Speed and Availability:

Astraweb runs news server farms (Level 3, Limelight Networks and Savvis) in Europe and in the United States to deliver their users a constant performance. They have multiple links to high quality providers.  With every unlimited plan you can open up to 20 connections. With a pay by download plan even 50.  Enjoy free SSL with any kind of Astraweb account. They offer alternate ports (119, 23, 1818 or 8080) in case your isp throttles your bandwith on standard ports. A big plus is that they run their own servers and don’t resell, what makes them having total control over their newsgroup servers and farms.

Retention:

Their very strong and established network can offer a continually rising binaries retention of 325 days across ALL listed groups. They’re upgrading to 365 days at the moment.  Astraweb has got a very high number of peers which not only is responsible for an excellent propagation of posts but also a completion of over 99%.

Security:

Every account comes with with free 256-bit-SSL connections if you use one of their SSL servers
(ssl.astraweb.com; ssl-eu.astraweb.com; ssl-us.astraweb.com on Ports 443 or 563
This encryption helps to keep your username and password safe.
Their anonymous newsgroups access is completely uncensored.
They promise not to keep any logs, offer anonymous postings and even group requests.

Newsreader:

Astraweb  doesn’t offer a binary newsreader. But to get one of the many newsreader on your own and use the free usenet search engines which are available on the net is taking its effect on the price!

Free Trial:

Astraweb doesn’t offer a Free Trial at this time.

Pricing plans:

- 1 month unlimited – 1MBit – 20 connections – $10
- 1 month unlimited DSL – 20 connections – $15
- 3 months unlimited DSL – 20 connections – $39
- 25GB – 50 connections – $10
- 180GB – 50 connections – $25

Payment options:

• all kinds of credit cards
• PayPal
• iDeal for Dutch users

You not only have to get the newsreader client yourself but they also don’t offer a search engine. If you’re an advanced user this is your advantage because this saves hard earned cash!

This certainly is the  cheapest uncensored newsgroup provider online.

Sign up here to take advantage of their current special offer of  11$ a month for a unlimited account!

Speed and Availability:

They provide access to 8 independent serverfarms, 4 of them are located in the US (2 on the east and 2 on the west coast)  and the other 4 are around Amsterdam.
When searching for files, you will automatically be connected to the server with the fastest delivery which is a unique system.
Their fast international servers can provide you with a speed up to 50 Mbps wich will let you download with full speed.

Retention:

The retention for binaries is 400 days while text groups will be available for 1,000 days.
The service supports over 60,000 newsgroups with over 800 Terabytes of data.
This amounts to over 5 TB of new files and articles added every day.

Security:

All access is secure and unfiltered.  Neither your IP address nor information regarding your downloads get saved. No IP logging.Privacy is guaranteed . Their service and software is of course completely free of dialers, spyware pop-ups or banners. 100% secure access to unfiltered data.

Newsreader:

UseNeXT provides their own usenet access software which comes free with every account.  It includes image previews (thumbnails and slideshows), video support, one click newsgroup subscription and file searches. It even decodes and extracts your downloaded material.

Free Trial:

The UseNeXT Free trial Offer includes 150 GB over 4 weeks (unlimited downloads at 1 Mbps for 30 days and 8 GB at maximum speed). This will give you enough time to fully test their service, support and get known their client.

Pricing plans:

- 25 GB/month – $11.69/mo. or $9.34/month for a 12 month membership
- 50 GB/month – $17.56/mo. or $11.70/month for a 12 month membership
- 125 GB/month – $29.32/mo. or $23.44/month for a 12 month membership

Note: All accounts include unlimited downloads at 1 Mbps!

Payment options:

• credit card
• paypal
• German bank account

UseNeXT is definitely one of the best usenet providers for beginners.   With their unique system to get you on the fastest server and their very easy to use software you should be browsing their uncensored variety of  newsgroups in minutes.

Sign up for a special 30days FREE trial account and test them yourself!

URL.biz – Usenet

Speed and Availability:

Their network backbone connects to over 800 broadband access providers all over the world and also multiple Tier 1 bandwidth providers which will give you a high performance and speed!

All their plans offer unlimited download with up to 20 SSL secured connections!

Retention:

Usenetserver’s storage architecture can offer binaries retention for 313 days and over 2 years text retention.    They  maintain peering relationships with not only the major newsgroup providers but also most of the  smaller ones. This will give you access to virtually every article posted anywhere in the world to one of the 68000 uncensored newsgroups they can offer .
UseNetServer’s  fully redundant storage architecture offers 99% completion and great reliability.

Security:

All access is secured with free 256-bit-SSL connections if you use ” secure.usenetserver.com”.
This encryption helps to keep your username and password safe.
This will also prevent your ISP of throttling your bandwith speed or using deep packet inspection technologies.

Newsreader:

Although Usenetserver.com doesn’t offer their own Download tool, they still provide an excellent Global search engine. This tool helps you to find files in the usenet and also create nzb files to use with your download tool.

Free Trial:

They offer a 14-day trial in which you can download 10GB. But before that you have to signup for an account. If you download more than 10GB or you miss to cancel in the 14 days you’re automatically billed. So be aware of this!!!

Pricing plans:

- 3 days – 10 connections – $3
- 1 month – 10 SSL connections – $14.95
- 3 months – 10 SSL connections – $39.95
- 1 month – 20 SSL connections – $17.95
- 3 months – 20 SSL connections – $47.95

Payment options:

• credit card

You have to bring the client yourself but this saves you cash!  They offer very cheap premium usenet access with SSL connection.
Sign up for a free trial account and test them yourself!