UseNetServer Review
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- 310 days binary retention |
UseNetServer (UNS) offers unlimited newsgroups access for $10 a month. Couple this with 310 days binary retention, 99%+ completion rate, free SSL and global search tool and you’ve got a very solid service.
Binary Retention – UseNetServer provides 310 days of binary retention, 365 days text retention and nearly 70,000 newsgroups. UNS has released a new site design and retention announcement. They are currently spooling to 400 days binary retention. See our UNS blog post for more details.
Speed – we tested using a UseNetServer Hi-Speed Plus account and maxed out a 6 Mbps connection with SSL enabled. Connections ranged from 4-6 Mbps during header downloads. Binary file downloads ran consistently at 6 Mbps. While we didn’t need it UNS also offers a routing tool to optimize connection speeds.
The UNS Hi-Speed Plus plan includes 20 connections versus the standard 10. If you want maximum speed the High-Speed Plus plan is well worth the difference in cost.
Usenet Search – the UseNetServer global search tool provides a nice online interface for searching newsgroups. It offers a number of filters to narrow down search results. Our initial Ubuntu search netted 598 results. Narrowing the search to a specific newsgroup cut the results in half. We then used the global search tool to easily create the NZB file. This method will save you time over downloading headers.
Security / Privacy – UseNetServer offers free 256 bit SSL access to all customers. We always run secure and had no problems. Note – if you start out connecting to the news.usenetserver.com server and then enable SSL make sure to change your server address to secure.usenetserver.com.
Alternate Ports – UseNetServer supports alternate ports to avoid bandwidth throttling. For normal access you can use ports 119 (default), 23, 25, 1720, 3128 or 8080. For secure SSL access choose between port 443, 563 and 8080. This can make a huge speed difference with some ISP’s that limit traffic based on port.
Pricing – UseNetServer pricing is simple. They offer two unlimited download plans. We recommend the UNS Hi-Speed Plus plan which includes 20 connections for $17.95/mo. They also offer a monthly 10 connection plan for $14.95/mo. Both plans offer free SSL encryption.
Special - UseNetServer is currently offering their High-Speed Plus access to new customers for $10 a month for life. See our UseNetServer $10 deal page for for more details.
Support – UNS offers 24/7 customer support via phone, email and online chat.
Bottom Line – UseNetServer has been around a long time. Their pricing and retention rates are in line with other top providers. Expect big things very from UNS as they spool to 400 days of retention..
