I think its funny and really cool that everybody is trying to hide Usenet still. It's the last reliable, fast way to download stuff, if you're smart enough to figure out how to use it. With that being said, if we have more articles like this on high profile blogs, its just a matter of time before we lose that area too.

I'm hoping at the end of all this, newsgroups are just a little too complicated for your average person to use on a daily basis. For 98% of people, if they cant open a program, type in a song name and press enter, they won't use it.

Get this article off the Interwebs please. If you can't figure out how to use them - YOU SHOULDN'T BE. Next you should feature an article about the Anarchist's Cookbook, with extended how-to's.

vertex_nick

oh man. are people finally figuring out what usenet is? cant we keep it under wraps for a few more years until im out of college and have a job and can actually afford to buy all this crap i download?

elislider

Usenet is full of spyware, and viruses and trojans. People stick with bittorrent, it's alot more user friendly and you have a better library.

Lifehacker- Comeon now, your giving this publicity when it doesn't need any.

First rule.....

akwizeguy

I heard from a friend who works for the FBI that if you hit ALT+F4 you get all the free downloads you want!

stever

@Patrick Kelso: Usenetserver's retention is "105+ days" and there is an option for 20 concurrent connections. At $40 for 3 months, it's a great value. It always maxes out my 8Mbps downlink connection.

Carlos Rodriguez

Bit dissapointed int the LH editors. What's next? posting RapidShare links? C'mon people, open your damn eyes...you don't want this kind of attention be cast upon you for showing how to pirate even MORE content. Usenet is becoming a second BT due to the newbies influx and the real sharers will be forced to password the files/give crypted headers or even go more underground.

You are not making NO ONE any good. Any determined person can find about it through a little research.

Your choice of articles is becoming not only a little shady but also very very skewed in the wrong direction.

vranghel

Yeah exactly! Shhhh on the usenet dummies! Its been around for years, because its not some easy to use p2p system! Its gotten easier to use over the years, but its still beyond most users, and I for one would like it to stay that way. So no more stories on usenet dammmmit! ;-)

guht

Which reader? It hasn't been updated in years, but I still like XNews for Windows.

tinyhands

Usenet is full of viruses and $cientologist$ and other nasty things. Usenet sux. If you connect to it, your computer will blow up in about 5 seconds.

knifesong

@Ken: I loved NewsShark - Straightforward, combined the posts, allowed you to keep track of what you had reviewed and what you'd not. Then it went commercial. So next up, in my quest of Free Things: Power Grab 2002. Used to be available on cosmicwolf.com but it looks like that site went belly up, and it's not Vista-compatible. Now, it looks like my method of finding music is going to take another turn .... I'm testing out Newsleecher as we speak ...

Honkycat

SABnzbd rox. Similar to Hellanzbd.

zakharm

Unison for OSX ^^

infiniteloop

The first rule is...

infiniteloop

What is the best program to access newsgroups?

Ken

@smarty927:

I don't understand the interest in encrypted connections to usenet servers.

No copyright plaintiff that I know of has ever sued based on traffic sniffed between two parties on the internet. They have always done it by becoming a peer. To me, it would seem more important that the server not keep logs of downloads... if I were downloading anything illegal that is.

Of course, I only ever download properly licensed content posted by starving artists who are trying to become well known, never anything that the authorities would frown on.

keeblerelf

1) Don't talk about Usenet.
2) Don't talk about Usenet.
3) You all humor me because you won't find viruses and spyware with a proper search tool.
4)It's easier and much, much faster than torrents.
5) It's way safer than torrents, especially when you get an SSL connection.
6) I'd rather pay $10 a month for extremely fast downloads with a secure connection as opposed to the torrent network where it never maxes out my connection and broadcasts my IP address to everyone.

smarty927

One - Don't talk about newsgroups.
Two - Newsgroups are very old - circa 1980's.
Three - They work better than most other alternatives.
Four - They are addicting.

ckdvt

@Johnny Pneumatic: Given the "secret robots" line, it's difficult to tell whether or not you were joking, but, you touched on something that is an incredibly powerful, yet often unknown, aspect of Usenet, and one that is definitely worth mentioning:

The request system.

This is an area where, aside from a very few, private, specialty trackers that have a request & reward system in place, Usenet completely destroys other avenues of obtaining binaries. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a broad subject, and likely one too long to cover in a LifeHacker comment, primarily due to the fact that there is no universal request system for all newsgroups (not counting the old school method of manually posting REQ messages to a group which, in the NZB age, nobody reads anymore). Newsgroups can each have different methods for making automated requests, and, since it is up to a third party to maintain the request database, only certain groups actually have such a system in place. Attempting to cover them all, their history, and how each works would be a headache that would quickly bore most readers, so I'll just give a brief synopsis of how it works.

Depending on the group, there are typically two common ways to make a request. The first, as you mentioned, would be via IRC. The process would be one of joining a channel and posting a one-line request with a specific syntax (i.e. "-addreq [FULL|PART] [# of files] [Release or file name]). A channel bot would then add your request to the database, which is generally updated and displayed in real time on the channel's website, and assign it a numerical ID. Someone else then sees your request, either in the channel or on the website, and sends a "-filling [numerical ID]" response in return. The database is updated to reflect that your request is now in "filling" status. When the filler has finished posting your requested files, they send a command of "-filled [numerical ID]", the status is updated to "filled", the bot sends you a message alerting you that your request has been filled, and, in most cases, also provides you with a link to a NZB for it. Given that numerous fillers and posters run request watch scripts nowadays, this whole procedure can literally be completed within seconds. Using a popular audio release as an example:

---
(You) -addreq FULL 12 Britney_Spears-Blackout-2007-iTSBRiTNEYBiTCH
[Bot assigns ID of 666666 to your request and adds it to database]
[Filler's script catches your request]
(Filler) -filling 666666
[Filler's script automatically posts your request along with an 10% PAR set created on-the-fly to associated newsgroup]
[Filler's script finishes uploading request shortly thereafter]
[Filler's script sends NZB to bot and marks post as filled]
(Filler) -filled 666666
[Bot sends you message informing you of fill and providing you with NZB]
[You download NZB, GrabIt opens it and downloads the files]
[1 minute later...]
(You) OMG! GREATEST ALBUM EVAR!!!!1
---

The other method of making a request would be via a website or forum that was somehow associated with the group. If you are Dutch, information on how to do this is implanted into your brain upon birth. Examples of such sites include ijsklontje.nl (now dead), byte4u.nl, leechnow.nl, binaries4ever.net, and house-of-usenet.org. Seeing that I very rarely make use of these types of sites, I am probably not the best person to give a rundown of their compete inner workings, but the premise is generally one of posting a request in a forum and then hoping for a fill. If and when one is made, a NZB is usually posted in the thread or elsewhere on the site. As with IRC, a numerical ID is normally assigned to the request/fill to make it easier to find in the associated group or a Usenet search engine.

There is much more (points, placing, watches, etc) to these request systems than I have touched on here, but, again, this just gives you a general idea of how they function. For those who aren't familiar with IRC, there may be a bit of a learning curve involved, especially if you are used to just going to some crap public tracker and clicking on a torrent link, but, once mastered, the request channels become an invaluable tool for quickly obtaining binaries. This is made even more so for scenes without a huge following or where access might be more difficult to come by, MViD for example.

Since there are numerous different sites and channels for various newsgroups, the best method of finding what, if any, request system exists for the group you are interested in, is to check the subject headers of recent postings in the group. If a request channel or site has in fact been established for the group, you will clearly see it listed many times over. A common header would include something along the lines of [Request ID]-[#Channel@Network] followed by the release or file name. Find that channel, join it, and read the topic for instructions on what to do next, which will likely be typing ?? rules, -help, or -quickstart.

j3sX

@Gina Trapani: exactly !

doublej

I've known about Usenet when I used to dwl The O.C. from IRC! :P
Since then I pay every month for Giganews.
I've been using newsleecher for windows, and in ubuntu hellaz .. two great softwares!

and I don't think it will ever become too popular as torrent cause you know, ppl gotta pay! And thats something ppl dont want to.

mitcha

@Kyoko: For less popular postings/releases, the retention time of any halfway decent news server will quite often outlive that of a public torrent site. Plus, you are guaranteed an immediate download at, in most cases, a sustained, high rate of speed, which is far more desirable than waiting for a lone seeder named D1ZKDRAG0N to get home from school, hopefully start his client, and not stop seeding halfway through your 2 kB/s transfer.

j3sX

I suppose while the cat's out of the bag, when I use Ubuntu, I use HellaNZB with HellaHella as a Web GUI. So if if I'm at work and think of a movie I want to see when I get home, I just add it to my queue, and by the time home, it's sitting there waiting to be watched. For a little less tedium, search teh Googlez for a Firefox extension called HellaFox.

booticon

Best newsgroup tutorial ever:

[www.alt-bin.com]

David Bendit

@luckyxero: Oh how things have changed!

I've been using Usenet since we had to log in to the university server using Kermit. Man those were the days.

Nowadays I run hellanzb as a daemon 24/7. I have a Firefox extension called hellafox.

I browse the index of posts at newzbin.com, and when I find something interesting, I right-click and select "Download this NZB".

All dowloading of individual files, par-checking/repairing, and unraring is done automatically in the background. I never actually browse the newsgroups themselves anymore.

When a download is complete, the movie appears in a subfolder of the Movie folder in my downloads directory. (or if it's music, it goes in the Music directory, ebooks and audio books in the Books directory, and so on.)

It's a leecher's paradise.

keeblerelf

Sorry, I commented before reading the linked article.

Way too technical.

Slyck.com has the best Guide to Newsgroups I've seen.

Aside from subscribing to a fancy newsgroup server, nothing should cost anything. My ISPs have always included access to a newsgroup server.

I know many may protest, I'm going to share my routine.

1. Browse what's new with newsBin, Newzleech, or NZBMatrix

2. Search for files with binsearch.info - Create NZB

3. Open with GrabIt

4. Unzip, UnRar, etc. as needed with 7-Zip

5. Enjoy.

TourPro

I've spending a lot of time in the alt.binaries.e-book.technical newsgroup lately. Still can't get used to reading huge PDFs, but it's better than the alternative.

TourPro

I used to use Usenet back in 95 d/l files one at a time. Do you know how many command lines you need to type in to to download 100 x 40 meg files? It would take someone forever to d/l a single movie!

;)

luckyxero

I've heard good stuff about it, but never tried it. I'm afraid I'd get too attached, and my hard drive would blow up due to large abundance of "open source" files...of course...! :) lol.

ahoier

This must be an early April Fools post. Usenet is garbage...viruses, spam, and impossible to use. I'd recommend Limewire.

alanwarp

Usenetserver retention is only 90ish days. Though having 10 unlimited SSL connections on port 443 (can anyone say hello leeching on "locked down" networks?) is quite nice.

I use Giganews occasionally when I really want something that is too old for Usenetserver.

Patrick Kelso

@Johnny Pneumatic: Sorry for the hellanzb plug. Note to self: read the article, then post.

Parting shot - Hafta recommend Usenetserver over Giganews though. The retention time is the same, but usenetserver is cheaper, and SSL and unlimited downloading are always included.

Johnny Pneumatic

When you first get into newsgroups, it's probably a little disconcerting how many filetypes are involved.
nzb: a file that points to all the little parts
par: error checking/correcting files
rar: (better known) compressed archives.

Usenet is a great example of an infrastructure that has completely outgrown its original purpose (sharing small chunks of text), while software has provided ingenious patches on the technology to keep it useful (for sharing gigantic binaries). As a sloppy consequence, there are a number of different files and operations necessary to get you from point A to point B.

On Ubuntu, Hellanzb takes you from the nzb straight to the end file, and intelligently skips par files where it doesn't need to download them. As noted GrabIt is probably the best all-in-one solution for Windows, even letting you anonymously post without a hassle.

One aspect of the usenets I still haven't mastered is how and where to post requests so they have an actual chance of getting filled. I hear it occasionally involves secret robots on IRC. If anyone has tips on that, I'd love to hear them.

Johnny Pneumatic

Dr. Nate: No clue what you're talking about... Usenet RAW, DEFINITELY need to know your stuff, but must people use NZBs which are instruction sheets for downloading content directly. It's like saying torrenting is hard when you have to connect to people and ask for chunks manually.

A general tip: Don't be afraid to try your free Cable company provided News server access. Mine is capping my downstream, and unfiltered, so I get mine for *free!*, but not all people are so lucky.

A MUST HAVE is Newzbin, nothing else compares to it for getting NZBs, which allow you to just start downloading things fast.

For Unix systems, try HellaNZB, it downloads, unrar's and organized everything, and cna directly import things by Newzbin ID. you feed it an ID, it downloads and starts it. Easy as HELL once you get through the configuration; Which is well documented.

RyuzakiPower

These are not the Usenets you are looking for...

These are not the Usenets you are looking for...

Seriously though Usenet sucks - you practically have to be able to read the Matrix to know what is going on there.

DrNate

BTW... that article blows. It should scare away the people that we haven't already.

dnthomps

BTW... That article fucking blows. The good thing is that the article should scare the people away that we didn't.

dnthomps

Agreed, Usenet sucks. Plus you have to pay for it. Plus it doesn't exist. And the RIAA/MPAA are all over it. Come on, torrents are free. Skip this worthless article.

Actually, the truth is, we just don't want you here.

dnthomps

Hellanzb has q web gui called hellaworld which can be downloaded from [cheezyblog.net]

The best feature of hellaworld is the auto download button for newzbins. I push 1 button on my browser and the file is downloaded, pared and unrared.

evilleet

Yeah, usenet is only for uber geeks. It really sucks. Everyone should stick with with torrents, which work fine ;) ;)

khephera

USEful Stuff on USEnet costs money making it less USEful.
Viruses, trojans, fakes, high costs, low retention, slow downloads.

Turn off your thoughts of USEnet and go back to torrents.

PotKettleBlack

Yep, nothign to see here, other that virus's and Trojans, go back to your bit torrents and leave us alone. :-)

scottelsdon

I heard about USENET many years ago, when I had a job at a website called dejanews.com.
It was nice if you wanted to download items that are in the public domain.
But if you are looking to download illegally, don't bother. Anything the RIAA or MPAA cares about can not be found on usenet at all. Never ever been able to find anything new on there, or porn.
Stick to napster or audiogalaxy for that stuff.

suburbancowboy

Usenet is too hard to use and you just get crap and viruses. It is MUCH easier to use P2P.

And... Shhhh.

dwissing

@The How-To Geek: The only way to use usenet is with linux it doesnt work with windows thats all miss information and poorly written software.

Also why would you pay for something thats free ;)

spetz

This article is pretty misleading. I dont think you can find any of the stuff you are describing in usenet. To be honest, I'm not even sure Usenet does exist. I think Usenet it's just a hoax, and we dont need do speak about a hoax.

lolzor

@Treas0n: You are joking, but it's actually true... in my experience a very large number of files on Usenet have viruses attached. Be sure to bring your virus scanner along, or be really sensible and only download from Linux.

The How-To Geek

And on Usenet, you don't need to ask, "where's the beef." Ever!

YachiraG

finally a post that gets me talking about something i use everyday.

myusuf05

usenet is really confusing. everyone should stick to torrents and kazaa in my opinion. please.

aurf

Talk about "it" all we want, but for all that is good and holy, don't teach people! The barrier to entry it "it" is figuring out how it works.

Don't wreck "it"!

swalve

Usenet does have a steep learning curve, but there are a number of free tools out there (going back to Forte Agent and earlier) that simplify the process.

You have to be careful and scan *everything* for viruses (or worse); with a little common sense the rewards can be substantial. Best of all, many ISPs have no data transfer limits and the d/l speeds can be impressive.

William Gridley

With all the people recently violating the first rule of usenet, I think that our days of unlimited downloads of everything at blazing speeds will be over sooner rather than later.

The How-To Geek

I'll spell it out in case @Gina Trapani's comment wasn't clear.....

First rule of USENET is DON'T TALK ABOUT USENET
Second rule of USENET is DON'T TALK ABOUT USENET

Biggrz

Usenet is full of spyware and viruses... stay away from it at all costs :P

There's nothing posting there any way...

Treas0n

I've been using usenet since 1996, and I simply loved it. Now, tt has grown into this one massive "thing" that almost every thing that is *New* will be there. The great thing about usenet are the fanatics. They have teams that post movies/music/whatever on usenet as soon as they get it. As time passes by, the ease of use has increased by miles.

Before, you have to combined the parts yourself. Now, with Shemes' GrabIt, it will be automatically done. Sites like www.newzleech.com made it easier as well to check out what's new on the usenet. Also, 3 months ago I found a great free software that give you the option to stream the movies / music straight from usenet called: NZBPlayer.

The one bad thing about usenet, is the retention time. If you want to download some old files, you may have a hard time looking for them and my alternative is to go to torrent sites to get a better result.

The hardest thing about usenet, is teaching my friends how to use it. But once they realize it is not that hard to do, many of my friends get hooked more than torrent sites. (of course... there's a price to pay to access the better usenet service)

Kyoko

Most ISPs have a pretty good Usenet package included in your monthly fee. Comcast, for example, allows 2 gigs a month downloading from servers with great speed and 200 days of retention.

Jim Thome's Self-Cleaning Oven

but...don't you have to pay to use Usenet? Not really Lfehacker-ish post, you're all for open-source style of living, right?

bnosach

The first rule of Usenet....

Gina Trapani

Shush... Keeping it confusing keeps it under the RIAAdar..

haha, you see what I did there... no..

will

Shhh, don't talk about Usenet. It doesn't really exist, you know...

Deprong Mori

I have used [www.usenetbinaries.com] every day forever.

The cool part of that site is that it decodes and thumbnails all the um, images and video.

And Usenet is better then p2p because third parties cant sniff the traffic. I have read that monitoring agencies are pretty much able to log every IP on public torrents at this point - its completely automated. Screw that!

brundlefly76