Usenet newsgroups

[teamhood]

I was just wondering if anyone who uses the newsgroups could suggest a provider? I would like unlimited d/l.  Also, what program are you using to search for 'news'

 

I have never used newsgroups before so if anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it!

 

Thank you,

Mike

[melechmet]

I was just wondering if anyone who uses the newsgroups could suggest a provider? I would like unlimited d/l.  Also, what program are you using to search for 'news'

 

I have never used newsgroups before so if anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it!

 

Thank you,

Mike

 

Mike,

 

Are you interested in downloading or just reading? The services are geared either way. For the latter retention is usually ok to go with one of the public NNTP servers.

 

-ae

[dschur]

Newshosting.com

Forte Agent

 

'nuff said

[BLKMGK]

Forte' not as good as some others with binaries IMO. That said, the ones that ARE supposed to be good at binaries always puked on me when their indexes got too big. I eventually got frustrated and stopped playing with newsgroups because of that. If you're after binaries then retention is a biggie as is handling of PAR files, throttling, and multiple sources with the ability to prioritize (IMO). Lots of things to consider and yeah it can become a time sink pretty quickly!

[teamhood]

I don't want to 'read' I would like to download ummm... well I would like to download. There are just a lot of different places out there and I was hoping to hear some reviews before I decided to put down the cash... Anyword on giganews?

 

Side note: I guess I get confused when you want to download lets say, an HD video... the way the news groups work is by separating that hd video into a ton of smaller files correct? How many of the files get downloaded at a time? How long does it take... will the newgroups max out your connection?

 

Thanks again!!

[X4n]

well, here is what i have:

 

Europe, the netherlands

 

for the provider (eweka.nl) part: 7,50 euro per month for unlimited download with 30 day retention.

 

next comes your newsreader software, this is what make all sort of options avaliable.

i myself use newsleecher (payed 30 dollars per year, but i share it with a friend) with supersearch.

most newsreader programs have an option for setting the max download speed.

 

how many get dl at a time?: depends on the program your using.

Newsleecher dls them 1 at a time, but with multiple connections (im limited with 400kb\s per connection myself, but i use 5 at the same time  )

Grabit dls as many parts at the same time as u have connections.

it doesnt matter which program u get, it can all dl at full speed.

 

how long does it take?: well that depends on alot of things

- the size of the movies isnt consistent. it all depends on the codec used to encode it, at what resolution and movie playtime.

* mpeg2 @ 1080i  10 - 16 gig

* h264 @ 1080i  2 - 4 gig

- the max dl speed of your internet connection.

but to give u a number, i can dl  a 4,7 gig dvd in 1,5 hours with 950kb\s dl speed

 

HD movies are always split on usenet, but the contaner used can variate.

mpeg2 HD movies are most likely split into multiple .TS (transport stream) files.

these can 'easyly'(?) be put together again with HDTVtoMPEG2.

 

or, just like most stuff on usenet, be split into several rar files

just use winrar to unpack and your done.

[teamhood]

X4n

 

Thank you very much for the noob guide.. that is basically what I was hoping for.....  the one question that I have, is what exactly is 30 day retention... I see them all say they have 30,60,70 day retention?? I guess I am just not sure what that means in terms to the news groups (yes, I know what the word retention means, but please apply it to the newgroups world)

 

Thank you very much for all the info. I would love to start streaming some HD files

[X4n]

retention is the time the files stay stored on the server.

they dont keep al the movies on there all the time (limited disk space), so the only keep files 30,60, orso days stored

well if u havent got your dl within 30 days u should quit 

in the past it would be 5 days, and that could be a pain in the ass, but 30, hehe

 

hf m8

[teamhood]

Ahhhh, I see I see and that makes sense.... so on the flip side of things... how are the movies added to the servers? I take it someone upload them? Lets say there is a movie that is in 3 parts and each is 25GB... that would take quite a while and tax the hell out of someones upstream!  I am very excited to start this up and start watching some more HD

 

Thank you!

[X4n]

well the number of parts and the blocksize of the parity is a balance around efficientie, its complicated

 

and yes someone uploads it, but most high schools here in holland have 1000mbit backbone connections.

so alot get uploaded that way 

[BLKMGK]

Retention is important too because Usenet is like a game of telephone tag, files get lost soemtimes or delayed. so you may see a movie or file you want and it may have say 30 of 35 parts - where's the last 5? If you have high retention the last 5 are more liekly to show up. This is also where PAR files come into - these are like the Parity drive on our storage arrays in that using these files and some special software you can REBUILD any missing pieces. If you can get to all of the pieces then no need top DL the PAR files. Speed - most services will only allow a limited number of concurrent connections and of course speed is also sometimes limioted per connection. You can often max out a connection here in the States since so many of them are so crappy - overseas is ahead of us in this aspect. Anyway, this is why being able to prioritze servers is important! Your ISP will probably have a news service for you and it will probably have crappy retention and may even zap pieces of binaries to frustrate users. However if yuo put a higher priority on the "free" crappy service then any pices that DO happen to be available there can be downloaded from them (faster often) and then holes filled in with the more limited connections offered by the subscription service. This is also why it's important to have a reader that will AGGREGATE the indexes, so that what you are looknig at is a view of pices from ALL sources together with no dupes visible. This is also why having a reader that doesn't puk over large indexes is important - when your damned INDEX is 100++megs and a zillion entries that can blow up alot of programs! Be aware too that some readers are geared for Binaries and handle PAR files, Multi-part downloads, have previews, and other things all integrated - others do not.

 

Hope that helps some. Honestly I've not done anything with newgroups in a couple of years but have considered and pondered it - when I have some more time I'll get to it I guess. I didn't realize there was much HD out there, that would be interesting to see. I've generally been able to find what I want in the way of video via Torrents - usualyl TV shows I've nto had enough tuners to record <sigh>

[dschur]

IMHO, using torrents will get you a nice letter from the RIAA or MPAA.

 

Better to stick with a reputable unlimited nntp provider for that reason.

[limetech]

IMHO, using torrents will get you a nice letter from the RIAA or MPAA.

 

Better to stick with a reputable unlimited nntp provider for that reason.

 

Continued discussion along these lines my get me a letter!  So sorry, closing thread.