I keep trying to get out but it keeps pulling me back in: Usenet the ugly duckling of the tcp/ip world is still worth using. Yes its based on one of the oldest and most arcane protocols still in use (the only worse system I can think of was Gopher). Usenet is based on the exact model that every internet media distribution method developed in the last 10 years has been built to work around. Usenet connects you to a single server (or at least a server farm) to do all your downloading. The downside is that whomever sees your packets going to that server knows exactly what you’re downloading (more on this later). And, yes, Usenet has a steep learning curve but… the pay-offs are huge.
The first payoff is privacy: modern Usenet allows for SSL connections… yes its a bit slower but with an SSL connection no one (not even your ISP) can tell what you are transfering… Well… except your Usenet provider. This means that choosing your Usenet provider is a critical decision. I use Astraweb. Why? Its cheap ($10 US a month), they keep around 400 days of usenet posts (which is a lot) and its fast (see below)… but most importantly they don’t keep any log. Combine this with SSL and you have a very fast and private service.
The second payoff is speed: I get about 1.5 MBps (thats Bps not bps) continuously downloading. Some of the most highly seeded torrents download at around 600 KBps (and this isn’t continuous). 1.5 MBps means that you can download a 15 GB file in less that 3 hours (every time, no matter who else is downloading it).
The third is that your ISP doesn’t care: 15 GB files sound great but isn’t your ISP going to be freaking out when you’re downloading 100s of GBs of movies? Nope. Why? Your ISP doesn’t care about downloads they care about uploads. Torrents are terrible for ISPs because they do a lot of uploading. Usenet does no uploading at all. This means that all that crazy traffic shaping and filtering that your ISP does, does not affect Usenet either. I’ve literally downloaded 250 GB of movies in a month and never heard a peep from my ISP.
The last is selection: almost everything that eventually gets posted to torrents first came from usenet (don’t tell the RIAA/MPAA). This means that movies, games, software, tv shows, images, music etc are all available. I use Usenet mostly for high-def movies, TV shows and games. The selection is vast but it all depends on how much your Usenet provider will store (and for how long)… this is why using your ISP’s usenet servers typically isn’t good enough. A third party Usenet provider is much much better (Astraweb keeps more than a year’s worth of posts). Thus far there has been absolutely no censorship of Usenet. None. Even in the US.
Sounds good right? So what’s the catch? Well besides the monthly fee for a Usenet provider, you’ll need Usenet reader software and you’ll need to figure out how to use it. This is a good and short introduction to how exactly usenet works. Remember its a technology based in the 70s, so basically everything is treated as a textual post. Lots of tricks and workarounds have been employed to allow Usenet post to include data files.
I highly recommend using Newsbin as your Usenet reader software. Its pretty much a standard, has great customer support and does lots of complex stuff automatically for you. Check out the documentation to learn how to use it. Newsbin is so good I actually paid for a copy of it!
Once you’ve got Newsbin setup with your Usenet provider, you’ll need to add groups. There are -many- groups each dedicated to different types of media. My suggestion is to use Newsbin’s sort feature to sort by number of posts, typically the more posts in a group the better the group will be: alt.binaries.hdtv.x264 is my favourite group since it contains HD quality versions of pretty much all recent movies and TV shows. It gets about 700,000 posts an hour (note that each movie can be made up of thousands of posts).
You’ll need to download all the post headers (basically the subject line of the post) before you can start downloading. This takes a while the first time but is quite quick on subsequent loads. Once you’ve got headers you can either search them or just scan through them looking for stuff of interest. Make sure you totally read the subject, for example some movies are in different languages or weird formats or have wacky subtitles. Once you’ve found somethink you like, download it and Newsbin will do the rest.
Now that you’re actively downloading this is probably the first time that you’ve maxed out the speed of your internet connection. Bask in the unbriddled speed of Usenet. Once the download is finished Newsbin automatically unarchives the files and they should be ready for you to use/view. Your 12 GB blu-ray rip of the Dark Knight is all ready to watch.
Yes this is a bit complex to get setup initially. Yes Newsbin has a bit of a poor interface. But the payoff is well worth the learning curve. A vast selection of high quality, fast and anonymous downloads are waiting for you right now.
