Author Topic: Newsgroups thread (guide) (Read 73703 times)

Kashinoda · « **on:** January 23, 2011, 11:40:22 pm »

A few people have requested this so here you go.

Quote

Do not discuss the downloading of copyrighted materials or provide links to anything of that nature here!

Newsgroups (usenet) are a nice alternative to Torrents, although you are going to have to pay a monthly fee in order to use it!

However, you will benefit from being able to max out your connection from start to finish, you don't need to seed either of course... you're downloading from servers not other people! If you're a heavy downloader, especially of HD content then this could be very beneficial to you.

I'm on Virgin media 20MBit and I can download a 10GB file in around 1 hour 30 minutes at a speed of 2.3MB/sec (2,300KB/sec).

To download from Newsgroups you're going to need 3 things.

A download client
A website to grab your links from
A monthly subscription to a server where you're going to download from!

--------------------

Okay firstly you need a subscription to a usenet server, I've used all the popular ones and I advise you choose Astraweb... it costs $15.00 US a month and they are very reliable. You can sign up HERE. (There's a special $11.00 offer HERE, thanks PaulV!)

NOTE: They do offer a cheaper $10.00 US a month package, your download is restricted to only 1MBbit (100kb/sec) with this.

Now you have your sub, you need a program to download your files with. A decent free option is Grabit which you can download HERE, though I recommend using Newsleecher, there's a link below also.

Setting up Grabit:

When the program first runs it asks you for the name of your news server, enter eu.news.astraweb.com
Click next until you get into the main program.
Right click 'Default server' and click 'Server proporties'
Now you can enter your username and password, also set the maximum allowed connections to 20.
If you go to Edit - - > Preferences you can alter your download paths etc. Most settings should be fine as they are.

Quote

Alternative to Grabit - Newsleecher

I actually recommend this over Grabit as it has Traffic Management (I.e. setting download schedules, maximum speed etc.) along with a lot more functionality and tools.

You can grab the latest Newsleecher beta at the link below, it includes a fix so the 14 day trial will last forever. ;)
http://filebeam.com/7ab32f6e5b482095efcd259940ef9262

An installation guide along with recommended settings are included with the download!

So now you're ready to start downloading, you just need a website to get your links from! Now there are free options available (such as binsearch), however due to sheer usability and ease I'm continuing the guide with a paid website. If you navigate and sign up to NZBMatrix they will give you a free account, however with this you can only download files that are up to 20 days old. If you pay to be a VIP member you can access their entire database, this is a one off payment of £7.00.

NOTE: Astraweb lets you download files which are up to 1255 days old

Okay once you've done that you're ready to go! Lets say we want to search for 'snes roms', search results will look like this:

It's all pretty straightforward! Age is how long the link has been posted on the site, very old files may be more corrupt but as I've noted Astraweb do try to go as far as 1255 days. Comments are very useful, this site has a lot more user feedback than others which is why I chose it... if you have problems with your download you can check there of course.

When you've found what you want, click the link and once you're happy there's a button labelled 'Download NZB', click that and open it into Grabit/Newsleecher and simply wait for it to finish.

Grabit/Newsleecher will repair and extract your download for you! Mostly all links will come with repair files (par2).

Enjoy!

PS - Feel free to add to this, there are a ton of usenet clients, servers and websites it would be impossible for me to go into every one. This has been made to keep things relatively simple!

oldboybailey · « **Reply #1 on:** January 23, 2011, 11:48:54 pm »

Cheers for that, I'd heard about this kind of thing but never knew how to use it. What's the advantages over just using torrents? Are you less likely to get virus's and more content to choose from or is it really just about the speed of the downloads?

timiano · « **Reply #2 on:** January 23, 2011, 11:52:29 pm »

I use Giganews, Newzbin and SabNZB+ running on a 24/7 Windows Home Server. Bookmark something on Newzbin, SabNZB+ does the rest, and it's there available to anyone in the house a little while later. 50Mb, means sooner rather than later.

wardides · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2011, 11:56:35 pm »

There much difference between these and rapidshare?Considering ive only got a 3mb line, usually get speeds of 300k with Utorrent.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #4 on:** January 23, 2011, 11:58:10 pm »

Quote from: oldboybailey on January 23, 2011, 11:48:54 pm

Cheers for that, I'd heard about this kind of thing but never knew how to use it. What's the advantages over just using torrents? Are you less likely to get virus's and more content to choose from or is it really just about the speed of the downloads?

Obviously the speed is a given, even if you have a 50MB connection you're going to get full speed from the get go.

From experience I'd say less likely to get viruses but not impossible, keep an eye on the comments and use common sense of course.

In terms of content, it's more or less the same... kinda hard to quantify.

Quote from: wardides on January 23, 2011, 11:56:35 pm

There much difference between these and rapidshare?Considering ive only got a 3mb line, usually get speeds of 300k with Utorrent.

It does beat RapidShare if you're a heavy downloader, also a lot of stuff gets taken of RS lately. I'm not a fan of it at all.

Quote from: timiano on January 23, 2011, 11:52:29 pm

I use Giganews, Newzbin and SabNZB+ running on a 24/7 Windows Home Server. Bookmark something on Newzbin, SabNZB+ does the rest, and it's there available to anyone in the house a little while later. 50Mb, means sooner rather than later.

Still using Newzbin? Since the courtcase they've been much slower to update and there seems to be a big lack of user comments, which is why I switched. Giganews is great if you can afford it though.

Dr Manhattan · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2011, 01:37:29 am »

Less chance of you getting busted aswell, seeing as newsgroups are still protected by an act passed in 1994 (I think). Basically newsgroups were initially ways of uploading documents which groups of people would need to see. You upload it to the group and people open (or download) it, and this was protected under the same privacy laws as that which covers emails. Until now they still function in much the same way, only now it's with much larger files, ie. movies.

danwms · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:21:33 am »

I have been meaning to try this out for a while now, cheers.

koppitekop11 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2011, 01:34:08 pm »

Kash if I sign up is it $15.00 a month, every month or at the end of the month can I choose not to pay and therefore not use it?

koppitekop11 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:00:39 pm »

Just done it all now, at first I was getting these errors:

Think I might of ticked a box in the properties though, I unticked it and they started downloading.

But atm Im only getting around 500kb/s which is what I was getting when using torrents. Im on an 8mb connection I think so is there any reason why im only getting these speeds?

Thanks.

Graeme · « **Reply #9 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:13:41 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on January 23, 2011, 11:40:22 pm

I'm on Virgin media 20MBit and I can download a 10GB file in around 1 hour 30 minutes at a speed of 2.3MB/sec (2,300KB/sec).

Another tip which applies particularly to Virgin Media customers is Virgin provide free access to their News Server. So the way I set mine up in Newsleecher is Virgin News Server as Priority 1 and Astraweb as Priority 2. That way, the client will attempt to download the file from Virgin and if it is not available then it will then download it from Astraweb.

Doing it that way means that I don't need to pay a monthly fee to Astraweb and instead purchase the download 'Blocks' which cost me far less in the long run.

How beneficial this is depends on how old the content is you are downloading. If the content was posted to Usenet a long time ago then it won't be on the Virgin server as retention is only a couple of weeks but if it is recent content then you can download it for nothing.

timiano · « **Reply #10 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:19:56 pm »

Quote from: koppitekop11 on January 24, 2011, 02:00:39 pm

Just done it all now, at first I was getting these errors:

Think I might of ticked a box in the properties though, I unticked it and they started downloading.

But atm Im only getting around 500kb/s which is what I was getting when using torrents. Im on an 8mb connection I think so is there any reason why im only getting these speeds?

Thanks.

NNTP over SSL doesn't use port 119. It's likely you untitled the use SSL checkbox.

Are you sure your speeds aren't KB, and not Kb?

koppitekop11 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:24:20 pm »

Quote from: timiano on January 24, 2011, 02:19:56 pm

NNTP over SSL doesn't use port 119. It's likely you untitled the use SSL checkbox.

Are you sure your speeds aren't KB, and not Kb?

Err yeah sorry, thought I put KB/s. So do them speeds sound about right?

scatman · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:31:50 pm »

Great guide, we had another thread on here somewhere with a similar guide. I'm using Giganews, GrabIt and nzbsrus at the moment

scatman · « **Reply #13 on:** January 24, 2011, 02:32:57 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on January 23, 2011, 11:58:10 pm

Still using Newzbin? Since the courtcase they've been much slower to update and there seems to be a big lack of user comments, which is why I switched. Giganews is great if you can afford it though.

to be fair Kash, it's handy having that newzbin account just for newzxxx

Kashinoda · « **Reply #14 on:** January 24, 2011, 03:22:59 pm »

Quote from: rapcage on January 24, 2011, 02:32:57 pm

to be fair Kash, it's handy having that newzbin account just for newzxxx

Newzxxx is free regardless, you don't need one for the other.

PaulV · « **Reply #15 on:** January 24, 2011, 04:47:22 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on January 23, 2011, 11:40:22 pm

Okay firstly you need a subscription to a usenet server, I've used all the popular ones and I advise you choose Astraweb... it costs $15.00 US a month and they are very reliable. You can sign up HERE.

NOTE: They do offer a cheaper $10.00 US a month package, your download is restricted to only 1MBbit (100kb/sec) with this.

If you subscribe to Astraweb via http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html, the cost is $11/month with full download speeds.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #16 on:** January 24, 2011, 07:52:47 pm »

Quote from: koppitekop11 on January 24, 2011, 02:24:20 pm

Err yeah sorry, thought I put KB/s. So do them speeds sound about right?

Run a speed test mate and see what your line can handle, it may be that it's advertised as 8MB max but in reality it's only 5

OldCold · « **Reply #17 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:00:40 pm »

Why not just get a rapidshare account and go on warez-bb, much easier.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #18 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:34:18 pm »

Quote from: OldCold on January 24, 2011, 08:00:40 pm

Why not just get a rapidshare account and go on warez-bb, much easier.

How is using a forum and RapidShare any easier than single-click downloading?

Once you have Newsgroups set up it's the easiest thing to use.

PaulV · « **Reply #19 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:39:55 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on January 24, 2011, 08:34:18 pm

Once you have Newsgroups set up it's the easiest thing to use.

Also, if you can get an RSS feed of nzbs, you can use SABnzbd to automatically download files as they appear; great for episodes of TV series.

iSmiff · « **Reply #20 on:** January 24, 2011, 11:43:46 pm »

Quote from: OldCold on January 24, 2011, 08:00:40 pm

Why not just get a rapidshare account and go on warez-bb, much easier.

much easier in a way more complicated and having to piss about way

johnybarnes · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2011, 01:17:20 am »

Good for downloading older stuff too, since seeds for those torrents have pretty much disappeared.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #22 on:** January 25, 2011, 06:07:05 am »

Quote from: PaulV on January 24, 2011, 08:39:55 pm

Also, if you can get an RSS feed of nzbs, you can use SABnzbd to automatically download files as they appear; great for episodes of TV series.

Thank PaulV, how exactly can you do this? Is it all handled within SABnzbd? I actually use Newsleecher rather than Grabit.

lfcrule6times · « **Reply #23 on:** January 25, 2011, 09:28:28 am »

The max I ever get on my internet connection is 1.5mb on an 8mb plan. Is it still worth using newsgroups?

PaulV · « **Reply #24 on:** January 25, 2011, 09:31:27 am »

Quote from: Kashinoda on January 25, 2011, 06:07:05 am

Thank PaulV, how exactly can you do this? Is it all handled within SABnzbd? I actually use Newsleecher rather than Grabit.

Yes, SABnzbd does all the downloading triggered by an RSS feed you supply (Set up search strings and RSS feed in Config->RSS).

http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/rss-sites
http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/configure-rss-v2

I actually use nzbs.org for my RSS feeds, but registrations are closed

scatman · « **Reply #25 on:** January 25, 2011, 12:25:14 pm »

Quote from: johnybarnes on January 25, 2011, 01:17:20 am

Good for downloading older stuff too, since seeds for those torrents have pretty much disappeared.

yep Giganews retention is way over 800 days now, still finding loads of old stuff, for example when the Half Blood Prince came out, I downloaded the 1080p version of that and preceded to find every other Harry Potter movie using binsearch too.

now just waiting for a proper quality version of Deathly Hallows. come on ya bastards

hmm I need to use this SABnzbd thing, tv series tend to be on and off, some weeks they have holidays in the US or breaks and it can be tedious looking through the page lists for certain programmes

scouser4eva · « **Reply #26 on:** January 26, 2011, 09:15:18 am »

Is anyone registerd with fileserve and using a prenuim account and would like to swop details with my rapidshare one so we can use both ? PM me

Logistiks · « **Reply #27 on:** February 9, 2011, 11:34:19 am »

Thanks a lot for this! I've used Rapidshare for a couple of years now and before that I had a trial of UseNeXT (some shady people there..!) which was a newsgroup client and download provider thingy. Yesterday my RS account expired and I thought I'd give these newsgroups a try. Your guide was really easy to follow so setting it all up took a matter of minutes so I managed to get GT5 downloaded over night

Thanks again.

Ferg · « **Reply #28 on:** February 9, 2011, 11:52:31 am »

I've got Virgin 10mb and using Grabit, but the max I seem to download at is (on average) 1.2mb. I thought I'd be getting faster speeds than this.
Is there something I'm doing wrong?

FiSh77 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 9, 2011, 12:00:16 pm »

sounds about right, 10Mb should give you just over 1MB/s

kirzer · « **Reply #30 on:** February 9, 2011, 12:39:51 pm »

Yup your connection is being maxed out:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=10+megabits+per+second+in+megabytes+per+second

johnybarnes · « **Reply #31 on:** February 9, 2011, 12:58:08 pm »

Also be selective about when you are downloading large files, otherwise you'll be capped for several hours.

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/tm-table-su-large.jpg

hope_valley_parker · « **Reply #32 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:08:45 am »

Kash, can I be the millionth person to thank you for your excellent guide. Set myself up last night with it, and I'm getting about 700 KB/s. Not as high as some, but I'm chuffed to bits with downloading stuff this quickly

. Instead of subscribing to astra straight away, I bought a one off 25 GB download chunk, just to see what it was like. Will definitely be subscribing when I use that up!

Top man!

scatman · « **Reply #33 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:41:38 am »

ii used to get 1500kb now i get 1080kb since Sky came and installed their box the bastards. what the fuck they done

-Sad Fuck- · « **Reply #34 on:** March 8, 2011, 02:38:49 am »

Anyone know if I can tell if I'm being capped in some way?

I'm only getting about 300Kbps at the minute, I'm guessing the ISP have done something because I can't seem to be able to figure out why it's so slow.

hope_valley_parker · « **Reply #35 on:** March 8, 2011, 11:21:27 am »

Quote from: -Paddy- on March 8, 2011, 02:38:49 am

Anyone know if I can tell if I'm being capped in some way?

I'm only getting about 300Kbps at the minute, I'm guessing the ISP have done something because I can't seem to be able to figure out why it's so slow.

Which usenet server are you using?

FiSh77 · « **Reply #36 on:** March 8, 2011, 02:43:26 pm »

check your server's website and see what ports they use then try changing them in your newsreader

Walshy nMe® · « **Reply #37 on:** March 8, 2011, 03:03:56 pm »

Thanks all signed up now. Was taking fucking ages then realised only had 3 ports/connections open. bastard. Flies with 20 open now. Why 20 anyway, the max goes higher?

hope_valley_parker · « **Reply #38 on:** March 9, 2011, 01:53:01 pm »

Usenet/newsgroups are officially boss. I can't believe they aren't more widely known, outside the more techy folk.

scatman · « **Reply #39 on:** March 9, 2011, 01:55:10 pm »

Quote from: -Paddy- on March 8, 2011, 02:38:49 am

Anyone know if I can tell if I'm being capped in some way?

I'm only getting about 300Kbps at the minute, I'm guessing the ISP have done something because I can't seem to be able to figure out why it's so slow.

fucking hell, what kind of connection have you got?