If and when the **AA have Usenet shut down after the piece appears, feel free to blame Biggs. He’s making me write it.
I occasionally mention Usenet when talking about piracy here, but I’ve never really explained what it is or what it does. I’m still not going to explain what it is, technically, (that’s what Wikipedia’s for), but I will put it in layman’s terms. Think of Usenet as a big, unregulated, uncontrollable message board in the sky. The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy even logged onto Usenet when he needed to know the star of Radioactive Man!
The key difference with Usenet is that users can attach files to their messages. That’s the gist of it, at least. And since you can attach a file to a message you can, conceivably, attach many files to many messages. That’s what people do. You’ll find these file-laden posts on something called binary groups. And that’s where the piracy aspect comes into play. Literally thousands of groups devoted to literally thousands of categories, each one filled with all sorts of pirated content. Entire albums, entire movies, entire video games—getting 0day DreamCast games back in the day was top-notch—et cetera. Basically, Usenet rules and is what all the cool kids use. Hopefully you’ll be able to use it, too, after this.
Before you can downloads gigs upon gigs of premium content, you’ll need two things to access Usenet: access to a Usenet server and a newsreader. Like I said, Usenet can be thought of as a giant message board, but one that you need permission to access. Some ISPs give you access to a Usenet server as part of your monthly Internet bill. TimeWarner, my current ISP, has a server as did my previous ISP, Cablevision/OptimumOnline. My old dorm here at NYU didn’t so I had to pay for one. It’s not that expensive when you think about what you’re getting.
There’s a few big, commercial Usenet providers. Some of the popular ones are Giganews, Easynews and News Hosting. I’d recommend Giganews in a heartbeat because that’s what I used so I know first-hand that it’s excellent.
What you’re paying for when you subscribe to these services—it’s like $20-$25 per month for unlimited downloads—is access to their Usenet server. Once you have access to a server, either via your ISP or one of the commercial guys, you’ll have access to the files. Now you’ll need a news reader. Wikipedia has a giant list of news readers, but here’s two right off the bat. If you use a Mac, get Unison, which I endorsed a few days ago. Windows users should get Grabit, which my brother uses. He says it’s pretty good. Then again, I haven’t used Windows for six years.
Setup. Type something like “Giganews” or “RoadRuner” for the description (it doesn’t matter), then the server address in the appropriate field. The server address can be found deep inside you’re ISP’s Web site or (usually) in the “welcome aboard” e-mail that the commercial guys will send you. If you’re using an ISP’s server odds are you won’t have to input a username or password. I don’t and never did have to when using my ISP. For the commercial ones, yes, use the username/password either you picked or what they gave you. That might vary from service to service. Port 119 for the win.
Somewhere around the server settings you’ll want to set how many headers you want to download. (Think of headers as the individual messages. They’re not really, but this isn’t being posted in alt.technical-nonsense, now is it?) My connection is pretty damn fast so I have it set to download 5 million headers. Yes, 5M. You’ll want to set this number pretty high in order to have access to as many files as possible, NZBs notwithstanding. I’ll address NZBs in a minute.
OK, so your newsreader is configured. Treat yourself.
Now you’re ready to party.
Real men browse Usenet groups manually. What I usually do now is choose a group that interests me, like, say, alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dance and look through it at my leisure. Oh look, a new Markus Schultz remix. Downloaded. Oh wow, this week’s Trance Around the World. Downloaded. (Yes, I know the pics don’t match. Creative license and all.) And so on. This method of downloading from Usenet takes a while because you have to wait for all the headers to load and then you have to sift through the material on your own. Again, that’s why I do, but I have all the time in the world to kill. Usenet amateurs like John Biggs—I taught him how to use it over AIM a few weeks ago—and my luddite brother rely on NZB files to download.
NZB files are, I think, metadata that simply tell your newsreader where on the Usenet sever (what group, what’s the exact file name, etc.) the files are. It’s sorta like a Torrent file. There’s no data there, just a pointer in the right direction. NZB files are created magically by Web sites. My brother swears by NZBIndex.nl (probably because it’s free) but Newzbin is the original and costs 60 cents per week, or $2.40 per month. From there, you’d browse their listings like you would any Torrent site. Look—someone posted No Country for Old Men in the high-def group. Grab the NZB file then double click it and you’ll be downloading as soon as your newsreader launches.
That screenshot I have of the dance binary group shows vanilla MP3s, but a lot of the bigger groups split files up into rar files. Please tell me you know how to use those. A lot of time, you’ll also find Par files. Should anything happen to your files while they’re being downloaded (or maybe they were posted corruptly to begin with), the Par files will repair them. I don’t know how, some algorithm. I use MacPar Deluxe, and QuickPar seems to be popular on Windows.
That’s a quick little primer on Usenet. I suggest you Google around for more information. (Fact—I first discovered Usenet when I was looking for Futurama episodes back in 8th grade. Then I branched out into video games, movies, music, all of it. No one helped me other than some random guys in IRC.)
Hmm, what else? Oh, key groups to keep an eye on.
• alt.binaries.sounds.complete_cd
• alt.biaries.cd.image
• alt.binaries.divx
• alt.binaries.hdtv.x264 (high-def movie rips)
Those are the ones I browse daily, especially the CD one and the x264 one. I practically live there!
BitTorrent users should know that pretty much all the scene stuff that you find on your go-to Web site is on Usenet several hours beforehand.
HTH
Too bad Usenet is a myth… an urban legend if you will, a golden kingdom that doesn’t actually exist. A place where you can get virtually anything and there’s no one there to regulate except the community itself… obviously this isn’t real.
Seriously, stop talking about Usenet. It’s a dead medium, something researchers once used to boast about their x86 machines.
Think of this as part of the Time-Life series “Mysteries of the Unknown”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysteries_of_the_Unknown
This is book #80 – Occult Online Communities
I use usenetbinaries.com – with newsleecher and NZBindex.nl as Firefox add-on search engine – very pwoerful combo.
usenetbinaries.com downloads and thumbnails all the porn into galleries and converts all the video into H.264 MPEG4 so you can play it anything. WAY easier.
John, you sir, is a retard.
I post this comment about 1½ years AFTER that post.. And Usenet is thriwing and kicking like a newborn baby rhino! :)
Torrents are for losers n jocks. the cool kids use Usenet
Hi John,
Having worked in the usenet world for over 10 years, it is definitely not dead and actually thriving. There is about 5 Terabytes of new data added daily.
Thanks,
Liz
When you think Usenet, think Fight Club. nuff said
1. We don’t talk about Usent
2. There is no Usenet
lmao
lmao again
@Big John
Sorry, but Usenet exists and is, in fact, quite full of apps, music, etc.
Learn to fucking use it.
Chill the fuck out dude.
What an idiot you are. Maybe it’s just me but it sounded like Big John might just have been using a little bit of sarcasm in his post. In my opinion at least.
you are so wrong. There is nothing there, but ivory soap for people with a potty mouth.
@Vince
Usenet is a figment of the imagination. Or like the murder police say, no body – no crime.
Now back to Thoth (or is it YA-NW?)
I tried it – it does not work.
Usenet is like, SO REAL, dude! I just came back from there, and downloaded like, a FREE 30 day trial to AOL! And it only cost like $29.95 plus shipping.
Watch out for usenet tech support though. They have losers who try to get you to believe there’s secret messages in groups with binaries in the name.
LEET WOOT
Raaaamone, get me a multiregion xvid PAL/NTSC DVD so I can watch these twinks from usenet.
Scroll Scroll Scroll
Your mom’s box
YEEEEAAASSS! Scroll, Scroll, Scroll indeed!
Loose lips sink ships.
The first rule to lead a carefree and a happy pingable life is that the usenet does not exist. Rule number two: see rule number 1.
Can we kick this Nicholas Deleon off the internets? This is the same guy who posted about oink then subsequently killed it. Seriously I think this might be a job for Anonymous! I know they are not my personal army but it think its time something is done.
Big Dave, do you really think that the media conglomerates are unaware of usenet and its nefarious uses? This whole, “the first rule of usenet is we don’t talk about usenet” is horse shit. Content providers are not idiots. Usenet is left alone because your average person is too stupid or lazy to jump through all of the hoops to use it and does not want to pay another fee above their DSL.
Wasn’t oink tracked back to a single person running the site? Usenet, I think not.
Leave Nick alone. He lingers longer….
uh.. any decent private torrent site will have way better pre times then usenet…
I never thought I was a noob, having been pottering with tech-esque crap for a fair while, but I’m buggered if I can get Grabit to do anything but fail to connect, and Newsbin seems next to useless. Now, while I’m completely prepared for the uber-geeks to do the flame thing as soon as I post this, I just don’t understand how it’s any better than P2P…?
I’m not to proud to take advice from anyone though, as my adventure into the shady non-world of Usenet was prompted by my favourite content provider going offline recently, and the big black hole it’s left in my non-social life is starting to get to me! I need content! :)
P.S. I’ve read quite a few guides now, including the one above. Maybe I am a noob!
hey ppl,
im a noob when it comes to usenet, ive tried everything but i cant seem to download anything.
im using unison on my hackintosh.. plus ive also tried grabit, but nothing seems to work.
the files im trying to download only appear to be like 4-6 mb, when they should be like 50-70mb. i can download the .nfo and .sfv files with no problem, but not the .avi or whatever file it is…
what am i doing wrong? any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Here’s another guide that might help anyone having trouble with Usenet
http://watchmovieswithusenet.blogspot.com/
Check out my guide on how to use usenet:
http://www.how-to-use-usenet.com
:)
Enjoy!
Hey Nicholas, check out Newsdemon.com. They will give you a free account if you list their site on your page here…
http://www.newsdemon.com/free_usenet.php
Anyone who want’s to learn will. The aid of internet information just makes it easier. I say let everyone learn the way the elder’s did. “The hard Way”. Or by a close friend that they know isn’t out to harm the system or it’s values.
DW
I agree with Big John, nothing to see, move along.
Yeh, USENET is dead. Focus on the torrent people. Those are the real criminals.
Usenet is for us geeks that like to talk about Binary code and share code strings with each other
Great guide Nicholas; I’ve not used usenet since the days of Mac OS 7 and now my new ISP has a usenet server you guide has come in very handy!
I like your guide on How to Use Usenet to Download “Multimedia Content”. Do you recommend to purchase all 3 services: Usenet, Giganews and Newzbin