Hey Me,
We are on the same page, as you say. Was that you in the other group,
at your humble abode? Did you ever get the list? Because I just saw
the request. If not, I will send it.
Since you have been around for a long time, you are likely aware of
this information, but there are others who have contacted me having
similar problems. Who knows, it might be helpful for you too. You have
a specific set of needs and preferences that have caused you to choose
the services that meet your needs. If avoice decides to move again it
may all work out for everybody. Now people are flaming avoice for
leaving the other group after he left to accomodate their wishes. I
don't see how he can win in this situation. But he's a good guy, we'll
see what happens.
By the way, thank you for your service. And you're no loser.
Doc
NP-f31
PS-I'm trying to help folks too. We're on the same team.
Here is some basic information on Usenet News Service Providers
The most recommended newsgroups service providers are listed
below with a brief description. There are others. They have
various price ranges.
www.teranews.com
For a one time service fee of US$3.95, you can download up to
50MB/day, and do unlimited uploads, if they are done before the
daily download limit is reached. Posting to some newsgroups is
restricted. They have a less than average completion rate (are
the posts all present and accounted for?), and poor propagation
(do the posts make it to all of Usenet?), and don't list the
contents of some newsgroups of interest.
www.newscene.com
Middle price range. Superior completion but retention (how long
posts are available on the servers) averages two to three weeks.
Good security.
www.easynews.com
Good prices. Very good completion. Retention improving, depending
on price schedule. Has censorship issues, doesn't carry some
groups of interest (you will not find The Fort on Easynews). Due
to recent changes, security behavior is unknown.
www.news.astraweb.com
For just one fee of US$10, you can download up to 25GB with no
time restriction, and do unlimited uploads. Good completion and
retention, and has all the newsgroups. They have positioned this
option specifically as a backup server, and for those with dial-up
connections. It's also very easy, unlike most other providers, to
successfully, and anonymously, request them to include a new
newsgroup. This is the only provider that I've ever been successful
in getting a new group to show up in. They restrict the posting of
large file sizes. I do NOT recommend posting anything illegal
through them. They will act on the lightest of complaints and
contact LEA.
www.Usenetmonster.com
VERY good price for their basic account. Good retention and
completion.
www.bubbanews.com
Free 50MB download a day, but requires credit card to sign up.
NOT for private things. They do not seem to have anything on
their web site to indicate anything about privacy or security
and they don't list the contents of some newsgroups of interest.
News Service Providers to be avoided
These have any combination of:
(1) poor security
(2) poor propagation
(3) poor completion
(4) posting restrictions
(5) missing newsgroups
(6) zealous cooperation with the Law
(7) bad payment options
Athenanews 1, 2
Uncensored-news 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Giganews 1, 4, 6
Newsfeeds 1, 2, 3, 5
Usenetmonster 5 (many) But extremely inexpensive.
Newshosting 2, 3, 4, 7 (for posting)
How the posting process works:
Some service providers lease server space from other, bigger,
service providers, and in different ways, but most of them
have their own servers with which they receive the posts made
by their subscribers. So, when you post a message, your post
first goes to the receiving server, where proprietary information
is added to the post?s header, such as the provider?s name and
the propagation path entry. It then gets routed to other servers
(local), and to other providers (propagated), using a complicated
time schedule. It can happen that a post can be on a different
provider's server, before it is seen on the server of the company
it is posted to, because of different update schedules. Your post
is, in turn, propagated to other providers, and so on, until it
reaches the server where others see it. Each server it passes
through, will add more information to your post's path entry.
Different providers use different software to do this, and they
are not all compatible. There can be all kinds of problems in
this process, and there are many opportunities for file corruption.
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