Usenet retention

USENET Retention

☛ A major differentiating factor between USENET providers is the degree of article retention ☚

▶ What is Usenet binary retention?

➩ Retention refers to the length of time that a post is available to subscribers. Binary Retention means the time the USENET server keeps articles around before they expire. On each USENET server the administrator will determine the retention for each USENET newsgroup usually by allotting it a certain amount of hard drive space.

➩ Currently top USENET providers surpass 5,400 days of binary retention. In other words, you can access files that were uploaded to USENET in 2009. But of course, not all USENET services offer the same number of retention period days. Generally binary retention is much weaker with European servers than it is in the USA. Only Eweka (Europe-based service) can rival the retention of American USENET providers.

▶ Why is it important when choosing a USENET provider?

➩ Retention is an important consideration when it comes to choosing a USENET provider. It provides information on how long a message or a file remains available in the newsgroups and/or is saved there. A long retention time therefore means that content can be found, read and downloaded for longer in the USENET. High retention is a good thing and it's one of the points that makes USENET the ideal place to search stuff.

▶ Retention rules vary by USENET providers

➩ It’s important to check the type of retention the USENET Provider advertises. Not all USENET services don't have the same quality. There are two kinds of retention:

➩ FULL retention. Full retention is probably the most important thing to take note of when looking for a USENET service provider. Premium USENET providers offer the highest quality retention:

Full local retention: Premium USENET providers have retention on their own storage (only local retention). They are completely TIER-1 Backbone. No cache retention, only local article storage.

Full Header retention is a major feature, a very important factor. Premium providers have a header retention that matches their article retention (or Message ID). Users will be able to search all the available binary articles without the need for NZBs or an NZB search index. The reason for not fully support the use of headers comes with the fact that headers eats up a lot of bandwidth thats totally unnecessarily. The top recommended providers also store every header for the full retention length they advertise. Headers are not only needed to browse newsgroups for finding posts, but every newsreader with search uses headers to actually run their searches. Without them, you'll need to sign up with one of more NZB indexer... most of which require a subscription fee or are closed to new user registrations.

Premium USENET providers have the highest retention rate of all the Newsgroup servers !!!!!. The top recommended providers store every article in every newsgroup on their server farms for the full retention period that they list on their website.

Premium USENET providers continue to add storage capacity for more retention. It is also recommended that you choose a provider that consistently adds more storage and grows retention. This means the number of articles you have access to grows each day for the most complete Usenet experience possible.

Premium USENET providers never expire the oldest files at unpredictable times. They keep data during all their retention.

Premium USENET providers list an exact number of retention days on their website. You should not see confusing marketing copy like 'up to xxxx days retention,' 'with many articles available over x days.' Wherever you do see this, you can expect that the provider has not only poor retention rates, but also does not keep many or most of the articles for the full number of days they list (if they even give a retention # at all). This is because they systematically delete articles, both old and new, from their servers. This is done to free up storage space, which will cause high incompletions compared to Usenet providers that have complete article retention.

➩ LILMITED retention.

Some USENET providers claim more binary than they actually provide or give rough estimates of their retention times on their Home pages.

USENET Providers are also starting to 'cache' retention. They provide a dual retention: they have some local article storage and articles outside of their own retention are pulled from a third party backbone. They cooperate to share storage with another provider.

Lately some providers have begun advertising 'Popular retention': Meaning they say they have 1 year of retention, for example, but do not actually keep articles for that long if they are not 'requested' by enough users on their servers in a specific point in time. If they need space, they can delete older files to make room which result in a partial binary retention.

All Newsgroups do not have the same retention. The biggest Newsgroups (alt.binaries.boneless - alt.binaries.mom) have weaker retention because a greater number of fiels posted means lower storage capacity for the servers.

Some USENET providers provide less Header retention than NZB retention. The reason for not fully support the use of headers comes with the fact that headers eats up a lot of bandwidth.

Our TIP: Don’t overlook the retention rate offered by USENET providers. Aim for a provider with Full binary retention

― Best USENET Providers with FULL Retention ―

  • NEWSHOSTING

Newshosting has the best USENET retention rates in the market with a binary retention rate of 5,400 days and still growing daily. That means Newshosting subscribers can access binaries that were added to USENET Newsgroups up to 13 years ago. With this stage of retention, which additionally grows each day, you get entry to a whole bunch of billions of posts on Newshosting’s servers compared to a fraction of what’s out there elsewhere.

Newshosting also delivers the highest quality Newsgroup retention:

→ You'll always see the same unlimited speeds whether the article was posted 30 days or 5,400 days ago.

→ All Newsgroups have the same retention. Other providers may advertise 1 year of retention, but in reality only provide 1 year of retention for a handful of Newsgroups or article sets, meaning the number of articles you can really access on their servers is only a fraction of what is being advertised. The difference in a full retention server like Newshosting and a partial retention server is billions of articles -- a massive difference when it comes to the number of files you can access.

→ Newshosting offers more and more retention over time. Newshosting’s use of spooling altered the landscape of Usenet retention for good.

In addition to offering the most retention, Newshosting provides over 99% article completion.

Newshosting has servers in the US and the EU.

  • EWEKA

Eweka offers 5,400 days of full binary retention, no retention caching, all over 125,000 uncensored Newsgroups. 5,400 days of retention means that EWEKA subscribers can access posts that were added to USENET Newsgroups up to 5,400 days ago, with 99% completion. Such massive storage puts Eweka at the top for people wanting long retention of the binary groups. Eweka has complete retention on all articles in all newsgroups.

Eweka also grows their retention, meaning their storage spool constantly growing, increasing day by day.

NOTE: Eweka offers the best retention of any European USENET provider. Their retention equivalent to the best USENET providers in the US.

  • USENETSERVER

UsenetServer is currently spooling to 5,400 days binary retention all over 125,000+ newsgroups. Retention keeps growing every day. With 99.5% completion, the service is very dependable. UsenetServer offers full speed delivery of even the oldest articles.

UsenetServer also offers its users a unique binaries search engine, called Global Search 2.0. It's possible for all UsenetServer users to quickly and easily search the entire binary article newsgroup retention of 5,400 days and compile a custom NZB of the search results. Practical since the NZB search engines don't search for 5,400 days retention anymore!. This is one of the most important reasons to consider Global Search 2.0.

  • BLOCKNEWS

BlockNews has the longest retention blocks. BlockNews provides 5,40 days retention and 99.9% completeness. BlockNews has servers in the US and the EU.

We recommend a block from BlockNews to compliment for fills and as a backup. I'm using a BlockNews block for longer retention to fill in missing old binary files. 

  • EASYNEWS

Easynews is another provider that offers great retention. Easynews offers 5430+ days of binary retention for all newsgroups. On top of that, Easynews combines USENET access + USENET search + Newsreader. Easynews is the most versatile Usenet provider in the world, offering a unique, intuitive, and proprietary browser based interface that eliminates the necessity of any third-party newsreader client.

  • FASTUSENET

FastUsenet is a very competitively priced USENET provider with impressive full binary retention. FastUsenet offers 5,400+ days of binary retention all over 125,000+ newsgroups. In plain English, that means if someone posted Some File to alt.binaries.boneless back in December, 2009, you should be able to find it on FastUsenet’ servers. 

FastUsenet resells UNS Holdings and thus has the longer retention. UNS HOLDINGS is a major company, the biggest backbone.

  • USENETEXPRESS

UsenetExpress offers the Binary Retention of UP TO 4300 days. "UP TO" means most of articles in the last 4300+ days minus DMCA requests and less useful files. UsenetExpress has a a process to decide which articles they want to keep for longer than others. Data removed are items that aren't being downloaded anyway (personal backups - backup files). At this time UsenetExpress is seeing a 95% article availability rate on their member requests that are not removed due to DMCA.

UsenetExpress also has a completion rate of 99%.

All new members are covered by their 30 day money back guarantee so give UsenetExpress a try.

  • NEWSGROUPDIRECT

Newsgroupdirect currently supports up to 4300+ days binary retention which is right in line with other top Usenet providers. With a high retention rate, Newsgroupdirect allows the user to access older messages and files.

I would recommend Newsgroupdirect to those of you who are looking for a service with high retention and completion rates. Newsgroupdirect offers a package (NGD Triple Play) with the best reliability. Newsgroupdirect uses multiple backbones and combines their resources to create a service that is extremely reliable. There are many advantages to this type of configuration, the most important being redundancy. If any articles are missing on one backbone, there are still 2 others to deliver content.

Newsgroupdirect offers a good Usenet experience with an improved retention rate.

  • TWEAKNEWS

Tweaknews binary retention is 4,500 days which is nearly 9 years of binary posts. One of the best European provider for long retention. Full Binary Retention is across all newsgroups (text and binary newsgroups). Tweaknews offers 4,500 days of binary retention with the same speed and article completion across every day of retention.

 

LIMITED RETENTION

 

Looking for older articles on newsgroups? then a non-expiring block account would be a perfect combination.