Free Usenet Trial Offers
Here is a list of the latest and best free trial offers for our top ranked USENET providers.
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You’ve probably heard that nothing good comes for free, but, where USENET is concerned, that’s not always the case. In fact, there are some very good free USENET options out there, but they are limited in features and capabilities compared to what you can get from a paid service.
What follows is some basic advice about getting free USENET access. More detailed information can be found at the bottom of the page, after our listings of the free trial offers that our favorite USENET providers offer.
Advice Regarding Free USENET Access
- You might be paying for USENET already. Check with your university or your ISP–or both–and see if it’s included with your Internet access. It very well might be, though it’s probably limited in capabilities.
- You can check out our list of Free USENET to get more options.
- Don’t expect your free USENET access to be on the same level as that which subscription providers offer.
Advice Regarding Free USENET Trial Accounts
- Be sure to check the details; some trial accounts are limited by days and some are limited by data
- Read our reviews of the Best USENET Providers with Free Trials, we already did the research for you
- You can also check out our Complete List of Free USENET Trial Accounts for more information.
Advice Regarding Free USENET Newsreaders
- A lot of free USENET newsreaders are very robust products
- Take a look at all the options to see what you need, your USENET subscription might come with an included newsreader
- Read our reviews of newsreaders before you download; we give detailed information on their capabilities and features
- If you can’t find something free that suits your needs, paid newsreaders seldom cost more than $20, so even the paid versions are not expensive; see our list of the Best USENET Clients for more information
Smart Tips for Finding Free USENET Access
Here are some more detailed tips for finding free USENET access. Remember to check our list of Best USENET providers with Free Trial Offers first, as those are almost always going to be better than what you’ll get from your university or ISP.
Check with your University
Ask your university’s IT department whether or not USENET service is included with your account. One thing to keep in mind about free USENET access through your university is that there are usually strict data download limits on these accounts and, more over, binary downloads might not even be allowed. USENET isn’t as heavily used as it once was–though it is coming back in a big way lately–so it’s not as common as it used to be for colleges to offer it to their students. It’s still worth it to ask, however.
Ask Your ISP
Once upon a time, USENET access was more-or-less standard with Internet service, but that’s not the case anymore. Today, most ISPs don’t offer newsgroup access, but some offer a limited form for their customers. Again, these services might not allow you to download binaries and might have very strict data limitations, so be aware that subscription services will almost always beat out what your ISP might offer for free.
USENET Newsreaders Are Free
The best USENET newsreaders generally are free–they’re open-source projects, in most cases–so there are plenty of options to choose from that don’t cost a dime. You can take a look at our top picks for newsreaders to get more information on this. Some newsreaders, such as NZBGet and SABnzbd are cross-platform in addition to being free, so be sure to look for free options before you pay for a newsreader.
You Get What You Pay For
Running a USENET service is not cheap. There are server farms involved, bandwidth requirements are very high, all those servers use a lot of electricity, and these services need to employ people with very advanced technical skills to maintain their hardware and software. That being the case, paid USENET services will usually be much better, faster, and more flexible than free services. SSL connections might not be available on free services, either, and that’s a big security risk. However, some companies offer free USENET access as a way to attract new customers, so look for paid services with a free option to test them out before you buy.
Free Trial Offers Are Common
Most of our best providers let you try their service before you buy it and we highly encourage you to take advantage of these offers. It’s not hard to switch to a different free trial if you’re not happy with the first. Most good USENET providers only charge around $10 per month–often a bit less–and, after you get a taste of what they have to offer, you’re almost certain to want to sign up.
Look for Special Offers
We do sometimes get special offers and we like to share them with our readers. Bookmark our website and/or signup for our mailing list, because some of our best providers will show up on this page from time to time. You can also sign up for our mailing list. We never spam and, in most cases, you’ll only get a few emails from us per year. We make our emails worth your while by sending relevant industry information and special offers when we have them available.
Sometimes You Get What You Pay For
As children we have all heard one elder or another say The best things in life are free. And at times, in many situations this is so absolutely true. But as kids we also heard the quote Well, you get what you pay for, and these days, never has this been more true. Unfortunately, the last statement applies more than the first in the case of Usenet access.
A Blast From The Past
Most internet providers would give really good Usenet newsgroup access to their customers at no additional charge a few years ago. ISP’s like Comcast, Verizon, and AOL kept their own news servers for their customers who liked to access Usenet newsgroups. The service, reliability, security and speed was great for the time..
The Evolution Of Usenet
As Usenet evolved, so did the sizes of the files that were being exchanged among the usenet newsgroup members. In 2004 one of the biggest Usenet providers at the time, Verizon, announced that due to bandwidth issues, they would be removing no less than 8 of the largest binary newsgroups from their servers. Following this , in 2008, N.Y. Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo launched a major child porn campaign aimed at the Usenet community. As a result of this, many ISP’s started restricting, and in some cases, going as far as to eliminate Usenet access alltogether.
The De-Evolution Of Usenet
And thus began what we here at Usenet Reviews like to call The Golden Era Of Usenet. The golden era because the infusion of financial innovation, and the resultant migration to the premium Usenet providers due to the losses and attacks, served to push some of the best developers, and providers to come up with the Usenet that is available today. A network that will let you transfer any files you have, at any speed you want, with the assurance that everything you do is completely private, and secure.
ISP or University Usenet Access
Today, a few of the ISP’s still give you access to their newsgroup servers, many do not have them anymore. Many Universities and Colleges in the U.S. both public and private, offer Usenet access. But accessing these freebie newsgroup servers is a hit-n-miss thing. Some of the servers may have okay speed, but the ones we have found in the past few weeks haven’t. You should be able to find out if your ISP has a server by asking, or a search often can find them.
ISP Throttling w/ Free Accounts
The problem with that access though, is that ISP’s often tamper with your connection to their server, (choke, throttling,) this ISP throttled our connection, (Even our slow dial up connection,) and binary newsgroups were extremely limited…only a few hundred at best, and a retention that is apparently short, (we didn’t find anything older than 580 days,) was nowhere to be found. But such is often the case with the freebie Usenet services provided by Universities and ISP’s.
Usenet Free Trial Accounts
Almost all Usenet providers will allow you access on their servers for a trial period. This trial may be limited in days, GB’s, or both. Some have special functions in their browsers and portals disabled, so be sure to watch out for these limitations. But for the most part, with free trial access, you will receive the exact same thing as the paying customer, and why not. They are trying to convince you to purchase their Usenet package, so they must put their best foot forward.
Free Usenet Trial with no Credit Card
You are going to be hard pressed to find a Usenet free trial offer with no credit card required. Think about this from the perspective of the Usenet provider, if they allow people to signup for free account with no sort of verification then their Usenet service will get overrun with teenage leechers who just want something for free and will keep generating fake names, etc.
By having some sort of verification, Usenet service provider protect themselves from continued abusers of the system.If you want continued free, unlimited bandwidth and high quality Usenet access you will have to pay at least a minimums of $8 a month. Not too much for such a potentially great amount of data that one can download.
All of these top Usenet providers listed above have free trial period which if you are not trying to game the system function just like a no credit card free trial offer.
Compare Usenet Free Trial Offers
Check it out and compare a free trial of Usenet from one of our providers listed above against any ISP’s or University access, we think the difference will surprise you, it did us.