Which usenet provider (longish)

[rz]

I'm looking to switch news providers, and wanted to get opinions of anyone here who particularly likes or dislikes any specific provider. Here's my situation:
Local Roadrunner provides access which is free and fast, but their retention time is only about 24 hours.
Been using athenanews (www.athenanews.com) out of England as a secondary provider. They are relatively cheap (something like $7/month for 2GB/day) and their retention is good (around 3 weeks for binaries). But I'm constantly losing connection to them. I thought the problem might be on my end, but I recently tried another service (Astraweb) and haven't had a single dropped connection. Here's what I've narrowed my choices down to:

Astraweb.com - different concept. Instead of paying a monthly fee, you pay for a certain chunk of content. I chose 25GB for $10. As soon as you hit the 25GB, you pay for another chunk. I've used it for a little while, and it seems to work ok.

Buzzardnews.com - Same concept as Astraweb, price is similar.

Newsguy.com - monthly plan ($10/month for 30GB/month). Instead of a daily limit, it's a monthly limit. Theoretically more expensive than athenanews, but your limit rolls over so if you don't use it all up in one month, whatever's left will be added to the following month. Also, your monthly limit increases the longer you are a subscriber. I am seriously considering this one.

Newshosting.com - has cheap unlimited monthly plan ($15/month). Highly regarded. I'm seriously considering this one too.

I looked at giganews, but decided it was too expensive. Their claim to fame is their outrageously long retention times, but I have never found the need to go back that far to find something.

Anyone else have an opinion? Is there something better out there? Or do you use any of the above and really like/dislike it?

[MacMagus]

> I looked at giganews, but decided it was too expensive. Their claim to fame is
> their outrageously long retention times, but I have never found the need to go
> back that far to find something.

It's more than just retention. Giganews has the largest collection of groups that I've ever encountered and they are the fastest by far. They also have decent customer service and an easy cancellation policy.

I only hit the groups a few times a year nowadays so I've taken to subscribing to Giganews for a month or two at a time and then canceling. They make it very easy.

[AllGold]

Although it might be a little biased, http://www.ngprovider.com/ has some useful comparisons and might be helpful.

[hal]

I've shopped the cheapies, but have always been dissatisfied - I do giganews.

[punkindrublik]

Giganews, Giganews, Giganews. $25/month for unlimited. They allow 10 connections and their retention is the best by far. You never know when you may need something and remmeber seeing it a while back but didn't download it. I use it all the time and have never had an issue.

[dotman]

giganews seems to be a fav. good retention. i'm grandfathered into newsguy, so keep that account. punk seems on cue here.

dot.

[chas_m]

I just RENT the damn porn. Who wants to keep it after a night anyway?

[rz]

yeah, I admit I do download some porn, but mostly I download concert videos and other stuff you can't get anywhere else.

I just double checked and it looks like I'm locked into athenanews for another 10 months or so. I stupidly signed up for a whole year, and they don't refund anything.

[pixelzombie]

buzzard news is $6.95 a month for 1.5 gigs a day, speed doesn't match giganews but it's not bad for 24 cents a day...

[DavidS]

I've used Newshosting for the past year or so for $15/month. If you pay them for a 6 or 12 month block, I believe it's cheaper. They only allow 4 connections, but that is usually fine. Their retention and group listing is good.

Very rarely over the last year have they had any connection issues. I recommend them.