Sonic News Review
Last Updated: Feb 16, 2021
Sonic News' website is hopelessly out of date
Note:
While this Usenet Provider is still active, we have to mention that their service and their website itself is quite outdated. Do check out our top Usenet providers for better service.
Deals / Special Offer / Discounted Pricing
There are no special deals or discounted pricing offered by Sonic-News.
Free Trial
Sonic-News does not offer any free trial.
Plan / Price Offerings
They offer only metered option, in other words, there is no unlimited bandwidth option available. The pricing is as follows:
- 500 MB/day: $3.99
- 1200 MB/day: $7.50
- 3000 MB/day: $15.00
- 8000 MB/day: $29.00
Connection Speeds / Server Locations
We test the speed of Sonic-News, but according to other reviews, it was standard.
There are number of servers available, located both in North America and Europe. Each server has its own specifications so let’s examine what these are:
- news.sonic-news.com (Chicago): the speed cap depends on the user’s subscription level, 12 connections are available, the server is using NNTP ports 119 or 80 and SSL ports 563 or 443
- alt.sonic-news.com (Amsterdam): unused credits accumulate, there is a daily download allowance, there is no speed cap, 12 connections are available as well, the server is using NNTP ports 119, 23, 80, 443, and 8080 and SSL port 563
- east.sonic-news.com (Atlanta) and euro.sonic-news.com (Amsterdam): unused credits accumulate, there is a daily download allowance, article numbering is synchronized with each other, 20 connections are available, there is no speed cap, the server is using NNTP ports 119 or 443, SSL is not available
- post.sonic-news.com (Chicago): this is their own unlogged, anonymous, posting-only server, it requires generating a unique login (which is not associated with the user’s primary account or any personal information), NNTP port is 119 and SSL ports are 563 or 443
Technical Notes
Privacy
They were committed to never collect or retain IP addresses, groups accessed, articles downloaded, search requests or any other personal information, except the information that is essential for their services to operate regularly.
Newsgroups
Currently, 55.000 groups are available and the groups themselves are automatically added when they reach a certain amount of posting activity. The name of the group is responsibility of the user who created the group and the activity that occurs within certain group is responsibility on the groups participants. The complete list of available newsgroups is provided through a group search option.
Quality of Service
Binary retention is up to 120 days for NZB files. Text retention is up to 90 days. The completion rate is unknown.
Customer Service
Customer service support via email only.
Conclusion
The retention rates are low and the prices are not competitive, we recommend you check out our list of the Best Usenet Providers.
