A Complete Guide to Usenet Backbones

What are Usenet backbones, why do they matter, and how to choose the right one(s) for you?

Let’s start by answering the question: what are Usenet backbones?

Backbones are basically the ground level of Usenet servers which provide access to newsgroups and the posts found in newsgroups.

If you’ve come across the term “Tier-1 Usenet provider”, this means the provider has direct access to a Usenet backbone. Other providers get their access as resellers of these parent backbone providers.

An example of this would be Giganews, which is a Tier-1 provider with its own backbone, while Superne​​ws is a reseller of the Giganews backbone.

In other words, as the operators of Usenet’s backbone servers, these providers are the foundation that makes everything possible, from reading and posting in newsgroups to downloading binaries.

What Makes Usenet Backbones Different?

Of course, there’s one other variable: price. But this is dictated more by the specific provider and not the backbone. Even providers on the same backbone can vary a lot in price.

List of Usenet Backbones

Here are the best Usenet backbone providers available today including their resellers and vital statistics (in alphabetical order):

Here’s a very cool table showing Usenet Providers and Backbones. It’s a little out of date but still mostly accurate.

Which Usenet Backbone Should I Use?

So, which backbone is the best for you?

A good setup is to get an unlimited account with a provider on one of the high-retention Omicron backbones.

From there, most Usenet veterans also like to get a backup block account. Why? Because it helps them pick up content that their primary provider might miss often due to take-downs. Plus, there’s no penalty if you don’t use the block plan much, since you’ve already paid an upfront fee for a set amount of data and can take as long as you want to use it all up.

But the bottom line is this: Paying for accounts with two Usenet providers on the same backbone (say for example Newshosting and NewsDemon) is a waste of money.

And always make sure your main vs block accounts use different backbones, and preferably different takedown protocols too (DMCA vs. NTD).

Wrap Up

Usenet backbones (and providers) are changing all the time.

Retention keeps increasing, block accounts get cheaper, and occasionally a new Usenet backbone provider comes along. And of course, there’s the steady ebb and flow of Usenet provider acquisitions in the market which has consolidated dozens of providers onto a few backbones, eliminating backbones like Astraweb in the process.

But hopefully you now have a pretty good idea of the options that are out there – and which ones are right for you.

Are there any backbones we missed? Did something change since we posted this? Let us know in the comments!

Last updated: February 13, 2020