Torrents vs Newsgroups

Standard port for usenet is 119

You will need to find a list of newsgroups that they carry, it may be text only or eircom only. And what their retention period is.

They have this wonderful magazine here,

http://home.eircom.net/Images//BroadbandMagazine/magazine01.swf

Which on page 32 talks about newsgroups but no mention of what services they provide.

Best thing would be to install something like grabit (google it), enter news1.eircom.net as the server, no user name and password and then on one of the screens there is an option to retrive a list of groups. You are looking for groups starting with alt.binaries for groups carrying binary files.
 
Ok did that, loads of groups but nothing that looks that interesting or has a large amount of files. One that has movies but nothing recent. Now what do i do? lol
 
Group names don't always match up with contents. Main thing is if they carry any alt.binaries groups


Then visit nzbmatrix. Pick a tv show, movie or whatever that has Age in the last couple of days. On the left of the posting, click on the document icon with a little down arrow on it to download NZB file. Save and open in grabit and check if your newsserver has the posts.

You can also try a header download. Subscribe to a group in grabit and select option to download headers. This will tell you retention period the server supports. You may need to change a option in grabit to tell it to fetch the oldest headers possible as it may by default on grab headers from the last xx days.
 
Also be aware that downloading headers will come off your download allowance if your ISP only gives you so much.

1 group or so wont be too much, but if you was to do alt.binaries.boneless it would take a log time and also quite a bit of bandwidth as this is probably the most used group and has around 10 million headers per day. Sometimes there are 5 or 6 groups containing the same stuff. For example there are about 60 (or maybe even more) different MP3 groups, but sometimes albums are cross posted, so you will get the same person posting an 80's album in a.b.MP3, a.b.complete_cd and a.b.80's.
 
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Ok i found this a bit complicated to be honest, but Rat helped me out and i got started today. So thanks Rat for the idiot proof instructions on how to do it for free.

Here goes for anyone else that wants to try newsgroups for free.

Download grabit from here: Shemes.com :: Home


Install and open grabit. Right click on my grabit and add the server details from the just4today link and save them: Just4Today.NET - Free Usenet

Go into Edit in grabit, then preferences, then advanced, and click automatically retry items in batch.


You can join a NG site, e.g. http://www.nzbs4u.com, or use a file from DW, but it has to be a recent file.

Go to a file you are interested in on the NG site (it has to be within the last ten days with the free just4today link). You can also use a link from the share zone on DW. Download the nzb file. Go to the nzb file and right click on it and select open with grabit.


As this is free it only gives two connections so isn't as fast as a paid connection. You will also have to check the details on the just4today site everyday as they change. Also the retention is only ten days. But if you don't have much of a download limit or just want to try newsgroups before deciding whether to pay or not, this is an easy way to give it a go. :)


edit: removed the quickpar link as you don't need to download quickpar as Grabit will autopar and unrar the files for you :)
 
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Firstly thanks Eva your little tut was helpful and has given me the NZB bug.

So now im wondering which is the best server to pay for, i've looked at giganews, astraweb and supernews and really dont know what im looking at/for.

Would be grateful if anyone can explain what to look for or point me in the direction of a decent one.
 
Thanks jeuz. It's Rat you should be thanking though really, he went throught it step by step for me and was very patient with me. :) I did have one little problem today, the first couple of nbz i tried didnt download fully and i didnt understand why, it was because i thought they were finished and they werent. What you need to do is to go into Edit in grabit, then preferences, then advanced, and click automatically retry items in batch. Then everything works perfectly :)
 
jeuz said:
Firstly thanks Eva your little tut was helpful and has given me the NZB bug.

So now im wondering which is the best server to pay for, i've looked at giganews, astraweb and supernews and really dont know what im looking at/for.

Would be grateful if anyone can explain what to look for or point me in the direction of a decent one.
Click to expand...

Look for the price you want to pay as all good servers carry the same newsgroups. Retention is only a problem if you have a very slow or limited internet connection.

Astraweb gives you exactly the same a giganews but at less than half the price. There are various sites with a link to astraweb's $11 p/m (around £7) deal.

Also you can get Newsleecher from the groups (without paying the $19) and that will verify and unpack your downloads automatically, so there is no need for Quickpar or winrar, saving time.
 
I think grabit also auto par/unrar as well ?

I know sabnsbd and newsbin pro both do.
 
Yeah, it auto par'd and unrar'd the movie i d/l yesterday, which makes it even easier than my other post :)
 
oneman said:
I think grabit also auto par/unrar as well ?

I know sabnsbd and newsbin pro both do.
Click to expand...

Thats good to know as my Newsleecher is coming up to the annual renewal of $19. But there seems to be a lack of updates and support now.

I used to use Grabit back in the old days of dial-up, but whe I tried it recently I couldnt get the auto par & un-rar working without manual intervention, newsleecher just doest it directly after downloading.

I paid for newsbin pro and thought it was crap.

I will have to look at sabnsbd too.

Do the other programs have a supersearch mode?
 
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sabnzbd & altbinz both auto check & unrar, altbinz is probably slightly eaiser to set up.
 
Tried sabnzbd, not keen at all, dont like the fact it runs in the background and you access it by your browser. I prefer an actual program.

Also I want a program that can download headers too, I find a lot more stuff using headers than using NZB's, especially music, where no-one had bothered to make an NZB.

Off to try albinz. :)
 
Captin said:
Tried sabnzbd, not keen at all, dont like the fact it runs in the background and you access it by your browser. I prefer an actual program.

Also I want a program that can download headers too, I find a lot more stuff using headers than using NZB's, especially music, where no-one had bothered to make an NZB.

Off to try albinz. :)
Click to expand...
Now that takes me back, i used to download the headers years ago when i first started using the newsgroups (using a server called claranet).

I dont download them anymore, i just use newzbin to check for files that havent been sorted into an nzb yet.
 
Captin said:
Tried sabnzbd, not keen at all, dont like the fact it runs in the background and you access it by your browser. I prefer an actual program.

Also I want a program that can download headers too, I find a lot more stuff using headers than using NZB's, especially music, where no-one had bothered to make an NZB.

Off to try albinz. :)
Click to expand...

Newzbin pro supports headers and a decent search function. Also mutli threads and available in 64-bit version.

Giganews has an accelerator that you can install that compresses headers which is useful, can get upto 15MB/s download on headers on my 50mb service.

BTW, I always found Binsearch.info good when searching for music.
 
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Captin said:
.

I paid for newsbin pro and thought it was crap.
Click to expand...

I've been using newsbin pro for a couple of years, always found it stable, quick (mutlithreading and 64-bit support) and good support for headers.
 
oneman said:
Newzbin pro supports headers and a decent search function. Also mutli threads and available in 64-bit version.

Giganews has an accelerator that you can install that compresses headers which is useful, can get upto 15MB/s download on headers on my 50mb service.

BTW, I always found Binsearch.info good when searching for music.
Click to expand...

Astraweb also uses turbo headers, which download really fast.

I've used newsleecher for years, but I like to try other things, but have yet to find any as easy to use as newsleecher. On my upstairs pc I just leave it running 24/7 and it watches a folder in my dropbox for NZB files, so I can put an NZB in from any internet connected PC in the world. It is set to only download overnight.

I've got albinz on now and it looks very good, apart from crashing a few times when I tried to get headers.

Search facilities for the newsgroups.

Newsleecher's supersearch = $10 per year on top of $19 per year for the program.
Grabit = $29 per year, program is free.
Newsbin pro = $2.50-$5 per month on top of program $35 for life.
altbinz = no inbuilt search facility it uses your accounts on various websites.
sabnzbd = no inbuilt search facility uses various websites.
Ultraleecher = ultrasearch $9.95 per year on top of $19.95 lifetime updates for program.


EDIT: Just found out altbinz doesnt do headers. :(
EDIT: Grabit doesnt have a sheduler so cant set it to start and stop overnight. Also doesn't seem to watch a folder for NZB's. :(
Grabit hasnt been updated since May 2009, which was just a bug fix, the last major update was in 2008. It doesn't recognise Astraweb's turbo headers compression so is taking 10 times longer to download them. :(
EDIT: Newsbin downloaded headers fast. But no scheduler. Doesn't seem to download as fast as Newsleecher.
EDIT: ultraleecher is very like newsleecher but without the scheduler. :(
 
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