I used to spend a lot of time on news:// protocol back in the 90s, but haven’t touched it for good 20 years or so.
Could anyone point me to a good primer on how to use USENET for piracy? Looking for advice on client software, or webapps, good services worth paying the subscription that will give me access to all the right newsgroups and archives.
Last time I used news, all this stuff was free, so I’m at a bit of a loss on what’s worth paying for.
Btw, I did try looking for answers before turning to Lemmy, but ended up with just a ton of SEO garbage articles designed to serve ads, waste time and provide no real answers :(
Paid services have consolidated to a great degree. But I’ve been a long time Easynews subscriber.
They have decent retention, good completion, and are johnny-on-the-spot re. DMCA requests.
Their real claim to fame is an easy to use browser based front end, so no third party client hassles and it works on mobile.
That said, MUCH has changed since the 90s, i.e. encrypted posts, the USENET hierarchy is largely broken and good luck finding any current text discussion (looking at you, Adobe, ya skeevy fucks).
Should you want more, this is a good guide. https://www.cogipas.com/how-to-use-usenet/
GL&HF
Is Usenet always that expensive? Their recommended plan is $30 per month with a discount for the first three months. And the cheapest one is $10/month but that only gets you 20GB…
I’m not really a pirate so I don’t know much about paid pirating services. But I’m pretty sure I could get Netflix and Disney+ for that kind of money. Is Usenet access really worth that much?
So you could get 2 streaming services which would make you miss out on the content available on the other 200+ other streaming services out there.
With Usenet you can get content from all of them.
Eweka is cheaper https://www.eweka.nl/en/landing/unlimited-usenet-special € 5,99/mo for a year
And here’s a deal for easynews. https://signup.easynews.com/checkout/unlimited-special-deal/ $6 a month for a year
Haha, since Google searches are increasingly garbage, I asked Chat GPT about USENET and Eweka was one of the recommended providers :)
I pay $15/mo and w/ rollover gigs always have plenty. If you’re looking for obscure or D/C’d content, it’s damn well worth it.
Was able to score a Nordic comedy series for a co-worker that couldn’t be found elsewhere.
Also, content you sideload from USENET doesn’t disappear at the whim of a corporation, or due to licensing shenanigans. Just sayin’.
Mandatory reminder that if buying isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing.
i think most others covered it but for provider Frugal usenet is probably best bang for your buck as you get access to two separate systems.
I highly recommend https://usenet.farm/ Good pricing and I’ve never had a single issue with them.
I went with the yearly unlimited subscription through Frugal. I believe I paid $39.00 for the year, plus it comes with a 500gb block account through Blocknews.
A good indexer is critical to your setup. Since I just started my Usenet journey a month ago, I can only recommend two: NZBgeek and Drunkenslug. There are many others that I’m sure are worth it, I just haven’t had time to test anything else. NZBgeek might not have open registrations right now.
I use SABnzbd as my downloader.
Other than that, one of the best resources I used when getting set up was TRaSH Guides. Endless guides on configuring your downloader, indexers, and much more. Do some research on Sonarr, Radarr, and the other arr programs. Takes a little bit of effort getting it all set up, but makes everything so easy once you’re done.
Thanks! At this point I don’t yet know what an indexer is, so I guess I have much to learn!
