Hey folks,
I haven't seen any dedicated Usenet discussion thread here and from a quick search most discussions seem to have happened decades ago. So I wanted to revive the discussion around it since Black Friday is upon us and its the best time for anyone to get into it.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a technical post, I'll just roughly (and largely incorrectly) summarise the terms associated with it in layman's terms. For a more accurate explanation and additional resources, refer r/Usenet and it's wiki.
Now since everything is encrypted, you need something that can decrypt these files and join them together to give you the content you want, and this is where Indexers come into play, these indexers index all these encrypted files and make them available to users. These indexers also have a hierarchy like Private trackers with the best ones being the most closed off but a normal indexer will serve the needs for pretty much 99% of the people out there, since stuff from these exclusive indexers do leak out into lower tier indexers just like in Private Trackers.
Also, retention is not Usenet's strong point, in private trackers (specially the top ones) you'll find users seeding files for decades whereas in Usenet, its defined on a metric called "retention" (it's a pretty important metric you have to judge a provider on before buying a plan). typical retention of a provider is anywhere from 3000 days (yes it's measured in days) to 5500+ days on a good provider, so its not as much of an issue since most users only want the latest stuff and older files do get reuploaded pretty regularly so its kind of a moot point but something to take note of.
For recommendations on Providers/Indexers, it'll become a long winding thread and it's better if you explore the communities I linked above but in general, for a provider you got to judge what kind of retention they are offering and what backbone they are based on. Different providers have different backbones (even differing on plans), and some backbones are based in US and some in EU (they affect your download speed) there are other considerations too and you can find them on the wiki I linked. I generally use Eweka which is a Usenet Provider with a 5500-day retention, and I have generally not experienced any speed/avaibility issues with it.
As for Indexers, I recommend Ninja Central and Drunken Slug for the most part and you can also look into NZBGeek and NZBDog if you want to experiment. Almost all indexers give a free tier which has limited download/api slots but you can use them to see whether they have the content you want available on them or not before paying for a plan.
DrunkenSlug is a pretty old indexer which will serve the needs of most people out here, Ninja while being a newcomer gets more content from more "exclusive" private trackers like the cabal trio and niche ones like CG/KG.
Black Friday deals cut down on this pricing a lot, for e.g. Eweka has a deal running where the price is 45 euros for a 15-month plan which comes down to around 3.82 euros/month, Indexers also have some pretty good deals around this time, for e.g. Ninja is offering a 2-year plan for 11 euros.
So while it is still expensive, its doable and to further cut down on costs, you can split the cost of a provider with someone (don't abuse it, they frown upon it and typically only access it from 2-3 IPs at a time at max), so it's like around 22 euros/year for a person and don't share your account with others for an Indexer, they have the same rules on it as private trackers.
P.S. Others feel free to contribute, I have left out a lot of info to not make this post even more long, and my main motivation behind it was to share information about since most peeps have never heard of it.
P.P.S Please let me know if it violates any rules and I'll take down the post, but I saw the Tracker discussion thread so I posted about Usenet too.
I haven't seen any dedicated Usenet discussion thread here and from a quick search most discussions seem to have happened decades ago. So I wanted to revive the discussion around it since Black Friday is upon us and its the best time for anyone to get into it.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a technical post, I'll just roughly (and largely incorrectly) summarise the terms associated with it in layman's terms. For a more accurate explanation and additional resources, refer r/Usenet and it's wiki.
What is Usenet?
In layman's terms, consider it as the largest DDL service you'll find and with all the stuff you'll ever get from Private trackers (refer to the Tracker - Discussion thread), public trackers, warez forums etc for Movies/TV Shows/Games/E-Books, basically anything that's available anywhere you'll find it here. The way it works is that everything is obfuscated, all files are split into smaller files (PAR files) and are encrypted to avoid most DMCA takedowns and are uploaded to servers worldwide. Now these servers (called Backbones in Usenet terminology) are not available to public and instead you have what we call "Usenet Providers" who have deals with these backbones and serve you content from it.Now since everything is encrypted, you need something that can decrypt these files and join them together to give you the content you want, and this is where Indexers come into play, these indexers index all these encrypted files and make them available to users. These indexers also have a hierarchy like Private trackers with the best ones being the most closed off but a normal indexer will serve the needs for pretty much 99% of the people out there, since stuff from these exclusive indexers do leak out into lower tier indexers just like in Private Trackers.
What are the benefits of Usenet?
The main benefit of Usenet is not having to worry about maintaining ratio, seeding files or anything that's a pain point for private trackers. Your download speed will depend on how fast your connection is and will generally max it out and you get access to all the exclusive content that's available on Private Trackers.What are the cons of Usenet?
Its more "expensive" to get into it and I have used quotes because its a lot of money you have to pay upfront to use it unlike Private trackers, where you can get by with just your laptop/PC and your local internet on lower tier trackers, but if you are even into mid-tier trackers you'll have to use a seed box or invest into a NAS setup for long term seeding and the costs come out to just about the same as if you were using a seed box over the course of the year.Also, retention is not Usenet's strong point, in private trackers (specially the top ones) you'll find users seeding files for decades whereas in Usenet, its defined on a metric called "retention" (it's a pretty important metric you have to judge a provider on before buying a plan). typical retention of a provider is anywhere from 3000 days (yes it's measured in days) to 5500+ days on a good provider, so its not as much of an issue since most users only want the latest stuff and older files do get reuploaded pretty regularly so its kind of a moot point but something to take note of.
How to actually get into using Usenet?
Check out the subreddit and its wiki that I have linked above for more info/explanation on all of this stuff I just mentioned, you can also checkout r/UsenetInvites to get into indexers and you'll have to pay for an indexer as well as at least a single provider to get started.For recommendations on Providers/Indexers, it'll become a long winding thread and it's better if you explore the communities I linked above but in general, for a provider you got to judge what kind of retention they are offering and what backbone they are based on. Different providers have different backbones (even differing on plans), and some backbones are based in US and some in EU (they affect your download speed) there are other considerations too and you can find them on the wiki I linked. I generally use Eweka which is a Usenet Provider with a 5500-day retention, and I have generally not experienced any speed/avaibility issues with it.
As for Indexers, I recommend Ninja Central and Drunken Slug for the most part and you can also look into NZBGeek and NZBDog if you want to experiment. Almost all indexers give a free tier which has limited download/api slots but you can use them to see whether they have the content you want available on them or not before paying for a plan.
DrunkenSlug is a pretty old indexer which will serve the needs of most people out here, Ninja while being a newcomer gets more content from more "exclusive" private trackers like the cabal trio and niche ones like CG/KG.
Black Friday deals
Now coming to the point about why I made this big rambling post is, Black Friday is tomorrow and most deals are live now. Usenet for an Indian can be pretty expensive (ugh, currency issues) since you need to pay for an Indexer and a provider at once to actually use it. Typical provider plans range from $5-7/month which can add up pretty quickly and a typical indexer pricing is $10-15/year (you cant pay monthly on most indexers).Black Friday deals cut down on this pricing a lot, for e.g. Eweka has a deal running where the price is 45 euros for a 15-month plan which comes down to around 3.82 euros/month, Indexers also have some pretty good deals around this time, for e.g. Ninja is offering a 2-year plan for 11 euros.
So while it is still expensive, its doable and to further cut down on costs, you can split the cost of a provider with someone (don't abuse it, they frown upon it and typically only access it from 2-3 IPs at a time at max), so it's like around 22 euros/year for a person and don't share your account with others for an Indexer, they have the same rules on it as private trackers.
P.S. Others feel free to contribute, I have left out a lot of info to not make this post even more long, and my main motivation behind it was to share information about since most peeps have never heard of it.
P.P.S Please let me know if it violates any rules and I'll take down the post, but I saw the Tracker discussion thread so I posted about Usenet too.
