Aquiring Usenet / Giganews

Step 1 - Set up Account

The first step towards accessing the newsgroups is to sign up for a Giganews / Usenet account. I was guarded aggainst using Usenet.com as they are suffering multi-million dollar lawsuits and might not be around for very long. Giganews also have 200 days retention as opposed to 150 but all accounts don't have encryption unlike Usenet do. After signing up you will receive an email after around an hour which confirms your membership and contains your username and password.

Step 2 - Get a newsgroup client

The newsgroup client provides you with the means to download from newsgroups; it's the equivalent of your Bittorrent application such as Azureus, or Gnutella client such as Limewire or Kazaa (in the old days).

There is a massive choice of applications out there which will do this job for you. The most common one you will have heard of is Outlook express. The problem with Outlook express is that it doesn't support binary newsgroups, and NZB files. NZB files are special files which point to binary posts containing the files that we want to download (they are similar to .torrent files with a distinct advantage at present because they can be compiled together from seperate files). Outlook express has the ability to read normal text-based newsgroups well, but cannot understand binary newsgroups which is what we use when filesharing. If you try and load a newsgroup into Outlook express you'll normally only find text requests for files which are missing from the group or other comments by users.

That said we need something better than this, one such program we can use is called Newsbin. Newsbin is one of the most advanced binary newsgroup programs currently available at present. It has many advanced featured for the pros, but is also good for beginners once the interface has been mastered. It currently costs $35 for a lifetime membership or can be trialed for 10 days for free.

Newsbin looks like this:

When you load an NZB the files appear as shown. Green ticks mean that the files are set to download now. Files can also be paused on the right click menu. Just click and delete to remove them permenantly. You will notice that every file is displayed separately without any folders.

Step 3 - Configuring Newsbin

You will notice that the interface has 3 menu bars. We don't need all of these to just click on view and click on small menu and buttons only menu to get rid of the two smaller ones. Next go to "add server" or server depending on which menus you just chose. We need to add some server settings now. Go to "new server" and enter in a new name. Now hit OK. Now click on it in the left pane and click on "server address". Enter the address of the newsgroup server your provider has given you. If you are using Giganews and want to use Giganews Accelerator (recommended), please enter "localhost" no spaces (this will not affect other apps using localhost such as Apache / IIS for example). Now set the number of connections your provider has given you. For Giganews the total connections is 10 unless you have a Diamond account. Next click on the requires login button and enter your username and password provided to you. Next set your TCP port to 119. Leave SSL turned off unless you have a Diamond account or are using Usenet instead, which always has SSL encryption. Now click on OK.

Step 4 - Giganews Accelerator

If you are not using Giganews you can safely skip this step. The purpose of this application should be obvious from the title. If you have followed the instructions for configuring Newsbin you will now have already set your server to localhost so that you can use the accelerator. You can download this program for free from www.giganews.com.

Once installed, open Giganews Accelerator so you can configure it. There are only a few small steps for doing this as the program is incredibly simple. You can set a speed limit from the text box provided to make you newsgroup downloads a little kinder to other internet applications. The next and final step is to go to options and turn off 256bit encryption unless you have the Giganews Diamond account. You will see that connections appear at the top and the log of connection attempts underneath, and that's it!

Step 5 - Downloading NZB Files

This is the fun part, where you get to choose your stuff! As mentioned NZB files are just like torrents and in the same way we have specialist sites for aquiring them. The best of these websites is www.newsleech.com. Other similar websites are:

• http://www.binsearch.info/
• http://www.nzbindex.nl/
• http://www.nzbfile.com/
• http://www.newzbin.com/

Searching is easy. The advanced options will let you limit filesizes and category. One important advantage with NZBs and newsleech.com is that they can be combined from multiple news group posts. Just check all of the required boxes and click on "Get NZB". Save your NZB and run it. If Newsbin has been associated with NZBs as it should have been then the posts should be loaded in and start downloading. Don't forget to run the accelerator if you are using Giganews.

Step 6 - Optional VPN

Many ISPs now throttle certain ports and addresses in order to limit filesharing, keep the government off their backs and maximize profit. You'll find that your Bittorrent speeds will be limited to ridiculously low speeds regardless of which ports you use to access it. The speed drop over Giganews / Usenet is less of a problem but you will notice some slowdown. If you want to reduce these constraints I recommend getting a VPN such as Relakks. When using VPN (Virtual Private Network), your internet activities will be completely private and even your ISP will not know what you are doing! Getting a VPN can really improve the performance of filesharing services and also provides you with the complete privacy you deserve.

Final Word

I hope you've enjoyed learning about binary newsgroups, and VPNs and that you've avoided the major pitfalls. Your comments are welcome.

Terms

• Giganews - Giganews is a provider of newgroup services. You have to pay to receive these services. Once you have an account you can download via the Giganews servers.
• Usenet - Another provide of newsgroup services.
• Newsgroup - A newsgroup can be thought of like a folder of posts which contain text. Binary newsgroups differ from traditional newsgroups this as they contain files.
• Post - Newsgroups are composed of textual posts, binary newsgroups are composed of files.
• NNTP Server - The NNTP server is a newsgroup server. This is where the files get published to and downloaded from.
• Retention - When a file is uploaded to an NNTP server it stays on the server for a set period of time. This is because the servers only have so much filespace and the space must be freed up to make room for newer content. For this reason Usenet has a lot of newer material. Check the newsgroup provider's website to check the retention rate.
• VPN - Virtual Private Network - A private network which runs on your existing internet connection and allows you to Bypass filesharing restrictions imposed by ISPs.
• Newsbin - Newsbin is an advanced binary Newsgroup reader / downloader.
• Giganews Accelerator - Used in conjunction with Newsbin and a Giganews account, this program helps to increase the download speeds from binary newsgroups.
• NZB File - Equivalent to a torrent file when using Bittorrent. Effectively a package containing pointers / links to multiple newsgroup posts.
• Newsleech.com - A binary newsgroup search engine, can also create NZB files.

I recently upgraded to Leopard. It only took me almost a year to get around to doing it, yet I was still stoked about using the latest and greatest. I had to make the decision—Archive and Install or Fresh Install. After the first go around, I realized that my Tiger install was bloatted with apps. So I took the plunge. I backed up what files I could and decided to do a fresh install.

This go around I desperately needed to limit the number of applications to the essential applications that I couldn't live without.  The following is a carefully considered list of the the third party applications that make me a happy mac user.

Quicksilver

I didn't understand the power of this little app at first, but after digging through, watching video, and customizing some things, I've come to find that it's indispensable to me. I use it mostly as an application launcher but Quicksilver is so much more.

Firefox

This one's a no-brainer. Firefox just has so many useful extension it's painful for me that it's just more useful on an everyday basis than Safari (Sorry, Jobso). I know, you say, Safari is faster. I've found that Safari is indeed much faster than my Firefox 2.0 for the Mac. However, I've been revving up Firefox 3 Beta 5 and it's almost as fast. And it has those handy dandy add-ons. Plus, the star bookmarking just deads Safari. Damn you, Mozilla. Damn you.

MacTheRipper

DVD ripping software at its simplest. In best Samuel L. Jackson voice "Yes, they deserved to be ripped and I hope they burn in hell!

Unison

I'm a little slow. It only took me like 10 years for usenet and newsgroups to catch on. I use Giganews for bandwidth, Newzleech to find nzb files and Unison as a newsreader. Unison is THE newsreader for Mac. If none of this makes sense, head over here.

Perian

Don't get me wrong, VLC is great. Why use it if there's a pre-installed application in Leopard that can play most vids, with a little help. That's where Perian comes in. Install this and you're stock Quicktime application gets an engine upgrade, racing stripes and fat custom tires. You can play FLV, Divx, H.264 and most AVI formats. Add Flip4Mac to the equation also and you can leverage Windows Media (WMV) also.

Miro

Mrs.funkdigi and I dropped our Dish Network service. It was becoming a beast and in these days of economic slowdown, paying for a service that's not ala carte (the way things should be), I couldn't see paying over $120 for TV I wasn't watching. I found out about Miro (formerly Democracy) and soon nixed satellite. Miro offers tons of content, like Joost, put has the added benefit of torrent integration. With Tv Rss I'm able to access only the shows I'm interested in.

Remote Desktop for Mac

On Tiger, I was using Parallels as a crutch. Parallels is a superb virtual machine product and coming from my Dell, I thought I'd find that I wasn't able to get things done with just my Mac. So, I had Parallels as a backup in case I couldn't do something on a Mac that I used to be able to do on my PC. Well, as I'm sure many of you Mac users already know, that wasn't the case. During the time, I needed to Remote into my office machine if I happened to work at home. I found Remote Desktop for Mac (a Microsoft product LOL) and ditched Parallels.

iSquint

iSquint is a simple video converter that lets you compress video to a size suitable to you iPod or iPhone. It's fast, has a small app footprint, and its reliable. It also can automatically add the converted file to your iTunes library. Battlestar Galactica on the subway. Rejoice!

The UnArchiver

A quick and dirty zip, rar, etc. unarchive tool. Again, nice and small.

iLife

I know, it's beast sized. There are other applications that can be used to substitute just about every app in iLife. Oh, and it's pricey. I tried my best not to reinstall, but wifey wan't to use a slideshow for our re-wedding and I also need to edit a track to loop a couple bars of D'Angelo's Higher. I found myself wanting to use iLife again because it is so well integrated into Leopard and just easy to use. So I'll do the slideshow with iPhoto, burn the DVD with iDVD and use Garageband to create the instrumental. *shrugs*

Essayez gratuitement l'offre de Giganews