GOLDMAN 555

For anyone who is into downloading ‘media’ For many years I have used torrent sites etc. however these sites are very very slow and full of viruses. A friend of mine recently showed me how to download from the newsgroups and I have to say its BLOODY amazing. It is very easy to use and about 30 to 40 times faster than torrent.

Does anyone else use these?

FlightMan

I think it depends on what torrent sites you use. Never had a problem myself and I recently downloaded a 1.4gig file in under 9mins, so the speed is not too shabby either!

OllyK

I used to run my own Newserver, but haven't been an active participant for ages.

room 512

I use easynews, superb site and virtually anything you could ever want on there! All for a fiver a month.

Geezer

I'm also an Easynews user, superb service, and like you say, the speed is superb.

The thing I like about Usenet as opposed to torrents is that you download at very high speed instantly, as opposed to having to get a good sharing score and don't end up having to keep loads of crap on your PC for others to leech.

I think there is probably more choice of content on torrents though.

Geezer

OllyK

Most ISPs provide a free news feed which you can access with Outlook Express. And there are plenty of free publically accessible servers around if you do a bit of digging, I used to source from around 30 free servers when I had my own newsserver and it didn't cost me a bean!

Geezer

I think it's a long time since you used Usenet Olly! Hardly anyone offers a free service for the binaries, as it uses about 3 tb a day of new stuff! The binaries are where you get 'good' stuff, as opposed to info like Usenet used to be.

Geezer

room 512

Yeah, I'm not usually looking for information when I'm on there (cough)

GOLDMAN 555

I dont agree on torrents.... they are ok but full of viruses and other BS. I have a fast connection and it takes me about 5-6 hours to download 1.4gb on torrent with newsgroups I can do 1.4gb in about 30mins average.

FlightMan

Doesnt matter whether you agree or not. Your experience differs from mine.

OllyK

Broadband - Help & Support

Usenet included in the Broadband package, some speed restriction at peak times (6pm to 10pm).

A bit of a dig around on the net and you can still find lists of free newsservers, part of the reason for running your own as you can aggregate from multiple sources

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I do like the fact they have free download usage overnight. Our current provider limits us to 100Gb per month with only a 1Mb connection regardless of when you use it.

That does look like a better deal to me

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Torrent sites as fantastic is you use private trackers. Newsgroups are good but I give you a week and you'll lose interest. A lot of files are corrupt and need fixing, so you end up downloading more than you need, they are a ******* to find and the overal quality doesn't match a private torrent site.

PM me if your interested.

Proby521

iTrader: (1)

Ive used newsgroups for ages. Been using Newsdemon for provider (Many ISP's dont leave files up for long enough) and Newzbins for file indexing for years. Never really get any probs with corrupt files, or hard to find stuff. I bet private torrent sites can work well though.

Proby

Scotsman

iTrader: (3)

I've been using Newshosting.com :: Your source for Premium Usenet Newsgroup Access with the highest Retention and Completion for years. On the $14.99 per month unlimited download plan. Retention and speeds are good.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Guys, forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a newsgroup; what are the pros and cons of signing up?

Ns04

OllyK

It was originally known as Usenet. It's a hierarchical set of groups where you can post messages (with attachments)

Google do a web based access if you want a look:
Google Groups

Or you can use Outlook Express or any number of news reader. You can then get tools to trawl through the news groups looking for and extracting binaries (images, programs music etc). It used to be good for pr0n too

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Cheers Olly, will have a look not at pr0n though....honest!

OllyK

LOL - in some ways it's a predecessor of things like this BBS, imagine nested folders containing a load of threaded email messages .

Geezer

What on earth have you been using? The files are hardly ever corrupt, dead easy to find what you want and the quality (of films at any rate) is as good as anything you can buy (which, seeing as they are ripped from commercial DVDs ain't surprising.....)

I've used both, and found both as easy to use as each other, but Usenet (for me anyway) has been quicker. Perhaps you weren't using NZB files to find stuff?

Geezer

HankScorpio

I would suggest you're using the wrong tools and poor ISPs then.
Take a look at Newsleecher and Giganews.

Giganews has 200 day retention and terrific completion rates.
NL downloads, checks, downloads repair files only where needed, repairs, extracts, moves to folder and deletes the source. No interaction beyond putting the items in the queue (and using nzbs, all you have to do is save/extract the nzb and you can add "loads items into queue" at the start of that list above).
So you save an nzb, do nothing else but wait for your output folder to fill up.

chrisowe

I was using these guys for a while www.usenetserver.com . SSL downloading, unlimited for $14.95 a month.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Cancelled my giganews after a year.. found it pointless with having private trackers for free. Full speed download and much quicker updates to series etc!

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

I tried loads of software but settled with altbinz.

alt.binz | Usenet progy

Similar to some of the above, fantastic software with free searches built in (NewsLeech, Binsearch, beta.binaries.nl, NZBIndex, Yabse, Super Search and TvNZB). Automatically downloads the needed par2 files (if nescesary) and repairs the files and finally it will unrar the files for you. No need to get NZB's.

I get access through Zen which is great with good retention.

MrShades

I've been using binary usenet for ages - much, much better than torrents and other p2p stuff.

Why spend 4hrs downloading a torrent that claims to be "Saw4" - to start watching it and find out that it's the Sound of Music renamed... You don't get that on Usenet, as it's often where the torrent material originates.

So - my recipe is:

Newzbin - Usenet Search and VCD Quality for easily seeing what's new...

NewsLeecher :: Download binaries from the usenet with ease for NewsLeecher software to actually download the stuff and decrypt / assemble it - IMPORTANTLY - With 'Super Search' (which I pay for annually and is BRILLIANT. Anyone using NL and not using Super Search is making a mistake, as it makes finding stuff and downloading so quick and easy it's almost laughable).

Newshosting.com :: Your source for Premium Usenet Newsgroup Access with the highest Retention and Completion - on the unlimited monthly service, at $14.95 pm. I max out my 20Mb VM connection during the day with the 8 concurrent connections allowed.

A little bit of WinRAR and SmartPAR and you're there....

Shades

WRX_Dazza

newsbin and BNR user here....

about $20 a month i think... roughly all in.

never had a corrupt file in 18 months!!!

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Do you download the PAR files??

With Private trackers everything is top quality... never misleading and never anything but full speed. Its nice to know the people you share with too. Community type thing.

WRX_Dazza

yep, run the par files to fix any (rare) mising bits (smartpar)

then use winrar to decompress and voila!!!!!

10 episodes of The OC to keep the other half entertained, while i'm xboxing it.!!!

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I used giganews and every file need paring.. and then some par files would be missing... it took all the goodness out of newsgroups for me...

HankScorpio

Shades, you need to turn on the repair and extract features, gets rid of all that, check my post above.