Help...lost in a sea of media apps

[SPOautos]

I'm trying to get a bunch of media stuff going. I've watched a lot of videos but some are several years old.  Anyway, I'm pretty dang confused about all this....I've never set up anything like this, zero experience with torrents, vpn's, etc. Here are the apps I'm looking at downloading.....

 

VPN (not sure which but I already have Wireguard setup for remote access if I can just use that?)

Torrent app (installed Deluge by linuxserver)

Nzbgeek indexer (it costs money, lifetime is $40...is there something better?)

SABnzbd (linuxserver version)

Sonarr (linuxserver version)

Radarr (linuxserver version)

Plex

 

OK....INITIAL QUESTIONS....

1. What should I do for a VPN?  Reliability, simplicity, and especially expense is a concern, seems some can be fairly expensive. Can I just use Wireguard somehow?

2. I do not even understand all of this really.....if Sonarr downloads content then what is the purpose of setting up a torrent? 

3. Is Deluge the best thing to go with? Looks like there are several but I have no idea the differences.

4. Should I pay for Nzbgeek or get something else?

5. Do I need any other apps to make all this work well and as automated at all? One video kept mentioning Usenet but I dont see that in the CA area.

 

I went with linuxserver apps whenever possible because they have support threads here on the forum, lots of downloads, and I thought it may be better to get everything from the same developer.....BUT I am certainly open to changing any of those if there is something else better. I have ZERO experience with any of this so I didnt really know whats best. Maybe the Binhex would be better???  

 

Thank You for any advice anyone can share....I'm watching a lot of videos but trying to make all this work together seems like a pita that is easy to get messed up and need a lot of ongoing attention. But I really need something thats fairly easy to just truck along on its own.

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[SPOautos]

I've got all the above listed apps installed in my Unraid but still trying to work on getting it all working together and figuring out if I need additional apps.

 

I set up an account at NZBgeek but its only a very short term free trial.....should I spend the $40 and get a lifetime or are there better indexers out there?

 

I think one thing I'm most confused on is the folder structure for everything and getting it set up so I dont cause a giant mess. There are complete and incomplete folders and various other types. For instance should I go ahead and make movies and series subfolders in a media share, or should I make them all their own share? Similarly several different apps have these complete/incomplete forders, are they all using the same folders or does each app have its own complete/incomplete folder?  Like should I have my download share, then have a folder for each app such as a SAB folder, then inside that folder have a complete/incomplete...and so one for various apps? Or should I just create the comp/incomp directly inside the download share and just point all the various apps to the same folder???

 

This is like a endless connection of apps. Every app seams to lead to additional apps. I installed SAB but when I go to enter its webui and configure things its asking for a host. I have no idea who I should use for a SAB host or what that will cost Any suggestions? *UPDATE* I found a SI video that talks about SAB and that it does require a provider and he recommeded Eweka. The video is several years old, there are other like Usenetserver.com which are only a couple dollars a month more and include a VPN....but not sure if its the kind of VPN I need for all of this.

 

My brain is melting  hahahaha

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[Squid]

5 hours ago, SPOautos said:

Nzbgeek indexer (it costs money, lifetime is $40...is there something better?)

SABnzbd (linuxserver version)

For usenet (which IMHO is the way to go) you need to pay for a subscription at a usenet server.  For torrenting (deluge) you basically need to pay for a VPN. 

[SPOautos]

15 minutes ago, Squid said:

For usenet (which IMHO is the way to go) you need to pay for a subscription at a usenet server.  For torrenting (deluge) you basically need to pay for a VPN. 

 

Can you please tell me the difference between Usenet vs Torrenting?  Can you download the same content from either?   I've never used either, this is all brand new to me.

So NZBgeek for $40 lifetime with SAB and Eweka (usenet provider) for $60 annual.  Does that sound like the best setup to you? I literally know nothing about any of these or their competitors but the SI recommended them.....however it was 3-4 years old and things change, so just making sure this is still the best route.

 

Thanks for giving me some input, I'm just feeling my way through  lol

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[Squid]

 

Do a google search on usenet vs torrent

[SPOautos]

12 minutes ago, Squid said:

 

Do a google search on usenet vs torrent

 

I have read several articles so far.

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[Squid]

Usenet 

• Untraceable back to you.
• Requires a subscription to a usenet server
• No seeding required
• Fastest speed at all times
• Good for new media, but media older than 3 years may not still be available

Torrent

• Traceable back to you unless subscribing to a VPN
• Requires (for best results) for you to seed
• Speeds can be hit / miss
• Greatest selection of media, but also the greatest amount of fakes, polluted files etc

 

[SPOautos]

24 minutes ago, Squid said:

Usenet 

• Untraceable back to you.
• Requires a subscription to a usenet server
• No seeding required
• Fastest speed at all times
• Good for new media, but media older than 3 years may not still be available

Torrent

• Traceable back to you unless subscribing to a VPN
• Requires (for best results) for you to seed
• Speeds can be hit / miss
• Greatest selection of media, but also the greatest amount of fakes, polluted files etc

 

 

I guess the main thing I am trying to figure out is what is different that makes it not traceable back to you and no need of a VPN.  But I suppose I need to not worry about it right now, I just need to get things setup and working and figure out how it all works down the road when I have time to just read about that kind of stuff.

 

I appreciate you giving me some info. I dont know much of anything about computer stuff, I'm just following videos and hoping it works. haha. But so far its going pretty good!

[JonathanM]

2 minutes ago, SPOautos said:

what is different that makes it not traceable back to you

You are only downloading from the usenet server that you are paying, not connecting to anonymous peers. Technically if somebody swore out a warrant specifically for your info against the usenet server, they would provide whatever logs they keep. Since your communication with the usenet server SHOULD be set up as SSL, then nobody but you and the usenet provider should have any knowledge of the content of the traffic, even without a VPN.

 

Torrent traffic is an open book to anyone that connects to that specific torrent. It's part of how it works that any peer gets a list of which IP has which parts available for download.

[lionelhutz]

As far as setup.

 

Sonarr and Radarr are to find the stuff to download. They send the info to download clients like Deluge or SABnzbd  to actually download it. They also monitor the download and sort it once it's downloaded. The indexer is used by Sonarr and Radarr to find what to download. You need an indexer that matches the type of download you want to do.

 

Some docker containers have the ability to link compete and incomplete folders to directories on the server, which is normally completely unnecessary. I don't know why the developers make it complicated like that. I recall one container wanted an incomplete path setup. I just deleted it. Others probably had it too. Containers between different authors might have different path names too. Fix them so they are all the same.

 

The easiest is to link every app to a downloads directory. I have a Downloads share and setup every docker container to have a path pointing /downloads in the container to /mnt/user/Downloads/ on the server. Only this one. Then, in each app I set the downloads directory to be /downloads. Some of the apps have the place to enter compete and incomplete directories. I entered /downloads/complete and /downloads/incomplete.

 

The main thing with the paths is to make sure you put the SAME setup for every docker container. Be very consistent with this. I suggest linking a single share for downloads. Call it downloads or Downloads or whatever, but use it for every container. Just make sure the unRAID share side and container side are consistent. Notice how I used a capitalized share name but small case name on the docker side? Then you refer to that single directory in each app setup.  If you don't keep it consistent, then you can have issues with the apps finding stuff the other app has put in the directory.

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by lionelhutz

[SPOautos]

1 hour ago, lionelhutz said:

As far as setup.

 

Sonarr and Radarr are to find the stuff to download. They send the info to download clients like Deluge or SABnzbd  to actually download it. They also monitor the download and sort it once it's downloaded. The indexer is used by Sonarr and Radarr to find what to download. You need an indexer that matches the type of download you want to do.

 

Some docker containers have the ability to link compete and incomplete folders to directories on the server, which is normally completely unnecessary. I don't know why the developers make it complicated like that. I recall one container wanted an incomplete path setup. I just deleted it. Others probably had it too. Containers between different authors might have different path names too. Fix them so they are all the same.

 

The easiest is to link every app to a downloads directory. I have a Downloads share and setup every docker container to have a path pointing /downloads in the container to /mnt/user/Downloads/ on the server. Only this one. Then, in each app I set the downloads directory to be /downloads. Some of the apps have the place to enter compete and incomplete directories. I entered /downloads/complete and /downloads/incomplete.

 

The main thing with the paths is to make sure you put the SAME setup for every docker container. Be very consistent with this. I suggest linking a single share for downloads. Call it downloads or Downloads or whatever, but use it for every container. Just make sure the unRAID share side and container side are consistent. Notice how I used a capitalized share name but small case name on the docker side? Then you refer to that single directory in each app setup.  If you don't keep it consistent, then you can have issues with the apps finding stuff the other app has put in the directory.

 

 

 

 

Man, this is a big help....Thank you. So just to make sure I understand right....I need to have the one download share that all of these apps use and then if comp or incom then those are shared as well....so all the apps are dumping into the same folders.

 

What you said about Sonarr/Radarr helps clarify a lot of the process.

 

One thing I have a question about....you said "you need a indexer that matches the type of download you want to do".  So different types of media have different indexers? I set up a trial with NZBgeek just becaues SI used it in a video, but that was 3yrs ago so no idea if its still a good one or not or what type of downloading it is good for.  Should I consider some different ones?

 

I suppose at this point I have to pick a usenet provider and indexer(s)....I just dont want to spend money on them unless I know its what I really need and will keep.  Any suggestions?  I was fixing to sign up with Eweka, however they only have servers in Europe so I'm not sure if that would make it slow or something? Thought maybe I should use a different one

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[lionelhutz]

No,  complete and incomplete are sub-directories in the download share. You don't set them up as docker paths. You setup the apps internally where their setup asks for those directories.  When you set up the download share, make sure the container path and host path are exactly the same for every one. Then, you use the container path in the internal app setup.

 

A NZB indexer is for Usenet. A torrent indexer is for torrenting. You have to match the indexer to the type of download. I use Usenetserver and it's been good, but there are others that will work just as well. I have no idea what indexer is best to sign up with today. I used to run my own. 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by lionelhutz

[SPOautos]

2 hours ago, lionelhutz said:

No,  complete and incomplete are sub-directories in the download share. You don't set them up as docker paths. You setup the apps internally where their setup asks for those directories.  When you set up the download share, make sure the container path and host path are exactly the same for every one. Then, you use the container path in the internal app setup.

 

A NZB indexer is for Usenet. A torrent indexer is for torrenting. You have to match the indexer to the type of download. I use Usenetserver and it's been good, but there are others that will work just as well. I have no idea what indexer is best to sign up with today. I used to run my own. 

 

 

 

I THINK I have the folders and apps setup correctly now.  But I'm trying to test out Sonarr and not really getting it to work. My wife has a series on DVD and I want to download that same series into Sonarr where it can eventually be watched in Plex. So in Sonarr I went to "Series" at the top, then "Add New Series" and type in the name of the series. When it pulls the series up, in the "Path" drop down it has "Select Path" and "Add a new path".  No matter if I go with "select path" and hit search it says invalid path. If I go with "add a new path" then browse and select /media/series and hit to save that, it says invalid path. 

 

Am I right that I initiate the search in Sonarr and it uses the indexer to find the content? Or do I need to go to one of the other apps to initially create the search?

 

When I am in Sonarr settings and test NZBgeek and SABnzbd they both "succeed" so not exactly sure where to go to here.

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[SPOautos]

16 hours ago, lionelhutz said:

As far as setup.

 

Sonarr and Radarr are to find the stuff to download. They send the info to download clients like Deluge or SABnzbd  to actually download it. They also monitor the download and sort it once it's downloaded. The indexer is used by Sonarr and Radarr to find what to download. You need an indexer that matches the type of download you want to do.

 

 

 

This is where I am getting messed up.....I can go to the indexer (NZBgeek) and type in the content I'm looking to download and it sends it to the SAB or NZBget queue. But I'm not having any sucsess with initiating a download directly in Sonarr.  Any ideas where I should look first for a error? In my Sonarr settings I have NZBgeek for indexer and it tests "succeed" as well as SAB and NZBget as downloaders and they test as "succeded" as well.

 

I must be doing something wrong in Sonarr.

[SPOautos]

I have it figured out! Its working!  Now, I just need to connect it to Plex so all the content shows up there. I THINK that will just be a matter of directing Plex to the same folder that Sonarr is storing completed files in.

Edited September 7, 2020 by SPOautos

[lionelhutz]

Did you setup the media share? Link /tv in the container to the location of your TV series. Then, when you add a series you can just use /tv/ as the folder. Once you do it, it should just keep re-using it. Same as the quality, it re-uses the last choice.

 

I have a share called TV shows so I have /tv -> /mnt/user/TV_Shows/ 

 

It has to be the top level location of the TV series because it creates a directory for each series and then subdirectories for each season. Well, I believe you can change that so it dumps them all into a single series directory but it doesn't make much sense not to use season directories.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by lionelhutz

[SPOautos]

2 hours ago, lionelhutz said:

Did you setup the media share? Link /tv in the container to the location of your TV series. Then, when you add a series you can just use /tv/ as the folder. Once you do it, it should just keep re-using it. Same as the quality, it re-uses the last choice.

 

I have a share called TV shows so I have /tv -> /mnt/user/TV_Shows/ 

 

It has to be the top level location of the TV series because it creates a directory for each series and then subdirectories for each season. Well, I believe you can change that so it dumps them all into a single series directory but it doesn't make much sense not to use season directories.

 

 

 

Thats what I was doing wrong.....I had /tv pointing too media/series and so in Sonarr I was using media/series when I needed to just use the /tv. But I had got it figured out.

 

Now I have both Sonarr and Radarr both working correctly and everything is showing up in my Plex!  THANKS for the help!!! it took me a solid 24hrs of computer time to figure this mess out  LOL....but now that its working its pretty sweet.