Usenet service providers that are based in the U.S.
Reliable Dutch Usenet provider
Newsgroup Servers Features & Specifications: Corporate offices: based in Holland | Tier-1 Provider: Yes | Backbone: XSNews | Servers: Server farms in the Netherlands | Plans: Block or Unlimited | Prices: Start from 5,95 €/month | Retention: 1200 days | Newsgroups: 200.000 | Maximum connections: 30 | Maximum download speed: 800 mbit | SSL: Yes | Free trial: Yes (free 14-day trial) | Newsreader: No | VPN: No | Download amounts: Not capped | Logs: No | Shared account: No
XSNews Review
XSNews is one of the last few independent European Usenet feeds. XSNews is a Tier-1 Provider based in Holland that sells packages directly and for 12 Usenet resellers (EasyUsenet)
XSNews offers both flat rate and block accounts, which means you have a number of options. This is an advantage because you can access the XSNews network as you want (Block or unlimited), and at modest prices. They are as follows:
XSNews Flatrate Packages - You can sign up for XS News here
Basic - 5,95 €/month – Unlimited Usenet, 8 Mbit/s speeds, 8 connections
Pro - 7,50 €/month – Unlimited Usenet, 20 Mbit/s speeds, 20 connections
Elite - 10,95 €/month – Unlimited Usenet, Unlimited speeds, 30 connections
XSNews Block Packages - You can sign up for XS News here
XSNews also offer Usenet block accounts. These are essentially pay-as-you-download plans.
Small - 9,95 € – 20GB, Unlimited speeds, 20 connections
Medium - 34,95 € – 100GB, Unlimited speeds, 20 connections
XL - 124,95 € – 1000GB, Unlimited speeds, 20 connections
XSNews Free Trial - Test 14 days for FREE
XSNews has one of the better free Trial Accounts offers, however you do need to provide a credit card number (It is your responsibility to cancel during the trial period to avoid charges)
XSNews is a TOP choice if a good speed is your top priority. XSnews provides speeds up to 800 Mbit/s, according to their site.
We signed up to Elite package at 10,95 € / month and were really impressed by the speeds obtained with 30 connections. Compare XSNews vs anothers Netherlands-based newsgroup providers, where the fastest plan caps out at 400 Mbit/s (Usenetbucket), it’s one of the fastest Usenet services we’ve tried, especially for Europe. The maximum speed of XSNews is around 800 Mbit/s, if that's enough for you I would recommend it.
What is Spotnet?
Spotnet is a protocol on top of Usenet for retrieving files from NNTP (Usenet) servers. One of the the most efficient way to download on Usenet without using Usenet Indexers (Newznab - Nzbed - Vbulletin Forum - ...). With Spotnet you can search and download in one program.
XSNews Spotnet Setup guide
Different programmes exist like Spotlite, Spotnet 2.0 or web-based versions (NZBServer). My favourite programme from SpotNet is Spotnet 2.0. Spotnet 2.0 is currently the most widely used usenet newsreader in the Netherlands for Usenet. The interface is great, translated into English, and you can search for films by category or thanks to a search engine. Users post a Spot including a SPOT file to download, an explanatory image and a description of the file.
Dutch users should configure SpotNet 2.0 with XSnews and make the most of the referencing quality of SpotNet. It is not difficult to configure XSnews with Spotnet. You have to do two simple steps in the Spotnet provider settings.
Go to Settings and then to Provider... |
Select XSNews from the dropdown |
Enter your username and password |
Spotnet 2.0 client
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Note: The 39 steps is a public domain movie, which means that anyone can legally download and/or share it for free.
Spotnet 2.0 uses internal downloader for downloading, repairing and decompressing. You can use it alone if your downloading habits don't require an extra Usenet Service provider. Once in a while, we encountered an incomplete file, but generally, they loaded very well.
In case of incomplete files you should use nzbget as external downloader for adding the prepaid account from Newsgroupdirect (or Tweaknews) as a second server.
XSNews is the Tier-1 provider of the network and has one sister company: EasyUsenet. We recommend EasyUsenet since:
EasyUsenet allows file sharing between users on some plans. Ideal to reduce costs! Block accounts from Easyusenet:
25GB for 7,95 €
100GB for 14,95 €
EasyUsenet has a free trial offer without entering any bank details.
XSNews Alternative
Other Usenet provider based in Europe which offers both flat rate and block accounts is:
- Tweaknews: For a similar price you get much higher retention rates, a Free Newsreader and VPN is included