11 it is an absolute bargain.

digitalspace
29-07-2009, 02:29
i recently saw similar.

You can download headers for 7 days currently however if you use nzb files you can get completed archives as far as 200 days old.

BUT you cannot get anything from 7 days to about 60 days :confused:

Yeah I noticed that, very odd I must admit.