Today is the second day of the Ghacks Christmas Giveaway and I’m really excited about the event so far. The Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 offer received hundreds of comments and the lucky winners will be notified today. Please make sure to spread the word about the event so that it will be a success for [...]
Alt.Binz Usenet Client
I’m very fond of the Usenet client Newsbin which I have been using for many years. It’s not a free software and I made the purchase because at that time it was definitely the best client available. I’m sometimes getting asked if there are free alternatives to Newsbin and I always have to say that [...]
Pan Newsreader
I have been trying several newsreaders for the Usenet until I finally found the one and only newsreader Newsbin. I purchased it years ago and can only recommend it to everyone else who is serious about the Usenet. I do know however that some users prefer free software and that is why I took a look at the Pan newsreader which is available for Windows, Mac and Unix.
Pan Newsreader is offering a lot of features that commercial Usenet readers such as Newsbin are offering as well. It does support download binaries of course offering single-click encoding, multiple connections and simultaneous downloads and image previews of downloaded images.
Giganews offers Encrypted Usenet Access
Giganews announced yesterday that they are offering SSL encrypted usenet access as of now. All existing users may upgrade their accounts for $5 and receive the ability to use encrypted access to the usenet and also 10 additional connections to Giganews. You do not need the additional 10 connections unless you have a really fast line at home. I always max out my 16 Mbit connection with ten connections already giving me speeds of 1.8 megabyte per second.
Newsgroups, the ultimate P2P alternative.
P2P is in the news, every day. You see organizations like the RIAA hunting down fileshares, you read about trojans and virii that are spread through P2P networks. Everything seems rather risky at the moment. A new player is emerging from the shadows which is using a very old communication system, the Usenet. You might know a part of the usenet if you ever read something from google groups. Google Groups is an archive of the part of the usenet that looks similar to bulletin boards.
