BB provider news servers

Looking for some advice, I know Plusnet are supposed to be the best for
binary news groups(but I grudge paying the £70 activation fee as I'm new to
BB)
Could you guys give me your views on the next best to go with?????


Thanxs in advance

On 02 Oct 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Will" wrote:

>I grudge paying the £70 activation fee as I'm new to BB)

less than that, if you go for an annual contract.

>Could you guys give me your views on the next best to go with?????

You could look at Claranet (I must admit not to having checked the
newsgroups recently to know if there are any major problems of late)
but oh dear, they charge 50+VAT setup and 29.99 /month (inc VAT).

--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 22:53:35 +0100, poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 02 Oct 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Will" wrote:
>
>>I grudge paying the £70 activation fee as I'm new to BB)
>
>less than that, if you go for an annual contract.
>
>>Could you guys give me your views on the next best to go with?????
>
>You could look at Claranet (I must admit not to having checked the
>newsgroups recently to know if there are any major problems of late)
>but oh dear, they charge 50+VAT setup and 29.99 /month (inc VAT).

I would highly recommend www.usenetserver.com

Ther were patchy a while back with retention, but that now appears to
be sorted, with even the biggie DVD groups lasting for 20 days. Ive
not used Clara for quite some time, but I doubt its anywhere near
that. Also good if you have a good connection. I can pull near enough
full bandwidth with my 2MB line.

I also subscribe to easynews.com - which I had for "fill ins" for
missing posts and where rentention was lacking. I would now say they
are on a par - but without the DL limits imposed by easynews.

For the price, you wont get better than usenetserver, for no limits,
good retention and fast downloads.

You can take a trial with them. (Think you need to subscribe - but
they offer a refund if you cancel within a few days because you are
not happy with their service.)

No £50 startup fee, nor £30 a month charges either! (With the exhange
rate, i think it costs me about £8.50 per month. I should take up the
3 month option - since that reduces the costs even further!)





--
www.senaction.com

On 03 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, guv wrote:

>No £50 startup fee, nor £30 a month charges either!

of course not, as no 500 kbps service for your BT line !

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 01:45:47 +0100, poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 03 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, guv wrote:
>
>>No £50 startup fee, nor £30 a month charges either!
>
>of course not, as no 500 kbps service for your BT line !

Ah. So the price wasnt for a news service - but a change of ISP? A bit
drastic! I thought that Claras connection to its news servers was via
an addition subscription for unlimited downloads?




--
www.senaction.com

On 03 Oct 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, guv wrote:

>So the price wasnt for a news service - but a change of ISP?

No, the poster commented on a 70 pound setup fee, as a new ADSL user,
so this was a comparison, and like several others, Clara has a setup
fee of 50 +VAT and does not 'absorb it' for anyone.

>I thought that Claras connection to its news servers was via an
>addition subscription for unlimited downloads?

AFAIK, using Claranet one gets unlimited downloads. Using FreeUK
(at 7 pounds less a month) one only gets 10 GB (which includes the
headers, but someone could pay extra for Clara or another service).

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 12:04:47 +0100, poster <us-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>>So the price wasnt for a news service - but a change of ISP?
>
>No, the poster commented on a 70 pound setup fee, as a new ADSL user,
>so this was a comparison, and like several others, Clara has a setup
>fee of 50 +VAT and does not 'absorb it' for anyone.

Yeh. I read it that he was already a user. "New to broadband" !

>>I thought that Claras connection to its news servers was via an
>>addition subscription for unlimited downloads?
>
>AFAIK, using Claranet one gets unlimited downloads. Using FreeUK
>(at 7 pounds less a month) one only gets 10 GB (which includes the
>headers, but someone could pay extra for Clara or another service).

They have changed it then. I was looking to transfer to Clara at one
point. My logic was that they gave usenet inclusive, but when I read
the T&C it was very restricted and a payment of £10 a month was needed
for unlimited.

--
www.senaction.com

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 14:31:42 +0100, in uk.telecom.broadband,
guv <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>They have changed it then. I was looking to transfer to Clara at one
>point. My logic was that they gave usenet inclusive, but when I read
>the T&C it was very restricted and a payment of £10 a month was needed
>for unlimited.

Must admit with the price I had not looked at Claranet at all as an ISP in
the past 30 months, and the dispute with customers (over charges) in the
spring of 2002 was a PR disaster for Clara. I could find nothing which
suggests there's an additional fee for unlimited newsgroup downloading
(though FreeUK says 10 GB - NB not 10 GBP :-)
Newsgroups access (10 GB download per month)

I love the drawing on <http://www.uk.clara.net/homeaccess/broadband/>
which shows multiple PCs sharing a router, followed by their T+C doc
indicating only a single PC is expected to be used on the 500 kbps
account... However, the documents I have read are quite dated (a
mention of 500 exchanges having ADSL with further plans for the end
of 2002... there's still the mention of them having plans to sell
and support some ADSL hardware 'later this year' too :-)

<http://www.uk.clara.net/homeaccess/broadband/claraoffice_solo_faq.php>
(but note it descibes itself as Clara.home ADSL faq's)