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Already happening for me and a bunch of people I know. I was happy paying for 1 service a month (Netflix) and having everything there. Then the studios started

Already happening for me and a bunch of people I know. I was happy paying for 1 service a month (Netflix) and having everything there. Then the studios started pulling their content for their own streaming services. I'm not signing up for a handful of subpar streaming services just because the studios got greedy. Netflix worked and worked really well. So I got a Usenet subscription and a couple 6TB hard drives. Setup Plex/Radarr/Sonarr/SabNZBD and grabbed all the seasons of the shows I like to watch. For future episodes it is all completely automated. I just select shows I want to watch and the system finds them as soon as they're available every week, downloads, imports into Plex, and sends me a Slack notification. Some tech challenged family members have even come to me requesting a duplicate setup, a clear sign that this fragmented nonsense is not good.

quantumOctopus 7y ago
That's some really nice setup! I'm gonna try it out soon as well. I have a question, I have a VPN as well but I don't wanna be connected to a VPN all the time, I only want my torrent manager go through a VPN while any other app is not. Is this achievable? Are you on a VPN constantly?
- somehnguy 7y ago
  Thanks! I can't recommend it enough. As for the VPN part yeah you'll definitely want a VPN if you use torrents for the download source. For my setup I have Radarr/Sonarr set to prefer Usenet and only resort to the torrent if it can't find a release after 24 hours. Just because Usenet eliminates the problem of having a single seeder uploading at 1kb/s and things like that. I would highly recommend grabbing a Usenet subscription if you're setting this system up. In SabNZBD you can setup which provider you prefer and then it goes down the list. My #1 is Newshosting.com, then Eweka.nl (they follow a different DMCA process so chance of a completed download is higher if a chunk is missing from Newshosting. SAB will use all sources to find missing pieces of the file automatically), then a 50GB block at Tweaknews, and finally a free trial block account at Usenet.farm. I am rambling at this point, if you want more info on this part feel free to ask. As for your actual question - I have everything in Docker containers running on OpenMediaVault on a server in my house. I use the 'docker-transmission-openvpn' container as a self contained unit, it handles setting up the VPN connection for that container only so that the whole server isn't behind a VPN. For a provider I've had great luck with PIA for the last couple years, they don't care about torrenting. For Usenet downloads no VPN is needed. I hand rolled this setup with a bunch of pre-made docker containers and configuring them myself. Someone else I know has a similar setup based on 'Cloudbox' (on Github) and that seems to be working well for him too.
  - quantumOctopus 7y ago
    You just up opened up a new world to me. I didn't even know what Usenet was and thought torrents were the only possible choice. I'm gonna try it out this weekend!! Thank you again!
- milesvp 7y ago
  My guess is if he’s using usenet, then he’s not bothering with VPN. Torrenting means you’re exposing your IP to anyone subscribed to that torrent. Usenet only exposes your IP to your provider, same way your IP is exposed to your VPN provider. Basically your exposure risk is the same with and without VPN, since all a rights holder needs is the logs from the usenet provider, and the VPN doesn’t obfuscate anything about this generally. VPN might provide some mitm data packet sniffing protection, and also some protections if you use anonomous pay for usenet, but otherwise probably not worth the effort. And if you were to go through the effort, then a dedicated machine with always on VPN is probably the safest way to go, since browsing the internet leaks an amazing amount of info about you.
wilsonnb3 7y ago
> I'm not signing up for a handful of subpar streaming services just because the studios got greedy I can see why people feel this way, but there is a third option. Just don't watch their shows. I don't understand why people feel like they have a right to consume whatever media they want.
- dewey 7y ago
  Nobody says they have the right though? They just say they are not having it and getting it elsewhere even if it’s against the rules.
- somehnguy 7y ago
  I know I don't have a 'right' to consume any media. But I (along with many others) want to and will do so whether legal or not. Take that as you will.

quantumOctopus 7y ago

That's some really nice setup! I'm gonna try it out soon as well. I have a question, I have a VPN as well but I don't wanna be connected to a VPN all the time, I only want my torrent manager go through a VPN while any other app is not. Is this achievable? Are you on a VPN constantly?

somehnguy 7y ago
Thanks! I can't recommend it enough. As for the VPN part yeah you'll definitely want a VPN if you use torrents for the download source. For my setup I have Radarr/Sonarr set to prefer Usenet and only resort to the torrent if it can't find a release after 24 hours. Just because Usenet eliminates the problem of having a single seeder uploading at 1kb/s and things like that. I would highly recommend grabbing a Usenet subscription if you're setting this system up. In SabNZBD you can setup which provider you prefer and then it goes down the list. My #1 is Newshosting.com, then Eweka.nl (they follow a different DMCA process so chance of a completed download is higher if a chunk is missing from Newshosting. SAB will use all sources to find missing pieces of the file automatically), then a 50GB block at Tweaknews, and finally a free trial block account at Usenet.farm. I am rambling at this point, if you want more info on this part feel free to ask. As for your actual question - I have everything in Docker containers running on OpenMediaVault on a server in my house. I use the 'docker-transmission-openvpn' container as a self contained unit, it handles setting up the VPN connection for that container only so that the whole server isn't behind a VPN. For a provider I've had great luck with PIA for the last couple years, they don't care about torrenting. For Usenet downloads no VPN is needed. I hand rolled this setup with a bunch of pre-made docker containers and configuring them myself. Someone else I know has a similar setup based on 'Cloudbox' (on Github) and that seems to be working well for him too.
- quantumOctopus 7y ago
  You just up opened up a new world to me. I didn't even know what Usenet was and thought torrents were the only possible choice. I'm gonna try it out this weekend!! Thank you again!
milesvp 7y ago
My guess is if he’s using usenet, then he’s not bothering with VPN. Torrenting means you’re exposing your IP to anyone subscribed to that torrent. Usenet only exposes your IP to your provider, same way your IP is exposed to your VPN provider. Basically your exposure risk is the same with and without VPN, since all a rights holder needs is the logs from the usenet provider, and the VPN doesn’t obfuscate anything about this generally. VPN might provide some mitm data packet sniffing protection, and also some protections if you use anonomous pay for usenet, but otherwise probably not worth the effort. And if you were to go through the effort, then a dedicated machine with always on VPN is probably the safest way to go, since browsing the internet leaks an amazing amount of info about you.

wilsonnb3 7y ago

> I'm not signing up for a handful of subpar streaming services just because the studios got greedy I can see why people feel this way, but there is a third option. Just don't watch their shows. I don't understand why people feel like they have a right to consume whatever media they want.

dewey 7y ago
Nobody says they have the right though? They just say they are not having it and getting it elsewhere even if it’s against the rules.
somehnguy 7y ago
I know I don't have a 'right' to consume any media. But I (along with many others) want to and will do so whether legal or not. Take that as you will.