On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:45:22 -0600, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:15:31 -0600, Lou Decruss wrote:
>
>> APN is fine now but they've had a glitch or two over the last few
>> months. I'm thinking of trying usenet monster for a month and see how
>> that works. I was always happy with them but switched to APN for the
>> free trial period and just stayed with it.
>
>There are actually only 2 major usenet providers. readnews, and
>highwinds. But between them they have 100+ resellers that go by
>different names.
>
>When you consider buying another account for usenet access, I highly
>suggest a block account unless you do a lot of binary downloading.
>You will save tons of money. But more importantly chose one that does
>not use the same "back end servers" as the one you are dissatisfied
>with. I buy two, one from highwinds and oen from readnews.com. That
>way when one goes down, then I can switch over to the other one (or to
>motzarella/E-S, or whatever).
>
>There are two other Usenet bigwigs, Giganews ans Astraweb. They do
>not employ the reseller-matrix and are considered their own separate
>entities. Of thsoe two only Astraweb offers a block account.
>
>To find out who is who, consult this chart:
>http://www.usenet-providers.net/newsgroup-resellers.php
>
>IOW: Pick two companies from different sections of that chart, buy two
>cheap block accounts for under $3 each and all will be well. The
>readnews.com block accounts will last years, while a highwinds.com
>reseller block accounts (typically $2) are limited to one year.
>
>That is how you do it. You will get an average of 5 years of service
>from two different companies for less than you would one company's
>*monthly* fee for a subscription-based account. IOW you get 60 months
>for the price of one month.
>
>I have no idea why casual non-binary Usenet users pay monthly or even
>yearly fees for Usenet. Go ahead and waste your money.

I saved the post and I'll check it out when I have time if apn acts up
again. Thanks!

Lou