Spec me an SSL Usenet provider

z0mbi3 · 5 Mar 2007 at 07:58

Pipex just started traffic shaping and my current provider doesn't support SSL so I need to look into another.

Currently I'm paying $14.99 a month with a 45 day retention and unlimited downloads from Newshosting. Need to get something which isn't too different from that kind of price.

Any one got any ideas or recommendations?

Gavin · 5 Mar 2007 at 08:45

only people that do ssl are giganews i think?

If you use ssl does this get past traffic shaping then?

rpstewart · 5 Mar 2007 at 08:52

Giganews does support SSL connections but SSL doesn't wholly get round the traffic shaping, it's better than nothing but not perfect.

Davey Dave · 5 Mar 2007 at 09:20

Easynews offer a SSL service too (NTPS as well as HTTPS) but no idea how it performs. Many companies have a trial, so sign up and try them out.

z0mbi3 · 5 Mar 2007 at 09:44

rpstewart said:
it's better than nothing but not perfect.

It wouldn't bother me at all if they did it at peak rate as I have RDP from work to tend to that sort of stuff. It's just that it's been consistantly capped down to 70 kbs for the last 3 days. Even this morning.

I'm going to move on to be* as soon as they support it in my exchange (this month apparently), so I may just stay with newshosting as the service is excellent and I get retention way beyond what I pay for.

hyper_piper45 · 5 Mar 2007 at 10:29

www.usenetserver.com offer ssl access for the same price. You can also so a 3 day trail for $3 to see if you like it.

However if you use less that 50gb a month i suggest going with www.maximumusenet.com. Good service for just $8.99.

z0mbi3 · 5 Mar 2007 at 12:01

Well I've switched to usenetserver but the ssl stuff is still bumming me around.

Since i have 10 days left on newshosting I'm gonna try assigning each slot a different port and see if I can get around it that way.

hyper_piper45 · 5 Mar 2007 at 12:25

Here is an interesting article is found on SSL and Usenet, you may find it useful.

z0mbi3 · 5 Mar 2007 at 12:39

hyper_piper45 said:
Here is an interesting article is found on SSL and Usenet, you may find it useful.

Quite informative. Especially the stuff about SSL and port 443.

Seems Pipex are throttling 443 as well though, unless they've found a way around identifying SSL traffic on 443..

rpstewart · 5 Mar 2007 at 13:12

z0mbi3 said:
Quite informative. Especially the stuff about SSL and port 443.

Seems Pipex are throttling 443 as well though, unless they've found a way around identifying SSL traffic on 443..

It's more likely that they're throttling based on source IP, for Usenet that'll be far easier to do than it would be for P2P, there are only a finite number of news providers out there.

Giganews provide SSL on 443 & 563, I might go back to 563 and see what happens.

csmager · 5 Mar 2007 at 13:18

rpstewart said:
It's more likely that they're throttling based on source IP, for Usenet that'll be far easier to do than it would be for P2P, there are only a finite number of news providers out there.

Even that's not necessary. Legitimite (common) use for SSL is online transactions, not file downloading.

They can allow line speed 'burst' for up to, say, 30 seconds continuous and then cap the speed after that. That way it doesn't affect any common usage, but it will slow down sustained downloads (ala Usenet)

Carter · 5 Mar 2007 at 16:32

I recently stopped my easynews account, but I used to use ssl with grabit combined with stunnel. It worked great, no issues.

StuntMonkeh · 11 Mar 2007 at 12:09

Very happy with Usenetserver. Free SSL & they are upping their retention all the time.

fornowagain · 11 Mar 2007 at 20:01

StuntMonkeh said:
Very happy with Usenetserver. Free SSL & they are upping their retention all the time.

I'm more interested in the completion, what's it like at UNS? Its says only 10 concurrent connections with SSL, any speed issues?

StuntMonkeh · 11 Mar 2007 at 22:17

fornowagain said:
I'm more interested in the completion, what's it like at UNS? Its says only 10 concurrent connections with SSL, any speed issues?

Completion is good, I've never had a problem and always full speed but i only have a 1MB connection with my ISP. Also UNS do a trial membership IIRC with a one off payment so you can give it a try and see what you think.

ringo747 · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:09

Another vote for Giganews. Been with them for over a year now and they have introduced SSL quite recently.

z0mbi3 · 12 Mar 2007 at 09:32

StuntMonkeh said:
Completion is good, I've never had a problem and always full speed but i only have a 1MB connection with my ISP. Also UNS do a trial membership IIRC with a one off payment so you can give it a try and see what you think.

$3 for 3 days I think.

I have around 7 meg broadband and it usually saturates my connection (in a good way).

My friend is also on UNS and he has a 20 meg line that also gets saturated. That's with 10 connections.