Binary / Text Retention (continued)

Some providers claim they have long retention, but when users try to download headers of older articles they cannot seem to get anywhere close to the advertised retention. This can be a service issue to some while others get around it by downloading NZB files from NZB indexing services like Newzbin, NZBsRus, Binsearch, etc.

Giganews currently advertises the longest binary retention rates in the industry. We use the service all the time and can vouch for the high retention numbers. They also are the only provider that seems to run a reliable header feed as you are able to download headers to their full retention. The next closest provider in terms of retention is Astraweb but don't expect to get a full header feed from them.

Giganews has the longest text retention as well by a huge margin. They are over 2,400 days of text retention and counting. That's over 6.5 years of articles! If you are interested in text newsgroup access take advantage of Giganews lower tier accounts which still include full text retention.

 


 Giganews Newsgroups

Binary / Text Retention


Retention is one of the most important criteria in choosing a Usenet newsgroup service. Retention is generally defined as how long a post or article stays active on the Usenet providers' server before it expires or is deleted. Usenet providers only have so much storage on their servers. Once the allocated disk space is used older articles are deleted to make room for the newer articles. For example, if a provider says they have 500 days of retention, it will take 500 days for an article to drop off their servers.

When evaluating a Usenet vendor's retention, make sure to test the retention in hierarchies or groups of interest. Some Newsgroup providers keep retention uniform across all groups. Most providers keep different retention levels depending on the type of group - Binary and Text. Some providers keep long retention rates in a handful of binary groups or just the more popular groups so they can advertise higher retention. Accurate or misleading advertising depending on your perspective. Bottom line...test before you buy. Free trials are great for testing retetntion.

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