UsenetServer has been providing basic Usenet newsgroup access for a long time. They provide a simple no-frills service with good binary retention, article completion and a great price. For new users, the special offer available from this site of $95.40/year ($7.95/month) is the least expensive plan with unlimited NNTP access that I have been able to find.

If you want to use their service you will need to provide your own news reader application. In addition depending on the news reader software you choose you may have to setup additional applications for working with binaries.

Account Features

Free Trial - Usenetserver provides a 14-day free trial with up to 10GB of data downloaded from their usenet newsgroup servers.

Download Speed - I tested downloads using my High-Speed Plus account to download an ISO of a DVD from their newsgroup servers. I was very pleased to see that UsenetServer was able to keep my connection maxed out during my entire 4GB download test.

Global header search - UsenetServer provides a simple web-based interface that allows their members to search for articles on their newsgroup servers using the subject line. The interface provides the user with various filtering options to limit the number of results returned based on group, author and a date range when articles were posted. When the user is satisfied with the results of a search they can generate an NZB file to download all of their articles.

Multiple NNTP Server Farms - Usenetserver has newsgroup servers in the United States and Europe. This allows users to select the server farm which provides them with the best download speeds.

Alternate Ports - UsenetServer allows users to connect to their servers on multiple ports to help avoid bandwidth throttling by users ISP. Un-encrypted access is possible on ports 20(ftp), 23(telnet), 25(smtp), 119(nntp), 3128(squid), 7000, 8000 and 9000. Encrypted connections can be made via 443(https), 563(nntps) and 8080.

Peering - UsenetServer has set up peering relationships with all of the major NNTP providers to help ensure the best possible completion rates, achieving greater then 99% completion.

Redundency - UsenetServer newgroup server farms use advanced content redundancy features to guarantee that articles are not lost.

Personal Privacy

Anonymous downloads - Usenetserver does not log what newsgroups or articles you are downloading

256-bit SSL encryption - UsenetServer provides encrypted connections using 256-bit SSL, preventing your ISP from seeing what newsgroups and articles you are viewing.

Binary article retention - UsenetServer has days retention across binary newsgroups