Using newsgroups, the one-two-three idiot’s guide!

Usenet, newsgroups… sounds familiar? Maybe not, but this is one the many ways to download videos, music, and visual graphics at ease. This way of downloading has been online for many years now.. and it is one of the least discussed. Most people nowadays talk about limewire, torrents, and rapidshare. The best and maybe the safest way to get your hands on any file you are looking for is to do it using newsgroups.

Newsgroups – Usenet

Some time in the past ISPs (Internet Service Providers) used to offer this as a free service… you could easily transfer and receive files even thru the same browser. Companies like Sprint, Verizon and a few other had stopped offering the access to newsgroups. That is not a problem, as there is a way (it will cost you money) to start using it but you won’t regret a penny. For less than 15 dollars a month you can access to the latest albums, movies of all kinds at top speed of your ISP. You spend about that much money for the movies and more if you are taking your girlfriend with you! Talk about savings in this tough economy.

You need to choose a good server to join.. remember it is your money and therefore we need to make good choices. Although most places will let you try their service for a few weeks for free. I will give you three of the best places where you can peek and decide if you want to join them.

Giganews

Giganews

One of the most talked about, probably the one used the most. This server offers a terrific file retention of more than a year 449 days!

Six different packages to satisfy your needs and your wallet. They go as cheap as 3 dollars a month up to 30 dollars a month. They do have 24/7/365 help support, you can’t beat that.

With multiple gigabit+ backbones running at a fraction of capacity, Giganews gives you the speed you need to enjoy bandwidth at the most. You will also have access to more than 100,000 uncensored newsgroups (you pervs). And if you are worried about your security, no problem. You also get 256-bit SSL Encryption connections all the time so no one knows the activity going on from your computer to the servers.

Astraweb

Astraweb

This is my best favorite, their file retention is almost as good as giganews but what I like the most about this usenet provider is that for only 15 dollars (1/2 the price of giganews) you get unlimited downloads, no bandwidth and speed limitations.

Here is a list of all the binaries currently available on Astraweb. They run their own servers and they have servefarms in both Europe and the United States.

And I am leaving a 11 dollars special, where you get everything you need… Full speeds and no download limitations. Hurry up and subscribe!

Second Step

Okay, once I have joined either one of the usenet providers above I can go ahead and get a newsreader client in order to download. Since you are already spending money with the usenet providers I am not going to give you more software to buy. Instead, I will give you the best two freeware tools there are to get your newsgroups files from.

Grabit, has a very nice and easy to use GUI. Once installed it will update a list of newsgroups and you will be able to search for files or simply browse around the different headers and pick what gets your attention and download.

Pros:

NZB file support
· GrabIt has full integrated support for the well known NZB format. Just double click on a NZB file on your desktop and all the files that are described in the NZB file will automatically be downloaded by GrabIt!
· Easy to use and familiar looking user interface
· Care has been taken to make the downloading of binaries as fast and easy as possible. This is why most people love GrabIt.
· Fast selecting, downloading and decoding of binary attachments
· See a binary you want, select it and GrabIt does the rest! It will download and combine all parts and decode your binary to the location you specified.
· Download and decode multiple articles at once
· Download up to eight articles at the same time! Don’t waste valuable online time while waiting for a binary to decode! GrabIt will decode in the background so the downloading will only stop when you want it to!
· Pause function to free bandwidth
· GrabIt is fast! Almost too fast for some people! That is why it can sometimes be difficult to download from the Internet with other software while using GrabIt. No problem! Just hit the pause button, download your stuff and hit the pause button again! GrabIt will resume the download like nothing happened!
· Exact resume
· Don’t waste time and bandwidth downloading data again and again! GrabIt remembers where you stopped or paused your download and will resume from the exact same article.

SABnzbd (my favorite) program, another great freeware. This program run on as localhost on your own machine and it is easy to use. Its interface looks more like a router settings page. This nifty piece of code, will upload an NBZ file, it will then detect the server where it is hosted. It will download all the par and rarred files to your pc, it will then unpar and unrarred all the files in order to extract the actual movie or music album. Once done, it will delete all pars and rars leaving you with only one file (movie, song, picture).

Sabnzbd Program

With SABnzbd installed, you will have to go to the server tab and enter all the information from your usenet provider. If you want to use the SSL encryption method, in the host section you will need to enter ssl-us.astraweb.com and port 563.Make sure you untick the Backup Server and to enable SSL, now go ahead and save changes. You are now ready to start looking for archives to download.

Final Step

nzbmatrix screenshot

Let’s now look into a website to look for your NZB files (newsgroups binaries). NZBMatrix, is one of the best sites to join. It offers tons of files and it will make your downloading activity so much fun. If you have downloaded torrents, you will find this NZB website very much alike. They basically work the same way, they show you a file for download. You get it and import it to your favorite program.

Last, I am leaving a hot tip to get more information about search engines and a wider explanation of usenet. Have a very happy download!