Perhaps the biggest and best usenet indexer right now.
Useful for finding quality shareware files.
These guys RARELY open for registration so grab a free account while you can. Not sure if this is really a deal, but it is definitely a limited time offer. Last time they opened for registrations, it was closed 24 hours later.
Plans:
Free - 50 API hits and 5 Downloads Daily
10€/yr - 1000 API hits and 100 Downloads Daily
20€/yr - 4000 API hits and 2000 Downloads Daily
Just have to figure out how to use usenets now
I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you.
Really though, you need a client. ie: some people use BitTorrent clients like qBittorrent to download the material they find listed on the seven seas, yarr.
https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/comments/4x2mc9/new_to_the_u… - Have a read of this for the basics.
If you're familiar with torrents and how they work - it's fairly similar. Biggest difference is you'll need to pay a provider. There are heaps of options and they charge either monthly for a certain amount of data or you can pay for one-off blocks of data. I've used Astraweb for many years without issue. I'm not a heavy user so I usually pay for a 180GB/US$25 data block every couple of years. There are probably better deals if you shop around.
Next you'll need to find an indexer where you can search for the files (.NZB's, same process and finding and downloading torrents). This deal will be a great start - It's hard to find a good indexer and even harder to find one for free these days. If you become a heavy user it may be worth looking into the paid option from this site or another paid indexer.
Finally a client app for your PC (AKA newsreader, downloader) where you'll enter the details from your provider and open those .NZB files you just downloaded and start actually downloading the good stuff. SABnzbd is pretty common.
Disclaimer: I'm not advocating using this or any other P2P services for anything other than open source Linux distro's.
Tech is totally different to BT. Usenet actually is evolutionary closer to emails than torrents and has been around for 40 years. lol.
Yeah thats true - My comparison was more in relation to how people actually use it today and what they use it for.
Thanks for the link!
If not anything else, you absolutely NEED a provider to access the Usenet. The provider is the Usenet equivalent of your Internet Service Provider, think Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, or whatever it is you've got over there in Europe. Without a provider, you cannot access the Usenet at all, so it is an absolute necessity. You must purchase access to a provider, and this is what probably scares many people off from trying the Usenet in the first place. At the end of the day, you must decide if it is worth the price to back up all of your media to your computer. There are a few important things to look at when choosing a provider.
Serious q: why pay for this when you can just use torrents?
Serious q: why pay for this when you can just use torrents?
After lots of reading on Usenet, I too am wondering about this very question.
@Lizard Spock: If you value your privacy, then usenet with an SSL connection is a lot more secure. If you use Bittorrent you should always also be using a VPN, otherwise your IP is being exposed.
@Lizard Spock: Most Usenet providers offer a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for everything you download, meaning nobody but you and the provider has any idea what you're downloading. Your internet service provider could notice you're taking up a lot of bandwidth, but they don't know how or why. Usenet downloads also quickly saturate whatever download bandwidth that is made available to the client rather than having to wait for peers.
Speed is the biggest advantage - Your usenet downloads will not be impacted by how many seeders a particular file has like a torrent would be and you don't have to upload or maintain any S:L ratio.
If you're only looking for new release content which will have mountains of seeders, torrents may do the job just fine for you, but for older or more obscure content, usenet will win.
Supposedly safer to - Not sure of the technicalities - Best to use a VPN while torrenting anyway, haven't heard of it being necessary when downloading from usenet.
@Cucumber123: That's why specialised private torrent trackers exist dedicated to movies/TV, music, sports, books, audiobooks, local content etc.
but for older or more obscure content…
You obviously mean those really early Slackware images.
Hard to compare unless you've actually experienced both. It's like someone saying "Why download Chrome/Firefox when Internet Explorer comes with Windows?". Both do the same job, right? Usenet is MUCH better than torrents imh. (Download at max speeds, no ratios, more secure (no need to use VPN), Sonarr/radarr integration, etc).
@noshopping: Fair enough! I mainly use locker services anyway, which seems like the more OzBargain way than paying :Þ
@noshopping: Security is nice but the others can be achieved by using a private tracker and hiring a seedbox. I hired a seedbox for a month, seeded all the major releases, built up a huge ratio buffer and have been coasting on this for years. Paid maybe $25 for it and that's it.
@RedSky: Who wants to waste their time with seedboxes and ratios though?
With usenet you click it and its yours within a few minutes as you get max speeds (100mbit or more)
Private torrents are way too much effort, I'm a member of a few and I just don't use them to keep my ratio at a nice level.
Usenet also works perfectly with automation, all the TV shows and movies automatically organised and in your media player.
@samfisher5986: @samfisher5986
As mentioned, it was one off cost for me of $25 that allows me to use a bunch of private trackers effectively without limit.
Someone mentioned $25/180GB - I got multiple TBs worth of buffer in one month. Seedboxes are easy, just log in using webUI.
I signed up for this and did some searches for obscure content. It doesn't compare to the catalog of Redacted for music, PtP for movies.
@RedSky: Thats because drunkenslug is not the best indexer for starters.
Also they both have their own strengths in types of content, Usenet is not great for music, not sure what PtP is?
I use it when it got files that are not available on torrents.
For me, it's about legalities.
P2P you're distributing whilst d/ling, so you can be done for the much more serious offence of distributing copyrighted content.
If you seed to say 1000 others the owner can claim loss of income for RRP x 1000
Usenet, you're not sharing/distributing. So you're obtaining copyrighted material, but not distributing. Their loss of income is RRP x 1 ~$50, which would cost more in legal fees to jist write a letter.
P2P is easy to capture details, you just join the swarm & log the IPs.
Usenet is (generally) over SSL, encrypted Nd thus hard to see what you're d/ling.
Sure you can use vpn/proxies/etc, I do when using it. But on the whole, Usenet is just that bit more safer IMHO.
Nice. Thanks. Been looking for something good and free since nzbs.org closed down.
If you only want 5 dls a day then sure, otherwise it's not really free of its your main/only indexer.
Went to sign up then found I was already a member…
Ditto!
Thanks OP, dont know what i'll need it for but grabbed one just in case.
Oh goody! Thanks!
Best way to get a site closed down. In usenet no publicity is good publicity.
It's pirating.
Okay I see it's not piracy, it's file sharing pretty much, but like torrenting when there's file sharing there is some piracy.
Seems I still don't understand it due to the downvotes. I'm just saying what I see as a noob to the site.
It does have some open source software too. Ubuntu for instance. Your earlier assumption is more or less correct though.
dude rule 1
Yeah I'm sure the studios know nothing about this… just Torrence.
registered, now to understand what for…
Ditto.
Register first. Ask questions later.
Would someone be able to explain what this actually is? I've had a look around the site and I'm gonna assume its some sort of file/piracy sharing site?
It's another type of way people can share files, yeah. It's been around a lot longer than torrents and the like.
I don't know what this is but I need it
what does API hits mean?
Use of an app that will directly access the usenet service through a special interface. (Application Programming Interface). For example, a request to list all the available threads in a group for example.
how many times you can use it per day, so each search via sonarr or radarr etc counts as a hit
just created and still have no ideas what this site is?
The Usenet is an ancient Internet service - older than the WWW.
Originally, it’s a bulletin board service. There are a multitude of categories (make your own, just like Reddit) where you post messages that anyone with a Newsreader can read.
Just like with email (“attachments”), the transport of binary files was later added. The internet being the internet people are posting anything and everything - and that includes all sorts of software and imagery. Basically anyone can post and messages are available to all servers that carry the board the message was posted in. As message length is limited, large files are split into many, many separate messages. These are held together (referenced) by a file that carries all message ids required to reassemble the big chunk of data (NZB).
But how do you know what has been posted? Say, you’re after the movie “Peter’s summer holiday”. You use an Indexer! It’s like a search engine for Usenet messages. Their quality will depend on how complete their collection of posted messages is and how far back they reach in time (say, something was posted 7 years ago).
If they find “Peter’s summer holiday” they will return an NZB file with all required messages to download. But download from where? That’s where Usenet servers come in. They store all these messages and, again, their quality varies by how well they capture all posted messages across the Usenet and how far back they go (retention). And, of course, you will have to pay to get access to these servers.
Bottom line: it’s a big, largely uncontrolled and unmoderated repository of files (those discussion lists also still do exist).
And chances are, not all news servers will contain all the messages to a full thread. Imagine grabbing a big 4GB 1080p media file spread over 100,000 messages and you are missing 1 message to complete it. lol
Uh no that's not how it works …
I thought I understood outofgamut's comment, but then your comment confused me. Why would a single file be spread over many messages, so would a single file have portions linked in many posts? or have I not understood the concept yet?
That is very much how it works.
However, today’s Usenet clients are pretty fancy and when somebody shares a file to the Usenet they automatically upload parity data in addition to the file data. These can make up for a certain amount of missing or scrambled messages. It’s similar to a way some Raid systems regenerate the data when one hard disk goes down and needs to be replaced.
Also, good Usenet clients can tell you whether your Usenet server has enough ‘good’ messages stored for you to successfully download a complete file.
All binary files are broken down into little parts that you must download and reassemble. Depending on your downloader it will first check the health of file ( ie no missing parts) and only download if it can complete the job. Its easy to use.
Torrents also use this concept with their "piece sizes"
Torrents are very different concept. Mainly that torrents are a Peer to Peer (P2P) that all nodes are basically a server and client (upload/download) sharing file segment "chunks" and shared as direct binary. Usenet files actually use the same technology as what is in emails - transmitted to usenet servers in the same way as emails do. Files are encoded into ASCII to be stored as threads on the server. You download all the threads like chunks, but you aren't serving the files.
Just imagine you are downloading thousands of these email chunks to then put it back together as a binary file. That's what Usenet is.
I don't have clue about it but I signed up. Hope will find out here!
You're a star, OP. Thanks for sharing this.
what's this site's connection settings?
Can't seem to find a page telling this
Thanks
got 20 thanks
having now registered, am i able to move to a paid sub at any time or need to wait for another opening?
tsk tsk first rule of Usenet.
the biggest and best usenet indexer right now.
Not really. The ones that adhere to the first rule are better. But DS is better organised than the typical. Not sure how they will fare with exposure like this. One could go to the usual forums to find this out.
I don't often use a computer but I want my kids to be exposed to technology so they can future proof their careers.
Hopefully this is more user friendly than the Dark Web. I set it up with parental controls and the kids complained that everything was blocked. I got tired of giving their allowance in Bitcoin anyway.
thanks for the headsup! have heard about this indexer and by the looks of it seems awesome!
Hell yeah brother
I used to use Microsoft Outlook Express for newsgroup. Have stopped using Usenet more than 15 years ago. Time to explore again. Thanks OP.
Thanks OP
can anyone recommend an nzb downloader?
is supernzb any good?
also - any decent cheap/free providers?
From my limited reading, this is an indexer, and I need a provider to go with it. Reading reddit thread now.
NZBGeek
Sabnzbd + Usenet farm
I use Sab and then sonarr and radarr for tv shows and movies. Works very well
Any deals for free Usenet providers?
Sure, when you get to the pile of gold just turn left and you won't be able to miss the instructions.
Stupid question: Where do I find the 5 free daily downloads? Ta
If you download one of the nzb's, that will be one of your five. You're gonna need newsgroup access to do anything useful with that nzb file though. It's kinda like just having the movie ticket, but you still have go to the cinema to see the movie.
think of this as just a search engine for the content. you need to pay for a provider to actually download stuff.
Thx mate
I've been using these guys for a while. They are usually my #2 go-to choice, nothing amazing about their UI but it does the job. Didn't realise they were closed for joins!
Then what's your #1?
whos no.1?
The first rule of Usenet club is….
Could you PM me your number 1?
Me too!
Thanks mate.
Oh wow this brings back memories 100 zip files into one show X 20 episodes lol
Pass!
Torrents FTW
Pass!
Was that 15 years ago? I hear they have electric cars now too.
What is this?
A waste of your time.
Registered. Thanks. Just have to work out how to use this service. Explanations above are helpful.
Just a noob question maybe, what people usually use this to Download? Movies or Software?
I myself haven’t been downloading software for years since most big ones are now in subscription base. For movies I believe there are lots of steaming options from both paid and unpaid channels?
Cheers OP - registered
Thanks! Been waiting for registrations to open.
Done. Is this something I’d need to download on a desktop or am I able to download these on my phone or tablet somehow?
From my limited usenet experience thus far, lots of downloads failed due to dmca takedown.. rather useless..
NTD providers don't seem to have this issue since they don't follow US-style DCMA laws but the European version.
Tweaknews (NTD provider) had a special the other day which has now expired.. Maybe wait until the next deal comes around if you're still keen.
Last deal: https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/comments/chr0m9/tweaknews_of…
This only happens if you have a poor quality indexer.
Btw this or nzbgeek?
Both and you'll have a solid setup
Do you need to make a choice when this is free?!
Geek, without doubt
Thanks so much for this. Have wanted in for a while!