Virgin Blocking My Usenet

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 12:13

I recently joined virgin media for the 50mb service, i soon discovered that my usenet was blocked. If i wait 15 mins it eventually connects and downloads but the speed is only about 28mb. I have tried the 3 different ports used for Usenetnow and SSL. Same problem. Is there a solution to getting an instant connection and at full speed?

Amleto · 31 May 2014 at 12:16

what have you done to rule out your usenet provider?

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 12:19

Amleto said:
what have you done to rule out your usenet provider?

nothing, i done a little searching and read about virgin blocking or throttling usenet. So i thought this was the obvious choice. What should i do re my usenet provider Usenetnow?

Muffin` · 31 May 2014 at 12:21

What ports? I'm on virgin and it's fine.

also add news.virginmedia.com on 119 for upto 30 day old articles.

edit*

UseNetNow is on Readnews so try a free Highwinds, AstraWeb, Tweaknews or Giganews account to compare speeds.

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 12:54

Muffin` said:
What ports? I'm on virgin and it's fine.

also add news.virginmedia.com on 119 for upto 30 day old articles.

edit*

UseNetNow is on Readnews so try a free Highwinds, AstraWeb, Tweaknews or Giganews account to compare speeds.

I tried these 3 SSL Ports: 443, 563, 5563

Ok i tried virgin usenet and i got 52mb. i have signed up for a free trial of tweaknews. I gues this proves its nothing to do with virgin, im sorry virgin

ElliorR · 31 May 2014 at 13:11

This thread is virgin on the ridiculous.

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 13:20

With articles less than 30 days old i get 52mb, same articles are still very poor using my original Usenet now and the Tweaknews trial. With tweaknews and at best i got 18mb using SSL on port 445, the rest were 5mb.

benjii · 31 May 2014 at 13:36

Can you connect to your router via cat5/6 cable? You should try putting it in modem mode and downloading then.

I have an issue with half speed FTP transfers while wired in router mode, as soon as I switch to modem mode I get full speeds. I've had discussions on the forum and had engineers round and none were able to figure it out. Point is, modem mode fixes my problem.

Rainmaker · 31 May 2014 at 13:47

sare^baw's said:
With articles less than 30 days old i get 52mb, same articles are still very poor using my original Usenet now and the Tweaknews trial. With tweaknews and at best i got 18mb using SSL on port 445, the rest were 5mb.

Try Supernews. It's run by the same company as Giganews but without the silly added extras (and three times cheaper).

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 15:19

benjii said:
Can you connect to your router via cat5/6 cable? You should try putting it in modem mode and downloading then.

I have an issue with half speed FTP transfers while wired in router mode, as soon as I switch to modem mode I get full speeds. I've had discussions on the forum and had engineers round and none were able to figure it out. Point is, modem mode fixes my problem.

cheers mate but the modem mode did nothing for me.

Rainmaker said:
Try Supernews. It's run by the same company as Giganews but without the silly added extras (and three times cheaper).

Supernews only have a 3 day trial and you have to fully sign up for the trial. Ill pass, these things can end up being more hassle than they are worth to cancel.

Rainmaker · 31 May 2014 at 15:56

sare^baw's said:
Supernews only have a 3 day trial and you have to fully sign up for the trial. Ill pass, these things can end up being more hassle than they are worth to cancel.

Unfortunately, as you're discovering, generally the proper tier 1 providers don't have trial periods. Those who do are generally lower down the scale and won't provide the bandwidth you're looking for. Before I got a VPN and jumped to torrents, I used Usenet for 12+ years and Supernews always saturated my line 24/7 (including 100Mbps as it was at the time on VM).

Astraweb are another tier 1 provider but they are a little more flaky than Supernews (though the latter are, or at least were, faster at DMCA). You could always try a Highwinds (Newshosting et al) provider as they're the other tier 1 provider. After that you're looking at small independent Euro NSPs or a thousand resellers of the previous three companies.

In short, Usenet costs money and Supernews is likely your best bet. It's up to you though. For half that price a month you could buy a decent VPN and not worry about articles disappearing.

One · 31 May 2014 at 16:27

I'm on virgin with Astraweb. Not had an issue

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.multicards.html

Only $1.01 more than supernews too.

One · 31 May 2014 at 16:31

Rainmaker said:
For half that price a month you could buy a decent VPN and not worry about articles disappearing.

Talk to me.

sare^baw's · 31 May 2014 at 17:04

Ok i signed up for supernews, with and without SSL and using the eu and .com address i only get about 5mb download speed.

Something is wrong virgin usenet is 52mb but anything else is rubbish.

Werewolf · 31 May 2014 at 21:07

That's odd, I can pretty much max out my connection to Newsdemon and tweaknews (and VM's servers) at times, generally 50mb is about the lowest i'll get, often it's 80mb+ with just two connections and I sometimes have to drop a connection to lower the speed from maxing out my connection (120mbish).

Morfik · 31 May 2014 at 22:54

Use SSL port 563, the other is throttled.

Rainmaker · 1 Jun 2014 at 12:46

One said:
Talk to me.

Trust message sent.

Rainmaker · 1 Jun 2014 at 12:47

sare^baw's said:
Ok i signed up for supernews, with and without SSL and using the eu and .com address i only get about 5mb download speed.

Something is wrong virgin usenet is 52mb but anything else is rubbish.

How many connections are you using to the servers? Try 10 or 15 and report back. What software are you using to connect?

sare^baw's · 1 Jun 2014 at 14:59

Rainmaker said:
How many connections are you using to the servers? Try 10 or 15 and report back. What software are you using to connect?

Im using newsleecher and i have each server set at 15 connections.

supernews eu - ssl 563 23mb - ssl 443 52mb

supernews .com - ssl 563 9mb - ssl 443 52mb

tweaknews - ssl 563 6mb - ssl 443 20mb

virgin port 119 52mb

usenetnow eu - ssl 563 43mb - ssl 443 42mb

usenetnow us - ssl 563 36mb - ssl 443 42mb

So supernews is the only one getting 52mb however it was not yesterday, i cant remember is i tried port 443 yesterday. Usenetnow is performing better today.

Rainmaker · 1 Jun 2014 at 15:59

sare^baw's said:
Im using newsleecher and i have each server set at 15 connections.

supernews eu - ssl 563 23mb - ssl 443 52mb

supernews .com - ssl 563 9mb - ssl 443 52mb

tweaknews - ssl 563 6mb - ssl 443 20mb

virgin port 119 52mb

usenetnow eu - ssl 563 43mb - ssl 443 42mb

usenetnow us - ssl 563 36mb - ssl 443 42mb

So supernews is the only one getting 52mb however it was not yesterday, i cant remember is i tried port 443 yesterday. Usenetnow is performing better today.

It seems like you're being affected by congestion in your area, or perhaps VM's NNTP throttling (unlikely given you're using SSL).