There are free providers(read the tutorial thread) if you don't want to pay and if you're using only nzb's which you can get online, you don't have to download headers anymore.
First of all, usenetserver is not free. They have a -free trial-. Most commercial usenet servers have free trials. Most of them bill you in advance and refund your credit card if you decide to cancel before the trial date runs out (I think some accept paypal, for those who don't like spreading their CC numbers online). Now, I am not knocking usetnetserver. I used them before (when I was still a usenet junkie), liked them so much I went with their quarterly billing plan, and I still get emails from them about their 'latest deal.'
Second, I know you won't need to download headers if you use nzb's. But I am not a newbie. If I get a usenet server subscription again, I am not going to be using nzb's. No sir, I will subscribe to all the porn/warez/zerodaymovies groups I can remember (and then some) and I -will- be downloading headers from all these groups so I can leech as much shit as I can. My ISP does have something like a monthly 'soft cap' on bandwidth, but fuck them. However, this is my problem and no one else'.....on the other hand...
....Third, free usenet servers....I haven't tried 'UsenetStorm', so maybe it really is different from all the 'free' usenet servers I've used before--yes, I also spent a long time hunting and playing around with those before I eventually caved in and went with commercial usenet servers. Most of the 'free' usenet servers were commercial ones going through public beta testing. So either retention and completion were utter jokes (it just now occurred to me that I haven't used a par file in ages, because almost no one uploads them in forums like these....), or the speed was as slow as shit. And because they were in testing, they'd go down a lot. Of course, once they became truly viable, it meant they were ready to go commercial and start charging $. I've even used some compromised edu usenet servers, back in the day, before they secured the loopholes (or simply got rid of them altogether). But as I said, I haven't tried 'UsenetStorm' (and maybe I should before something happens to it...).
I am not knocking usenet, mind you. Anyone who doesn't mind dishing out a mere $10 per month should definitely give it a try. If you've never downloaded binaries from usenet, the first time you type 'lesbian' into the search button of your usenet binaries reader and see the results, and finish download the headers for those newsgroups--it's like a little kid going into a candy store. Most commercial newsservers generally offer excellent speed. The chokepoint will be your ISP, and not them.
But for me, it got old. I started to get more and more picky about the kind of 'lesbian' stuff I wanted to see--and ironically, the stuff I 'kept' from what I was downloading from usenet were all in forums like akiba. So now I am here, and I have no usenet server subscriptions. Anyways, back on topic, I don't feel fjcruiser is 'hijacking' this thread. I wouldn't use that word. It is true that slimedog is on an extended hiatus, and others have contributed to this--the best--thread to keep it alive. At the very least, that is what fjcruiser is doing. But I personally.....skip them. No offense intended.