Astraweb Review
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Astraweb- 749 days binary retention |
Click Here for Astraweb Special Pricing
Pricing Plans
- Astraweb Special – unlimited $11 a month
- Unlimited – $10 a month (1 Mbps rate limit)
- Block, 25 GB – $10
- Block, 180 GB – $25
Retention
- 749 Days of Binary Retention
- 676 Days of Text Retention
Plan Types
- Monthly Plans: Yes
- Block Plans: Yes
- Metered Plans: Yes
Misc
- Completion: 99%+
- Newsgroups: 90000
- Connections: Up to 20 connections
- SSL: Yes
- Payment Options: : PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and more
- Support Info: online support, quick replies
- Support Email: support@astraweb.com
News Server Addresses
- news.astraweb.com (standard, Non SSL)
- eu.news.astraweb.com (standard, Non SSL)
- ssl.astraweb.com (SSL)
- ssl-eu.astraweb.com ( Europe)
- ssl-us.astraweb.com ( USA)
Review Of Astraweb
Click Here for Astraweb Special Pricing
Astraweb with their high retention and low pricing really shook up the Usenet industry with their arrival in 2007.
Astraweb is based out of Singapore and is a Tier 1 provider meaning that they run their own servers. In most cases, it’s best that you choose to go with a Tier 1 provider unless you get Usenet for free from your ISP.
In our testing, there service has been fast and excellent. They have a free trial and while its limited to just 24 hours and your have to put down a deposit, it should nonetheless be enough time to be able to test what you need.
Astraweb has 675 days of binary retention and has been keeping close behind market leader Giganews. They offer 20 concurrent connections available with their unlimited account and 50 connections when you use a block account.
Newservers are located in both the USA and Europe so if you are located in either continent your connections speeds should be fast, in our test we were able to max out the 12 Mb connection giving about an average throughput of 1.5 MB/s. At no time in our testing did we find Astraweb to be slow.
Astraweb’s customer service appears to be good, we subscribed for the free trial and then unsubscribed 12 hours later with no issues and the response was prompt. No live chat but nonetheless the response was quick and professional.
In addition to unlimted plans, Astraweb offers block accounts which means you pay for a set quantity of bandwidth. This maybe a good option if you only occasionally use Usenet, however if you are power user then you will probably want the inexpensive $11/month unlimited plan. Block plans mean no time limits so no worries about your account / bandwidth disappearing.
We had no issues with completion as our tests indicated that binary files were not missing part so 99%+ appears to be accurate.
In summary, we highly recommend Astraweb for their variety of plans, excellent service and high retention. Definitely take advantage of their $11 a month / special if you are considering their service and remember you do have a 24 hour free trial just in case you aren’t happy.
Astraweb is at the top of our Best Usenet Providers list
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