Ok, so first of all, the Usenet is the overlapping term for the network of newsgroups/newsservers. These newsgroups were initially meant to be forums where people could discuss topics in text format (exchanging txt via a server). When these topics got used to upload data, they were called "binaries" (exchanging data via a server).

Each ISP (Internet Service Provider) should be having their own (free) newsserver. To find out if your ISP has one, then checkout link . There are also paid-servers which have their advantages, but will discuss it later on.

So... we now got a little understanding of what the Usenet is... a quick summary: it's the network of newsgroups. Those newsgroups are being used to exchange data, if they're called a binarygroup. All of these groups can be accessed by a newsserver. Each ISP should have their own free server, but there are also paid servers. Ok, we got that straightened so far. Now, how am I going to download a movie using the Usenet?

Now... we will first be comparing the Usenet to Torrents, since we all know our ways around that one. The Usenet doesn't differ that much from torrenting. With both you need an initial file to get downloading. With torrents it is the .torrent file, and with Usenet downloads it is a .nzb (newzBin; newsbinary) file. It contains information about the actual download, how much files, where the files are located, etc. So, do we need a client to work with those files? I mean, we have to use uTorrent (Azureus, etc) for .torrent files, so are there any Usenet Clients as well? Yes, there are. The uTorrent version for the Usenet is GrabIt (link ). There are also others like NewsLeecher (link ). A good site to find other (freeware) programs is link . Now download and install a program which suits you the best in order to be able to handle those .nzb files (I would use GrabIt... not only would I... but I actually am using it!). After you installed it you need to configure the settings. Don't be scared and in panic from all of this, it's important to have patience with these matters. Actually the only thing you have to do is adding a newsserver. To find out whether your ISP has one for you to use for free, checkout link . If yours is not on the list, you might want to consider a paid newsserver such as Giganews (link ) or others (link ). Now when adding your free newsserver you only have to fill in the Profile name: "My example server", the server itself, Hostname: "news.myexampleserver.com" and you can just leave the standardport "119" the way it is. That was all there's to it. With paid servers you might have to fill in your account data, with accountname and password. Ok, let's see what we got, we know what we want to get, we know which clients are able to handle the files and we know how to set us up a newsserver, lets get downloading!

To find a certain release you need to get access to Usenet indexing sites. As with torrents, you will need these to download the .nzb from. Popular sites are link and link , where you can just search and download .nzb files. In order to checkout which releases are out at the moment (sort of link to checkout which movie releases are out but then for binaries) you should use link. When you've done your search you should select the checkboxes of which data you want to download (note: a result may contain a collection of files, so you do not need to mark all results but only that one, containing the whole collection) and create a .nzb file. If you have installed a program to handle the .nzb files and the file extension is associated with it, there should appear a pop-up asking you whether to grab the data or not. You can also import a .nzb file from within the program. If you have set your server properly it should begin to download. A download from the Usenet usually contains the following 4 kinds of files:
- the NFO (iNFOrmation) file which contains details about the release,
- the SFV (Simple File Validator) which includes the CRC/checksum of every file (integrity),
- the PAR (PARchive) files which enable you to repair missing datablocks of a binary (which have failed the integrity checksum),
- the file itself (which usually comes in parts)

When you finally have downloaded all the files 100% it is time to check the integrity of the download. You could use link with the .par or .sfv file to check the integrity of the datablocks, and if necessary you can use it to repair missing or broken datablocks with the program too!

After everything is said to be ok, extract the archive parts to merge into one video file. For extracting purposes I would recommend ALZip (link ) or ZipGenius (link) (seriously, winRAR is no good, it's lifetime trialware). Once extracted you can just use your videoplayer to watch the movie or burn it to disc like you normally would with a movie downloaded with torrents (what players to use? link) or the VLC Player (from link)).

I can hear you say: "Yes, yes... I know how to extract and watch the movies... and I now know how the Usenet works, but why would I use it? What are the advantages, since you're comparing it to torrenting?". Well, with torrents you're dependent on other people. Plain facts: you need at least one seed to complete a download and speed largely depends on the speed at which seeds and peers are uploading. Not always a torrent will be seeded by someone, so it's possible to be downloading a torrent and then finding out it hasn't got any seeds. Now let us assume we have a torrent with seeds... then it might still not give you massive download speeds, since those people are connected to many others and they might have limited upload speeds or capacity. My own torrent speeds classification:
- LOUSY when range is 0-10 kB/s
- SLOW when range is 11-50 kB/s
- NORMAL when range is 51-120 kB/s
- FAST when range is exceeds 120 kB/s

So... are the download speeds the same for the Usenet then? No! The B-I-G difference between torrenting and the Usenet is that with the Usenet you're downloading from a Server. There aren't any seeds and/or peers involved, so you do not have to worry about the popularity of a file or the upload speeds of others, the only thing that defines your speed is the speed of the server and your internet connection speed. From experience I've found out that download speeds hardly get under the 200 kB/s, usually it lies at 300 kB/s and I've even topped 800 kB/s once, and that was with my free(!) ISP newsserver. I've heard that with paid servers you don't just download Kb/s (MB/Hr) but MB/s (GB/Hr), this stuff can reach insane speeds! It all depends on the capacity of your newsserver and your broadband connection. "Wow... this stuff is almost too good to be true, what's the catch?", I can hear you thinking... well, there's no real catch, there's just this minor negative point called "retention time". Each topic (binary post) has a retention time. It basically defines the amount of time the server is able to keep the file. Since servers have a limited capacity it will cleanup it's database constantly removing topics which have exceeded their retention time (this can be a "x" number of days / weeks / months, depending on server). So, that basically is the negative aspect about using the Usenet, after it is out of retention you can not download it again until someone decides reposting it on a newsgroup again.

We just discussed the one minor negative aspect... are there any more positive ones? Most certainly, and a big one to start with too: Safety! We have all heard stories about people getting e-mails from RIAA, MPAA, ISP's etc... how does that ever happen? Well, if you download your movies using torrents you are connected to others. If you're connected to others that also means that others are connected to YOU! If one of the others is the CMPAA (Crazy Motion Picture Anti-piracy Agency) or whatever, then you're toast! Sure you can be kept safe from bad IP's logging your activities by using software such as PeerGuardian2 (link), but still. What it comes down to is that with the Usenet you know you're only connected to your newsserver and not to some third party god-knows-who's. And that's not everything... another positive aspect is the fact that you're not expected to return the favor. You can download as much as you want, whenever you want (within retention time) without having to worry about ratio's and uploading/seeding, since you're not dealing with a peer-to-peer protocol but you're only dealing with your newsserver.

Now we should have covered it all: a little introduction, what files, what programs and what sites to use. A little comparison between the Usenet and Torrenting and the pro's and con's. I hope to have clarified stuff up and may you enjoy trying to fetch some stuff offa the Usenet yourself, and if not, you can always visit link which explains it all again for you.

For now, I'm wickido, and I'm hoping you had a good time reading all of this bull :P