difference between torrents and news servers - pse explain

[killadoob]

Does anyone have any idea why Giganews prices/month are higher than Astraweb for example (For the same thing: 20 connections, virtually same retention and unlimited bandwidth and speed)?
I think Giganews is $24.99 and Astraweb is $11.00!

newsdemon is 9.99 with 30 gb storage.

giganews is a bleeding rip off.

[deanstein]

newsdemon is 9.99 with 30 gb storage.

giganews is a bleeding rip off.

I won't be using them in future!

One more question: do you know any newsreaders that have support for proxy servers? Would be nice to download at uni! I doubt they block NNTP providers.

Thanks for the help!

[Chewbacca]

how do you guys pick which newshost to pay/use? From what i have seen most of them basically have the same stuff, its mainly price difference...

[DrJohnZoidberg]

how do you guys pick which newshost to pay/use? From what i have seen most of them basically have the same stuff, its mainly price difference...

Mainly price for me. There are a few providers that have unlimited packages for around $10/month - I chose one of the most well known (Astraweb). I had great service from them from day one and haven't looked back. Never had a days trouble. The cheap unlimited account I have is however limited to 5Mbit, so if I ever do get upgraded to 10Mbit ADSL, I will start looking somewhere else.

[Masu]

I am not so savvy about downloading as the people here, but I use www.nzbsa.co.za to download nzbs. I used to download torrents, but find that nzbs are so much better than torrents. If anyone wants to try nzbsa out, then signups are open at this time, for how long I do not know as its usually invite only. You can also download from nzbmatrix, but I prefer nzbsa and also new nzbs are sometimes out on nzbsa before matrix which was quite suprising.

[techead]

astraweb + nzbmatrix + sabnzbd + sickbeard

wont ever touch a tv series torrent again in my life. any torrent for that matter.

seriously, dont waste your time with torrents...

[cpu.]

astraweb + nzbmatrix + sabnzbd + sickbeard

wont ever touch a tv series torrent again in my life. any torrent for that matter.

seriously, dont waste your time with torrents...

Torrents with a download service (put.io) in my case is just so much easier. Load a torrent URL or many together and it downloads in under a minute for well seeded 350MB episodes (to the server), then 2h30m on my 384 line with a simple https link. You can load low seeded torrents and forget about it, then later check on them. News servers require too much setup, unless it changed lately (apparently not if I look at that list ^).

[abzo]

Being using a news server recently. Only gripe I have with it is that older items aren't available whereas they are when using torrents.

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Torrents with a download service (put.io) in my case is just so much easier. Load a torrent URL or many together and it downloads in under a minute for well seeded 350MB episodes (to the server), then 2h30m on my 384 line with a simple https link. You can load low seeded torrents and forget about it, then later check on them. News servers require too much setup, unless it changed lately (apparently not if I look at that list ^).

The initial set up for the news server + sickbeard + xbmc route may take a bit longer to implement, but once it's up and running nothing is easier to use. New TV series get automatically downloaded and are in my xbmc library when I get home from work, all I do is press play. If I want something older, I add it to sickbeard which is extremely simple and then it downloads and again automatically gets added to my library. If you are running xbmc to play your media, nothing can be simpler - no debate required, however I suppose a torrent solution could be equally as simple in a different situation (I see put.io is quite pricey in comparison to what you would pay for a nntp solution, especially for high usage).

Being using a news server recently. Only gripe I have with it is that older items aren't available whereas they are when using torrents.

I rarely ever don't find something on the news servers and Astra currently has 1189 days of retention. So if you have a paid provider you shouldn't have any issues, however it will always be an issue to get older stuff on local news server (saix, wa, mweb, etc). Torrents can be useful in really special cases, but then again I find that those torrents generally are also not seeded very well and take an eternity to download - but it's better than nothing.

EDIT: Actually currently testing Astraweb to the limits - pulling 1138 day old content at the moment, so far so good but will see how it fares.

[abzo]

I use newshost. couldn't even download episodes of modern family season 2 because they were too old.

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I use newshost. couldn't even download episodes of modern family season 2 because they were too old.

Newshost is just a nzb index site - I am referring to the actual server you connect to, not where you get the nzbs.

Two of the most popular providers at the moment are Astraweb and Newsdemon, both offer good value unlimited packages.

[abzo]

Okay I don't really understand. Someone just set it up for me and gave me their newshost log in details. Don't know which server is being used.

So the availability of the items depends on the server not the site?

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Okay I don't really understand. Someone just set it up for me and gave me their newshost log in details. Don't know which server is being used.

So the availability of the items depends on the server not the site?

Don't worry, news servers can be a bit confusing at first. What program are you using to download with (i.e. sabnzbd, alt.binz, etc)? That's a good place to start.

[abzo]

I use alt.binz and get the nzb's from newshost.

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I use alt.binz and get the nzb's from newshost.

If you go here: http://www.altbinz.net/wiki/Quick_Start_Guide - the first screenshot explains how to open the setup screen. Check what is in the Address field under Server properties, this is also where you would change the settings if you want to get a paid news server.