FastUsenet launched their service in September 2010. They now support 2,400+ days of binary retention and 1,400 days of text retention. The service offers free SSL encryption and up to 50 connections.
The question for any new service is whether or not they can offer fast, reliable newsgroup access and quick response to support inquiries. Time will tell but we’ve had mostly positive feedback so far.
As mentioned Fast Usenet offers 2,400+ days of binary retention and 1,400+ days text retention across 120,000+ newsgrouos. We tested a Ubuntu distribution at around 740 days and didn’t need any Par files.
Fast Usenet news server information:
– Secure server farm – Secure-FastUsenet.org
– Standard server farm – News.FastUsenet.org
They offer the following port settings:
– Secure ports: 563
– Standard ports: 119
While FastUsenet supports up to 50 simultaneous connections we satured a 25 Mbps line using 20. Testing with 10-15 connections netted between 15-20 Mbps. The speeds were fairly consistent during our Ubuntu download. Not quite as fast as Newshosting but solid.
Fast Usenet gives customers a number of options for technical support. Starting with an online knowledge base and FAQ section. The support section also includes tutorials for popular newsreaders like SABnzbd, Newsbin Pro and Newsleecher. If you can’t find an answer they also have live chat and an online help desk for submitting questions.
Account options: FastUsenet offers unlimited Usenet access for $9.95 a month. Which seems to be the going rate now a days. They also offer metered plans ranging from 6 GB up to 35 GB a month. All plans include free 256-bit SSL encryption.
New customers are eligible for a free trial of Fast Usenet. The free account offers 14 days of newsgroup access with up to 15 GB of downloads. The 14 day FastUsenet free trial includes access to both the web viewer and iPhone reader.
Fast Usenet doesn’t stop at NNTP newsgroup access. They include a web based image viewer and iPhone newsreader for all subscribers. We used the web reader briefly. It’s pretty basic but will do the trick if you just want to view some newsgroup images.
FastUsenet offers a nice mix of features at an affordable price. The web image viewer and iPhone newsreader don’t offer much functionality compared to a service like Easynews. With that said FastUsenet offers 1,880 days of retention, 50 connections and free SSL encryption. With $9.95 unlimited Usenet access the price is on par with others.
