newsgroups/ astraweb in particular

[shaun127]

Guys I have been trying newsgroups (Free Trial not astraweb) for a couple of weeks now and have decided to sign up for a paid 3 month service

Looking around, I saw astraweb's offer of 3 month for $20 unlimited downlaods but subject to a 10mb download speed limit.

I am on asdl virgin, no cable where I live and the max Down speed I get is 6mb

So rather than pay for unlimited speed $39 per 3 month I think this would be OK??

Anyone have any issues with astraweb Speed wise etc and how easy are they to cancel an account with If after 3 month I don't want to continue as I see that they automatically renew another 3months unless I cancel

 

[friendzi]

You should of got this offer

news.astraweb.com - Signup with us

The package you are on for 3 months will be capped at a speed of 10mbit

as for cancelling your account probably not as i made the same mistake as you and could'nt cancel

 

[VectorZ]

Guys I have been trying newsgroups (Free Trial not astraweb) for a couple of weeks now and have decided to sign up for a paid 3 month service

Looking around, I saw astraweb's offer of 3 month for $20 unlimited downlaods but subject to a 10mb download speed limit.

I am on asdl virgin, no cable where I live and the max Down speed I get is 6mb

So rather than pay for unlimited speed $39 per 3 month I think this would be OK??

Anyone have any issues with astraweb Speed wise etc and how easy are they to cancel an account with If after 3 month I don't want to continue as I see that they automatically renew another 3months unless I cancel

They're one of the best I've ever used apart from Giganews but you pay a premium for them. Every now and again you'll get the odd problem with incompletes but on the whole you can't go wrong with Astraweb. I used to pay 3 monthly with Paypal and stopped a couple of times no problem when money was short. Not used them in a couple of months now though so don't know what they're like now with takedwon requests..... more providers are getting hit with legal notices to take copyrighted stuff so they have to comply. You just need to get in quick or wait a couple of hours and someone will post it up again. I used to max out around 19mb back on cable and since moving to adsl maxed out a 7mb connection so you shouldn't have any problem there...... in regards to speed you just have to watch your ISP provider as some are throttling usenet traffic now.

 

[shaun127]

They're one of the best I've ever used apart from Giganews but you pay a premium for them. Every now and again you'll get the odd problem with incompletes but on the whole you can't go wrong with Astraweb. I used to pay 3 monthly with Paypal and stopped a couple of times no problem when money was short. Not used them in a couple of months now though so don't know what they're like now with takedwon requests..... more providers are getting hit with legal notices to take copyrighted stuff so they have to comply. You just need to get in quick or wait a couple of hours and someone will post it up again. I used to max out around 19mb back on cable and since moving to adsl maxed out a 7mb connection so you shouldn't have any problem there...... in regards to speed you just have to watch your ISP provider as some are throttling usenet traffic now.

Thanks Vectorz for info,I haven't signed up as of yet but yes Virgin do throttle the speed so will only be downloading off peak through the night

You should of got this offer

news.astraweb.com - Signup with us

The package you are on for 3 months will be capped at a speed of 10mbit

as for cancelling your account probably not as i made the same mistake as you and could'nt cancel

Thanks Friendzi but the above would be a waste of cash as I can't get over 10mb downlaod speed on adsl. If i were on cable I would go for the one you suggested.

I haven't signed up yet as wanted advice 1st, why could you not cancel? do you mean you chose 10mb download instead of unlimited and they wouldn't let you cancel until your 3 months was up?

 

[Exos]

Just stay with Astra, I was paying $15 and have been with them for years.

I questioned the rate having seen the offer and they told me to place a new order on the $11 rate and give them the order number.

Emailed them after placing it again and they simply updated my account, I'm now paying £7 for unlimited.

 

[J]

I've triEd I few over the years Shaun
But I find astraweb the best
I only changed from Adsl to cable in november.

 

[oneman]

I'm with astra web but on cable. There have been speed issues but aside from recent fiber cable break between UK and amsterdam (where astraweb's european servers are) almost certainly due to to throttling by virgin.

As for cancelling, they have always been quick to respond to any tickets I have raised.

 

[Exos]

In terms of speed you do get the odd occasion but it is few and far between. Most of the time I put it down to my ISP rather than Astra, but to be fair it doesn't really affect me as long as I can still access the necessary posts.

 

[shaun127]

Cheers Lads I will most likely give them a try, I've only ever used HTTP downloads in the past

 

[Captin]

I had been with Astraweb for the last 3 years and giganews a long time before that. But for me Astraweb have seemed to ammassed a lot more incomplete files than anyone else.

It takes a lot to make me change providers too but I've just switched to UseNetServer for $10 per month, same service as Astraweb, but with no incompletes so far. I've even tried downloading stuff that was incomplete on astraweb and it's fully there on UseNetServer.

The 23gb Rosetta recently posted being 1 case, lots of problems on astraweb, non on UseNetServer.

They use the Highwinds backend servers, same as Newshosting, Easynews and Newsdemon.

UseNetServer is actually owned by Highwinds, same as Newshosting.

They also have a search facility on their website a bit like Binsearch, or newsleechers paid for supersearch.

This site has some good info and recomendations. They used to always recommend Astraweb, but have dropped them.

http://www.newsgroupservers.net/

If you want a good service and dont download a lot then Usenet-Access is still going, I remember using them in the early 90's.

They offer 500mb per day download for $2.95 per month, or 1gb per day download for $5.95 per month.
They are expensive though for unlimited plans.

https://secure.usenet-access.com/_secure/usenet-accesscom/othersignup.asp

 

[shaun127]

Guys when signing up to astraweb it asks for billing info. Do you need to put in your correct address, phone number etc for billing??

 

[VectorZ]

I would if I was paying by credit card. I don't think you'll have any problems regarding legalities of your use. Looks like they've suspended Paypal payments

 

[shaun127]

I would if I was paying by credit card. I don't think you'll have any problems regarding legalities of your use. Looks like they've suspended Paypal payments

Cheers Mate, which port settings should I enter to use ssl downloads and should I choose the US server????????????

General Server: news.astraweb.com
European Server: eu.news.astraweb.com
US Server: us.news.astraweb.com
Ports: 119, 23, 1818 or 8080

 

[VectorZ]

It used to be 443 for SSL but I can't get into members area anymore. There should be a list with current configurations in there. Use EU server.

 

[shaun127]

Vector I've found the settings when you log into the members area, I've set it up on ssl server US and port 553 should I leave it on US or connect to European server does it make a difference I'm sure I read somewhere you get less incomplete on US server if you connect to that?

Thank you for you help Mate.

 

[shaun127]

sorry missed your last post. Thanks again Bud

 

[VectorZ]

I'd stick with EU but try them both and see.

 

[oneman]

I have noticed when using SSL that it does not always max out my 50mb connection but switching to non-SSL I get full speed.

 

[shaun127]

I signed up and Im using ssl port 443, I've got 10 connections/bots on US server and 10 bots on UK at the same time and its giving me full speed on my adsl connection. tried all different permutations and this seems best for my setup.

 

[djkarloz]

Looks like they've suspended Paypal payments

Ive just checked. Im still paying them through paypal. It gets billed through 2checkout.com