Usenet Server

The Usenet’s traffic gets processed by newsservers around the world, mostly located in countries with liberal anti-piracy and copyright laws, such as the Netherlands. A usenet server stores newsgroups in a similar way that webhosting companies host webpages on their servers. The big difference between different usenet providers is the retention time. Retention time means the the time newly uploaded files will remain on the server. The average retention time is about 500-600 days.

When deciding which usenet provider and thereby which server network to use, it is important to keep in mind, that many servers do not allow binary newsgroups (the newsgroups providing files like movies, games and music). All providers reviewed on this site do host binary newsgroups and therefore allow downloading files, despite the frequent misuse and sharing of illegal data on their news servers. This is why they host in the Netherlands, for example.

The news servers ensure highspeed downloads because, in contrast to for example P2P-networks, data transmitted from server to user and not from user to user. The Usenet enables download speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s.

How to access Newsservers

To access newsservers you need two things. A newsserver that you can access and special software to connect to the server. The software allows you to post to and download from the servers and furthermore facilitate searching for files and repairing broken ones. Often, they are also able to automatically unpack your downloads.

All commercial providers reviewed and recommended by our editorial office offer access to newsservers with binary newsgroups and long retention periods of up to 700 days. 700 days may not sound very much but keeping in mind the vast amount of data added to the Usenet daily, this is an extraordinary long time period. Moreover, all of the reviewed companies provide their own sophisticated and easy-to-use softwares for free.

Editors recommendation:

Take advantage of the free trials and decide for yourself if a certain provider or the Usenet in general is something you want to use on a regurlar basis.

Free Trials:

UseNeXT – 14 Days – 300 GB
Usenet.nl – 14 Days – 300 GB
Binverse – 14 Days – 150 GB