Newshosting has effectively positioned itself as the go-to Usenet provider for beginners. With fantastic free trials and all-inclusive packages that include news readers and indexers, no other provider makes accessing Usenet as easy. When you combine all of this with affordable packages, great security and one of the longest data retention periods, Newshosting is a real contender for both newbies and veterans investing their hard-earned money.
In this review, we will examine the service’s retention times, security, features, support and pricing, in addition to its usability. We’ll also take a look at Newshosting VPN service.
Speed and Stability Test
All tests were conducted off-peak using speedtest.net, and the test server for all tests was the NAP AZ data center in Phoenix. Connections were made using UDP and AES-256 encryption (default).
Speed Test – Newshosting – Desktop
| Location | Trial | Latency | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
NoVPN |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 |
10ms 9ms 10ms |
96.40 Mbps 96.92 Mbps 95.75 Mbps |
12.84 Mbps 12.93 Mbps 12.28 Mbps |
|
Phoenix |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
42ms 43ms 42ms 42ms |
89.93 Mbps 90.76 Mbps 88.58 Mbps 89.72 Mbps |
10.69 Mbps 11.63 Mbps 11.40 Mbps 11.24 Mbps |
|
London |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
312ms 314ms 311ms 312ms |
2.49 Mbps 1.20 Mbps 1.09 Mbps 1.59 Mbps |
3.07 Mbps 2.54 Mbps 1.18 Mbps 2.26 Mbps |
|
Singapore |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
400ms 389ms 404ms 398ms |
4.08 Mbps 2.93 Mbps 2.97 Mbps 3.33 Mbps |
2.17 Mbps 2.15 Mbps 1.25 Mbps 1.86 Mbps |
|
Sydney |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
324ms 328ms 324ms 325ms |
14.88 Mbps 16.66 Mbps 17.38 Mbps 16.31 Mbps |
6.75 Mbps 3.30 Mbps 7.67 Mbps 5.91 Mbps |
Speed Test – Newshosting – Mobile
| Location | Trial | Latency | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
NoVPN |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 |
11ms 20ms 22ms |
74.66 Mbps 74.47 Mbps 74.35 Mbps |
14.15 Mbps 14.40 Mbps 14.61 Mbps |
|
Phoenix |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
42ms 43ms 43ms 43ms |
41.91 Mbps 41.31 Mbps 43.24 Mbps 42.15 Mbps |
13.60 Mbps 13.66 Mbps 13.60 Mbps 13.62 Mbps |
|
London |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
311ms 408ms 311ms 343ms |
4.76 Mbps 5.87 Mbps 5.82 Mbps 5.48 Mbps |
7.61 Mbps 9.77 Mbps 7.84 Mbps 8.41 Mbps |
|
Singapore |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
404ms 487ms 396ms 429ms |
4.08 Mbps 3.49 Mbps 3.35 Mbps 3.64 Mbps |
4.36 Mbps 4.19 Mbps 3.96 Mbps 4.17 Mbps |
|
Sydney |
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average |
407ms 324ms 408ms 380ms |
5.92 Mbps 6.37 Mbps 5.86 Mbps 6.05 Mbps |
6.47 Mbps 10.16 Mbps 11.03 Mbps 9.22 Mbps |
The US servers I tested were incredibly fast (faster than most of the VPNs I tested), but almost all of the international servers (except perhaps Australia on the desktop) were nowhere near broadband. This seems to be common with international servers for best VPN – I mean, you’d expect some to slow down if you have them close by and such, but the fact that Australia, for example, at least gets decent speeds in this case tells me that Newshosting (they’re not the only ones) buys premium bandwidth in the US but skimps on the international ones. My comment is not redundant, but not mentioning strong AES-256 encryption (which requires more overhead) would certainly be criminal in some sense. When we forced a connection from Wi-Fi to LTE and back again, the VPN tunnel quickly restored the connection and seemed generally stable.
Pricing Plans
| Time Period | 6 Months | 1 Month |
|---|---|---|
|
Price |
$12.95 |
$10 |
Server Locations
Newshosting VPN has over 70 servers in over 20 countries. PureVPN or Surfshark have more servers than Newshosting are very cheap.
They also don’t have confusing servers. Therefore, you can’t expect it to work in China, Russia or Middle Eastern countries.
Security and Privacy
Newshosting VPN, like its actual Usenet provider parent company Newhosting, is known for its focus on security. In fact, the product proudly advertises itself as being a “zero-log VPN“. Newshosting VPN protects your browsing in several ways, namely.
- NAT firewall
- 256-bit SSL encryption
- OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP protocols
One glaring omission from this list is the common and widely used kill switch included in VPN to ensure that when you disconnect, your real identity is not revealed.
User Experience
They don’t have dedicated apps for all platforms, but it’s easy to configure VPNs on multiple devices. They have detailed step-by-step guides for all major platforms.
There are separate sets of instructions based on the protocol. Using the VPN is easy, and installation only takes a few minutes. Speeds are good and there is access to over 100,000 newsgroups.
With over 3,500 days of retention, it’s easy to find what you’re looking for in the newsgroups. And there’s 24/7 customer support. If you need a VPN to access newsgroups, this is the one for you.
Customer Support
Newshosting 24/7 customer support is provided via email at support@newshosting.com, you will receive a ticket notification via email, followed by a personal ticket response from a customer support representative. You can also contact Newshosting via Facebook. However, it is recommended that you email Newshosting directly for technical issues.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Cheap VPN
- Good speed
- Good choice of servers
Cons
- There are better VPNs in this price range
- Questionable privacy policy
- Based in the USA
- No mobile app
- No shutdown switch
Conclusion
Newshosting is everything a Usenet customer could want, whether they’re a complete newbie or a seasoned user. The browser app makes searching and downloading easier than ever, and we’ve never had a broken or lost file. The inclusion of EasyNews VPN and backup block accounts makes the top-end NHXL package relatively affordable, while the other packages are competitively priced. Regardless of whether we used Newshosting’s browser or a third-party newsreader app, downloads were very fast, even over SSL. If you want to sign up, we recommend taking advantage of the free trial.
