New to usenet, recommendations?

[mcorleone]

alt.binz is what i use and it's quite good for my needs. i think some of the paid clients have a supersearch feature that searches multiple nzb indexing sites. i usually only use newzleech anyway, and this search is built into alt.binz.

as far as usenet vs. torrents, that is a harder question to answer.

i'm finding that most movies are available via bittorrent before they are availalbe via usenet (or at least I can't find them on usenet) nowadays. for example, there are several movie releases i want to download now but haven't been able to locate them via usenet. they've been available on bittoreent for 2-3 days now. however, files don't always stay active for a long time on the bittorrent network. with usenet, the files should be available anywhere from 100-200 days (depending on your provider).

overall, i prefer not to use bittorrent because you have to share, and are thus distributing pirated content. i'd rather play it safe and avoid the possibility of receiving a letter from the MPAA or a heavy fine.

finally, another alternative to usenet is rapidshare. it's only about $7/month (1 year subscription), and if you know where to look, you can find a lot of HD movies posted on rapidshare before usenet too. i'm not sure how long the files on rapidshare typically stay active. they could theoretically remain active forever, but it is up to the discretion of the uploader.

in summary, bittorrent should have almost everything you need, but it is the riskiest to use and there may not be any seeds for older files. a combo of usenet, bittorrent and rapidshare would be comprehensive.

[EyeBaller]

i'm finding that most movies are available via bittorrent before they are availalbe via usenet (or at least I can't find them on usenet) nowadays.

Make sure you search by filenames not by release names. you'll find most major releases are on usenet within minutes. And you have to realize the indexing sites lag a little too.. but I don't have any problem finding any major release usually within 30mins or so of pre.

[mcorleone]

that is not the problem. i run several different searches trying to find these files.

seems that a.b.hdtv.x264 is way behind nowadays. they are not uploading many of the new releases or are taking extremely long to do so. hoping that they will make a comeback, but for the time being, rapidshare has a lot more of the new HD releases than usenet.

[AppleMonger]

If you want another suggestion for service providers, I would suggest NGroups. (http://ngroups.net) I have been using them since October and they're great. It has 100 day retention (which isn't the best, but it's still pretty good), allow up to 12 connection, and offers SSL encryption. Best of all, unlimited accounts are only $15/month (unless you find a special, where there are some right now). As for speeds, it's really fast. Downloading to a seedbox with a 100Mbit connection, I'd max it out while only using ~1/2 of the total connections. Granted, at times, it seems like my speed gets reduce a bit. But overall, it's a great deal.

[P.S. -- They allow paypal ]