Usenet/ Newsgroups
 

I've yet to explore the wonders of these speedy services to get files and such. Anyone got advice/suggestions/comments to help me start out and get the 'best' one(s)?

You'll need a newsreader, the only free one I can think of is Xnews. This you'll be able to find at Cnet's website. Next you'll need your ISP news server address, it should be listed below and if it's not then your ISP probably doesn't support newsgroups.

http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

The setup is quite simple, enter a login and password for your main account into Xnews' setup with the ISP server address and Xnews will download the available groups on your ISPs server. I should note that ISPs are pretty darn poor when it comes to maintaining complete files and they usually come down in a matter of days. The upside to this is the incredible speed you'll get, it should max out your BB connection so this hands down beats torrents & p2p. :)

I'm aware most of them cost money. I should have mentioned I'd like to get the goods and am willnig to pay for it.

Interesting, if that is the case then I highly recommend Newshosting.

http://www.newshosting.com/

You can try out the unlimited account for 1 month and see how you like it, files on the servers are kept for months on end so it's very reliable.

$15 for unlimited account for a month. :rock:

Newsbin is a great newsreader but Xnews offers what Newsbin already does.

http://www.newsbin.com/

You can try Grab-it. It's ok, but very buggy when it comes to downloading incompletes.

I tried a lot of programs and right now my favorite it's Newsleecher but it's a bitch to crack.

And don't forget you par2 files with quickpar

I'm using my ISP newsgroups (SBC Yahoo) they are ok it's mostly roms, pc games, mp3s and porn. They have a 5-6 day retention (I know it's not a lot) and they are about 80% complete so I rely in par blocks to finish.

Now that we have a few choices, is this going to be a pretty straightforward procedure in obtaining Teh Awesomeness (files)? I had an idea of the costs, and this seems nice, but I need to know WHAT to do with the info. Thanks for the input thus far.

www.usenetserver.com

Best News Server ever! Unlimited downloads thich allow you to hit upwards of 10MB a sec. Offers good tech support and additioal features such as on the fly NBZ creation via a search engine and loads more.

Been with them for 2 years now and not had a complaint.

oh yeah and its only $15 a month.

Well with the information provided you gain access to a reliable dedicated server with loads of files. The $15 a month fee is basically for access to usenet servers and just to give you an idea of whats out there have a look below...

http://www.newzbin.com/browse/cat/p/games/

I always trust Newzbin for my search engine. If you buy thier membership (which is 4 bucks for 2 months up front and worth every penny), you get the .nzb from every post so you won't have to get a subscription say, through GrabIt, just to use the search engine...that or you can just download the headers for each group.

I've tried www.usenet.com, www.giganews.com, and my ISP's newsgroup service. They are all blazing fast, so speed really shouldn't be an issue with choosing a newsgroup provider... I was looking for some specific e-books, so my main concern was retention rates (how long the files stay on the newsgroup server before disappearing). As expected, my ISP's service was free and the retention rate was 2-3 days for most binary groups, www.usenet.com retained data for about a month or so, and giganews had really long retention rates from two to three months. The giganews website even has a form that will tell you how long the retention rate is for each group.

After long and tedious research (read: typed "best newsgroup service" in google and clicked "feeling lucky") I came to the conclusion that giganews had the longest retention rates.

If you're not just going to take my word for it, you can go to www.slyck.com and click the newsgroups guide in the left hand column of the webpage and then click on the link that says "News servers" in the links. It gives a comparison of a bunch of different news servers.

Personally, I like Grab-It the best for file grabbing off of newsgroups.

Also, setting up programs like Grab-it is pretty straightforward... if you sign up for a news server service then they'll probably give you guides on how to get set up somewhere on their FAQ page.

I second Giganews. I used that for a few months before I actually couldn't maintain the pace I was downloading shit, i.e. I got tired of downloading. (O_O).

But yeah, that's my vote. It was pretty damn reliable, and with Comast Cable, I was downloading at 4 mbps at the time. It was crazy.

As for my newsreader, I used Newsbin Pro.

Hmm, any peticular suggestions for finding anime and music? My music library is pretty much gone, so I need to work on it.

There are reasonable amount of groups where anime is posted. For DVDs, there is a.b.dvd.anime and a.b.dvd.anime.repost. Fansubs and DVDrips are usually posted to a.b.multimedia.anime and music, a.b.sounds.anime.

Also for finding stuff and creating NZBs for free, I recommend http://binsearch.info as opposed to Newzbin. I cannot justify paying for the indexing of files that can easily be done with free services or by downloading the headers yourself. I find it easier to download headers for a lot of the groups but bigger groups such as the DVD groups I usually use NZBs for.

As for music, depending on what you like, each music group is sorted by genre such as; a.b.sounds.mp3.dance, a.b.sounds.mp3.jazz etc.

Hmm should I make a new how to get into Newsgroups thread again?

Then again this is fairly informative here.

I Read it all, but im still a
bit confused,
Im in God-forsaken EGYPT .. My ISP is Tedata, a sub. of Flagtel telecom , Can, or can i NOt (!) use Newsgroups or Usenet>>>????? And how?

(For free, since i dont even have a credit card)

*bump*..


Well??

You can look at Usenet all you want for free, if you're just in it for the text files. If you want alt.binaries groups and don't want to pay, ask your ISP provider about it. Many provide a free service. Though, ISP provided newsgroup services often have very shitty file retention.

I recommend just paying for it. giganews.com provides excellent service.