Well... I've answered countless PMs in the last few weeks about this subject. So being that it isn't illegal, i figured I'll make a thread on the subject. This is a method of communicating with people via usenet. How you use it is up to you. It's very simple. newsgroups are groups of internet losers that post information and attachments based on similar interests. It can get crazy, but there's tons of stuff out there to make it simple. There's a few things you need. 1. Usenet access - I use newsdemon. They run about $20 per month and they have very good retention. You'll here the word "retention" thrown around when looking for a usenet provider. Cheaper ones have less retention. Essentially, retention is how long they will story the stuff that has been posted to usenet. This makes more sense later. The biggest name in the newsgroup industry is giganews. The most expensive too (but good 1st month deals if you wanna try em). They're worth it imo because their retention is ridiculous. Giganews - http://www.giganews.com/ Newsdemon - http://www.newsdemon.com/ 2. Usenet client - There's tons of programs that will pull news from usenet server... Even Outlook does it (but is TERRIBLE at it). I use GrabIt (by Sheems i think). It's free and it downloads, tracks, and even fixes, and decompresses. Setup is simple. Install the app and enter the usename and password that your provider gave you. Tada! GrabIt Download - http://www.shemes.com/index.php?p=download 3. NZB files - And .nzb file is a small table file that contains news listings for a specific item. There's tons of sites that simply track NZB files as well as database them for easy searching. newzleech.com is one of my favs. There's also forums like filesharingtalk.com that has an entire forum dedicated to people posting NZB files of new releases. Newzleech - http://newzleech.com/ NZBs R Us - http://www.nzbsrus.com/nzbbrowse.php Binsearch - http://www.binsearch.info/ File Sharing Talk Forums (NZB Index) - http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/nzbindex.php The process Go to your favorite NZB site, and find the completely legal item you want to download. You click the button to download the NZB and tell windows to open it (GrabIt should be the default app to launch NZBs - if it isn't, set it to be). GrabIt should launch and begin pulling the items down. After the legal items are downloaded, GrabIt even fixes it (if needed or able too) and decompresses it. Go to the designated download folder (which you can specify in settings) and enjoy your completely legal stuff. This is a basic tutorial. Feel free to post questions. I hope this helps some of you out. This might look terribly familiar to some of the people I've been helping via PMs.
How is this different from torrent file sharing enough to make it legal? I understand the logistics of how to download things like this but not what makes it legal.
Well.. Using usenet is not illegal. Accessing newsgroups is not illegal. Scientific communities in everything from historians to astrologists use it as a method to share information around the world. Some people use it to share games, movies, and music. I am not showing you how to do that. I'm just showing how to access usenet.
Newsleecher is a nice program for searching and downloading. I've used it and Giganews for years. Nothing like downloading as fast as your internet connection will go.
I have been thinking of going this route as well. I have used a couple of services in the past and the speed is crazy. I also loved Mor's completely legal screen shots!
Signed up for newsdemon and downloaded grabit. I'm using newsleech but when I try to download my legal items in grabit, I only get "unable to connect". I duno wtf I'm doing wrong here.
Good write up...very easy to follow. I use Astraweb currently. Great speed and good retention and I just pay $25 for every 180GB worth of data that I download through their server. I like not having to pay monthly seeing as there are some months where I may not use newsgroups at all.
After using Giganews for 5 years I plucked up the courage to change to http://www.astraweb.com as they have 365 days retention as well and it's only $11 a month for unlimited usage. SSL is even thrown in for free. Been using it for 3 months now and never had a problem with it. I was paying $25 a month to Giga, Astra is less than half the price and so far the service has been the exact same as Giga. Oh, the $11 a month is a special offer need to go here to get it... http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html For clients I'd agree GrabIt is excellent. Really simple to use and free to boot. Another good site for nzb's is http://www.nzbindex.com Their search engine seems to be better than binsearch.info as nzbindex usually finds stuff for me that binsearch doesn't. Maybe binsearch need to fix their LIKE filter.
i had to enter my server name in grabit before it was able to connect. i'm at work now, but something like: news.astraweb.whatever i just signed up for astraweb and i'm getting 764 kb/s. an 8gb file took 3 hours and change.
This sounds like me. I think I will be signing up for this as soon as I get home today. My downloading habits change from month to month depending on whats available. Thanks for this info. You made my day. Edit: And they take PayPal!!
I still have yet to run into a situation where I can't get what I need from torrent searches. I use Demonoid & TPB running Utorrent. Its easy, its free, and many people in "the scene" despise it. Giving all the more reason to enjoy their leaked files.
i hate hate hate having to maintain a ratio... That's not an issue on the TPB, but then your privacy is. I dunno
Interesting. I use bitcomet and torrents to download without a monthly cost. What is it about Newsgoups/Usenet that makes it better and worth paying for?
Demonoid doesn't enforce a ratio, though it does show it in your profile. Id say the biggest issues with TPB is probably viruses & fake torrents. I never download brand new torrents for that reason, scan through the comments & always look for the VIP uploads first.
Now lets say that I want to create a backup of a file using imagine burn. The file that grab it downloaded has several different files. Do I just burn all the files onto the disc or is there a certain file that is only important. I don't fully understand how grab it partitions everything.
I just found this deal for astraweb if anyone has been looking for cheap usenet access. SSL is included on all accounts as well. http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html Unlimited DSL Plan Special Offer - No Setup Fees Unlimited DSL - US$ 11 every month No Speed Limits No Download Limits Exactly the same as Unlimited DSL Plan You will pay $11 for every month as long as your subscription remains active. We will not raise the price.