Re: Astraweb
 

Keep us informed dude :)

Re: Astraweb
 

Will do :tu: i have to finish this months subscription first. Not willing to pay for service from both suppliers in 1 month. I am daft but not that daft :LOL:

Re: Astraweb
 

Giganews reseller so should be ok.

7 19 ms 15 ms 15 ms amst-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.175.6]
8 17 ms 19 ms 15 ms 216-196-108-117.ams.giganews.com [216.196.108.117]
9 18 ms 15 ms 15 ms news.supernews.com [138.199.67.30]

Re: Astraweb
 

I was actually considering that. Ive had a ticket raised with astra since early December to which I have not had a reply since around the 20th. Ive asked if I would get a refund if I canceled now on the grounds of crap service but I dont expect a reply. I think they have screwed themselves trying to keep up retention wise with Giganews. 350 days is fine if its proper so lets hope supernews can supply what they offer

Re: Astraweb
 

It might be that they are just victims of their own success ... didnt they have a special offer during the summer/autumn where they had an $8 a month deal when you paid for some months in advance?

Can anyone remind me what newsgroup host VM use?

/edit
Bloody hell, giganews are now saying they have 522 days retention!!

looking at http://www.newsgroupservers.net/ now, they say this about astra:
Astranews is something of an enigma wrapped in mystery surrounded by styrofoam peanuts. We've been tying to get in contact with them to learn more about their operation, but so far have had no luck. Their service has had intermittent disruptions over the years. Sometimes their website is slow or unresponsive. But they have a loyal following of subscribers. They certainly have low prices. Be careful of their unlimited plans though - the entry level newsgroup service rate speed limits you to 1Mbit / sec - OK for dial up or old DSL, but not for cable modem users.

To the best of our knowledge they run their own backend and front end, relying on no outside services other than to peer with the major providers to get their messages.

Re: Astraweb
 

Re: Astraweb
 

I think Giganews can afford to have the storage on good servers whereas Astraweb it appears ( to me anyway) to shift their older data onto lesser machines. They should have have played keep up with the Jones's

Chances are I will be shifting to supernews once Mr Black lets us know if they are any good lol

Re: Astraweb
 

Seems i am not the only one having problems with Astraweb. After raising several tickets with them and not finding an answer they decedied to point the finger at my ISP (VM) with their traffic management but am i right in saying Vm do not have tm on there 50mb bb?

Anyway i canceled wih Astraweb and went onto Supernews as mentioned above and downloading both the same files i get to max out my connection on Supernews but not Astraweb (surprise)


For anyone wanting to sign to Supernews i found an unlimited SSL for $9.99 (slightly cheaper than Astraweb)


http://www.supernews.com/superspecial.html


So far have not had any issues :D

Re: Astraweb
 

my Astraweb billing rollover is 5th Feb so ill be going to supernews :)

Re: Astraweb
 

as above maxed out 50meg connection no problems in belfast. will have a go at some older stuff to see if the files are as flaky as people make out and report back. i have no complaints and $11 a month is hard to beat.

Re: Astraweb
 

Thanks, used this and was downloading nicely in 30 minutes ;) (paid by paypal, 10 connections SSL on port 443)

Re: Astraweb
 

well after yet another 4 gig of wasted bandwidth I took the plunge and signed upto supernews and tried the same file dated 3rd september last year and its complete on Supernews so bye bye Astraweb and bye bye and recommendation I used to give you

Re: Astraweb
 

26 of jan and then i am off to supernews

Re: Astraweb
 

yeah I couldnt handle the crap anymore lol £6.31 its just cost me

Re: Astraweb
 

Also having the same problems with Astraweb service, constant disconnections and timeouts/errors.

Restarting the client doesnt fix it, its crawling along with speeds also, support come back and state "it happens sometimes" but it keeps on happening!

So what does everyone reckon to this supernews lot?

Any good? How do I cancel the astraweb one?