Suggestions for usenet providers in 2014...

[nzbtuxnews]

Hi all,

so I have been with supernews as my main usenet provider since 2010 and things were great at first, content was downloaded with no or minimal repairs, etc.. I have also been with blocknews and astraweb for block avccounts also since 2010. Used them seldomly when content on supernews was incomplete or not available..

Since around 2012, content has increasingly become more and more difficult to get from supernews, to the point where about 85%+ of the SAB jobs fails because too many parts are missing, or because none are available. Since 2 years, I have been lucky to be able to retrieve 5% of what I wanted to get...

Basically, this is now useless. Even at $10/month, its a waste of money. hell out of maybe 10+ folks I know, I am the only one with usenet and they all can retrieve their content fine with torrents....

I am searching for recommendations for a new usenet supplier, more specifically from real life experiences.

My requirements? SSL connections, unlimited (or at least 300GB/month), content availability better than supernews/giganews, works with SAB, good retention, etc...

Anything is appreciated! thanks

[JesusOnEez]

I've been doing this for a couple of years now, and although backlog searching can be a bit so-so, I get everything new with no problems with UsenetServer as a provider and Astraweb as a block account backup, although I have also heard good things about Tweaknews.

I think the only things I watch that I've trouble backlogging were Arrow and Haven, and even then I'm just missing a couple of episodes of each (I could probably torrent them), I'm getting the latest episodes without a hitch and I'm on a crappy 3 Mb ADSL connection.

[Apache77]

I use UsenetServer, with backups from Tweaknews and Blocknews, and I have few problems.

I think what's more important these days is a fast connection and automation ... use Sickbeard or something else to grab your shows automatically (and quickly).

[nzbtuxnews]

I just realized that I had lost the reply notification for this thread and im still having issues..

First of all thanks guys for replying!

The issue I found myself in is that my current USP (Supernews) doesnt seem to support compressed headers, or newznab cant work with it.. Anyways, activating headers compression in newznab yields to strange behaviors and messages such as

Code: Select all

empty gzip stream
error 1000:  no data retrieved

So I have to keep compression off, which increases my bandwidth to insane amount (3.5-4GB/hr) 24/7... No need to say, within a week I bust my monthly cap of 500GB..

ISP offers a unlimited package but its almost twice as I pay already so only for usenet, its not gonna happen.

So I am searching for a main USP with the following features, there are so many USP's out there, there must be one that stands out?

-Unlimited plan (or 500+GB)
-Header compression for indexers
-Not so DMCA friendly (or else whats the point?)
-Reliable and proven (no shady stuff in taiwan...

Astraweb seemed to be the best right now (compression and reliability wise) until I heard that they were very DMCA friendly with an automated takedown system...

Thanks!

[zac851]

Old thread but after seeing many other users mention it, I've been using Astraweb (US server) as my main with Tweaknews and Astraweb EU as my backup servers. I've been using this server configuration for the last 3 months but it's by far the best combo I've ever used since I've been using Newsgroups since 2004. Very few failed downloads at all after downloading TB's of data.

[nzbtuxnews]

hey zac851

what about header compression? Supernews seems to use a strange protocol, anyways newznab will not work with supernews compressed headers and the Nn+ folks have ignored every single one of my attempts to get support from them..

Either I ditch nn+ (lack of support, not to say nonexistent, once you contribute to the pro version by donating, consider yourself on your own!) or I ditch supernews..

[ALbino]

I believe Astraweb has compressed headers. If you get a block account then they count headers against your data, so I'm not sure how long that would last as I have no idea how many mb/gb/tb downloading headers uses up every month. If it's not much, then you can just get a block account. If it's a lot, then you can get an unlimited plan for as cheap as $7.50/mo using their special:

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/2mospecial.html

[nzbtuxnews]

Im super tempted to register to astraweb's special offer but how do I know before hand if compressed headers will work with NN?

Anybody uses astraweb and newznab together? Should be a *few* people out there doing that since astraweb is one of the major USP on the market and NN+ is the most used indexer platform...

[ALbino]

Spend $10 on a 25gb block account and find out

[nzbtuxnews]

Done the registration to Astraweb, same thing, newznab doesnt work with header compression...

Not working with astraweb and not working with supernews but its working with Forte Agent for both USP's..

Indexing may be over for me or else I have to try another indexer There's no way to get support from newznab's devs, no forum, no bug tracker, no ticket system, only chat and its so ineffective its not even funny. Sorry Im a bit tired of this issue..

[zac851]

hey zac851

what about header compression? Supernews seems to use a strange protocol, anyways newznab will not work with supernews compressed headers and the Nn+ folks have ignored every single one of my attempts to get support from them..

Either I ditch nn+ (lack of support, not to say nonexistent, once you contribute to the pro version by donating, consider yourself on your own!) or I ditch supernews..

I'm not sure if theres any known issues because It's not something I've ever worrried about having personally, but I just looked and according to Astraweb, they do have header compression which counts to 20% of your downloads

Newsbin Compressed Headers Speedup
http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php? ... ticleid=47

Are headers counted towards my downloads?
http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php? ... ticleid=33

[nzbtuxnews]

The whole situation feels as if newznab was lacking the technology to deal with compressed headers (or if I was missing some dependencies) but I installed newznab acc. to the instructions and used it for years now without compression. Since I tried to use compression, it never worked. The update script just restarts after group 1 to thge beginning (basically does nothing all day long) just loops in a circle..

Other than that it is sometimes throwing errors at me like

Code: Select all

empty gzip stream
error 1000:  no data retrieved

I couldnt get any explanation, support or otherwise information from any of the NN+ devs or users. The relevant snippet from nntp.php which throws the "empty gzip stream" error is:

Code: Select all

//check to see if we have the magic terminator on the byte stream
				$b1 = null;
				if ($bytesreceived > 2)
				if (ord($buffer[$bytesreceived-3]) == 0x2e && ord($buffer[$bytesreceived-2]) == 0x0d && ord($buffer[$bytesreceived-1]) == 0x0a)//substr($buffer,-3) == ".\r\n"
				{
					//check to see if the returned binary string is 11 bytes long generally and indcator
					//of an compressed empty string probably don't need this check
					if ($totalbytesreceived==11)
					{
						//compare the data to the empty string if the data is a compressed empty string
						//throw an error else return the data
						if (($data === $emptyreturn)||($data === $emptyreturn2)||($data === $emptyreturn3)||($data === $emptyreturn4))
						{
							echo "empty gzip stream\n";
							return $this->throwError('No data returned.', 1000);
						}
					}
					else
					{
						//echo "\n";
						$completed = true;
					}				
				}

The NN guys really need to open a ticket tracker or at least a forum where used can actually have a discussion... Every project (sickbeard, couchpotato, sab, etc) has a github page, a google code page or a forum..

[ALbino]

Maybe switch to nZEDb:

https://github.com/nZEDb/nZEDb