Stealing via torrent is old-school, read how they do it with usenet
Somewhere between FidoNET and the web I looked into usenet quite a lot. Back then it was the last piece of democracy (for good and bad) and not much was regulated. Most ISPs had a a usenet server available for their customers.
Usenet is still alive and a phenomena that’s been growing heavily the last years is the binary forum (alt.bin.*), but we dig that back in the 90’s aswell….
So, how can you try this at home? A bunch of links:
How do I start?
1. Read through this post and the links
2. Find a usenet server and get an account
3. Get yourself a downloading client
4. Find a NBZ indexing server
5. You are all set!
What is usenet?
“Usenet, a portmanteau of “user” and “network”, is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system. It evolved from the general purpose UUCParchitecture of the same name.” (wiki.org)
What’s an NBZ?
NZB files are one of the latest developments on Usenet to make downloading a lot easier. Normally you have to download all headers from a news group which can take a lot of time. Another possibility would be to perform a XPAT search but this causes a heavy load on the news server, especially with large posts. (binaries4all.com)
Usenet indexing services?
Alt.Binaries.Nl (free, automatic content) – indexes more than 2700 popular newsgroups for 45 days. NZB’s can be generated as well. Great but Binsearch is better.
Binsearch.info (free, automatic content) – probably the best service. Keeps records of more than 6500 groups for 120 days. Advanced search options and the ability to download everything that you like as a nzb. My recommendation.
Newzbin.com (paysite, user content) – one of the oldest indexing sites on the Internet. You may take a look at the releases but you can’t see the filenames nor download nzb’s without paying for the service.
Ngindex (paysite, automatic content) – Ngindex has a great interface, probably the best with many information about the newsgroups that they index. Offers nfo previews and more but is unfortunately a paysite.
Nzb.to (free after registration, user content – a user driven website in German with an excellent active community. Lots of nzb files are posted everyday. Mainly interested for German speaking folks.
Nzbrus (free after registration, unknown) – I can’t really say much about the site because I did not register at it. Just wanted to make sure it is mentioned here.
Yabse (free, automatic content) – indexing posts for roughly 100 days. Allows the generation of nzb files.
Are there any good clients that works with NBZ?
SABNZBD is well known, check out google for more options.
Which Usenet server is the best?
Newsgroup reviews has a rather comprehensive list rated by different criteria. Astraweb is another option that didn’t come up on their list. Remember to check out the servers web site, the retention days tends to increase very fast these days.
Stumble It!