Use this guide if you want to access the #1 source of files on the
internet.
Usenet-newsgroups are one of the very best sources of files you can find on
the internet. Nearly all major torrent-releases (like movie pre-releases)
are sourced from usenet postings. Years ago about a terabyte of data
passed through usenet daily; the amount is probably many times that now.
Usenet is anonymous for downloading, and generally anonymous for uploading
(service providers will keep logs on uploads to prevent any liability).
Usenet predates the world-wide-web, and the newsgroups are much like a
giant email inbox that anybody can post to, and anybody can read. Like
email, Usenet was not designed to transfer files, but was adapted for that
task. As such, the methods for transferring binary data have generally
been very inefficient due to the constraints of sending text-encodings of
binary data. If Usenet seems archaic, it is because it was never designed
to do what it is now used for.
First things first: You will probably need to pay for a usenet service;
the ones that come with ISPs usually suck for downloading binary files.
Storing the massive amounts of data takes a lot of space, and a lot of
bandwidth, and that costs money. The price you pay will be well worth your
time, as you will not need to waste time with torrents or other P2P
services. If you're in the USA or Europe, I would consult this usenet-service
rating-page.
Get a newsreader. I use Newsbin, and
will base this on that newsreader. Newsbin is a good newsreader to start
with, and you can apply the concepts to other newsreaders you may find on
the net.
Open up Newsbin. If you've got a subscription, fill in your login
info in the Options -> Server Options. Hit Ok.
Now go into the Options -> Group Options. Have it populate the group
list from your usenet provider. Generally it is good to sort the available
groups by post count to see which groups have the most postings (i.e. most
data). Groups with less posts, like some porn groups, may be of interest
as well, so find out which groups you want to use.
You will see newsgroups of the form alt.binaries.* . The newsgroup's
"topic," i.e. what you should expect in a newsgroup, should be
pretty obvious: multimedia, dvd, pictures, erotica, games, etc. Checkbox
the ones you are interested in.
Now in the panel to the left, titled "Groups/Servers" switch to
"Groups". Hit Alt-2 if you don't see it. You should see
the groups you selected. Double-click on a group to have Newsbin download
the headers for the newsgroups. Headers are like the email subjects that
your mail reader downloads. The headers should appear in the Post List.
Newsbin is smart. It'll collect multi-part files into a single header
so you don't need to go fishing around in the post list for the parts
and combine them. That used to be a huge pain, and made Usenet a very
unattractive solution for many people. Select the files you want to
download and hit enter (or double-click) to load them up into the queue.
Newsbin will automatically start downloading the files.
If you want to watch the progress of the files, you can hit Alt-1 to open
up the thumbnail palette. If you're downloading images you can see
the thumbnails and even double-click it to launch the file. Use the arrow
buttons on the left side of the thumbnail palette to allow more threads to
simulataneously download if your usenet provider allows that.
The files you download will be in your <newsbin directory>\DOWNLOADS
directory.
Some tips:
For big files split up into RAR parts, grab the .PAR2 files. Those are
parity files that allow you to reconstruct missing parts, which you will
nearly always have in large releases. In fact, I would suggest downloading
the .PAR2 files before the RAR parts, as the .PAR2 files can repair or
replace any chunk you're missing.
To reconstruct a collection of files with the parity files, download a
program like QuickPAR.
If you find files that are split up with numbers on the end, like
lesbians.mpg.000, lesbians.mpg.001, lesbians.mpg.002, etc. download only
the .001 and above files (the .000 is just a useless file), and then open
up a Command Shell (follow this guide
and search for "command shell"). Navigate to your <newsbin
directory>\download\<newsgroup name> directory. Then type in the
command:
copy /b lesbians.mpg.* lesbians.mpg
This will piece everything back together.
Or you could find some program to do it.
If you have any questions, ask.
Unrelated pic:
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Quick guide to Newsgroups
