I've done some Googling and honestly, it's a little overwhelming knowing what Usenet provider to use, where to get quality indexers and which download client would be the best.

If anyone has any resources or advice to help me sail the Usenet seas I would be eternally grateful!

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[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 38 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I'm not sure about anything, but the client, as I've been usenetting without thinking much about stuff for almost a decade now.

eweka.nl (share your access with friends and family - I've shared mine with like 8 people some time in the past)
nzbgeek (lifetime API access was like 30€ - well worth it), I also know about nzbplanet, but I don't have a premium account there. You can try these out without paying to see if their offer suits what you're looking for, but you won't get API access of course and you'll be limited in the downloads.

Last, but not least: sabnzbd is the gold standard for clients. Runs on everything: from a raspberry pi to your Desktop PC.

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 10 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Do you tunnel your usage through a VPN?

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nope. Usenet is quite safe legally, afaik, since you're not uploading/seeding anything. IANAL, though.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 8 points 5 months ago (4 children)

yea that's not true technically. the only reason usenet hasn't been dismantled by infinite court cases is its obscurity.

[–] Gailthesnail2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Usenet still uses SSL so ISPs can't see what you download

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

No but content owners could directly DMCA stuff that's hosted on usenet, they just don't.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes but that doesn't affect any of us.

Of course it is illegal for the providers.

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[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How can data snippets with ID be copyright infringement? The hoster can not know which snippet is for what and is therefore bot able to Block Upload of copyright data And in the other hand, indexer only provide a nzb files, which are as well no copyright infringement Combine this with a country where only uploading copyright protected files to the public is forbidden (like Switzerland) and you are pretty save

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

can not know

Yes they can, the articles are named with the filename of the content that's in it, and the data itself is unencrypted. But I wasn't even talking about blocking uploads, just having content providers be able to take down existing content.

But get this, it's even worse in Switzerland because the provider is also now forced to keep that same content from reappearing! This is called the "stay down" rule.

country where only uploading is forbidden

not exactly: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/downloading-and-uploading_what-the-new-swiss-copyright-law-means-for-consumers-of-pirated-online-content/45305402

downloading computer games and software remains a crime

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[–] gingerman@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 months ago

Most Usenet providers offer secure connections so I don't know if it's necessary, but I use a VPN.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I do. Just in case.
Ironically through my seedbox provider :p

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[–] jaykay@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think it’s 80 for lifetime now, 12 for a year

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You never know how long these sites are able to stay up in the future, but it's still way less than what I've payed on patreon over time.

[–] jaykay@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I mean, compared to streaming, 80 for even a year is a bargain lmao

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago

Lol, true. Although that doesn't include the provider fees, etc.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

Thank you! I'll give that stuff a look!

[–] cerulean_blue@lemmy.ml 31 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I jumped into Usenet as an experiment and, once it was setup, it was ok. Although it is definitely not simple to get started and it seems you are constantly having to pay for stuff, even to access the trackers, which don't even have all the content!

I decided I didn't download enough and what I wanted was too hard to find, so I went back to Torrents. Way simpler for my occasional use.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 months ago

Yeah I had the same experience. Tried it out, found it way too fiddly to set up, had to pay for stuff at every turn (and managing a bunch of subscriptions is a big part of why I hate using streaming platforms in the first place) and I really didn't find it to be worth it just to cover the tiny fraction of things I can't find on torrents (and which TBH I didn't even find there anyway.) Went back to torrents as it's like 2 clicks to download something and it covers 95% of what I need anyway.

To be fair, it's entirely possible that I was just doing it wrong and not getting optimal results, but also I don't want to start over and pay for a bunch of other stuff to find out.

[–] jaykay@lemmy.zip 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Sabnzbd for downloading, Frugal usenet for provider, Nzbgeek and drunkenslug for indexer

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Only get Usenet with a usenet deal. Usually on/around Black Friday.
Afaik deals are usually posted on r/UsenetDeals or similar called sub.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago

Good to know, thank you!

[–] SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Everyone who is paying for pirating is doing things wrong. Don't be stupid.

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A lot of people are pirating not because of the money, but the horrible service of the streaming platforms

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[–] OpticalMoose@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why replace torrents? Why not use both? It's a bonus if your usenet provider includes a VPN.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Good question, didn't really consider that if I'm honest. Could use the torrents as backup/secondary

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[–] Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

DM me if you want invites to private indexers. They are paid but cheap. I also recommend frugal Usenet because...well...I'm cheap.

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I'll bite. What is frugal Usenet?

[–] jaykay@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A usenet provider

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 3 points 5 months ago

Cool, thanks. $5 -$6 / month is cheap.

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[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What's the advantage of a private indexer vs a regular one? Why would I want one over another? I'm a complete Usenet newbie.

[–] Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago

Main advantage is typically less DCMA take downs. The public ones are public access and therefore the bots crawl those and submit the takedowns faster than on a private indexer.

[–] sechsfuenf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 months ago (6 children)

I use Premiumize, multihoster for most popular Filehoster with access to Usenet, Torrent and VPN. Usenet retention is about 1200 days. It has 1TB of Cloud Storage and you can use their inbuilt Downloader on their website to download stuff straight to their cloud (or your own Mega or Google Drive cloud if you prefer that), so you don’t have to install any Torrent or Usenet clients. (This is not an ad, I just really like their service and been using it for 3 years)

Sabnzb or NZBGet are good choices if you wanna use some client on your own. Just don’t use Momentum, they will steal your credentials.

Most popular indexers are NZBIndex, Binsearch and NZBKing but I prefer Boards like nzbgrabit, nzbforyou or The Hive.

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You forgot the first rule.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You'll have to enlighten me, I'm a little out of touch after going straight for a while haha

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You don't talk about Usenet.

It's similar to rule number two.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

Ah, like another club that we can't talk about

[–] Bitflip@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I switched in the fall, black Friday deals on account and several indexers. Looks like it's gonna be just at $100ish per year. After configuring an arr ecosystem with overseer handling all user interaction and automation, I don't think I'll ever go back. Totally worth the price imho

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Same. I got lifetime memberships to 3 usenet provides but the *arr suite gets ~95% of my media from nzbgeek. Now the only recurring cost is for my provider. Downloads are so much faster and reliable than torrenting, and the automation is amazing.

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[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago

That's what I've done. The arr suite is pretty damn convenient. Last time I did this I had to manually go fetch everything myself.

Keeping my eyes peeled for deals and things but may have to bite the bullet and just pay for one to at least try it out

[–] bktheman@awful.systems 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

You set this up in docker? I've been fighting docker all day, finally trying to set up some arr stuff. I'm not convinced that docker is the right way to go.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

I have mine set up outside of docker

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[–] gingerman@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If you're planning to download media, check out the Server Wiki. It has guides on setting up all the software to automate the process.

[–] Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, but I am currently using Radarr and Sonarr, just looking at alternate potentially faster sources

[–] archer@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can use those on usenet, too. Just add your new trackers and download client, the rest of the -arr stack can remain as is.

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[–] beaxingu@kbin.run 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Usenet is old and centralized so a lot easier to shut down and is payed because you pay for server retention and access.

[–] thisusernameistaken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Usenet is considered decentralized, it is made up of many independent servers that talk to each other. take one down, and the rest continue on without problems.

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