Usenet speed: fast enough that only your own line holds you back

In the Usenet there is no queue and no other users sharing your bandwidth. You download straight from the USENEXT servers — and those sit in Germany. Short distances, 100 simultaneous connections and SSL without any loss of speed mean that in the end it is not our server that is the bottleneck but your own connection. This page explains why that is and what you can concretely expect.

100

simultaneous connections

Top mark

for speed in the Usenet comparison

DE

servers in Germany

SSL

with no loss of speed

What determines your speed in the Usenet

Unlike with file sharing, speed in the Usenet does not depend on how many other people happen to be offering a file. There are four factors, and three of them sit with the provider.

The servers’ connectivity

How much bandwidth the provider has itself and how well its network is connected to your internet provider. This is where it is decided whether enough arrives at all.

The distance

Every kilometre and every intermediate hop costs time. The closer the server, the lower the latency — and the faster each individual connection fills up.

The number of connections

A single connection never saturates a fast line. Only many parallel connections push a modern connection to its limit.

Your own connection

The fourth factor sits with you. And with USENEXT it is usually the only one still setting a limit.

Servers in Germany: short routes instead of detours

Many Usenet providers are based in North America. Downloading from there means every data packet crosses the Atlantic and comes back. That costs latency, and latency costs throughput — especially with the many small articles that are typical of the Usenet. USENEXT runs servers in Germany and is therefore the obvious choice for users here and in the rest of Europe.

Low latency

A server in Germany replies within a few milliseconds instead of a hundred or more. Across thousands of articles per download, that adds up considerably.

Well connected at home

The route from the USENEXT network to German and European internet providers is short and generously dimensioned. Fewer intermediate stops means fewer places where things can get stuck.

And across the rest of Europe

Seen from Germany, the European networks sit close together. What applies to Germany applies in similar form to Austria, Switzerland and the neighbouring countries.

Two backbones behind it

Omicron and Abavia deliver the articles. USENEXT is the only provider worldwide with two backbones — that does not increase bandwidth, but it does increase the chance that an article is there on the first attempt.

100 simultaneous connections: how to saturate your line

A single connection to the Usenet rarely reaches more than a few megabytes per second. Anyone with 250 or 1,000 Mbit/s at home therefore needs many connections in parallel — otherwise the line stays half empty. USENEXT allows 100 at once, more than any other provider.

In parallel, not one after the other

Your newsreader fetches many articles at the same time. The more connections are open, the more completely your line fills up.

More than elsewhere

No other provider offers 100 simultaneous connections. With fibre and cable connections in particular, that shows immediately.

No extra cost, no per-package limit

The 100 connections apply in every USENEXT package. The packages differ only in the monthly high-speed volume.

Adjustable in your newsreader

How many connections are used is up to you. On fast lines it is worth raising the number step by step.

In the end, only your own line holds you back

That is not a slogan but a piece of arithmetic. A connection is sold in megabits per second, downloads run in megabytes per second — the factor between them is eight. What your line can theoretically deliver is quickly worked out, and that figure is exactly what USENEXT aims at.

50 Mbit/s

Around 6 MB/s on paper. A DSL line of this class is usually saturated with just a few connections.

250 Mbit/s

Around 31 MB/s on paper. This is where many parallel connections clearly pay off.

1,000 Mbit/s

Around 125 MB/s on paper. Fibre and cable in this class need the full number of connections — and a provider that keeps up.

SSL costs you nothing

All downloads run SSL-encrypted, at full speed on your included volume. Encryption and speed are not opposites here.

Top mark in the comparison

In the Usenet comparison by usenet-expert.com, USENEXT receives the verdict “very good” — with the top mark for speed.

After the high-speed volume

Once your included volume is used up, you keep downloading at up to 2,000 kbit/s without any limit on quantity. No stop, no top-ups.

What you can do yourself

Raise the number of connections in your newsreader, leave SSL switched on, download over cable rather than Wi-Fi. That gets everything out of your line that is in it.