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I've heard that discoverability on usenet is a problem. Is it similar to private trackers and just harder to find an easy "in", or do people actually pay for a

I've heard that discoverability on usenet is a problem. Is it similar to private trackers and just harder to find an easy "in", or do people actually pay for access to those index sites?

enobrev 7y ago
Having a couple free indexers and a decent paid one (or two) along with a couple good Usenet services tends to cover most needs. With a good downloader app, it's simply a matter of plugging in a couple API keys once and basically forgetting about them while letting your system do the searching and scouring for you. Or, so I've heard.
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  Ca you give us some more specific details about what you have heard, like the name of these services? Why are they better than torrent?
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    With Usenet you get a direct line to the files, there's no seeding, and it's over SSL (you might have to specify a SSL server from your provider). The scripts to download take the binaries and take each part downloaded and put them together and extract all the files for you. I don't even think you need a VPN, but one does not hurt. Also like I said, you can automate the process with projects like SickBeard and CouchPotato. Specifically with SickBeard you can subscribe to shows, and it knows when new episodes come out, and it starts searching repeatedly. The other thing is you can define the quality you want to download, it will find the best thing closest to that quality and download it, say it's 480p but you want 1080p, but only 480 is available at the time. An hour later 1080p is published, but you already have 480 and maybe you're watching it, no way for it to know, so what the software does is, download the 1080p version, and don't delete it till it's done downloading. You'll know it's downloading cause you can setup all sorts of alerts and notifications. Then you have Kodi setup to auto parse those directories and fetch previews and descriptions. At one point I had a plugin for Kodi that takes all the content you have and makes "Channels" from the content, so you can feel like you're watching regular TV and browsing through channels. People love Kodi for the streaming plugins, but Kodi + Usenet was amazing. Nowadays I just pay for Netflix and Hulu, but like I said, at this rate it's tempting to think about Usenet again.
  - turc1656 7y ago
    I've heard NZBGeek.info is pretty good and worth the lifetime fee (currently $30) as far as indexers go. I've also heard that free software like NZBGet which takes in the NZB's and downloads everything for you, verifies the download, and does the unpacking automatically, is great and has its own browser interface. I've also heard services like newshosting.com are worth the $15 unlimited bandwidth access given their speed and retention. I'm told these are better than torrent primarily for speed and accessibility. Accessibility is key for older content as these massive data centers that belong to the usenet provider will typically hold all data for at least 7-8 years. So if you are within the 7-8 window you won't have any speed or "seed" issues. The issue now for Usenet seems to be DMCA takedowns which applies to new, popular content. Although, if one were to use software like SickBeard or SABnzbd, I've heard they automate the locating and downloading of recurring/episodic television and would replace NZBGet. You set your preferences for a show (quality, language, etc.) and it does the rest because it knows when the show airs so you literally just find new commercial and add free TV downloaded and ready to go. Combine this with Plex and you're golden. And that's a $30 one time fee and $15 monthly recurring in total, as the rest is all free software. Unless you want the premium Plex which you would only need if you want to stream from your home to your mobile device or something else while in transit. But if you just want to use this to watch at home, then Plex is also free, fantastic software...or so I've been told. EDIT: One additional note on legal protection - using Usenet is preferred as you are communicating directly with your service provider (i.e. newshosting.com) for them serving you files. This means there's no one monitoring the swarm and trying to see if you are seeding or serving/distributing the data. So there isn't going to be anyone serving you violation notices or suing you for illegal distribution. Another benefit is those Usenet providers are typically on major internet backbones and typically max your line speed even for extended usage. You can easily pull down several hundred mbps constant for most Usenet providers.
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      Nzbgeek I believe is for manual searching, but some of those automated services (SickBeard, Radarr, etc) allow you to manually add something in the mix, they are after all downloaders at the end of it all. That or I forgot how to add their indexer to SickBeard. It's been a while, and after not having done it in so long I tried to go back and forgot how I did it so I had some manually setup.
  - enobrev 7y ago
    @giancarlostoro and @turc1656 covered this a great deal better than I could. I just want to add that using a combination of NZBGet, Sonarr (TV Series), and Radarr (Movies), makes the task of downloading and managing media incredibly simple on a day-to-day basis. There's a bit of a learning curve to get them all set up and working, but not much more than a single dedicated evening. I can't say I know a ton about the subject, as it's very intentionally not a hobby for me. One might find it important to simply get everything set up and then go on with their lives. About an hour or so googling around and checking the usenet subreddit(s) and the favorite tools and services tend to bubble to the top. Then it's a matter of signing up for a couple indexers and usenet services and blocks, installing the tools, and let it run. The ones I mentioned above are quite stable and self-updating. Torrents seem to be easier to get started and along with a VPN are probably the way to go if you download something once a month, but annoying in the long term. On the other hand, usenet can be annoying to learn about and get set up at first and then simply stable and easy otherwise. One could easily get used to the client interfaces and Plex (or Kodi if preferred) and simply forget that they have a system in place to automatically download these series and movies as they're released and as better quality versions are made available.
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      Totally agree with you, I am not sure but Sonarr and Radarr look enough like SickBeard / CouchPotato either they're inspired by them or modern forks. Wouldn't surprise me, looking to the SickBeard / CouchPotato sites makes it look like neither get updated often recently.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Yeah paid ones are definitely worth it, there was one that was like $15 for lifetime access. If you want to download manually there's some forums with yearly subscriptions that aren't too bad too. I don't remember any names off the top of my head, it's been a few years (wow 10...) since I last used any of those. The best I can say is a lot of the sites have the word "NZB" attached to them since that's the Usenet rendition of a ".torrent" file sorta.

I've heard that discoverability on usenet is a problem. Is it similar to private trackers and just harder to find an easy "in", or do people actually pay for access to those index sites?

enobrev 7y ago

Having a couple free indexers and a decent paid one (or two) along with a couple good Usenet services tends to cover most needs. With a good downloader app, it's simply a matter of plugging in a couple API keys once and basically forgetting about them while letting your system do the searching and scouring for you. Or, so I've heard.

smnrchrds 7y ago
Ca you give us some more specific details about what you have heard, like the name of these services? Why are they better than torrent?
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  With Usenet you get a direct line to the files, there's no seeding, and it's over SSL (you might have to specify a SSL server from your provider). The scripts to download take the binaries and take each part downloaded and put them together and extract all the files for you. I don't even think you need a VPN, but one does not hurt. Also like I said, you can automate the process with projects like SickBeard and CouchPotato. Specifically with SickBeard you can subscribe to shows, and it knows when new episodes come out, and it starts searching repeatedly. The other thing is you can define the quality you want to download, it will find the best thing closest to that quality and download it, say it's 480p but you want 1080p, but only 480 is available at the time. An hour later 1080p is published, but you already have 480 and maybe you're watching it, no way for it to know, so what the software does is, download the 1080p version, and don't delete it till it's done downloading. You'll know it's downloading cause you can setup all sorts of alerts and notifications. Then you have Kodi setup to auto parse those directories and fetch previews and descriptions. At one point I had a plugin for Kodi that takes all the content you have and makes "Channels" from the content, so you can feel like you're watching regular TV and browsing through channels. People love Kodi for the streaming plugins, but Kodi + Usenet was amazing. Nowadays I just pay for Netflix and Hulu, but like I said, at this rate it's tempting to think about Usenet again.
- turc1656 7y ago
  I've heard NZBGeek.info is pretty good and worth the lifetime fee (currently $30) as far as indexers go. I've also heard that free software like NZBGet which takes in the NZB's and downloads everything for you, verifies the download, and does the unpacking automatically, is great and has its own browser interface. I've also heard services like newshosting.com are worth the $15 unlimited bandwidth access given their speed and retention. I'm told these are better than torrent primarily for speed and accessibility. Accessibility is key for older content as these massive data centers that belong to the usenet provider will typically hold all data for at least 7-8 years. So if you are within the 7-8 window you won't have any speed or "seed" issues. The issue now for Usenet seems to be DMCA takedowns which applies to new, popular content. Although, if one were to use software like SickBeard or SABnzbd, I've heard they automate the locating and downloading of recurring/episodic television and would replace NZBGet. You set your preferences for a show (quality, language, etc.) and it does the rest because it knows when the show airs so you literally just find new commercial and add free TV downloaded and ready to go. Combine this with Plex and you're golden. And that's a $30 one time fee and $15 monthly recurring in total, as the rest is all free software. Unless you want the premium Plex which you would only need if you want to stream from your home to your mobile device or something else while in transit. But if you just want to use this to watch at home, then Plex is also free, fantastic software...or so I've been told. EDIT: One additional note on legal protection - using Usenet is preferred as you are communicating directly with your service provider (i.e. newshosting.com) for them serving you files. This means there's no one monitoring the swarm and trying to see if you are seeding or serving/distributing the data. So there isn't going to be anyone serving you violation notices or suing you for illegal distribution. Another benefit is those Usenet providers are typically on major internet backbones and typically max your line speed even for extended usage. You can easily pull down several hundred mbps constant for most Usenet providers.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    Nzbgeek I believe is for manual searching, but some of those automated services (SickBeard, Radarr, etc) allow you to manually add something in the mix, they are after all downloaders at the end of it all. That or I forgot how to add their indexer to SickBeard. It's been a while, and after not having done it in so long I tried to go back and forgot how I did it so I had some manually setup.
- enobrev 7y ago
  @giancarlostoro and @turc1656 covered this a great deal better than I could. I just want to add that using a combination of NZBGet, Sonarr (TV Series), and Radarr (Movies), makes the task of downloading and managing media incredibly simple on a day-to-day basis. There's a bit of a learning curve to get them all set up and working, but not much more than a single dedicated evening. I can't say I know a ton about the subject, as it's very intentionally not a hobby for me. One might find it important to simply get everything set up and then go on with their lives. About an hour or so googling around and checking the usenet subreddit(s) and the favorite tools and services tend to bubble to the top. Then it's a matter of signing up for a couple indexers and usenet services and blocks, installing the tools, and let it run. The ones I mentioned above are quite stable and self-updating. Torrents seem to be easier to get started and along with a VPN are probably the way to go if you download something once a month, but annoying in the long term. On the other hand, usenet can be annoying to learn about and get set up at first and then simply stable and easy otherwise. One could easily get used to the client interfaces and Plex (or Kodi if preferred) and simply forget that they have a system in place to automatically download these series and movies as they're released and as better quality versions are made available.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    Totally agree with you, I am not sure but Sonarr and Radarr look enough like SickBeard / CouchPotato either they're inspired by them or modern forks. Wouldn't surprise me, looking to the SickBeard / CouchPotato sites makes it look like neither get updated often recently.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

Yeah paid ones are definitely worth it, there was one that was like $15 for lifetime access. If you want to download manually there's some forums with yearly subscriptions that aren't too bad too. I don't remember any names off the top of my head, it's been a few years (wow 10...) since I last used any of those. The best I can say is a lot of the sites have the word "NZB" attached to them since that's the Usenet rendition of a ".torrent" file sorta.