EasyNews is a usenet provider, especially famous for the web interface it provides for downloading files from binary newsgroups.
Unlike most usenet providers, EasyNews doesn't resell nntp services to other companies. This means that customers must purchase a usenet subscription to EasyNews apart from any service offered by their internet service provider. However, as usenet is becoming less and less popular, many ISPs are no longer providing usenet services themselves. Others are outsourcing the usenet service to a service that does resell like Giganews or Newsfeeds.
The main advantage of EasyNews over other providers like those mentioned above is the web interface. The EasyNews interface offers:
- A zip manager that allows you to select several files, and have them zipped into one easy download.
- An autopar service, that will use par files provided with most binary posts to reconstruct multipart files with missing parts.
- An easy to use search form, that allows users to search newsgroups and find particular files.
- Support for importing nzb files to quickly download large collections.
These features make it easy for
new users to download files from
alt.binaries newsgroups quickly, without downloading or
installing any extra
software. For those who want it, however, EasyNews does offer standard
news server access.
An EasyNews subscription is a little over $9USD a month, and allows 20 gigs of downloading. By default, EasyNews accounts are not allowed to post, but this can be enabled by request at no extra charge. Unused gigs will be carried over to the next month, and will be saved for as long as the account exists. However, EasyNews does not allow unlimited accounts.
In order to try and ensure good download speeds for everyone, EasyNews has several backbone internet connections, and does not limit bandwidth in any way. The backbone connections include LLNW, ALTER, LEVEL3, AT&T, QWEST, and others. In my personal experience, however, (through Magma Communications]), I have been unable to achieve speeds better than 60 kilobytes.
Retention on the http server at EasyNews is about 30 days. However, on the nntp server, it is only 12 days. Completion on both servers is about 98%. Unfortunately, no information on peering is easily available on the EasyNews website.
If you'd like to quickly download files without subscribing to newsgroups or downloading programs, or quickly find one particular file, EasyNews is a good option. However, it has slower speeds and shorter retention than does Giganews. If you don't mind downloading software, or want faster download rates, Giganews might be a better option for you.