UsenetAdvantage - Newsgroup News & Reviews Blog

FIXED :: NewsDemon Website Inactive?

John K — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:21:45 +0000

Our site has been detecting errors when trying to reach the NewsDemon site since midday today. We’ve confirmed that we can’t reach the home page, or any of the deeper pages via links available in Google’s cached copy of the site. Would anyone at ND like to let us know what is going on, and when service might be restored? It’s no fun to see such a venerable provider go dark… if we don’t hear by morning, we’ll put in a call to the execs and see if we can get some… sorry… news.

Serious (and Unnecessary) Difficulties with Fatcow Hosting

John K — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:23:57 +0000

Folks, I want to apologize for any difficulties you’ve had loading our main site, UsenetAdvantage.net, for the past 17 hours. Fatcow performed a router upgrade last night, and managed to break some aspect of their PHP and MySQL functionality, which underlies some of the neater features on our site, including our dynamic updates of Usenet providers’ retention statistics.

I’m sorry to say that the Fatcow Tech Support has been disappointing so far, especially since we had this same problem on June 12th. Between the earlier occurrence of this issue, and the fact that preserving settings during a router upgrade just shouldn’t be that hard, I’m strongly considering moving the site to a new hosting provider. I will also post full logs of my tech support interactions so that you can decide for yourself if the support I’ve received is appropriate. I’d like your feedback on this point.

Also, as far as new hosting providers are concerned, I’d really like root access, chron jobs, high speed, strong features and administrative panel, and perhaps most important, incredible tech support, by which I mean (a) they know what they are doing, and (b) they are accessible.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

UseNetServer Adds PayPal Payment Option

John K — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:44:49 +0000

UseNetServer announced today that it now supports payments through PayPal. We’re excited about this announcement as PayPal is the preferred method of payment for many Usenet users. We’d love to see more providers take this step. You can purchase UseNetServer with PayPal starting now.

Usenet Newsgroup Provider Easynews Launches Cool New Website

John K — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:15:56 +0000

We really like the new website Easynews – nice work! The new tutorial video is great and offers beginning Usenet users a simple, step-by-step guide on how to download newsgroup content. We are also very pleased to see that Easynews has increased their NNTP binary retention to a more competitive level of 400+ days as this is an important feature for users.

If you are new to Usenet we recommend Easynews as one of the best providers for getting started for the following reasons:

• You do not need to purchase, download and configure a separate newsreader as Easynews offers its own web-based newsgroup browser. If you prefer using a separate newsreader product, Easynews also supports this option.
• The browser interface has an easy-to-use newsgroup search function which allows you to preview thumbnail images, download binary and other files quickly and easily, and save the files to your computer. You can just login to the system and go!
• Easynews also offers a newsgroup browser acceleration feature called Easyboost that can increase your throughput speeds by an average of about 100%.
• UsenetAdvantage.net rates Easynews’ support team as the best currently available. They provide quality 24/7 support via web chat, phone, and e-mail. Support is readily available to help with questions from subscribers.

Easynews has been in this business for over 15 years and is the original web-based Usenet service. The service is solid and we feel that Easynews really is the best resource out there for new users.

For more information on Easynews click here.

…And Even More — Newshosting and UseNetServer Offer A $5 Black Friday Deal

John K — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:24:26 +0000

Two more of our favorite providers have come through with a great Black Friday offer. Both Newshosting (currently #1 and rated our Best Overall Usenet Provider) and UseNetServer (#2) have decided to offer new users their first month of service for only $5.00. This deal runs from 5 AM EST on Thursday 11/26 (Thanksgiving) through 7 AM EST on Saturday 11/28, and is only valid for certain account types. The details for each provider are below — just click on their names to be taken to the signup page, or click the link for more info:

Both deals revert to the normal pricing after a month, but this is a screaming deal for the first month.

…And a Black Friday 50% Upgrade Deal from Easynews

John K — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:01:09 +0000

Here’s the text from the Easynews website: “It’s Black Friday Somewhere! Special: From 3AM MST 2009/11/26 through 5AM MST 2009/11/28, you can upgrade your account for half off! Sign Up for Classic and then upgrade to Plus for $2.49, or Big Gig for $9.98.” It’s worth noting that this is 50% off of the UPGRADE cost, not the total cost, but if you’ve picked Easynews as your provider, get in now for the savings. (We’re also wondering if that savings is just for the first month, for the life of the account, or for some other term).

Black Friday Special Coupon from Thundernews

John K — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:03:05 +0000

Great news! Thundernews is offering a special Black Friday discount to UsenetAdvantage.net customers, valid between November 27-29. This is probably one of the most potent coupons ever offered — it provides new Usenet customers with a 50% discount that is good for the life of the account. The coupon applies only to accounts that bill on monthly terms, but at these prices, that really isn’t a concern. Our thanks to Thundernews for making this offer available to uber-downloaders everywhere.

For more information on Thundernews click here.

Awesome New Usenet Video Tutorials from Newshosting!

John K — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:47:35 +0000

Navigating the world of Usenet has definitely become easier in the past few years – the introduction of better newsgroup search capabilities, more capable newsreaders, and NZB files – all these things have helped. Still, navigating newsgroups can be a trial by fire for newer users. But at least one forward-thinking Usenet service provider (and one of our favorites) is taking steps to lower the learning curve and bring the advantages of Usenet to a larger audience. Today – Monday Nov 2, 2009 – Newshosting is launching a cool new website with an intuitive video series that will definitely be of great help to beginning Usenet users. These videos demonstrate how to configure and use a newsreader to surf your favorite newsgroups, what you need to do to download your favorite content, and how to post information to the Usenet community. The improved website also has an enhanced support page that goes into additional details on newsreader set-up and how to measure data traffic flow using a traceroute tool.

Newshosting is clearly one of our favorite Usenet providers. This website redesign and video tutorial series really sets this provider apart from the rest in terms of offering new users the training and support they need to access the wealth of content on Usenet newsgroups.

For more information on Newshosting click here. If you are convinced and want to purchase now, click here.

Usenet Service Providers Offering 400+ Days of Binary Retention

Marcy De La Usenet — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:05:25 +0000

The race to stay at the top of the pack for Usenet/Newsgroup binary retention rates continues as Newshosting, Astraweb, UsenetServer, Ngroups.net, NewsDemon and others all hit the 400 day mark. Giganews remains in the lead followed closely by Astraweb. These companies are all competing aggressively in this area. Stay tuned for more info from UsenetAdvantage.net!

Here are the leaders in Binary Retention as of October 14, 2009:

• Giganews / — Now over 750 days (updated 1 Sep 2010)
• Astraweb / 424 days
• Newshosting / — Now 650 days (updated 1 Sep 2010)
• UsenetServer / — Now 650 days (updated 1 Sep 2010)
• Ngroups.net / 407 days
• NewsDemon / 400 days

To compare other features of each provider make sure to check out our Usenet/Newgroup Provider & Plan Comparison tables on UsenetAdvantage.net.

User Feedback on Binverse Billing and Quality of Service

Marcy De La Usenet — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:22:39 +0000

In the last few weeks, we have been made aware of a significant (higher than average) degree of user complaints regarding Binverse. We were excited at the launch of Binverse and hope this is a temporary trend, but for now we have decided to take them off our Top 10 Best Usenet Providers List. For more information on why we have made this decision, please check out the complaints board.

The majority of user complaints focus on problems resolving billing issues, being over-charged, issues with the Free Trial and claims of fraudulent advertising around their “Unlimited Download” feature that many say does not work. The company started out offering block plans and just launched a new Unlimited Plan, but it seems that they are experiencing growing pains. At this point we do not feel that it would be fair to new users to heavily promote Binverse until some of these issues are resolved.

Are you a Binverse user, or have you tried their service? If so, please let us know what your experience has been by commenting on this article. (No flames or flame-like language please – let’s help other Blog subscribers by sticking to factual descriptions of this provider).

Update: Still lots of comments pouring in! See below.