Plusnet News Server, Any Good?

I am thinking of moving from AOL to Plusnet and was just wondering if anyone
had any experience of their news server. Is it reliable, how long are the
retention of binaries and are there any download limits or download speed
limits other than the limits of the broadband package I choose?

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:06:35 +0100, Phil surfed in from cyberspace:

> I am thinking of moving from AOL to Plusnet and was just wondering if
anyone
> had any experience of their news server. Is it reliable, how long are the
> retention of binaries and are there any download limits or download speed
> limits other than the limits of the broadband package I choose?

Personally I don't think much of their news server, I use NIN
(news.individual.net)
--
http://www.copelands.plus.com/val/

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:06:35 +0100, "Phil" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I am thinking of moving from AOL to Plusnet and was just wondering if anyone
>had any experience of their news server. Is it reliable, how long are the
>retention of binaries and are there any download limits or download speed
>limits other than the limits of the broadband package I choose?
>

I have no experience of AOL's news server, so don't know what to
compare with.

But IME, their news server is pretty good, by the standards of ISP run
servers.

There are no limits on downloading or speed. Binary retention is about
5-6 days. Text retention a lot longer.

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Inertia makes the world go round.

To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

The Plus Net news server is very good considering it's part of the package.
I'm getting 5-6 days retention and good completion in binaries & it is
possible to request additional groups thet they don't carry.
I'm using a premium package which gives me unrestricted acceess and a 1 meg
service.

When I used BT as my ISP I also paid Clara for a 20 GB/month news account,
but since joining Plus Net I didn't renew the Clara account because it was
no longer needed, so that's saved me about 50 quid/year.

To take full advantage of binary groups you need to dump Outlook Express and
get a news reader which decodes yEnc. Try News Rover

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)
says...

> Text retention a lot longer.

Text retention is 180 days.

Regards,
--
| Josh Berry.................Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support..................for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc.....................@ http://www.plus.net
+ ---- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet ---+

Aries in uk.telecom.broadband on 30 Sep 2004

> Personally I don't think much of their news server, I use NIN
> (news.individual.net)
>

no good for binaries though

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:06:35 +0100, "Phil" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I am thinking of moving from AOL to Plusnet and was just wondering if anyone
>had any experience of their news server. Is it reliable, how long are the
>retention of binaries and are there any download limits or download speed
>limits other than the limits of the broadband package I choose?
>

I'm a heavy Usenet user (previously with Pipex) and I think the
Plusnet server is pretty good in terms of speed, retention and
completion.

There is one big problem with it though that you should be aware of.
There are a lot of very popular binary newsgroups that Plusnet don't
carry. Don't be fooled by reports that Plusnet carry 60,000
newsgroups. They do, but a huge number of them are complete dross and
lots of popular ones are missing. Advertising that they carry a large
number of newsgroups is a classic marketing ploy by ISP's but it's a
completely useless measure of quality or even content. It doesn't
matter how good a server is if it doesn't carry the groups you tend to
use.

Also, don't be fooled by reports that Plusnet will add a missing group
if you make a request. They won't. They will fob you off by referring
you to a list maintained at ********** and tell you that you should
request that organisation to add the newsgroup. The reality is that it
is virtually impossible to get the list changed and especially so if
the group you want is in the 'alt' hierarchy (and the vast majority of
binary groups are).

So have a look at the list at the above link before you join Plusnet.
You may be disappointed. If you are also using a 'paid for' Usenet
service and you use your ISP server for fills then it might be better
to go for an ISP with a more comprehensive newsgroup list, even if the
server is slower.



Martin

On 4-Oct-2004, Martin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip> Also, don't be fooled by reports that Plusnet will add a missing
group
> if you make a request. They won't. They will fob you off by referring
> you to a list maintained at ********** and tell you that you should
> request that organisation to add the newsgroup. The reality is that it
> is virtually impossible to get the list changed and especially so if
> the group you want is in the 'alt' hierarchy (and the vast majority of
> binary groups are).<snip>

Speaking from experience PlusNet do add news groups to the list.
I requested they should add alt.binaries.cd.image.winapps and recieved a
reply that they would add it & indeed they did after about 3 days.

When I was with BT I subscribed to the Clara news server too, but with
PlusNet I no longer needed the Clara account.
There are reports around of people having problems with incomplete messages,
but it all works fine for me.

John.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 15:19:03 +0100, Martin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:06:35 +0100, "Phil" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>I am thinking of moving from AOL to Plusnet and was just wondering if anyone
>>had any experience of their news server. Is it reliable, how long are the
>>retention of binaries and are there any download limits or download speed
>>limits other than the limits of the broadband package I choose?
>>
>
>I'm a heavy Usenet user (previously with Pipex) and I think the
>Plusnet server is pretty good in terms of speed, retention and
>completion.
>
>There is one big problem with it though that you should be aware of.
>There are a lot of very popular binary newsgroups that Plusnet don't
>carry. Don't be fooled by reports that Plusnet carry 60,000
>newsgroups. They do, but a huge number of them are complete dross and
>lots of popular ones are missing. Advertising that they carry a large
>number of newsgroups is a classic marketing ploy by ISP's but it's a
>completely useless measure of quality or even content. It doesn't
>matter how good a server is if it doesn't carry the groups you tend to
>use.
>
>Also, don't be fooled by reports that Plusnet will add a missing group
>if you make a request. They won't. They will fob you off by referring
>you to a list maintained at ********** and tell you that you should
>request that organisation to add the newsgroup. The reality is that it
>is virtually impossible to get the list changed and especially so if
>the group you want is in the 'alt' hierarchy (and the vast majority of
>binary groups are).
>
>So have a look at the list at the above link before you join Plusnet.
>You may be disappointed. If you are also using a 'paid for' Usenet
>service and you use your ISP server for fills then it might be better
>to go for an ISP with a more comprehensive newsgroup list, even if the
>server is slower.
>
>
>
>Martin

Hi Martin,

I believe Ian has answered your query on this in the PlusNet forum:

"Martin,

I'm not sure what else we can say to this... If you can suggest a
different source of an Active file we will be happy to look into
implementing it. Usenet is a public service, with publically defined
groups and rules and the ISC list is recognised generally as being
pretty definitive. The problem here is not one of an unwillingness to
help. I will gladly add the groups, but because our peers also use the
ISC list, no articles will ever be offered for these groups.

As you actually might expect, the conversations and details of making
group updates happen in Usenet itself - Have a read of any of the
following:

alt.config
control.newgroup
control.rmgroup
news.admin.hierarchies
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups

I would add that Newsguy (Who you state) give the same advice here:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...&output=gplain

<snip>

Regards,

Ian"

kind regards

Luke
--
| Luke Horwath Broadband Solutions
| Comms team for Home & Business
| PlusNet Plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----+

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 15:48:25 GMT, "john" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>Speaking from experience PlusNet do add news groups to the list.
>I requested they should add alt.binaries.cd.image.winapps and recieved a
>reply that they would add it & indeed they did after about 3 days.

I think you'll find that the group you requested was already on the
ISC list at ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/active . I'm talking
about popular binary groups that are not on that list.



Martin