[Boondock]

hey blix, one of these days if you're bored can you put together a little guide for me about searching newsgroups?

i know you search the alt.binaries but i'm not familiar with it.

if you can't thats cool but if you can, well thats cooler

[TheBagman]

might this help?
http://www.slyck.com/ng.php

[Boondock]

fuck yeah..thanks da

[TheBagman]

you're welcome!

[Blix]

I've been thinking about that for a while but I think you can get a lot better info than I can give you off of da420's website.

I will say that the best thing to do is get a good newsreader and a good news server. For just binaries, the simplest newsreader is newsbinpro. I've just started using that one, so I'm not used to it yet. For text as well, you can't beat the Agent family of newsreaders. For a long time, all I used was Agent. As for servers, your ISP provided news server will never do. You need to pay for premium access. I like www.newsfeeds.com the best. They have good retention and speed and they don't log their users activities. You'll also need WinRAR or some other comressor/decompressor. Quick Par is also handy to have. Then you just connect to your server and download the headers in whatever newsgroups you want to subscribe to and save anything you like to disk for your viewing or listening pleasure.

Some good groups to look at are: alt.binaries.multimedia - (Takes a fuck of a long time to download the headers, but it has a lot to offer)
alt.binaries.documentaries
alt.binaries mpeg.videos - (Music Videos for the most part)
The -alt.binaries.pictures.erotica- hierarchy for all your porn needs.
and any alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 groups you fancy for some free music.

[Tasha]

fuck, that's the website I've been looking for!

[Blix]

Just thought of something else. On newsfeeds.com I tried the unlimited add-on but didn't like it. It was slower than the regular servers, so I just went with the 50GB a month plan. If you've already joined and got the unlimited add-on, try it. If you don't like it, all you have to do is just cancel your membership and rejoin without the unlimited add-on next month. You can continue to use the account after you cancel until the next billing cycle.

[Tasha]

I also like IRC for my downloading...p2p at it's best.

However, I love grabit and xagent, it also depends on your ISP about the server, you need to check THEIR retention rate and what not. If it's a good ISP (xmission, rogers cable...etc) they should have a half-decent news server. However, if you are just getting into newsgrouping, I suggest you try the one your ISP provides, so that you don't commit to the money for an uber-server.

I also suggest, you get IRC...the guide is at slyck.com...

With IRC and Usenet...you can pretty much find ANYTHING you want. The only thing IRC/Usenet really isn't good for is mp3s...other than that it's gravy.

[Blix]

Just a little something I typed up.

So you want to listen to the latest music or watch the latest movie without paying exorbitant money for it AND without getting sued into poverty? No problem. Welcome to the wonderful world of Usenet. First a word or two of caution. Be Careful. The files you can find on usenet are varied and wonderful for the most part, but some are VERY illegal and can get you into much legal, financial and moral trouble. Usenet isn't called the wild west of the internet for nothing. Bestiality, kiddie porn and all manner of human suffering and misery are out there. I choose not to view it, but I've read horror stories of people who've thought they couldn't be traced being raided for downloading a video that opened a script and sent all their info to the fibbies.

Anyway, this is not meant to be an exhaustive FAQ. plenty of those exist on the web. This is just things that I've picked up over the years.

Okay, if downloading and viewing stuff is your thing then lets start with what news service you want to pay for. What, you thought this would be completely free? Not on your life. If you want just MP3's you might be able to get by with the news server your ISP provides. They seem to do alright with those, but they're still nowhere near as good as you would get if you pay for a premium news server. So which one would I reccommend? I like http://www.newsfeeds.com/ for several reasons. One, their retention is the best that I've found. Two, speed. I can now open five data streams at once. Three, no logging. They don't know or care what you download from them. Handy for those of us paranoid about the RIAA busting down our doors. Four, uptime. They're very rarely down except for scheduled maintenance.

Now for the ones to look out for. Usenetserver.com is always down. Easynews report illegal activity on their news servers.

Next we need to pick a newsreader. If you're going strictly for binaries and don't want to join any of the thousands and thousands of text communities similar to web forums, I'd go with NewsBinPro. Newsfeeds.com has a link to a trial version in their members area. I'm just starting to use it but for someone who's never gone on a newsgroup before, I'd suggest you cruise over to the tutorial at: http://www.newsbin.com/tutorials/v4.3/index.htm Another aside about joining the communities on usenet. I used to post at alt.drugs.pot before I found GC and eventually The Joint. I went back a couple of months ago and the spam has gotten way worse. What it comes down to is that all but a very few newsgroups are unmoderated so anyone can post anything they want. Spammers take advantage of this. It's especially bad on the porn groups. I much prefer the web for a sense of community now. I leave Usenet for DLing binaries only.

Next you need to pick a few newsgroups that you want to download from. The ones I have right now are:

alt.binaries.multimedia (It's a huge group with a lot of downloads.)

alt.binaries.multimedia.documentaries (I love NOVA and all those shows.)

alt.binaries.multimedia.mixed-martial-arts (It's a dead group. I haven't seen any posts on it yet, but I figure Boon might want to start it up again.)

alt.binaries.multimedia.sports (Don't really dig team sports, but they have a bit to choose from.)

alt.binaries.multimedia.tv (Only available on the news-west.newsfeeds.com server. I don't really go there much.)

alt.binaries.documentaries (Again with the documentaries.)

alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.* (There's a whole hierarchy of music groups here. Personally I just stick to the basics and go with the dated ones, 1960's, 1970's etc.)

About uploading. Some people hate to be leechers and just have to share everything they have. That's cool, but I don't do it. I just hate the thought of ending up in front of a judge for a copyright violation. If you want to upload however, I'm sure you can figure out how. Remember the best way to learn to use something is just to use it.

[Boondock]

thanks blixster. as soon as i move i'm going to devote some time to learning these newsgroups. there is all kinds of good info out there and it sounds like i'll be able to find it there. unmoderated and not logged means all kinds of good shit.