Non US-based Usenet Providers - Dutch/German Usenet providers - NL provider - EU only provider
The Usenet network is an un-moderated worldwide network. To access it, you need a U.S.P. (Usenet service provider) to connect to all the servers that hold the millions of files and messages that are shared in different groups (Newsgroups).
Most Usenet service providers are based in the USA (Office/business location as well as the actual servers) and so are subject to American legislation which includes the US DMCA take-down rules. In the Unites States, Usenet providers have the official statute of Common Carriers (Operate as a telecommunications service) which gives them legal immunity: they are not responsible for the content existing on the network. However, they are required to remove a file within 48 if the DMCA requests them to do so for X reasons. All USA providers have to comply with DMCA takedowns.
But Usenet is a decentralised network so they are other existing servers based in Europe, for the most part located in Holland. As long as the servers are in Holland ( = Netherlands = NL) and the head office is registered outside of the States, they are known as Dutch USPs. If either of the above is located in the US then the provider must follow American legislation.
In Holland, the DMCA does not exist, but there is something similar. It's called: NTD Gedragscode. An USP like TweakNews or XSnews (Strictly Dutch based Usenet) follow a Notice & Takedown Procedure that is very similar to the DMCA takedown notice. Even “offshore” servers located in Curacao, like XLNed (Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess) has its own notice-and-takedown policy !. Euro Usenet providers have their own version. In final every USP must respect the laws of the country (or international law) in which it is based.
Usenet access is essentially the same whether through a European or an American USP. All servers that accept the binary hierarchy are connected to each other and copy files to the letter. If a file is posted on an American Usenet server then it will be almost instantaneously duplicated on a European server (The propagation between servers is very rapid). This is the founding principle of usenet: a decentralised network with almost exactly the same content whatever the location or service provider. There are of course some differences:
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Retention is much weaker with European servers than it is in the USA. 900 maximum in Holland (often header retention is much less than NZB retention) in contrast with 1650 (with full headers for the full range of our retention) in the States. X
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Speed: If you connected from America or Asia, the downside of non-US servers is a (sometimes) wider speed variance depending on the hour of day
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There are different rates: In the USA most offer unlimited packages. In Holland Usenet Flatrate Accounts are often utilised: pay only for speed desired
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The number of groups (where files are posted) is slightly less in Europe, though not significantly so
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The European market for Usenet service providers is much more open and less structured, as there are a huge amount of Dutch providers. In the USA the market is much more structured.
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All plans are priced in EURO currency
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The DMCA: Irrelevant to European USPs as long as the head office and the servers are located outisde of the USA. Certain USPs that resell access from a Back-end Usenet provider based in are nevertheless subject to the DMCA’s ruling since the business itself is in the USA. Equally some USPs have a Dutch site but still have to abide by the DMCA since they make use of US servers (resellers of American USPs are indirectly controlled by American law).
There is no need to choose sides between providers in the USA and in Holland. In fact it can be advantageous to use both, as a principal server and emergency server. (Back up / Fill Server /slave server).
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NewsHosting
(Newshosting offers a unique newsgroup reader: A perfect way for finding all the things you would find on a NZB search engine, even generate the NZB file and be used in any newsreader - High Retention: over 1710 DAYS for binarie - NewsHosting is one of the cheapest Usenet Provider: With the $99 yearly Newshosting deal, you only pay $8,25 each month) + ExtremeUsenet 
(ExtremeUsenet resell Euroaccess - Strictly Dutch based Usenet - Cheap Usenet access) + Eweka (Tier 1 provider - Strictly Dutch based Usenet) - The number one high-performance, low-cost package!
Perfectionists can still use the best formula: Usenet Utimate Package – which may be the most expensive but includes all available Back-End providers. To use this all-inclusive package (made of unlimited, block accounts and speed-capped accounts) we would recommend taking your time and waiting for the best deals (TeraByte Tuesday – Deal of the Week - Happy Hour deals - Black Friday – Cyber Monday – SinterKlass – Christmas deal – Summer deals) as published by NGProvider on his Usenet Feed or join us on Twitter as well as focusing on block accounts and using speed-capped accounts or annual deals to reduce costs. Even with this combination you may have to accept some incomplete files.
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Supernews (Unlimited Usenet $99 Annual Special) + NewsGroupDirect (Deal of the Week - TeraByte Tuesday - Happy Hour Deal) + ExtremeUsenet (4 Mbit/s for 38.40€ - Price for 12 months) + Eweka (50 Mbit/s for 7.50 €) + Usenet-News or BlockNews (100GB pour $15) + Astraweb (Unlimied access $96 Annual Special) + Newsgrabber (10 Mbit/s for 57.50 € - Price for 12 months) + TweakNews (100 GB for 13 €) + HitNews (2.5 Mbit/s for 26.95 € - Price for 12 months) + Cheapnews (500 GB for 17.95 €) + United-Newsserver
(Unlimited access 24.95 € Monthly)
This combination of primary and secondary servers should be used with Newsleecher (Newsleecher Tutorial) which is one of the only Newsreaders (along with Newsbin Pro) to maximise efficiency between two servers: Find out more about Multi-server Newsreaders. What’s more, header updating is fast (use only news client applications that have compressed headers like Newsleecher or Newsbin) and allows you to search for Usenet content in a traditional way.
Don’t forget – no combination will work absolutely perfectly! Some will be suitable for Usenet users over a certain period – some will not work if they regularly use a certain group. In any case, we always advise using an American USP (Usenet server reviews) as a primary server since they tend to have a higher retention, Header retention (to search for content manually within groups: How to find Usenet content) faster support, and general stability (no disappearing payment methods, no loss of capacity at peak times)
Refer to this table to find European USPs with servers principally based in Holland (Dutch = Euro = EU = Netherlands = NL) along with the main headquarters of the business.
Stricly Dutch based Usenet (or German) also called offshore operator (ie. not USA owned or based)
| NAME | Features & Specifications |
Newsgroup Servers Comments |
ExtremeUsenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Best EU Usenet Our favourite! Based in Holland, a reseller of EuroAccess. In a very competitive German-Dutch market (much more so than in the USA) with rock-bottom prices, ExtremeUsenet seems the most serious. Retention is low at 900 days but you can grab a block account to fill in when you need more. You can pay by Paypal (Update: They took away the paypal payment) |
Eweka - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts:
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Tier 1 provider - Sister company of UNS Holdings Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Eweka (Europe-based services) belongs to UNS Holdings which guarantees high quality. Eweka has been around for a long time but is currently experiencing newfound popularity thanks to many American users looking for European Usenet access. However Eweka works as a Dutch business (Eweka Internet Services B.V.) and is subject to Dutch rules. So although Eweka has all the technical quality and power of its mother company company, it is run slightly differently to the other resellers with UNS Holdings. Our tests were conclusive: the speed (50 or 100 Mbit) matches up to their promise, all on servers based in Amsterdam (port 119). The retention is 1700+ days which makes it the best European provider for long retention. The site is translated into English, as is all technical support. The most important question remains completion and incomplete files. Despite the link between Eweka and UNS Holdings, files present on Eweka differed from other resellers with UNS Holdings. Test it yourself – you will see that completion rates are better with Eweka!! What’s more Eweka offers a great application: the NZB tester that lets you load NZB files onto your user space to check that the files are all present on servers. So useful! |
Newsgrabber - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Tweaknews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Tier 1 provider - Sister company of Cambrium Usenet Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Tweaknews is about the same service as ExtremeUsenet (Paypal - Flatrate usenet accounts), easy to register to as it's in english. But they are not on the same network (Tweaknews is a Tier 1 provider and use Cambrium BackEnd), as ExtremeUsenet is on EuroAccess. Retention about the same aprox 1100 days. (Update: They took away the paypal payment) This Dutch server is unique for it free trial offer of 10 days and 10 GB to download on newsgroups with SSL Encryption. Just register with a valid mail adress and you will receive an e-mail message with the needed information. Like virtually all Dutch providers, TweakNews's header retention is much less than NZB retention. TweakNews supports headers for approximately the first 30 days.
10 days - 10 GByte - 1100 Days of retention - SSL |
United-Newsserver - Strictly German based Usenet
Unlimited Usenet account: 24.95 € Monthly Block Usenet account (With Geldkarte): |
Back-end Usenet Provider: Elbracht Servers are located in Germany: Serverstandort Deutschland Corporate offices are based in Germany
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Since 2005 Elbracht.net (the only Back-end Usenet Provider neither Dutch nor American!) has been on the commercial market under the name United-Newsserver.de, a Usenet servers for individuals. Elbracht’s servers are notably based in Germany. This is unusual since others with German support have servers in Holland or the States. United-newsserver.de charges much higher rates than Dutch servers: the 150 Mbps from ExtremeUsenet at 10€, compared with €25 with United-newsserver. Don't forget to cancel your account 10 days before your end of suscription: Der kunde kann den Zugang jederzeit mit einer Frist von 10 Tagen zum Ende des gewählten Abrechnungszeitraums kündigen.
3 days - 1 GByte - 600 Days of retention - SSL |
XSUSENET - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Free Users: Premium users: Unlimited Usenet account: 7.11€ Monthly | 19.80€ Quarterly | 36.54€ Semi-Annually | 60.89€ Yearly (Which works out to 5 € a month) |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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XSUsenet is mainly known for its free Usenet access which is very popular. But this server also offers a paying Usenet service (If you follow their twitter account or facebook page they often have discount coupons as well.) Their prices are not calculated on your connection speed (Flatrate Usenet accounts), as some other Dutch USPs like ExtremeUsenet do. XSUsenet offers an unlimited Usenet rate! on a nice english site Their support is non-existent. Nothing back from them after 5 emails. Seems they don't reply to emails They took away the paypal payment |
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Curaçao
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The most well-known Dutch service provider. Though the business is based in Curaçao, the servers that store files are in Holland (Euroaccess reseller). Availability of Paypal and CC payments are on/off with them => They just stopped allowing payments via paypal and credit card. Bank transfer only |
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NextGenNews - Strictly South African based Usenet
Block Usenet account: Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Tier 1 provider Servers are currently based in both South Africa Corporate offices are based in South Africa
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A South African server that has a free trial (without needing payment information) for 2 days with 20GB |
CheapNews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Trial account: Cheapnews provides a free 7 days trial account (or a maximum of 10GB) Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Tier 1 provider Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Cheapnews provides trial account by text message activation code, one of the best free trials out there: a free 7 days trial account (or a maximum of 10GB) Cheapnews currently provides 800+ days retention! (Header retention is currently about 70-100 days) |
UsenetBucket - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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A Dutch server that has a free trial (without needing payment information) for 7 days/5GB with 1100 days retention and free SSL + 20GB Extra when using FaceBook |
EasyUsenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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A Dutch server that has a free trial (without needing payment information) for 5 days. Just your mobile number to receive an access code. Then the connection info will be sent by email: reader.easyusenet.nl . EasyUsenet currently provides 550+ days retention |
Powernews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Powernews provides trial account by text message activation code, one of the best free trials out there: a free 5 days trial account with NO DATA LIMIT ! Activation by SMS: Area Codes Powernews currently provides 700+ days retention! |
YabNews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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YabNews provides trial account by text message activation code, one of the best free trials out there: a free 3 days trial account with NO DATA LIMIT ! Activation by SMS: Area Codes YabNews currently provides 700+ days retention! |
Astinews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Germany
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Astinews provides trial account by text message activation code, a free 3 days trial account with NO DATA LIMIT ! Activation by SMS: Area Codes Astinews currently provides 700+ days retention! |
123Usenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts:
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Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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4UX - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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MijnUsenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts:
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Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Curaçao
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in UK
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Gebruikhet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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SMSUsenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Unlimited Usenet account: 9.95 € Monthly |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Spain
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Transxs - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Usebits - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Usenet4u - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: Cambrium Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Usenet.Pro - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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UsenetByOrder - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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UsenetCompany- Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Germany
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Voordeligusenet - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Wondernews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: XSNews Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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Flatrate Usenet accounts: |
Back-end Usenet Provider: EuroAccess Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Curaçao
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XSNews - Strictly Dutch based Usenet
Flatrate Usenet accounts: Block Usenet account: |
Tier 1 provider Servers are located in Holland Corporate offices are based in Holland
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XSNews also has offers access for individuals. |
On the other side of the spectrum, these USPs are not actually European according to our definition (This means they are subject to the DMCA): Aeton - BudgetNews - Disputo - Eweka - Firstload - Hitnews - Illiminews - Iload - Ixinews - Just4today - NewsSurfer - Prepaid-usenet - Simonews - SnelNL - Surfino - Usenext - Xennews - XLUsenet - Z51