The Newshosting team rolled out a VPN service earlier this year. Readers of the NGRBlog ask us frequently if whether or not using a VPN is worth it for Usenet users. The answer is absolutely. The combination of Usenet and VPN has a lot of benefits. A good Usenet account will give you access to over 100,000 newsgroups and several years of posts, while the included VPN service helps protect your privacy and unblocks geographic restrictions.
Let’s start by taking a look at a few of the benefits offered by Usenet and VPN. I’ll use Newshosting as a reference since they rank #1 on our site, and offer both services at a very reasonable price.
Benefits of Usenet – Newshosting gives you access to over 2,300 days of binary posts. That’s over six years of binary retention and growing. Newshosting packages include free client software, so so you can search, preview and download content. You can also use it to schedule automated searches so you never miss a thing. . The service also comes with 256-bit SSL to help secure your Usenet connection.
Benefits of VPN – When you add VPN service to your Newshosting account it extends the privacy protection beyond Usenet. You can use the free Newshosting VPN client to connectto any of their VPN servers. Members gain unlimited access to VPN servers in 17 countries. The service also supports OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP connections, and the account comes with two simultaneous connections. That’s just a brief list of benefits offered to Usenet members that add VPN to their account.
I’ve used Newshosting for years and started using the VPN when they introduced it earlier this year. Having tested more VPNs that I can count for our vpnsp site, I can tell you that Newshosting’s VPN is top notch. You can tell they put a lot of time and effort into the service.
Just like their Usenet service, Newshosting provides fast, reliable VPN access.Let’s talk about the advantages of VPN and what it adds to your Usenet experience. We highlighted the benefits of both Usenet and VPN above, but we haven’t looked at what a VPN will do for you. First and foremost, it will help protect your online privacy. Enabling SSL in the Newshosting Usenet client will secure your newsgroup access, but the VPN will encrypt all of your data. It will add an extra layer of privacy to all your online activities. It will also unblock geographic restrictions for sites in other countries.
I normally start my VPN before going online. That gives me an IP address in whichever country I choose and an encrypted connection to protect my privacy. From there I may visit my favorite NZB sites and forums. When ready I’ll fire up the Newshosting client and queueup some Usenet content. While it downloads I may browse the web, watch some videos or stream Netflix. One of my favorites lately has been BBC. If you connect to a server in the United Kingdom it opens access to BBC iPlayer, giving you access to a lot of original programming.
Usenet and VPN are a great combination. I originally started using VPN years ago to help protect my privacy. That’s something I’ll continue doing for many years to come. Over time,I’ve found more and more uses for VPN, like accessing BBC content and unblocking sites incountries around the world. It will help you avoid ISP throttling of services like Netflix, and stop advertisers from following your every move online. The list goes on and on. You can visit Newshosting to learn more about their VPN. They have a good FAQ section with thoughtful aanswers to common questions. Give their VPN a try and let me know what you think.
