Newsgroups

[strongman123]

Does anyone use newsgroups over torrents? What are the advantages of using newsgroups? And how does it work?

Any info will be appreciated, thanks

[aashiqmizaaj]

Better than torrents in that you don't have to upload or keep the client on - just download what you want.

Also better in that the community is better at self-policing so items with viruses get flagged and if an item says it's say Photoshop, when you unarchive it it'll be Photoshop not something else.

Retention rates are very good nowadays with virtually all good providers carrying items on their servers for 180-240 days - that means if you missed that obscure movie release 6 months - you can find it on newsgroups.

Downside is that you do have to pay to get access to a good usenet provider - but in my view it's well worth it.

Also, better to find out where something is on newsgroups than to download headers which for some groups can get quite unwieldy. Indexing sites are aplenty and make life easier to find things.

Lastly, to access newsgroups, once you have a service provider, you need a news reading client. Newsbin is apparently considered very good.

[Jo_Don]

Would you guys be interested in a SickBeard and/or CouchPotato guide for Usenet? It's an internet PVR that will allow you to automate your downloads, meaning no more manually searching for stuff and importing it to your download client, it'll do all that for you automatically ;)