Though many people turn to Bit Torrent to slake their thirst for downloadable content, there are many others who turn to Usenet. If you’re new to Usenet, it can be a challenge getting started because you likely won’t know which provider to go through. Usenet is different than Bit Torrent because you generally have to pay for the service, there can be caps on how much data you download in a given time period, and the downloads can be faster since you are downloading content from a server instead of a P2P cloud.
The Usenet provider that we’re going to talk about today is called UseNeXT, and they’ll give you everything you need to start downloading binary files.
Price:
Most Bit Torrent users are accustomed to free downloads, but Usenet services generally cost money. UseNeXT offers three different plans, and the main difference between these plans is how much data you can download per month. The first plan only costs $11.28 per month, but it only allows you to download 30 GB worth of content each month. Next, the second plan will allow you download up to 80 GB of data per month at only $16.94. Lastly, for users who need access to a lot of content, $28.28 per month will give you access to 250GB.
But what happens if you go over your data limit? Well, if you want you can choose to eat into your next month’s data limit. In addition, there is a mode that will allow you to download data for free, but speeds in this mode are intentionally terrible. We’re talking rates as slow as .02MBps.
Lastly, if you just want to test the waters before making a commitment, then UseNeXT will provide you with a 14 day free trial that will allow you to download up to 300GB.
Features:
UseNeXT servers are different from Bit Torrent because they only host files for finite timespans. With the UseNeXT servers, files are hosted between 1,538 and 1,935 days at a time. Also realize that UseNeXT provides a very fast service. Their servers are located in 6 separate server farms, but it seems that they are mostly contained in the US and Europe. Also, you’ll find sometimes with Bit Torrent trackers that have inadequate numbers of seeders that your downloads will sometimes hang or fail to complete. UseNeXT claims that they have a 99.9% completion rate for users who download their files.
Security:
One advantage you have with Usenet as opposed to Bit Torrent is that you can leverage secure connections since you are downloading from a server instead of peer devices. UseNeXT provides secure access to their servers with 256-bit SSL encryption, so people can’t see what is being transferred from the UseNeXT server all the way to your computer.
Support:
UseNeXT seems to do a good job of providing support to their customers, and the support contact form is available in German, French, and English. The phone number that they provide you with is not a premium number, but the phone’s endpoint is in Germany so you will most likely encounter long distance charges.
In Summary
For those of you who haven’t tried out a Usenet service, UseNeXT is a great alternative to Bit Torrent. They are reasonably priced for how much data they allow you to download a month and they have strong security. But the best part about this service for new Usenet users is the 14 day free trial, so you can see how their speeds stack up with your favorite torrent client.
And don’t forget, get yourself a good VPN service for you windows machine so that you can add another layer of protection and security. Check out our article here for some of the best VPNs for Windows machines, and here for the best VPNs for Windows 10.
