Do a Speed TestThe best way to check and compare speed is by testing it yourself. This is particularly worth doing for international, non-US customers, and especially if you're based in Asia. Very few Usenet providers have servers based in Asia, Giganews is one, so it's good to know how server distance affects connection quality.
What to do? First, let's go to our comparison table and find a provider that offers free trials. Subscribe and add the account to your newsreader, select a large file, say a 800 MB video, and try downloading the same file with various providers. And try not to forget to unsubscribe before the offer period ends.
But before you start testing, check your broadband speed (don't trust what your ISP tell you, go to a site like www.speedtest.net to find out your real speed). This will give you a benchmark of how fast you should be downloading; with premium providers, expect to download the same speed as the broadband speed allowed by your ISP
Another tip is to turn on a music radio channel on the Internet. This will let you check the smoothness of your download and how much it is zapping up your bandwidth and affecting your other task performance on the Internet. (But do bear in mind this trick will slow down the download a little bit and is for testing purposes only,)
If you find that you're downloading a lot less Mbps than your broadband speed, or if your music playback gets annoyingly spotty, then you're better off dropping this provider. After that picking out the best company to go for is a matter off finding the smoothest connections, and fastest download speed - and also - the best customer service.
Can't be asked to do the tests?To give you an idea, Magnet tested the services of 7 providers recently, including all those listed in the comparison table. We searched for a copy of a 1938 rights-free cult film Reefer Madness and tested its download across these companies.
If you find that you're downloading a lot less Mbps than your broadband speed, or if your music playback gets annoyingly spotty, then you're better off dropping this provider. After that picking out the best company to go for is a matter off finding the smoothest connections, and fastest download speed - and also - the best customer service.
Can't be asked to do the tests?To give you an idea, Magnet tested the services of 7 providers recently, including all those listed in the comparison table. We searched for a copy of a 1938 rights-free cult film Reefer Madness and tested its download across these companies.
Here's what we found.
Our broadband speed is pretty average at 3.37 Mbps and we're using the newsreader Newsleecher. With most of the Usenet providers we're testing [apart from Newsdemon and Newsguy] we were able to download the 800 MB file in 34 minutes, with downloads speed averaging about 3.2 Mbps [or 400 KB/s].
Which means we're blazing pretty close to broadband speed, as should be expected. Newsdemon were downloading a tiny bit slower at 39 minutes, while the Newsguy download proofed somewhat disastrous with half the files missing - we suspect that's related to completion issues.
Imagine if our broadband service were a notch above the average standard, say we're getting a 7 Mbps connection, we'd be blazing double fast, so for vcd quality film, we'd be done in 15 minutes, and a 4 gigabytpe DVD? A mere 2 hours?
Our broadband speed is pretty average at 3.37 Mbps and we're using the newsreader Newsleecher. With most of the Usenet providers we're testing [apart from Newsdemon and Newsguy] we were able to download the 800 MB file in 34 minutes, with downloads speed averaging about 3.2 Mbps [or 400 KB/s].
Which means we're blazing pretty close to broadband speed, as should be expected. Newsdemon were downloading a tiny bit slower at 39 minutes, while the Newsguy download proofed somewhat disastrous with half the files missing - we suspect that's related to completion issues.
Imagine if our broadband service were a notch above the average standard, say we're getting a 7 Mbps connection, we'd be blazing double fast, so for vcd quality film, we'd be done in 15 minutes, and a 4 gigabytpe DVD? A mere 2 hours?