I am brand new to usenet and just have a quick question.

 

I set up the nzbget and the sonarr dockers and they seem to be working and communicating with each other.

 

I know that when i run torrents I have to run them using my PIA VPN.  Is that the case with usenet as well? 

 

So I need to enable ssl on nzbget?  or does that not matter since both nzbget and sonarr are on the same server (communicating on my internal network).

 

I am new to this and just kind of figuring out how this all works.

VPN is not needed for usenet.

 

you should have SSL enabled to your provider, but  you dont really need SSL enabled to login to NZBGet/Sonarr unless you have them exposed to outside of your network.

Have just gone through setting up usenet myself in the last 12 hours (it was new to me too) I can say it wasn't all to clear at first but once you have a few key pieces of information everything just falls into place.  I've been using Sonarr and uTorrent for months now but only yesterday started investigating usenets, and I have to say DAMN why didn't I do this months ago!

 

I installed SABNZB, I already had Sonarr installed. You will need an indexing service, such as OZNZB.com and you will also need a usenet provider, such as www.newshosting.com. I don't fully understand the ins and outs of it yet but I've got mine working all the same.

 

NB: This is going to cost you money!

 

Step 1. Create an account with newshosting.com It will cost you about $15 per month

Step 2. In SABNZB on the Servers tab add a new server, this is the newshosting.com details. You'll need your newshosting username and password and a few other details, but you can find them on the site.

Step 3. Create an account with OZNZB It will cost you a minimum of $16 as a one off payment for VIP status. Take note of your OZNZB API from this site.

Step 4. In Sonarr, Settings --> Indexers, click the plus to add a new one. Select Newznab and click the Presets button, select OZNZB.com, enter your API Key and click Test / Save.

 

I'm sure there are a couple of details I missed but that you have you going in the right direction.

 

Couch Potato is setup in a similar way, as long as you have the site http and your API you're good to go.

A VPN is not needed for usenet, you should safely be able to get rid of VPN and stop using torrents completely.

 

You don't need to run SSL on SABnzbd or Sonarr hosts themselves, like you said it's all local. Just make sure your running SSL on your download provider and using their SSL servers/ports though.

Have just gone through setting up usenet myself in the last 12 hours (it was new to me too) I can say it wasn't all to clear at first but once you have a few key pieces of information everything just falls into place.  I've been using Sonarr and uTorrent for months now but only yesterday started investigating usenets, and I have to say DAMN why didn't I do this months ago!

 

I installed SABNZB, I already had Sonarr installed. You will need an indexing service, such as OZNZB.com and you will also need a usenet provider, such as www.newshosting.com. I don't fully understand the ins and outs of it yet but I've got mine working all the same.

 

NB: This is going to cost you money!

 

Step 1. Create an account with newshosting.com It will cost you about $15 per month

Step 2. In SABNZB on the Servers tab add a new server, this is the newshosting.com details. You'll need your newshosting username and password and a few other details, but you can find them on the site.

Step 3. Create an account with OZNZB It will cost you a minimum of $16 as a one off payment for VIP status. Take note of your OZNZB API from this site.

Step 4. In Sonarr, Settings --> Indexers, click the plus to add a new one. Select Newznab and click the Presets button, select OZNZB.com, enter your API Key and click Test / Save.

 

I'm sure there are a couple of details I missed but that you have you going in the right direction.

 

Couch Potato is setup in a similar way, as long as you have the site http and your API you're good to go.

 

After you realize you can't live without usenet anymore, you'll want a more long term (and cheaper solution) than paying monthly. Your going to want at least two providers that pull from different servers or you'll get a lot of incompletes (unless you ONLY snatch things automatically the second they get posted). I'd personally not go with newshosting, there are much better alternatives and 1 provider is not enough nowadays.

 

If you aren't concerned about getting faster than 3MB/s, the cheapest and most reliable setup is:

https://usenet.farm/ - Pulls from both XSNews, Highwind, and it's own servers. You can get TWO YEARS for $135 (but capped at 3MB/s). This is essentially 3 providers in one, easily the most reliable single provider solution.

http://www.news.astraweb.com/ - Get a 1TB Block account, set it as a BACKUP in SABnzbd. It'll rarely be used, greatly helps with incompletes.

 

If you want faster, and decent reliability:

http://frugalusenet.com/ - Pulls from same servers as Newshosting (Highwinds) but is faster and cheaper. The only downside is retention is 600 days (doesn't matter in this combo).

http://www.news.astraweb.com/ - Get a 1TB Block account, set it as a BACKUP in SABnzbd. It'll rarely be used, greatly helps with incompletes.

 

If you want faster than 3MB/s and best reliability, then it's $$$. I recommend Frugal + UsenetBucket (Comfort) + 1TB Astraweb Block. This pulls from the same servers as Usenet.farm/astra combo above, but is way faster. If you pay by the year - It's about $111/year not including the $50 astraweb block account that should last a few years. Still cheaper than your current $15/month though, and incompletes will be almost nonexistent.

 

As for indexing, your going to want premium site(s) that requires $ and an invite, something like Oznzb is OK but no where near as good as some. The best one you can straight up buy yourself into ($30/lifetime) is NZBGeek. Yes, it is worth it if you don't have access to one of the very exclusive sites. The absolute best sites you will need invites too, and then you still have to pay. It's almost impossible to get into them now that they are full.

thanks for the breakdown guys - that is very very helpful for a newbie like me.

 

I have already subscribed to UsenetServer.com.  I haven't  played with it too much yet but I am wondering what your experience is with them.

 

I still have to get a decent indexer.  i currently just have a free account on oznzb.  I will give NZBGeek a shot.

 

as for enabling SSL to the provider... I am using nzbget and I think I have that set up correctly.  It shoudl just be a matter of clicking Yes under "Server Encryption" in the NEWS-SERVERS section right?  and of course using the right port.

 

so I have been messing around with things a little bit today and I have noticed that fairly often nzbget will cancel a download because the "health" drops below a certain percentage.

 

I have two questions about that.

1) what does "health" mean?

2) why is the health dipping below the threshold (90% I think) so often?  is that an issue with UsenetServer.com?

so I have been messing around with things a little bit today and I have noticed that fairly often nzbget will cancel a download because the "health" drops below a certain percentage.

 

I have two questions about that.

1) what does "health" mean?

2) why is the health dipping below the threshold (90% I think) so often?  is that an issue with UsenetServer.com?

1 - Missing articles vs the par2 repair blocks

2 - Take down requests / or all the articles aren't uploaded yet / or the articles are out of the retention time

thanks for the clarification on that.

 

I do have some additional questions though. Sorry if they seem dumb - I am still trying to figure out how this all works.

1) so far a lot of my downloads )probably more then 50%) have wound up failing because of health issues.  What is the fix for this?  a new/better usenet provider?

2) it seems that when using sonarr, if an episode fails enough, it becomes blacklisted and then I am unable to get it to re-download that episode.  how can I fix that?

3) should I be using torrents for downloading back episodes and nzb for downloading new/current episodes?  or should I be able to use nzb for old episodes too?

 

thanks for the clarification on that.

 

I do have some additional questions though. Sorry if they seem dumb - I am still trying to figure out how this all works.

1) so far a lot of my downloads )probably more then 50%) have wound up failing because of health issues.  What is the fix for this?  a new/better usenet provider?

2) it seems that when using sonarr, if an episode fails enough, it becomes blacklisted and then I am unable to get it to re-download that episode.  how can I fix that?

3) should I be using torrents for downloading back episodes and nzb for downloading new/current episodes?  or should I be able to use nzb for old episodes too?

1 - a secondary usenet provider that pulls from different servers when the articles aren't available on your primary

2 - sonarr has settings to not blacklist releases

3 - your choice

thanks for the quick reply!

 

I have not been able to find the setting in sonarr that allows me to not blacklist releases

 

my question about torrents vs usenet, I am asking from a reliability standpoint.  I have read that usenet is more reliable for new episodes than it is for back episodes... is that true?

I've found old TV series on Usenets that I simply can't find as torrents. I've only been using Usenets for 72 hours now but I'm about ready to drop torrents from Sonarr and Couchpotato as virtually all my downloads are coming from Usenets.

If you search for astraweb on google, you can find Google ads for astraweb at $8 per month unlimited, 20 connections. Maxes out my 50mbit line at all times.

 

I also have a block account from blocknewsnet as a back up (very little use and it lasts forever, never expires) and I have a free account from xsusenet (very slow cap and only 10 day retention, but did I mention free?).

One important thing to note here is that certain POPULAR TV shows are taken down from most popular news hosts fairly quickly for DMCA violations. This means that getting older aired shows is seldom reliable. What is awesome is at picking up the shows as soon as they appear and before they get taken down. Some shows barely last a day before taken down... ahemmm... GoT....cough..

 

You will get to learn which shows don't last long.

 

You can also get what is called an account at a Backup server, which does not get the take downs as often... I think I use twe*knews as one of those. I got a block account of 100GB which is basically paying to download that amount of data. Supposedly this provider is less susceptible to take-down notices. But nothing is perfect. If you get a block account, get it as a secondary new service provider. And in Sab, you have to click on the "Optional" box so it only uses this if the main one fails.

 

When it just not possible to find the episodes you want, I then resort to private torrent trackers... and you should use all the VPN stuff you can think off.

 

 

 

 

I've been using Usenet for almost ten years now and use Sick Beard and SabNZB exclusively, I believe Sonarr is similar. Once you plugin all your shows and tell the program to scan on a set frequency, say every half hour, you should be able to get your shows without issues. If often helps to have a search provider and I don't know if you do, most of them are private and by invitation only, these certainly help getting content, but again I don't know how you are doing it.

 

Having one or two backup Usenet providers is a must, often when you try to get things even recently released stuff you'll find that there are articles missing resulting in an incomplete download. Having one or two backup block accounts with at least one european Usenet provider can help complete these downloads. I use tweaknews.eu and just signed up for a block account with usenetserver.com. Having these two backups to my primary account at giganews, has helped me get things that were even five years old or even a few days old. You have to be patient with Usenet because there are often repack releases too when a group finds the initial release has 'issues' say there was a bit of a commercial left in an episode, they will re release a new copy with that fixed. Sick Beard has a setting to automatically grab those, Sonarr should also.

 

Good luck

I've used usenetserver for 4 or 5 years now. I buy their $96/year package. I have had pretty good luck indexing the popular groups myself with Newznab. I'm probably not a huge user compared to some people. At peak times I'm downloading up to 30 shows a week or averaging around 150GB a month. I index and grab and download as fast as possible to ensure I get it before the inevitable takedown occurs. The only issue I have is the indexing not indexing the show and even that is fairly rare. I haven't had a failed download in many months. But I don't even try to download any old items.

 

I use SickBeard. I tried Sonarr and when I tried to test it I had the setup wrong and the blacklisting kept me from testing it again so I booted it. Sickbeard just plain works for me and the only advantage of Sonarr I could see is the prettier interface which I could really care less about.

 

I would be interested in what usenet servers don't takedown the older shows??