Newsgroups...

[ace]

Well with the recent trouble demonoid has had for what it seems like an eternity.... it's just driving me up the wall! Anywho, basically has anyone tried UseNeXT? I was going to try out the free 14 day trial but of course you have to provide a credit card so I figured i'd ask if anyone has any personal experience with usenext before I do something like that.

And if not UseNeXT, has anyone tried any other newsgroup type websites they could recommend?

[brentbizzle]

I don't know what exactly UseNeXT offers, but I don't trust it. If you wanna go newsgroups, go old school. Will cost you at least $15/month for access, plus if you want good access to nzb files, you'll probably have to pay for a membership at a site for those. That will usually be a one time fee. I payed $30 for lifetime access at nzbsrus. nzbmatrix is another good site but I'm not a paying member there. Both allow downloads if you're not a paying member, but nzbsrus limits to 5 nzbs per day, and nzbmatrix I don't think they limit the number, but you can only get recent downloads from them.

As far as good hosts, I go with newshosting. $15/month. Giganews is a really popular one, but they cost more and I've had no problems with newshosting and I've been with them over 2 years now. All the companies are hitting a year's retention and provide SSL, so it's really up to you which provider you want to go with.

[ace]

Alright thanks bro, I just started looking into this. I found a "free Giganews offer" through newsleecher, have you ever looked into newsleecher? But if you haven't had any trouble with newshosting I might just do what you did, $30 for lifetime access and $15/mo doesn't sound bad to me if it is quality service.

[brentbizzle]

If you have a decent provider, your download speed is really only dependent on your home internet connection. Being in Australia, the fastest we have here is ADSL 2, but if you are near an exchange it's quality. I download at a constant 1.2 MB/sec providing there's not too much traffic. Likewise, I was in Japan using fiberoptic connection, and could only download at 1.3 MB/sec because their network obviously has more people on it. Using the same newsgroup account, I took my PC over to my friend's place who had better internet than me, and I was over 5 MB/sec. Yes you pay, but it's lightning fast. And if you want to download HD content, there's no other way. It would take forever getting HD from torrents. PLUS, your connection is encrypted so it helps you avoid the 5-0.

I would say go with the price. If giganews has a good offer, take it. Like I said, most of the good providers are pretty much offering the same thing.

I would not pay any service for access to anything I can generally get for free online. Sometimes it's work but more often than not it is out there if you look hard enough.

If you are looking for something specific PM me, perhaps I can help.

[ace]

Nothing specific, but I mean i've been content with using demonoid and other torrent sites for a few years, but since I flashed my xbox 360 torrents at 100Kb/s for a 7GB file just isn't cutting it. And it isn't my connection either, I've had wayyy faster torrents before but when games come out the rental store near here doesn't get it till like a week later anyways, and there is usually like 10 seeders and 1k+ leechers >.>

But yea, I think I will try out that free offer for giganews through newsleecher and report my experience here if anyone else wants to give it a try. I know it's basically a referral link through newsleecher, and newsleecher seems pretty legit after reading through their forums so I'll see how it goes. Even 1.2 MB/sec makes my mouth water compared to torrents.

[brentbizzle]

It's not just access I'm concerned about, it's quality access. With newsgroups, I have access to just about anything. All of the "scene releases" hit newsgroups before torrents. And there's a lot of self monitoring in the scene. If there's a problem with a video file or something is advertised incorrectly, it is usually taken down. When I download using newsgroups, I know what I'm getting and I know it'll be good.

The real kicker is access to HD content. I don't want to have to wait forever to get what I want. I would say a typical decent torrent might get you sustained 300 KB/sec. I just downloaded 2 HD 1 hour shows and 1 SD show, totaling 2.72 GB. If you got a sustained 300 KB/sec connection, it would take you over 2 1/2 hours to finish. I got it in well under an hour. And while 2 1/2 hours doesn't sound so bad, imagine trying to download a 12-14GB 1080p Bluray rip. I would have that done in less than 4 hours.

OMG you guys are complaining about 300K per sec!

I am on DSL. A 12 gig download took me 2 weeks!

I am happy if I get 65kbps.

As I stated on another thread, I have AT&T.

i have a 300KB/S broadband speed yet GTA 4 took me 2 weeks with a average speed of like 5KB/S
lame? Lame! Lame...

Just wait for demonoid to come back. They are suppose to be up soon.

[brentbizzle]

OMG you guys are complaining about 300K per sec!

I am on DSL. A 12 gig download took me 2 weeks!

I am happy if I get 65kbps.

As I stated on another thread, I have AT&T.

Yes I complain about 300 KB/s. And that's why I am more than happy to pay $15/month.

[DarkPacMan77]

I know nothing about using newsgroups at all.

-DarkPacMan77-

Just wait for demonoid to come back. They are suppose to be up soon.

Don't be surprised if demos down for another six months. Until then use hdtorrents.org or mininova.

[ace]

Just wait for demonoid to come back. They are suppose to be up soon.

Don't be surprised if demos down for another six months. Until then use hdtorrents.org or mininova.

Exact reason why I am complaining about it as well. demonoid was probably the best torrent website I have found, ever. Now that it is down a undetermined time, and even if it was up I doubt I could download something much faster to begin with, I'm not even going to waste time with any other torrent site. It's free though, what do you expect? You get what you pay for. Besides, I enjoy privacy and a moderated environment, so I do believe that is worth $15 a month for the quality of service that you get.

Don't be surprised if demos down for another six months. Until then use hdtorrents.org or mininova.

BREIN took Mininova to court last August and won so I don't know how much longer they will be around either.