Usenetserver.com $20/year includes VPN

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arnemetis

2[H]4U
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I've been on the $95/yr plan for a quite a while, just opened up a new account to get in on this deal. Using 60 connections pulls in a solid 100-104MB/sec with sabnzbd and gigabit fios.

This is the link, although it may not be at the right rate, may need the sd link. First try https://accounts.usenetserver.com/register/addpayment and see if it's $20/year, if not click through via the original posting I found here: https://slickdeals.net/f/13166866-usenetserver-com-20-yr-unlimited-and-free-vpn

I can't speak to the VPN portion of the service, I haven't tried using it.
 
I was skeptical initially that $19.99 felt more like one last quick cashgrab before they pull the plug soon, because $1.66/mo isn't sustainable. Suspicions somewhat confirmed by this Reddit user who details the shady business practices that this company seems to be up to:

 
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I'm out of touch with the times. What do people use usenet for these days?

I use to use them years back to find the most difficult PDF files of textbooks and solution manuals.
 
odditory said:
I was skeptical initially that $19.99 felt more like one last quick cashgrab before they pull the plug soon, because $1.66/mo isn't sustainable. Suspicions somewhat confirmed by this Reddit user who details the shady business practices that this company seems to be up to:

Click to expand...
I don't know, I've also had newsdemon for the last two years at $27.60/year and they haven't gone away yet. I feel like this is a short term promotion. While I'm sure there's some shady things going on with this Usenet backend stuff, I'm not worried about them vanishing in the next month. For me it was absolutely worth the risk, I've been using them for about 15 years.
 
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arnemetis said:
I don't know, I've also had newsdemon for the last two years at $27.60/year and they haven't gone away yet. I feel like this is a short term promotion. While I'm sure there's some shady things going on with this Usenet backend stuff, I'm not worried about them vanishing in the next month. For me it was absolutely worth the risk, I've been using them for about 15 years.
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Yes I have newsdemon too, at the same rate. I didn't articulate it properly. My initial concern was simply skepticism and TGTBT and wondering what angle they're playing, since $1.66/month - for life - isn't sustainable for a service provider.

At the Reddit link I posted there's a guy that explains what seems to be going on, and its nuanced. It's an interesting read. Basically, their longterm goal is anti-competition.
 
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Well, for $20 I figured I'd give it a try. Where do files actually download from? From file sharing sites? Torrent? Straight from other peoples computers? Is it like IRC in that regard?
 
westrock2000 said:
Well, for $20 I figured I'd give it a try. Where do files actually download from? From file sharing sites? Torrent? Straight from other peoples computers? Is it like IRC in that regard?
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From the usenet provider's own servers. They store whatever is posted to the groups.
 
arnemetis said:
From the usenet provider's own servers. They store whatever is posted to the groups.
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Ahh ok, I didn't consider that option ^_^

So do you only get access to newsgroup within the servers they own, or do you get access to all usenet? What's a good program for interfacing?
 
westrock2000 said:
Ahh ok, I didn't consider that option ^_^

So do you only get access to newsgroup within the servers they own, or do you get access to all usenet? What's a good program for interfacing?
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Most of Usenet should be mirrored across all providers. Dmca takedowns fragment that. Sabnzbd or nzbget would be good options for programs. You need access to indexers to access things, some are free, some invite, some pay. Sonarr and radarr for automation programs once you get set up and have a few indexers. Can't get to too much more detailed than that, or give examples either. But the program names, and Usenet indexers, should get you going with some Google searching.
 
DTN107 said:
I'm out of touch with the times. What do people use usenet for these days?

I use to use them years back to find the most difficult PDF files of textbooks and solution manuals.
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Everything is up there,
usenet-files-2019.jpg
 
arnemetis said:
Most of Usenet should be mirrored across all providers. Dmca takedowns fragment that. Sabnzbd or nzbget would be good options for programs. You need access to indexers to access things, some are free, some invite, some pay. Sonarr and radarr for automation programs once you get set up and have a few indexers. Can't get to too much more detailed than that, or give examples either. But the program names, and Usenet indexers, should get you going with some Google searching.
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I currently use omgwtfnzbs and nzbgeek, any other suggestions?
 
doox00 said:
I currently use omgwtfnzbs and nzbgeek, any other suggestions?
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Those are just indexers, they should be relatively consistent, it's the servers themselves that'll probably be hit and miss. That's why people get blocks from different places.

 
This is great! I signed up. For now its going to be my priority 0 server with frugalusenet on backup. If its good, I'll probably stick with it over frugal.
 
is it hard to setup for someone who knows nothing about such services (but, does understand servers and VMs)
 
cdoublejj said:
is it hard to setup for someone who knows nothing about such services (but, does understand servers and VMs)
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I learned about this in the early 00's so it's a lot easier now. I bet you'll be ok, if you know how to follow wikis and google for issues. In short you get a username & password for the usenet account, which the connects to a given address & port. You plug this into you client of choice (sabnzbd or nzbget are what I would recommend) and you now have a connection. Now you need to have indexers to search for content, that will take some googling. There are some open ones such as http://binsearch.info/, although in general you will need sign up indexers as a lo of content on usenet is obscured now. With that you can generate .nzb files, these contain the information regarding the articles and for the purposes of this discussion can be considered like a .torrent file in that it just tells you how to get the pieces. Load that up into your download client of choice, and the file will be downloaded, checked, and extracted automatically, depending on how you configure the client. From there you can further expand your functionality by using sonarr and radarr to automate your downloads via api hits on indexers, which generally require the non-free sites. I know the wiki on the usenet reddit has a pretty good list of indexers and a comparison table.
 
Extra-Titanian said:
NewsDemon just price matched. :D
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Ehh... I switched from them to Frugalusenet once I saw they were closing accounts for using their service too much. After some testing, im getting a little faster speeds in Usenetserver so I switched it to priority 0 in SAB and have Frugal as a backup now for missing articles.
 
odditory said:
I was skeptical initially that $19.99 felt more like one last quick cashgrab before they pull the plug soon, because $1.66/mo isn't sustainable. Suspicions somewhat confirmed by this Reddit user who details the shady business practices that this company seems to be up to:
Click to expand...

I dunno, astraweb survived despite not charging a bunch of people for years, myself included.
I think I paid for 1 year. Got 6.
And... back to it again. Finally got a renewal notice over a year ago, paid a year. Still working, despite being at like 18 months.
 
gimp said:
I dunno, astraweb survived despite not charging a bunch of people for years, myself included.
I think I paid for 1 year. Got 6.
And... back to it again. Finally got a renewal notice over a year ago, paid a year. Still working, despite being at like 18 months.
Click to expand...

And astraweb blows. But my point was long-term, big picture. I've been Usenet since '95. I want to see it survive, and the company behind Usenetserver is doing some shady shit.

See that "map of usenet" graphic a few posts above? Consolidation bad for many reasons.
 
odditory said:
And astraweb blows.
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been using it for years, and rarely every any issues. I hear other state the same though.

odditory said:
But my point was long-term, big picture. I've been Usenet since '95. I want to see it survive, and the company behind Usenetserver is doing some shady shit.

See that "map of usenet" graphic a few posts above? Consolidation bad for many reasons.
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oh I don't disagree.
I've also heard similar about newsgroup ninja; or is it the same parent company behind both?
 
can someone educate me as to the benefits of this over private trackers etc etc.
 
Ins0mnyteq said:
can someone educate me as to the benefits of this over private trackers etc etc.
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It's an entirely different animal. No uploading is the biggest difference. You need access to indexers instead of torrent sites. Use of automation is ideal as posts get taken down with DMCA requests.
 
Ins0mnyteq said:
can someone educate me as to the benefits of this over private trackers etc etc.
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There are none.

Usenet used to be the shit however, and I do still have block accounts, however a private tracker is the way to go for content. Usenet for anything good, you need to pay for good indexer sites and use with some sort of automation program, their are many options, you then have to set those up for the type and name etc etc of the content you want for it to DL it once a file is uploaded, if not, its going to be taken down in hours if not minutes of being uploaded. Trying to discover new content on Usenet is hell due to how fast everything is taken down, so unlike private trackers where you are browsing and go "oh, that looks like it might be good", you have to use other sites to discover.

I used to be all about Usenet, but without indexers you can't even use news browsers anymore as the spam is so insane, along with fake files, misnamed files etc etc. None of which you have to deal with or setup for a private tracker. Also, with private trackers now where everyone actually seeds etc, you don't have the issue like back in the day of never being able to leech due to all the hit and runs. I have block Usenet for really old content, where the tracker might not have seeders anymore, and even then I am finding that less and less useful as much of that old content is also being taken down or corrupted and just submitting a request on the private trackers works much better.

As said above, maybe if you have super shitty internet, or can't keep a box online to seed, Usenet might be the only option.
 
Thanks OP! I haven't used Usenet in ages but this deal seems like a good way to get back into it.
 
BlueFireIce said:
There are none.

Usenet used to be the shit however, and I do still have block accounts, however a private tracker is the way to go for content. Usenet for anything good, you need to pay for good indexer sites and use with some sort of automation program, their are many options, you then have to set those up for the type and name etc etc of the content you want for it to DL it once a file is uploaded, if not, its going to be taken down in hours if not minutes of being uploaded. Trying to discover new content on Usenet is hell due to how fast everything is taken down, so unlike private trackers where you are browsing and go "oh, that looks like it might be good", you have to use other sites to discover.

I used to be all about Usenet, but without indexers you can't even use news browsers anymore as the spam is so insane, along with fake files, misnamed files etc etc. None of which you have to deal with or setup for a private tracker. Also, with private trackers now where everyone actually seeds etc, you don't have the issue like back in the day of never being able to leech due to all the hit and runs. I have block Usenet for really old content, where the tracker might not have seeders anymore, and even then I am finding that less and less useful as much of that old content is also being taken down or corrupted and just submitting a request on the private trackers works much better.

As said above, maybe if you have super shitty internet, or can't keep a box online to seed, Usenet might be the only option.
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lol why would anyone do this. thanks for taking the time to explain.
 
Extra-Titanian said:
Because depending on the private indexer, they'll obfuscate all the information for it so it stay up for a while. It's also way nicer not having to deal with peers.
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whats dealing with peers? you mean uploading? literally i just look for what i want, download it using a client and it adds to plex and then i watch it. no configuration to download things, downloads are quick very rarely is something not seeding. im not talking about pirate bay or one of those other sites im talking a private site. i dont see any downside other than uploading but really thats how it all works soooo....
 
Ins0mnyteq said:
someone beat you to it but thanks
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It was said tongue-in-cheek but the reality is there is a learning curve and it's not user friendly since it will usually require multiple programs working in concert. Over the years I've tried to teach friends but they end up losing interest and patience after a while.

Good luck!
 
Ins0mnyteq said:
whats dealing with peers? you mean uploading? literally i just look for what i want, download it using a client and it adds to plex and then i watch it. no configuration to download things, downloads are quick very rarely is something not seeding. im not talking about pirate bay or one of those other sites im talking a private site. i dont see any downside other than uploading but really thats how it all works soooo....
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Which is all well and good if the torrent you're talking about has a bunch of seeders running dedicated boxes, try branching out from the latest and greatest into older/obscure/foreign and it rapidly turns into letting something sit for days/weeks because the one seeder is on and off with a restricted upload speed.

You guys make it sound like you need to compile a custom kernel to use it, it's like 2 settings and your server login information in the nzb grabber of your choice. Not complicated.
 
Extra-Titanian said:
Which is all well and good if the torrent you're talking about has a bunch of seeders running dedicated boxes, try branching out from the latest and greatest into older/obscure/foreign and it rapidly turns into letting something sit for days/weeks because the one seeder is on and off with a restricted upload speed.

You guys make it sound like you need to compile a custom kernel to use it, it's like 2 settings and your server login information in the nzb grabber of your choice. Not complicated.
Click to expand...

Private trackers do well with old torrents, I can go back years and still download at 15MB/s. The very, very rare times I need some really old content that might not have seeders, I submit a request and it's filled in no time. Example being someone wanted a super old movie, couldn't even find a DVD copy for sale, no used VHS etc, searched Usenet, there was one old version.....File was corrupted, I went to one of my private trackers and made a request, in 30mins it was filled.

People always talk about seeders, but on private trackers, it's not even something I think about anymore, those days are long gone, or you are looking at public trackers. People also always talk about Usenet like it was back in the day, and they never talk about incomplete files or corruption that is about as common on old files as no seeders are on private trackers, both rare, but exist. Again, I still keep block accounts for the rare DL I can only find on Usenet that is intact. However most of the really hard to find stuff, it's not off of usenet anymore, but requests on private trackers. Usenet has gone from my ONLY use, and I hated on torrents, to my main use with torrents here and there, to being mostly torrents to now where I am 99.9% torrent. This might change if I had shitty upload, but I am on fiber 1Gbps/1Gbps no caps. People don't talk about most of the better nzb grabbers cost money, or are linked to a reseller like Newsbin, as most are just resellers of Highwinds servers, though there are others (Giganews etc) and often times for all content, you need a sub to a reseller for each main backbone. Most also make claims of 3,000+ days retention which is just bunk and would be lucky to see any significant retention at half that. Take downs are all the rage, which is not even a thing for private trackers, and for people getting into usenet getting into a private indexer is often hard and will in many cases cost money even after being allowed to get a membership.
 
Extra-Titanian said:
Which is all well and good if the torrent you're talking about has a bunch of seeders running dedicated boxes, try branching out from the latest and greatest into older/obscure/foreign and it rapidly turns into letting something sit for days/weeks because the one seeder is on and off with a restricted upload speed.

You guys make it sound like you need to compile a custom kernel to use it, it's like 2 settings and your server login information in the nzb grabber of your choice. Not complicated.
Click to expand...
they def made it sound not complicated but more or less waste of time, but i see what you are saying that makes sense with more obscure things.

thanks!
 
BlueFireIce said:
Private trackers do well with old torrents, I can go back years and still download at 15MB/s. The very, very rare times I need some really old content that might not have seeders, I submit a request and it's filled in no time. Example being someone wanted a super old movie, couldn't even find a DVD copy for sale, no used VHS etc, searched Usenet, there was one old version.....File was corrupted, I went to one of my private trackers and made a request, in 30mins it was filled.

People always talk about seeders, but on private trackers, it's not even something I think about anymore, those days are long gone, or you are looking at public trackers. People also always talk about Usenet like it was back in the day, and they never talk about incomplete files or corruption that is about as common on old files as no seeders are on private trackers, both rare, but exist. Again, I still keep block accounts for the rare DL I can only find on Usenet that is intact. However most of the really hard to find stuff, it's not off of usenet anymore, but requests on private trackers. Usenet has gone from my ONLY use, and I hated on torrents, to my main use with torrents here and there, to being mostly torrents to now where I am 99.9% torrent. This might change if I had shitty upload, but I am on fiber 1Gbps/1Gbps no caps. People don't talk about most of the better nzb grabbers cost money, or are linked to a reseller like Newsbin, as most are just resellers of Highwinds servers, though there are others (Giganews etc) and often times for all content, you need a sub to a reseller for each main backbone. Most also make claims of 3,000+ days retention which is just bunk and would be lucky to see any significant retention at half that. Take downs are all the rage, which is not even a thing for private trackers, and for people getting into usenet getting into a private indexer is often hard and will in many cases cost money even after being allowed to get a membership.
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same here as far as using private trackers. I cant remember a time when i got a corrupt Download or incomplete. maybe 5-6 years ago.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Private trackers do well with old torrents, I can go back years and still download at 15MB/s. The very, very rare times I need some really old content that might not have seeders, I submit a request and it's filled in no time. Example being someone wanted a super old movie, couldn't even find a DVD copy for sale, no used VHS etc, searched Usenet, there was one old version.....File was corrupted, I went to one of my private trackers and made a request, in 30mins it was filled.

People always talk about seeders, but on private trackers, it's not even something I think about anymore, those days are long gone, or you are looking at public trackers. People also always talk about Usenet like it was back in the day, and they never talk about incomplete files or corruption that is about as common on old files as no seeders are on private trackers, both rare, but exist. Again, I still keep block accounts for the rare DL I can only find on Usenet that is intact. However most of the really hard to find stuff, it's not off of usenet anymore, but requests on private trackers. Usenet has gone from my ONLY use, and I hated on torrents, to my main use with torrents here and there, to being mostly torrents to now where I am 99.9% torrent. This might change if I had shitty upload, but I am on fiber 1Gbps/1Gbps no caps. People don't talk about most of the better nzb grabbers cost money, or are linked to a reseller like Newsbin, as most are just resellers of Highwinds servers, though there are others (Giganews etc) and often times for all content, you need a sub to a reseller for each main backbone. Most also make claims of 3,000+ days retention which is just bunk and would be lucky to see any significant retention at half that. Take downs are all the rage, which is not even a thing for private trackers, and for people getting into usenet getting into a private indexer is often hard and will in many cases cost money even after being allowed to get a membership.
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Was just posting up a good deal I thought. Yes takedowns are an issue but just like getting a good private tracker, getting a good indexer or two and you also have access to old content & requests. Since 2012 when the DMCA takedowns kicked into high gear, a lot of the better sites have been using obfuscation methods to prevent them. I regularly grab older content that that posted in the 8+ year range, for example I just got a few 22 days ago that were posted pretty far back (2011-07-17 07:34:04 (8 yrs ago) and 2011-04-02 21:09:06 (8 yrs ago)) so your claim about the long retention being bunk is incorrect. Content posted this far back is also typically not obfuscated so it's perfectly searchable on open engines like nzbking.com. I don't know what you mean about nzb grabbers costing money, the days of using those ancient programs are long gone and the best ones now are entirely free. Also with torrents you need to make sure you are running a VPN, that is not needed for usenet as it's all ssl encrypted anyway. The better indexers do in fact charge for unlimited access, but if you aren't doing automation, free accounts will absolutely get you by as each will give you at least 5 downloads per day. I do have two indexers I paid for, and they're lifetime until they change their minds (kind of a joke, kind of not, dognzb actually did this.)

You and I both have gigabit upload, yet you choose to use torrents and I choose to use usenet. For me it is a better experience, for you torrents are better, and I think that's up to each person to decide what they're doing and personal preference. The vast majority of my use is via automation, so takedowns are a non issue anyway. You obviously ran into issues of not being able to find what you were looking for, so you turned to torrents which served your needs better.
 
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