I'm probably about average when it comes to tech stuff. I always feel dumb when I start looking into getting started with usenet, then get intimidated and quit researching. My torrent + vpn has failed me a couple of times in the past three years. So I really just need to make the leap. Just finding this community and reading through some of the posts has given me an initiative boost.

[–] tron@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This comment is me, last year. Its really not that hard don't let it intimidate you! All you really need is 3 things:

Download Client. Usenet has file size limits, so files are broken into zip archives. A download client such as SABnzbd will automatically unpack for you.
Usenet provider. Such as Eweka (Based in Europe) or Newshosting. This will cost about 5-10 bucks a month.
Usenet indexer. Indexer is used for searching usenet. Think pirate bay. I personally use https://nzbgeek.info. NZB geek costs 1 dollar a month or 80 for a lifetime membership.

Yeah usenet costs money, but god damn its such a premium experience. Every single download is going to cap out your connection, never wait for seeds again.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you use a vpn with usenet? Is it even necessary as you aren't hosting like with torrents?

Have you found it easier to find less popular titles/things that there just doesn't seem to be seeded torrents for?

I recently added Ombi to my setup, allowing my users to request media; now I'm getting more and more requests for media I just haven't been able to find.

[–] tron@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you use a vpn with usenet? Is it even necessary as you aren’t hosting like with torrents?

I don't use a vpn because it would really slow down the speed and everything is downloading via https anyway so its encrypted. Your ISP will see you hitting usenet servers, but thats all. Milage may vary with how tolerate your ISP is towards this.

Have you found it easier to find less popular titles/things that there just doesn’t seem to be seeded torrents for?

Absolutely. The insane thing about usenet is retention. If it was uploaded 10 years ago to usenet, its still there. Available at max speed. No more dead torrents. I was in the same boat with users requesting stuff I couldn't find, with usenet its way way better.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thanks for the info. Just finished setting it all up; trigged a mass search for everything that was missing and now I've got a good 200+gb to download :D

I'm pretty damn impressed with the speed. Pushing 50 almost 60mb/s where as torrents usually top out around 10-15 if I'm lucky, usually closer to 1 or 2.

[–] xodiak@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is great. Thank you very much! I found a couple of "how to" elsewhere but they are so long and go into details I don't need right now.