Some Usenet Speeds Tests

Photo by Matthew Kalapuch on Unsplash

I tested some Usenet download speeds running SAbNZBd 2.3.6 (beta) on Elementary OS. My computer is located in on the East Coast of the US. These are the maximum speeds I get with a wired 110 MB/s connection:

Take Your Media Offline (For Control and Convenience)

I suggest downloading all you media and storing it offline. You will then be less reliant WiFi and cell phone data transfers. For example can store all your media pCloud (details here). This privacy-friendly service supports playlists and media playback in general. You can mark media for offline use, and play them back without an internet connection. You can also …

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How To Use A Disposable Email Address (For Signing Up To New Services)

These days, many companies ask for your email address. Often you end up with spam in your inbox, or, worse still your email is sold to various other mailing lists. It makes sense to use a disposable email address, at least until you trust a company enough to give them your real address. I recommend these free disposable mail services: …

Three Essential Encrypted Cloud Services

Bitwarden + pCloud + Fastmail. This is is my recommended combination of cloud providers. These private clouds are secure enough for most use cases.

Streisand Makes Installing Your Own VPN Easier

One of the easiest way to install your own VPN is to use a piece of free software called Streisand. It is a remarkable open-source project that allows you to set-up and deploy your own VPN server with the minimum possible fuss.

Ivacy: A VPN Provider Based In Singapore

Ivacy is a VPN provider founded in 2007 and based in Singapore. This provider is active on social media and readily responds to support questions (via email, live chat and a ticketing system).

How To Install Free Ad-Blocking Using AdGuard DNS

AdGuard DNS is a free Domain Name System service provided the AdGuard company. You can use this DNS service to block advertising and trackers. It works like this: when a website sends a request to an ad network, the DNS sends back a “null” response. For example, when a web page looks up the domain name “ads.facebook.com” the DNS will …

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How To Run a VPN & Ad-Blocker On a Router

Why Run A VPN On Your Router? Using a VPN at the router level makes a lot of sense. It is a convenient way to make all your network connections private and encrypted. Every device that connects to your network will be able to access the VPN — there is no need to install a VPN application on each device. …

pCloud: A Cloud Provider That Offers Encrypted And Non-Encrypted Folders

pCloud is a secure cloud provider. The name is a bit unfortunate, but I’ve found their service to be reliable and well designed. pCloud is the first cloud storage provider to offer both encrypted and non-encrypted folders in the same account. The company explains why this makes sense: Although at first thought it is the most natural approach to just …

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How To Get A Disposable Phone Number Or Text (SMS) Address

Disposable phone number are useful whenever you want to give out a phone number, but do not want to reveal you personal, private number. The services listed below allow you create disposable phone numbers fairly inexpensively. However, many online sites reject the numbers created by these services. Twilio: Free Temporary Numbers To get a temporary phone number you can sign …