Claranews and broardband.
Peter Gaunt
<fer...@SPAMMENOThotpop.com> wrote:
> Has anyone tried the Claranews service with broadband?
> What kind of speeds do you get to Clara?
I've been using ClaraNews for the past month, for the past week with a
cable modem (blueyonder). I use it for the few newsgroups I use which
blueyonder's news servers don't carry.
For most of that month the speed has been fine though not normally
quite as fast as blueyonder's. One or two hiccups but these have
usually only lasted a few minutes.
For the past 24 hours though it's been absolutely dire especially, but
not exclusively, with binary groups. It's not just been slow, it's been
throwing me off, complaining that my user name/password is incorrect,
muttering about too many simultaneous connections from my IP and
telling me that articles no longer exist (although when I try again I
find they're still there). It's been doing this from both my Mac and
from my Acorn Risc PC so I'm pretty certain it's not my end which is at
fault. I also don't think it's because the server is overloaded with
users: it was just as bad at 3:30 this morning as it was at 19:00 last
night. It seems to have improved a little during this morning.
I've written to support about it about an hour ago but haven't heard
anything yet.
I shall probably persevere with it not least because it also supplies
me with email addresses with proper smtp envelope info so that I can
get the server which hosts my domain to forward stuff to it with my end
still knowing who the mail is to (I run a zillion users here, mostly
mailing lists, and so that info is vital). Can't do this with
blueyonder since their mail servers are a dog's breakfast.
Hope this semi-rant is of some value to you...
--
Pete <URL:http://www.dawnsun.net/>
==== +44 7711 501 757
*** Remove -NOSPAM- from address to reply by mail
bb
<pete@-NOSPAM-dawnsun.net> wrote:
>For the past 24 hours though it's been absolutely dire especially, but
>not exclusively, with binary groups. It's not just been slow, it's been
>throwing me off, complaining that my user name/password is incorrect,
>muttering about too many simultaneous connections from my IP and
>telling me that articles no longer exist (although when I try again I
>find they're still there).
Been like that for months and they don't seem to give a toss.
Brian
(change .con to .com to reply via email)
Peter Gaunt
<br...@frodo.u-net.con> wrote:
Hasn't been like that here, though. You'll note that I said 'the past
24 hours'. It actually seems to have recovered almost completely during
this afternoon.
Peter
In your recent message you wrote
>Has anyone tried the Claranews service with broadband?
>What kind of speeds do you get to Clara?
I left Demon when I got ADSL and signed up with Claranews as WOL is
diabolical for news. Sadly, the speeds I now get with ADSL and Clara are
slower than Demon via a modem :-(
--
Peter Squires
danny
> Has anyone tried the Claranews service with broadband?
> What kind of speeds do you get to Clara?
>
> Thanks
>
> ---
>
> Regards
>
> Ferris <fer...@SPAMMENOThotpop.com>
I haven't been happy with Claranews recently. They've been behind with
posts and I regularly have a problem where I'm downloading an article
(which sometimes stalls for a while before it actually starts the
download) it then pauses for no apparent reason during the download.
This doesn't happen with my other servers. When it's working, I usually
get downloads at 40k average.
--
Regards,
Danny
http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
swap Z for above characters in email address to reply
SteveL
<fer...@SPAMMENOThotpop.com> wrote:
>Has anyone tried the Claranews service with broadband?
>What kind of speeds do you get to Clara?
>
>Thanks
>
>---
>
>Regards
>
>Ferris <fer...@SPAMMENOThotpop.com>
If these replies have put you off ClaraNews:
Don't think you have to go with a local (UK) third party usenet
provider to get decent performance.
There are a number of providers in the US, for example, GigaNews,
Usenetserver, NewsGuy, Randori, Newscene, who give an excellent
service. Great retention times and completion rates for multi-part
binaries.
Most importantly the download rates usually as good as from a local
ISP. 99% of the time I get the full rate. 7.5 kps single isdn. 15.5
kps dual isdn. and now about 60 kps with cable.
Don't ask me why it's so good. I don't know. Even though web access
often crawls with American sites in busy periods, newsgroup access via
these providers is usually unaffected.
David Thornton
<fer...@SPAMMENOThotpop.com> writes
>What I need is a server with all the groups, decent retention and no
>d/l limit. Do you guys know of anything like this which is reasonably
>close in price to Clara? The other pay servers I have seen are much
>more expensive than Clara and usually have d/l limit's.
Like so many people that complain about their news server, in my opinion
you are expecting too much for too little. :-) Gone are the days of the
majority of ISPs providing a top notch binary newsfeed.
You must have a download limit (i.e. a monthly limit which you doubt
you'll ever likely to exceed)? Estimate what that is. You can always
make adjustments.
Decent retention; how long do you want and is this for text, binaries
newsgroups or both? Giganews has 100 days of text retention and their
1Gb/month account costs $7.95. This would be adequate for most non-
binary users.
Decide:
1. Your monthly budget.
2. The retention you need.
3. The maximum you expect to download a month.
Most people are ultimately governed by the first point. :-)
Different servers provide different advantages. Easynews and Giganews
are have the best retention. I like Newscene, personally, but their
completeness has recently got to the wall.
Claranews is incredibly cheap but the binary service is below that of
the alternatives. Realistically you are not going to get your
requirements if you only want to pay 2.50UKP a month (which is what
Claranews works out at).
Finally see my sig.
--
David Thornton
For impartial advice on choosing a premium Usenet news server, check out
alt.binaries.news-server-comparison (not available on Deja/GoogleGroups)
proteus
>For impartial advice on choosing a premium Usenet news server, check out
>alt.binaries.news-server-comparison (not available on Deja/GoogleGroups)
>
And possibly http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/providers/
bb
wrote:
Plus NewsGuy's tech support is excellent :-)
David Thornton
<br...@frodo.u-net.con> writes
>Plus NewsGuy's tech support is excellent :-)
Ask them why they don't carry the group in my sig. Ask for it a couple
more times in newsguy.general and they'll probably terminate your
account.
--
David Thornton
SteveL
</dev/nu...@davidthornton.com> wrote:
>
>Different servers provide different advantages. Easynews and Giganews
>are have the best retention. I like Newscene, personally, but their
>completeness has recently got to the wall.
>
Hey, another Usenet whore :-)
I knew I wasn't alone.
bb
</dev/nu...@davidthornton.com> wrote:
>Like so many people that complain about their news server, in my opinion
>you are expecting too much for too little. :-) Gone are the days of the
>majority of ISPs providing a top notch binary newsfeed.
Well yes and no - Clara have obviously messed up in their marketing
with offering a service at that price, a service which they are
unwilling or unable to deliver. It's *their* problem for getting
their sums wrong, but unfortunately the customers who have paid for
said service aren't getting it. And they're still offering the
service at the same price!
I'm thoroughly pissed off with them and it comes as no surprise that
they're this bad - I have a friend who worked for them a couple of
years ago; cowboys was a word used to describe them, along with other,
not as flattering phrases. Not sour grapes on his part - he left
voluntarily because they were so bad. Just wish I'd know this before
signing up with them!
bb
</dev/nu...@davidthornton.com> wrote:
>Ask them why they don't carry the group in my sig. Ask for it a couple
>more times in newsguy.general and they'll probably terminate your
>account.
Why would they do that? Am I missing something here?
David Thornton
<br...@frodo.u-net.con> writes
>On 15 Jul 2001 18:48:06 -0500, David Thornton
></dev/nu...@davidthornton.com> wrote:
>>Like so many people that complain about their news server, in my opinion
>>you are expecting too much for too little. :-) Gone are the days of the
>>majority of ISPs providing a top notch binary newsfeed.
>Well yes and no - Clara have obviously messed up in their marketing
>with offering a service at that price, a service which they are
>unwilling or unable to deliver. It's *their* problem for getting
>their sums wrong, but unfortunately the customers who have paid for
>said service aren't getting it. And they're still offering the
>service at the same price!
I only paid 20UKP. It's gone up to 30UKP now, I think, without bothering
to check.
>I'm thoroughly pissed off with them and it comes as no surprise that
>they're this bad - I have a friend who worked for them a couple of
>years ago; cowboys was a word used to describe them, along with other,
>not as flattering phrases. Not sour grapes on his part - he left
>voluntarily because they were so bad. Just wish I'd know this before
>signing up with them!
I was pissed off at first but then I remembered that in the first few
months, back in August 2000, when I had just subscribed IIRC I was
getting speeds of 2000-4000kbps from them via a Ja.net connection. This
was with multiple connections. Then they went to pot. I got my moneys
worth, though, and I don't feel guilty about it.
I've honestly never been under the impression that Claranews could
maintain any sort of quality in comparison to more expensive
alternatives. 20UKP isn't enough for what I downloaded from them in my
first month, let alone what I could have got in a year, and there is no
way that I should expect that it should be.
What I would like to know is whether they will automatically subscribe
me for another year, when the time comes, or whether I will be emailed
first. I still don't know if I will bother to renew. I don't think that
I have *ever* posted through them since they needlessly include every
users IP address.