Right..easynews..
1) You don't need newsleecher or any NNTP client because it's a web based interface. You just use your favourite download manager (getright, free download manager, flashget etc) to download at super fast speeds from the easynews server.
2) Because it's a web based interface, you actually download less than you would for the same file on an NNTP connection.
3) It looks like crap, but fortunately they went for substance over prettyness and it's the mutts nutts in functionality.
4) They have brilliant completion and 30+ day retention.
First Important URL:
http://members.easynews.com/global4
this is a search engine that searches across all groups for a (regular expression) file, subject, poster etc. You can specify only to look for movies, pictures, executables, archives etc and even specify minimum sizes.
Furthermore, any files which are in a rar archive, the server automatically unrars and you can download just the files in the archive which saves you having to mess about at the end. In addition, if any of the rar files are missing and there are enough par files available, the server automatically fixes and then provides the direct link to the unrared file(s).
Second Important URL
http://members.easynews.com/zipmanager.html
You can add files from the easynews into a zip file and download them in bulk. This is super useful and a big time saver.
In addition, on the zip manager page is "Import NZB File" which takes an nzb file and then collects all the listed files and puts them in a single zip file for you to download. Super simple.
I've used usenet since 1994 (demon used to operate an open "test" server on and off) and this is the best service I've ever used - and I've used quite a few in those years!