USENET download speed.

SMB30 · 9 Nov 2010 at 22:14

welshdragon said:
Could someone explain to me how usenet works? Do I just download said client (like bittorrent), then register for a .nzb usenet and hey presto?

Or do I have to subsricbe to a usenet service and enter server details into the client then open nzb files?

The latter. Astraweb as a service comes well recommended, and a good client is sabnzb.

welshdragon · 9 Nov 2010 at 22:19

Right so I need 3 things:

1. a site indexing nzb's?
2. a subscription to a server
3. a download client (sabnzb)

Sorry for the noobness, bear with me, so I subscribe to astraweb and put server details into sabnzb and then browse an nzb site?

Mayfair · 9 Nov 2010 at 22:20

haz_pro said:
Is there any better USENET providers than astraweb?

I'm with Newsdemon, and use Alt.Binz application never have any problems. 50 SSL connections.

I pay £7 per month for unlimited SSL 50 connections, Though i just checked and it seems they have bumped thier prices up for new customers

DJMK4 · 9 Nov 2010 at 22:37

Been with astraweb now for about 6 months and pay 7 quid a month. Good service

hyper_piper45 · 9 Nov 2010 at 23:17

haz_pro said:
hmm, seems i have been using way to many connections.

Could someone explain why less connections would be better then more?

sorry im a noob aha.

The more connections you have open the more separate files you are trying to download and write to your hard drive and the more things the client has to deal with.

Ideally you want to get the max download speed with the least amount of connections.

Hairybudda · 9 Nov 2010 at 23:29

Do virgin count traffic from their newsgroup servers against your 5 hour limit (where they throttle you if you break a certain limit)? I'm trying it out now before it gets past peak times and it looks to not apply

thepeganator · 10 Nov 2010 at 00:37

Hairybudda said:
Do virgin count traffic from their newsgroup servers against your 5 hour limit (where they throttle you if you break a certain limit)? I'm trying it out now before it gets past peak times and it looks to not apply

Yes they do unfortunately

But the servers seem really fast, can max out with just a few connections

haz_pro · 10 Nov 2010 at 09:03

hyper_piper45 said:
The more connections you have open the more separate files you are trying to download and write to your hard drive and the more things the client has to deal with.

Ideally you want to get the max download speed with the least amount of connections.

Okay cool, ill try this out

Locky · 10 Nov 2010 at 09:18

thepeganator said:
Always happens to me too, I have a 20mb line from VM, get a peak at about 3.5MB/s for a second or two and then settlers at the correct 2.4MB/s for the rest of the download.

2.4MB/s is about the max you will get from a 20Mbit line.

batfink · 10 Nov 2010 at 11:07

Sabnzbd and Astraweb here. I use the Pay-as-you-go service because I'm not a regular downloader so it suits my needs. Great price and it happily maxes out my connection every time.

mick4545 · 11 Nov 2010 at 19:41

Astraweb and NewsRover here. Astraweb is very good and really cheap. NewsRover does everything for you and is dead easy to use, however there is an annual indexing charge and a one off charge to use SSL.

Cheetah Designs · 21 Nov 2010 at 13:37

Surely if you are using Virgin Usenet servers they are logging what you download?

asim18 · 21 Nov 2010 at 17:29

Cheetah Designs said:
Surely if you are using Virgin Usenet servers they are logging what you download?

It isn't actually served by Virgin Media. It's outsourced to a company called Highwinds Media Group.

Garee · 26 Feb 2011 at 15:37

My Sky Broadband connect gets 13m/b download on speedtest.net however my Usenet speed is only 1.5m/b. I am using the Astraweb unlimited SSL sever.

Is this speed very slow and if so, can it be improved somehow?

stoke1863 · 26 Feb 2011 at 15:43

Garee said:
My Sky Broadband connect gets 13m/b download on speedtest.net however my Usenet speed is only 1.5m/b. I am using the Astraweb unlimited SSL sever.

Is this speed very slow and if so, can it be improved somehow?

sounds about right to me. Your connection is 13mb but you wont be able to download at that speed

Garee · 26 Feb 2011 at 15:44

stoke1863 said:
sounds about right to me. Your connection is 13mb but you wont be able to download at that speed

Ah okay. When I read people saying they had "maxed out thier connection" I assumed they meant thier download speed.

stoke1863 · 26 Feb 2011 at 15:46

Garee said:
Ah okay. When I read people saying they had "maxed out thier connection" I assumed they meant thier download speed.

1.5 mb is pretty much maxing your download speed for a 13mb connection

Rainmaker · 26 Feb 2011 at 15:57

Garee, you're confusing megaBITS (Mbps) and megaBYTES (MBps). 13 megaBITS per second (13Mb/sec) works out just over 1.5 megaBYTES per second (1.5MB/sec). So you are, in fact, pretty much maxing out your connection - just using different units to measure it.

If in fact you are only getting 1.5Mbps (rather than MB/sec) then you have a problem.

Garee · 26 Feb 2011 at 16:24

Rainmaker said:
Garee, you're confusing megaBITS (Mbps) and megaBYTES (MBps). 13 megaBITS per second (13Mb/sec) works out just over 1.5 megaBYTES per second (1.5MB/sec). So you are, in fact, pretty much maxing out your connection - just using different units to measure it.

If in fact you are only getting 1.5Mbps (rather than MB/sec) then you have a problem.

I understand now. Thanks!

CSA · 27 Feb 2011 at 10:10

i use astraweb/newzbin and grabit very happy with them,ive just tried sabnzbd and didnt like it at all so uninstalled it

one thing that annoys me with grabit is that if i use a SSL it wont download anything at all,ive tried

ssl.astraweb.com Ports 443 or 563

ssl-eu.astraweb.com Ports 443 or 563

and none of them work,as soon as i go back to the standard server it works fine ?

im on o2 if that makes a difference