Usenet Providers

This is a (probably incomplete) list of Usenet providers, in alphabetical order. Included are pay-access Usenet providers who sell accounts to individuals, free providers, a few web-based services, and shell-account providers. Providers who do only outsourcing but do not sell individual accounts are not included. Presence here should not be taken as an endorsement, and lack of presence here should not be taken as lack of endorsement. If you run a Usenet service, and you're not listed here, or the information is incorrect, contact me.

All prices below are the month-to-month prices, not reflecting any discounts for long-term prepayment, and are in US dollars, unless otherwise noted.

If you were planning to email me to ask me which service I recommend, please don't. I am currently employed by one of the below providers, so I do not give recommendations as I would be biased.

Airnews
Base pricing of $9.95/month for 300k access, with faster speeds and a cheaper no-binaries account available. Service level tops out at 4 megabit/sec with 6 connections available and no download limit at all, for $99.95/month, including an email account as well.
AllTheNewsgroups
Service offered by Voicenet. Starts at $5.95 for 2 gig/month, or $9.95 for 10 gig/month, with higher limits available.
Altopia
Claim to fame is being “uncensored,” meaning no cancels, no spam filtering, and no newsgroups removed no matter how bogus. Tiered pricing according to the download speed you want. Starts at $6/month for a no-binaries account, and $12/month for full access at 32k speed.
Archives News Service
Offers NNTP and Web (using DNewsWeb) access for $6.95 per month. Web site is apparently currently down (March 2004).
Astraweb
Unlimited downloads based on speed limit, or capped downloads with no speed limit. $10/month gets you unlimited volume at a 600k speed limit, $15/month for 2M speed. Metered plans start at $10 for 25 gigs, with the account not expiring until you use up the quota.
Buzzard News
Service offered by California Prime Line. Starts at $6.95/month, with a limit of either 1.5 gigs/day or 20 gigs/month. Offers plans with unlimited downloads at high speed. Also offers a free web-based service (registration required).
Easynews
Offers NNTP access as well as a web-based interface with pre-decoded files from binary groups. $9.98 for one month or 6 gigs of downloads, whichever comes first. Confusingly, they only count 75% of your NNTP downloads toward the limit (attempting to compensate for encoding overhead), so the limit for NNTP is actually 8 gigs/month. Headers are not counted. Website includes interesting status reports about the service, including pictures of their equipment, though these have not been updated recently. Currently among the longest binary retention available. Not to be confused with easynews.de, easynews.net, or EasyUsenet, none of which are related to this service.
Eskimo North
Eskimo North sells remote-access shell accounts that also include NNTP access to their full-feed news server. Their shell services are among the more extensive still available these days, including email, webspace, ftp space, and mailing lists. $9/month.
Giganews Usenet
Tiered pricing according to download volume, starting at $4.99 for a 5 gig monthly limit. Unlimited accounts are also available. Free Personal VPN, Mimo Usenet Browser for Diamond level accounts. Long retention ( days), aggressive pricing. 256 bit SSL encryption, and up to 50 simultaneous connections. Support is available 24/7.
Gradwell
Located in the UK, Gradwell offers text-only Usenet service for 20 UKP per year.
GUBA
The Gigantic Usenet Binaries Archive stores pictures and videos from Usenet groups and makes them available and searchable via a web interface. $10/month.
Individual.net
DFN-CIS (FU Berlin)
This free (registration required), text-only Usenet service was formerly known as DFN-CIS or FU Berlin. It is operated by Freie Universität Berlin, in Germany. They require a valid email address on all posts and provide no binary groups.
Meganetnews
Meganetnews offers accounts with pricing starting at $5.95/month with a 100 meg/day download limit, up to $64.95/month for 5 gigs/day. Also offers a web interface, and SSL access. Their association with NNTPServer is reported to be a managed hosting arrangement; they do not use the same servers as the resellers.
Newscene
Located in Omaha, but has a server on the US east coast and one returning soon on the west coast. $12.99/month for a 5 gig/month download limit, with higher limits available. Headers are not counted. Will sell speed-capped, unlimited accounts on special request. Newscene's service appears to be resold by Premium News, with web pages and pricing in German.
Newsfeeds
Advertises uncensored access and anonymous posting ability. Has several different servers including “specialized” servers for such things as binaries, mp3s, etc. $9.95/month for basic access; $19.95/month for “premium” access including all the various specialized servers. There are daily per-server download limits, which vary from one server to another and depending on which level of service you purchase. They have a chart detailing their convoluted range of options here. Note that the same level of “anonymity” is offered by many of the other premium providers. For binary users, taking advantage of this service pretty much requires a multi-server binary downloader. Users report that moderated groups are not configured correctly. Binaries.net and Usenet.com appear to be Newsfeeds.com operating under different names.
Newsfeeds.com Resellers
There are a number of companies reselling Newsfeeds.com service. Reseller accounts are download-limited, but the limits (and prices) will vary from one reseller to another, so shop around. Newsfeeds resellers include: BillyNews, Sucknews.com, TheNewsgroups.com, UncensoredNewsfeed.com (aka Supernewsfeed.com, aka Netfeeds.net, aka XXXNewsfeed), Usenet-access.com, XXXNetnews.com, and Resellers Alibis.com, Budgetnews, and UsenetNewsServer.Com still offer access to all of the "main" Newsfeeds servers.
Newshosting
Provides a 20 GB account, for $10/month; and a full-access account with 30 simultaneous connections, no monthly gb limit for $14.99/month. A comparable 60 simultaneous connection account is $19.99/month TitanNews, UsenetGuide, and AtlantisNews all appear to be reselling Newshosting service.
Newsguy
$12.00/6 months for “basic” access 3 gig/month download limit), and $189.95/year or $19.95/month for “extra” access with a no gig/month limit. NNTPJunkie appears to be reselling Newsguy service for $9.95/month with a 30 gig/month limit, or $14.95/month for unlimited access.
NewsRanger
Web-based Usenet access for $2.95 for 5 days, and then $4.95 per month thereafter. No longer giving out free accounts. No access to alt.binaries groups.
Newsreader.com
Offers both web-based access and NNTP access. The web interface is designed to be a “good newsreader” rather than a “good website.” Binaries are decoded inline. $8.95/month.
News-Service
Located in Amsterdam. 7 Euros per month with a 5 gig/month limit. This service is also resold by Premium Usenet (£6 per month and up), NewsDome ($9.95/month for 10 gigs)
Newsville
Service offered by Virtual Interactive Center. $11.95/month for unlimited service.
NNTPServer
NNTPServer is outsourcing-only (no individual accounts), but individual accounts there are sold by a number of resellers. The reseller arrangements are somewhat mysterious, including straight reselling arrangements, managed hosting, and server colocation, but the various resellers usually pretend to be running their own servers and it is difficult to determine whether they do in fact have their own servers or are selling access to NNTPServer's machines. NNTPServer has server farms on the US east and west coasts. Services which appear or are known to be involved with NNTPServer include:
BubbaNews
Web-based and NNTP, $9.95/month, also with a free account option.
NewsDome
Also resells News-service.com. Starts at $5.95/month for 250 megs/day. Also does business as News4u2, with different price packages.
OnlyNews
$7.95/month, 250 meg/day limit.
SonicNews
$3.99/month for 100 megs/day, higher limits available. Reported to be a managed hosting arrangement with NNTPServer.
TeraNews
Free (with $3.95 setup fee) for 50 megs/day, $7.95/month for 250 megs/day.
NuthinButNews
Offers a variety of pricing options according to daily download limits and the number of simultaneous streams allowed. Starts at $5.95/month for a 50 meg/day limit with 3 streams, or $9.95/month for 100 meg/day. Also has a free, non-binary web-based interface. A DNewsWeb interface including binary groups is also provided for subscribers.
Nyx
Nyx offers free Unix shell accouts which include newsreading access. They don't provide NNTP access to their news server, but if you are a shell user this could be an option. Also includes email and web space. Requires identification to get an account.
Power Usenet
With binary retention of days, Power Usenet newsgroups have one of the longest retention times in the world. Their service comes with a free trial and 256 bit SSL encryption is an option. Both account options come with unlimited downloads.
Rhino Newsgroups
All accounts come with 200 day binary retention. Accounts starting at $9.99. An inexpensive top-tier Usenet provider.
Supernews Usenet
Supernews has been one of the most respected and reliable Usenet providers for many years. They currently have days of binary retention. Their account includes unlimited downloads and 256 bit SSL encryption and is priced AT $11.99/month. They are currently offering a 3 day/10 GB trial period.
Triton
$25 for 3 months, with no monthly accounts available. Website is sparse with information, but doesn't mention any download limits.
Usenet.net
All accounts come with free trials and unlimited downloads. Binary retention is days, making it one of the highest retention Usenet providers available. 256 bit SSL encryption and 30 simultaneous connections come with their top account. Prices start at $14.99.
Usenet Binaries
This is a web-based service for downloading pre-decoded binaries from Usenet groups. Picture groups can be viewed as thumbnails. $9.95/month for full unlimited access. A free account is available to try out the service, with a 3 meg/day download limit.
Usenet Replayer
Free, web-based Usenet access.
UsenetServer
Offering unlimited downloads, speed limited to 2 megabits per second, for $14.95/month. Their web-based service at Webusenet.com appears to have been discontinued. The unlimited accounts at Forté are resold from Usenetserver, and Randori accounts now are as well.

A comparison table of some providers, including price, download limits, and connection limits, can be found here.

Another list of Usenet providers (which also includes outsourcing and feed providers) can be found here.

If you were planning to email me to ask me which service I recommend, please don't. I am currently employed by one of the above providers, so I do not give recommendations as I would be biased.

Usenet stuff  |  Providers  |  by Jeremy Nixon, copyright © 2003  |  updated 22 June 2004