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by EwanG·3y ago·view on hn ↗
I have seen several folks on here mention Usenet subscriptions as another option. What I haven't found is any good Usenet tutorial on how to actually get from "I know the name of something I want" to "I have downloaded it".

The irony that I used to run a UUCP node on the original version of Usenet does not escape me :-)

9 comments
r/usenet has a great FAQ about it[1]. In a nutshell, there are 3 things you need to use usenet. You need providers, indexers, and a software to download stuff.

Providers are companies and servers where the data is actually stored, as opposed to peers in torrenting. Since they are for-profit, you need to purchase a subscription to have access to these servers. r/usenet has some nice deals on those[2]. Frugal is usually the most recommended for beginners since it’s pretty cheap and has most files you’ll want.

Indexers are similar to what rarbg was. They make it easy to search for files stored in the providers. They usually require a subscription as well, and some require invites, but are really cheap and easy to get [3]. nzbgeek doesn’t require an invite and is pretty complete. nzbplanet and drunkenslug have more content, but require invites. You can get invites for those on r/UsenetInvites

Finally, you need something to download the files. There are many options available for that, but I find that the best one is sabnzb [4]. It is pretty complete and has a lot of moving parts, so I recommend following the trash-guides article on it to get started[5]

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Usenet/wiki/faq/

[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providerdeals/

[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Usenet/wiki/indexers/

[4]: https://sabnzbd.org/

[5]: https://trash-guides.info/Downloaders/SABnzbd/Basic-Setup/

Too many suscriptions. Pass.
thanks bro
https://sonarr.tv/ https://radarr.video/ + https://github.com/theotherp/nzbhydra2/ + 1 or more https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/indexers

Usenet is a lot of effort.

Your proposed alternative to downloading movies using torrents is to set up and maintain a torrent tracking service?
That software uses Usenet too.
It's only as much effort as you want to put into it. Yes it's more effort than public torrent sites, but the tradeoffs are worth it.

Plus. most of these are setup once and forget. Automation & not having to seed is what makes Usenet worth it IMHO.

And of course, torrents still have benefits and their place as well.

I haven't used Usenet for some time but I remember probably 15 years ago a lot of the files were DMCA'd or incomplete (even with parity) and it was difficult to put together a complete download. Does it come down to the indexer you use? Have things changed these days?
It's not too complicated. I heard from a friend, that all you need is a downloader like Sabnzbd, a usenet provider like Eweka or Frugal Usenet, and an index like Drunkenslug to find stuff.
Just googled it and found this: a quick glance and it looks like you can get set up with this. https://robdix.com/usenet-beginners-guide/
That's because the first rule of Usenet is you don't talk about Usenet.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34704654

I have since switched to SABnzbd from NZBget. I saw a comment regarding hard to find things, I am subbed to two indexers and either I am not looking for obscure things or I am letting the other tools I listed do most of the heavy work. Prowlarr is doing most of the heavy lifting doing the searches for me.

I haven't used Usenet since probably around 2002. It seems like everything is still the same except for the indexer. I assume that is so you don't have to sign onto a bunch of binary groups into your newsreader and then search through them for what you want (part of the fun in the old days for me)? Is that correct, does anyone know?

I also wonder if Forte' Agent still works? Does Newsguy still exist? /s

edit: found the answer to my question

It's hard to find stuff on Usenet. I subscribe to two different paid (and not super cheap) indexes, and it's still routine that I can't find stuff. If I look over at pirate bay, it will be there about 50% of the time
Research 'nzb'