Usenet Newsgroups Providers Reviews : Usenet Newsgroup provider comparison site

Usenet is a world-wide distributed discussion system. USENET was created in 1979. It consists of a set of "newsgroups" with names that are classified hierarchically by subject. Binary groups are intended for postings with file attachments. The attachments are usually: pictures, movie clips, sound files, or software programs

The name “Usenet” is used for the network as a whole

The term “Newsgroup” is used for an individual group. Usenet can host up to 110 000 Newsgroups.

All Internet service providers (I.S.P) also offer free access to Usenet (e.g. news.yourisp.com). But with recent network growth and increased filtering by ISPs, the Usenet access that they provide is often limited to text. If binary groups are allowed it is often with only a very poor retention rate, with quota or with certain groups censured.

In order to really benefit from Newsgroups, it is advisable to take out a paying subscription to Usenet access. (Forget about free servers like Just4today or others with unstable access). These Usenet service providers have the technical capacity and professionalism to guarantee quality Usenet access

All of the Usenet providers that we have compared and graded 3/5 4/5 or 5/5 are worthy services that meet our evaluation criteria for choosing a good Usenet service

Overall Giganews - the server we recommend - receives the highest marks in each category. But NewsHosting offers the best price relative to quality (Usenet + Newsreader Bundles). We can honestly attest to the high standards of both services, having used them both daily.

Users who are evaluating Usenet providers need to consider several factors beyond the monthly charges that they have to pay for the access. The most important factors are:

Price Price is very important. All servers offer prices that are pretty close to $10 monthly, except Giganews which is over $35

Giganews is not the cheapest, but offers excellent quality and the most options. With the first month at a reduction 50%, it is worth testing their Usenet server as well as their added extras like VPN. Soon online storage will also be added to their Diamond subscription. Save overall with Usenet, VPN and Online Storage all included for $34.99 monthly - services which will soon become daily essentials.

If you are only interested in Just-Usenet access then UsenetServer is for you. For $10 monthly UsenetServer is offering fast and secure Usenet access with high retention.

Unlimited Annual Offers - With a yearly subscription you can save 20% off the monthly rate! => Both UsenetServer (at $95.40 per year) and Newshosting (at $99 per year) have been in the Usenet market for over ten years, so they can guarantee a good and safe service for the duration.

Traffic Limits How many Gigabytes can you download per month?  This forms the main difference between Unlimited and Block accounts. For frequent use without worrying about total gigabytes, the unlimited account is obviously best (Giganews or NewsHosting). Otherwise Pay as you go is also an option (Newsdemon or Usenet-News) to only pay for the gigabytes you use.

Connection Limits How many simultaneous connections are allowed? Once you start using Usenet seriously, speed becomes an important issue, especially if you download a lot of files. Most commercial Usenet service providers allow multiple simultaneous connections, which can make far much faster downloading. Eg: NewsHosting is now offering 60 connections with their NHXL account. We do not recommend using more connections than what is needed to fill your max bandwidth. Using too many connections may even decrease performance for many users! 50 or 60 connections helps only those who have ultra fast connections as 100Mbps. Unless you have ultra fast connections as 100Mbps we don't recommend using more than 8-10 connections.

Encryption Do Usenet providers offer encryption? All Newsgroup providers offer SSL for free. What is SSL? SSL Encryption is another layer of NNTP traffic security protection that Usenet providers offer. All data passed from the Usenet provider's servers to the customer's computer is encrypted. Although not a lot of private information is typically transferred via newsgroups, SSL encryption ensures Usenet users that what they are reading and posting is unable to be intercepted by others. Usernames and passwords are also protected, as is all traffic that is sent to and from the news server. SSL offers complete privacy protection while downloading or uploading files from Usenet servers.

Only Giganews and Ngroups can provide VPN as well which works as a second layer of protection. What is VPN? VPN service allows you to privately and securely browse the web, e-mail, instant message, browse newsgroups .... VPN works by replacing your IP address and encrypting all of your Internet traffic between your computer and the VPN. Giganews has partnered with GoldenFrog to offer  VPN service for all Diamond customers, called VyprVPN. VyprVPN is guaranteed free for all Diamond members. Ngroups.Net outsource ItsVPN to offer VPN service.

=> Best VPN Reviews – Compare and find VPN account providers.

Data Retention For how long are the Usenet articles stored on the servers? Binary Retention means the time the Usenet server keeps articles around before they expire. On each Usenet server the administrator will determine the retention for each Usenet newsgroup usually by allotting it a certain amount of hard drive space. The best retention rates are provided by Giganews. Giganews is at the head of the pack with days of binary retention. Most other providers have problems with completion as you reach the last 50 days of their retention. Giganews has the highest retention rate of all the newsgroup servers !!!!!

Usenet Bundles Extra Usenet features Usenet providers are beginning to add to their premium accounts some additional features like SSL, VPN or Online Storage. More and more Usenet providers are adding extra options to create extra value with the unlimited account (Usenet packages)

Why? There are many companies that sell access to Usenet. Each tries to stand out from the other companies. Every company wants to win over the customer. So some Usenet providers offers Usenet Bundles (Unlimited Usenet + Extras). Extra Usenet features like VPN or Online Storage.
On this page  we have made a comprehensive list of the different options included with various unlimited accounts. Giganews remains the best Usenet bundles with VPN + MIMO + Online Storage in the near future. As for NewsHosting, they are actually offering unlimited Usenet + Newsreader

Unlimited Usenet-Only - At the other end of the spectrum other providers continue to offer a simple unlimited Usenet access. => Just Usenet offer: A few Usenet providers offer just unlimited Usenet access with SSL encryption. No features, no packages, just Usenet Acces. Eg: Astraweb - UsenetServer - SuperNews

Speed Limits What’s the average and maximum speed that users get?  The favourite Usenet providers of NGProvider will fill your bandwidth.

Completion Are the files that are uploaded complete?  That is, when you download from newsgroups you're assured that the articles posted are actually there. This can sometimes be an issue with other services. Especially as posts age.

Censorship Are the newsgroups uncensored? Free Usenet access is often censored. Paying Usenet providers do no filter or censor.