Usenet services can vary in many ways – some are easier to operate and get the job done quickly, while others are more complicated and suited for users who have some measure of technical expertise.
Sunny Usenet is a European provider that sits at the lower end of the market. The company aims to make Usenet affordable for everyone, with prices starting at €1.43 (around £1.25, $1.50, or AU$2) a month. Although it may not be the most powerful platform on the market, it’s vying for the attention of people who haven’t used a Usenet provider in the past.
This may be a European Usenet service, but that doesn’t mean it’s exclusive to people living in Europe. In fact, the company accepts users from all around the world. It’s not necessary to have a European IP address in order to sign up.
Performance
Competing European Usenet provider Eweka, on the other hand, expects users to be using a European broadband service – and that’s an unfortunate limitation. The latter does have the upper hand over Sunny Usenet in one respect, though. It boasts over 3,000 days of binary retention, while Sunny only offers 900.
That’s a clear difference. However, Sunny still works across 120,000+ newsgroups, and the completion rate is respectable. You’ll still be able to access thousands of articles and messages, and of course post your own.
Speed is another important factor when you’re considering signing up to a Usenet platform. With such a large amount of newsgroups available, you’ll want to access them with ease. Depending on the plan you go for, speeds range from 5Mbps to 90Mbps. There’s also an unlimited plan available, so there’s a decent selection of options here.
The amount of connections available also varies. They start at 5 and go up to 20, which is pretty reasonable. Just to compare, Eweka only offers a maximum of 8 connections, although there are still providers out there that offer around 50 connections. Realistically, you only need a certain amount depending on the data allowance you have from your ISP. And if you’re only planning to be a light user, then you needn’t worry anyway.
Data options
As mentioned, there is a wide variety of plans here, and none of them break the bank. The cheapest costs €1.43 per month (around £1.25, $1.50, or AU$2), and for that, you get 5Mbps of data and 5 connections. If you want to choose something in the middle, you can go for Sunny 30, which offers 30Mbps of data and 10 connections. That’d set you back €3.83 a month (around £3.30, $4.05, AU$5.35). Sunny Unlimited is the most expensive plan at €6.23 per month (around £5.40, $6.60, AU$8.70), and it gives you unlimited speed and 20 connections
Like many other Usenet providers, Sunny takes security and privacy seriously. As is the norm for modern Usenet services, you can connect to the platform using 256-bit SSL for free. To make the most of the encryption and ensure your data is always safe, it’s best that you use port 563. If you want to avoid encryption, you have the option to connect to the platform via port 119. Sunny’s servers are all based in Europe.
Final verdict
Sunny is on the lower end of the Usenet provider spectrum, offering budget prices. There are certainly more powerful options out there, but that’s not to say Sunny isn’t capable. It sports a variety of handy features, and it’s still speedy.
