Usenet has been around for decades, but it's still a great resource, one that offers speed and reliability that bittorrent can't match. Putting aside the whole "first rule of Usenet," this week we're looking at five of the best Usenet providers, based on your nominations.
Earlier in the week, we asked you for your favorite Usenet providers, and you weighed in with tons of great options. Before we begin though: Yes, yes, the "first rule." We discussed the futility of that—along with how to get started with Usenet in a previous guide, so we won't rehash it here. Everyone knows, it's not special knowledge and hasn't been for decades, let's move on. If you're thinking "why not use bittorrent," we have an explainer on that too. Finally, if you want to find great files and give back to the community, check out this thread on how to find Usenet files, it's full of useful tips.
Another thing we should mention is that four out of your top five are resellers from the same Tier 1 provider, which is great for availability and broad use, but means that while all of these are great for a primary account, if you're looking for a backup block account in case something you're looking for has been taken down or censored, you'll want a different provider. We'll get to that a little later. With that aside though, let's get to your top nominees, in no particular order:
Newshosting
Newshosting was a popular contender in the nominations round, and almost all of the conversation centered around their exceptional speed and throughput—even if your ISP isn't terribly Usenet friendly, many of you reported great speeds and maxing out all of your available connections when you used Newshosting. The company offers monthly access plans starting at $10/mo for 50Gb with rollover to following months, a $13/mo unlimited plan with up to 30 simultaneous connections, and a $16/mo unlimited plan with 60 connections and a free account at Easynews. That's possible because Newshosting is a Highwinds/UNS Holdings reseller (as is Easynews.) Newshosting offers SSL encryption on all of its connections, 2170 day file retention, and North American and European servers (although they're technically a US provider). Newshosting also talks the talk on privacy, and punishes false DMCA claims. You can read their privacy policy, TOS, and DMCA policies here.
Like we mentioned, the nominations thread was abuzz with praise for the fact that it's pretty easy to saturate those multiple connections when you start a download with Newshosting. Some of you mentioned their easy-to-use Usenet browser, which gives newbies a kind of webapp-style experience with Usenet, but others pointed out that it's great with tools we've mentioned before, like SabNZBd+. Almost every comment in the nominations thread was upbeat about the service, praising it for high completion rates, speedy downloads, great retention, and overall simplicity and ease of use. Read more in its nominations thread here.
UsenetServer
UsenetServer earned points from many of you for its built-in search feature, which makes it easier to find what you're looking for without digging through specific groups. You can even use it to create NZBs. For its part, UsenetServer offers 2170 day retention, unlimited accounts starting at $15/mo with 10 simultaneous connections (and you can add 10 more for an extra $3), 99% completion, and boasts over 100,000 available groups. UsenetServer also boasts 24/7 customer support. They don't say too much in their privacy policy about what information they collect from your activitices, but they do reserve the right to turn it over to anyone asking in a legal context. Their DMCA policy is standard, and protects themselves but also notes that false claims could be subject to penalties. We should note that UsenetServer is a Highwinds/UNS Holdings reseller, like Newshosting, EasyNews, and NewsDemon, so if you're looking for a provider, choose one and make your backup block account a different service.
Those of you who praised UsenetServer in the call for contenders highlighted its great completion rates and its built-in search tool as your primary reasons for sticking with the service, and one of you even noted that you'd been a subscriber for over 10 years with no problems at all. We couldn't find the $10/mo plan mentioned in the nominations thread on their signup page, but we did see the $15/mo plan we mentioned above. You can read more in its nomination thread here.
NewsDemon
NewsDemon refers to itself as America's #1 Usenet provider, and it was definitely a popular contender in the nominations thread. The service also offers block accounts where you pay for the amount of data you plan to use, as opposed to pay for unlimited data every month that you may or may not use. Block accounts start at a ridiculously low $2 for 10GB with 50 connections, goes up to $7 (recurring monthly) for a 200GB account with 50 connections. If you're in the mood for an unlimited account, you can get one with 50 SSL encrypted connections and unlimited online storage with NewsDemon for $12/mo. Add in another buck and make it $13/mo and you get access to a partner VPN provider ( SlickVPN) as well. NewsDemon boasts 2170 day retention, US and UK servers (although again they're technically a US provider), 24/7 live support, and the company is up front about protecting your anonymity and privacy. You can read their privacy policy, TOS, and DMCA policies to get a feel for their stance. As with many of the others in the roundup, NewsDemon is a Highwinds/UNS Holdings reseller, so keep that in mind if you already have a primary account, or if you're looking for a new one.
In the nominations thread, many of you praised NewsDemon's ability to saturate your available connections with great download speeds and rates, and also praised the service for offering a "vacation pause" service that lets you pause your monthly rebill if you know you won't use the service that month. Their extremely affordable prices make them a worthwhile contender, and the option to add a VPN for security and remote use is a nice bonus as well. You guys liked it so much you nominated it twice. You can read more in this nomination thread or this one here.
Astraweb
Astraweb earned some sold praise in the nominations round even though their service is controversial to say the least. One of Astraweb's most notable features is that instead of paying a monthly fee for data you may or may not use, you can get kind of a "pay as you go" block accounts where you only pay for a set amount of data that you re-up when you've used it all up (starting at 25GB for $10, then 180Gb for $25, and up from there.). If you prefer regular unlimited subscriptions though (starting at $10/mo), you can certainly get those as well. Astraweb offers file retention up to 2169 days, boasts SSL encryption on all connections, 99% completion on hosted files, and supports up to 20 simultaneous connections. They also run their own servers, and they don't resell to third parties, unlike most other Usenet providers. Astraweb is notable because in a way they started the "Retention Wars," and were on the leading edge of the charge for providers to retain binaries for thousands of days at a time. Astraweb has servers in the US and the EU, although technically they're a US provider.
Those of you who nominated Astraweb in the call for contenders thread praised its "pay for data, not access" plans, and specifically highlighted the cost of those plans—their data costs are incredible, and most of you noted that the bang-for-the-buck proposition with Astraweb is difficult to match. Astraweb also does not keep download logs, doesn't censor their newsgroups, lets you post anonymously, and says all the right things about protecting your privacy. However, they auto-takedown anything they get a DMCA notice over, and they do so almost instantly. Whether the notice is legit or not, it can be difficult to find or complete file downloads with them from time to time, and that's worth considering if your need is primarily downloads. At least one of you had a rough time with their customer support too. You can read all about it in the nomination thread here.
EasyNews
EasyNews' claim to fame is that you don't necessarily need a newsreader to use the service—your web browser will do if you prefer, or if you're looking to read articles and join discussions. If you need to download, you can, or you can use NNTP ( Network News Transfer Protocol) with all of the clients that support it (like you would with any of the other contenders here). They're probably one of the most universally popular Usenet providers, partially because they've been around for decades and are relatively well known. The rules and pricing vary depending on whether you use NNTP or the service's web interface. For example, the service boasts 2000 day retention and 60 SSL encrypted connections if you use NNTP to connect. If you use the web, retention varies depending on the plan you're signed up for. The plans themselves are a mixed bag, starting at $10/mo for 20GB of data via the web, and another $10 on top for unlimited NNTP access (and a 50% discount on your data if you use NNTP). They charge more for NNTP, but give you an overall bandwidth break if you use it. You can see the nitty gritty on their pricing page here. EasyNews is, like many of the others here, a Highwinds/UNS Holdings reseller.
The nomination thread for EasyNews was popular, but generated little discussion. We imagine it's their ease of use that's so attractive, and considering you get a free Easynews account with a service like Newshosting, their browser access is a nice feature for people who are more casual Usenet users and may not have huge download needs. However, the service isn't exactly a slouch for those people who do need to use a third party client to grab media when it's available. Read more in its nomination post.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the winner:
This week's honorable mention goes to Thundernews and XLNed, both of which were just shy of the top five by only a couple of votes. Thundernews earned praise for 2169 day retention, full SSL connection encryption, European and US servers, and all the bells and whistles you would expect. They also happen to be a Highwinds/UNS holdings reseller. Check out their nomination post here.
XLNed on the other hand is a EuroAccess reseller, which makes them a great option for someone looking for a backup block account that's both in the EU and not subject to swarming DMCA takedown requests, and an alternative to the Highwinds/UNS Holdings near-monopoly on Tier 1 Usenet providers here in the US. Their retention rates aren't as long, and you'll need to do some currency conversion on their prices, but they're worth a look. Check out their nomination post here.
Surprisingly, Giganews didn't make a terribly strong showing in the nominations round, although it did turn up shy of the honorable mentions. We figured we'd mention it down here because they're incredibly popular (just not with you guys!), have their own VPN service in the form of VyprVPN/Golden Frog, have developed their own cross-platform Usenet browser and search tool (MIMO) to make finding discussions and files easy, have their own online storage, and perhaps most importantly, they're a Tier 1 Usenet provider themselves. They have a few resellers, but they're one of the big root sources themselves. The only big drawback that many of you mentioned was that they're pretty pricey compared to most other providers. Read more in their nomination thread here.
These were just the tip of the iceberg, and there were plenty of other nominees that we think would be worth mentioning, but we just don't have room for them all. One thing we should note though is that if you're looking for a backup block account to fill in your incompletes or someone who isn't associated with the big US Tier 1 providers, this list from /r/Usenet and this table of resellers from Usenet-Providers will both steer you in the right direction to diversify your accounts and services.
Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!