Free Beta USENET account

[IronTek]

Heh...just realized that today is the one year anniversary for AnandTech and me...yes...365(and 1/4) days ago, I stopped lurking and became and official member!

Not that this post has anything to do with anything else...I just thought that was sort of cool...

 

[cloudchief]

One word answer for both DarkManX and IronTek BINARIES
FreeAgent

 

[junthin]

Hehehe, I'd have to agree with cloudchief, BINARIES are awesome!
And FreeAgent is a cool program as well. I've been using it since it was first released. However, nowadays, I'd rather spend my time here.

 

[cejay]

newscene.com is pretty good..
take a look
newscene link

 

[RobsTV]

If you want FULL USENET access, AND a full service ISP, with real POP3 and SMTP mail, then for $12.95 a month including ISP, unlimited, Surfbest.net works pretty well. Looking at it now, and retention is a least 3 weeks. Instant posting, unlike some other crap services I've used.

 

[combustor]

give it a day. it takes em a bit to add your acount to the news server. i just signed up yesterday morning, and couldn't log on until today.

 

[burnedout]

I've heard good things about newsfeeds.com also.

As far as the people I know who praised Giganews, they are mainly the types who forage around pushing their two cents worth on the uninterested. AKA trolls. They don't download binaries or take advantage of usenet as others do. They just want their IP addy protected.

 

[Lava Troll]

NewsFeeds.com and usenet access.com use the same servers (so do a lot of other companies that offer 17 servers), so I would recommend going with the cheaper one. Here is a web site that compares some of the news servers NewsCompare

 

[Lex Luthor]

Why aren't you guys all yelling at your ISP!?

I get this provided free, I have no d/l limits and can d/l at up to the speed of my connection (5Mbps+). Shouldn't this be a service that a decent ISP will provide you?

I'm on OOL (Optimum Online) and while from time to time they have problems with their news server, most of the time it's very fast with a good percentage of complete binaries and decent message retention.

Lex

 

[Modeps]

Just out of curiosity, why would it be a big deal if you can "only" download 6GB a mo? its all news right?
I never got into news servers cuz i never really understood what good they are... anyone wanna give a guy a clue?

 

[Bob/NYC]

Binaries, Binaries, Binaries...text news servers are everywhere.

 

[RobsTV]

Binaries, Binaries, Binaries, AKA files.
Cracks, warez, copies of programs, MP3's, that type of stuff.
Oh, and lot's of text, just like forums have, but usually much more information and detail, as specific subjects are seen by all who want to view them. Kind of like combining all Hot Deals forums from the dozens of sites, into 1 site called Hot Deals.

 

[RoadRuner]

yah all the cracks, warez (pc,ps2,psx,dc,mac,etc), pr0n, those are pretty much 99.9% of the traffic on usenet these days. You can basically get just about anything you want, many things which are illegal in the USA.

Bad bad stuff shame on usenet
j/k of course.

I remember back in the day when alt-binaries-pictures-erotica-teen was mspring/earthlink's most utilized group on their news servers by a factor of VERY Much.

 

[cpumaster]

words up...a decent ISP should provide newsgroup for its member...
that's why I'm pimpin' EV1 here in TX...but they kinda limited in binaries storage...guess can't hold all those moviez
GL

 

[LucJoe]

Can anyone here suggest a good program to use for viewing Newsgroups? I got on and started looking around yesterday, and it seems like there has to be a better program out there than Outlook Express.

 

[rtg]

This program is my new favorite, and I highly suggest it if you are going after binaries on USENET. Plus, the author is very receptive to suggestions and adds new features all the time! And.. (drum roll) it's freeware! (It was adware but that will be changed in the next version).

It's called GrabIt.

GrabIt

Enjoy

 

[Lex Luthor]

Lucjoe,

I highly recommend Xnews. It's free, everyone who ever tried it loves it, perfect for binaries.

http://xnews.3dnews.net/

Lex

 

[burnedout]

I remember back in the day when alt-binaries-pictures-erotica-teen was mspring/earthlink's most utilized group on their news servers by a factor of VERY Much.

Believe it or not, mindspring/earthlink is very liberal and unsensored compared to say, Road Runner. I know one guy who pushes free speech to the limit on earthlink. He says everything, short of making threats. Been doing that for a couple of years now.

Road Runner will cut someone's access, without warning, for going off topic in a newsgroup if it's reported to them.

Regarding EV1: Yes, they are a good ISP here in Texas. Problem is, their news server doesn't hold much for very long. Road Runner is the same too.

That's where some of the pay services excel

 

[Bob/NYC]

Go to forteinc.com, for Free Agent newsreader and binary decoder for W9x.
Then get Agent...

 

[tchan]

Hey all, Some advice need please!:

Based on the advice of this thread I just signed up for Usenetserver.com's $150 silver 1 year program. The retention is advertised as at least 8 days for binaries. I just used GrabIt (for the first time) and every single group I try has no more than 2 to 3 days retention.

Am I doing something wrong? Usenetserver has a pro-rated money back return policy but I'm thinking that I'm got something screwed up rather than them not advertising what they really offer.

FYI - I have tried several of usenetserver's servers so it's not the case of just one of the servers flaking out.

 

[mrEvil]

Newsfeeds.com sucks, along with anything else that is associated with it, such as Hotgroups and those others. The actual odds of you seeing a complete binary post are about the same in any one of us winning the Powerball jackpot.
Giganews, Newscene, Easynews, Supernews ($$) plus some of the other primo ones are probably the best out there. No, trolls don't pimp giganews, everyone on the news scene does because they have some of the best service/retention out there, period. BTW - they are going to be bumping up the DL amount next Monday - no specifics, but it was mentioned out there that they are going to do that. My guess is that this is based on Easynews' 6GB/$10 thing. Competition always drives prices down.
I'm not pimping any one of those, just saying that I've used them all at one time or another and have not had a problem with them. Crappy ones:
Newsfeeds and the like (lump all these into one big pile of sh@t), newsguy, newsville and numerous others.

I'm not biased, just reporting what my experiences have been. If you want to waste your $$ on one of those crappy servers, be my guest. Just don't say that no one warned you.

 

[tchan]

Hey mr-evil,

Do you include usenetserver.com under the newsfeeds.com catagory? Or are they reliable in your opinion?

 

[whizbang]

On the lines of excellent service but expensive, Supernews.com (formerly Remarq) is an excellent service. Can't compete in the price department, though. $14/month for 2.5GB. Their website has a link for a "risk free" 30 day trial.

I much prefer XNews to Agent...

 

[Urinal Mint]

I will have to agree with mr-evil on this one...

I've used about 7 different subscription-based usenet feeds, and far and away you will get what you pay for.

Supernews was great, but unfortunately I used the entire 2.5gb bandwidth limit in one day, so thankfully their 30-day trial let me out of that one. I highly recommend Easynews as well as Newsguy. While Newsguy is slow, the speed will allow you to get your full 1gb quota in a day if you just sit it in the system tray and let it go. Patience is a virtue Easynews is a great service if you specialize in mp3 files and pictures. It's tough to grab 6gb of mp3s in a month (I know, I've tried my damnedest), but for $10 you can't beat it.

Just my thoughts... cheers

 

[AvesPKS]

Maybe I'm reading these wrong, but from what I can gather, all of these 'free' newsgroups programs still requires your isp to have server already set up for you...Oh, well, my school's doesn't extend very far. Any thoughts?