Pros and Cons of Usenet

[iLOVENZB]

Was just thinking about all the pros and cons of Usenet and this is what I came up with:

Pros.



Uncapped Speeds.
Decent Pre Times.
SSL (Higher Anonymity then Private Trackers).
Unlimited Downloads.
Broad Range of Discussions.

Cons.



Retention (but we shouldn't worry about that soon with the Astraweb vs Giganews retention wars :P).
Hard to get around at first.
Mostly only Scene/Higher class P2P releases.
No ratio to brag about.
You have to pay.

Did I miss anything? Post your Pros/Cons if you wish.

[SonsOfLiberty]

There not uncapped, your ISP could throttle you any time :( It's not unlimited for anyone, you have to pay for the unlimited service or block. You missed the MAJOR con, it's PAY FOR :(

[zzzpt]

It costs $$ :P

[mbucari1]

CON: Costs $$$

[hugoblank]

Yeah for the most part you have to pay. But for me you pay for freedom.

-You DON'T have to beg/trade to get an invite to a torrent tracker site, as if the site controls the the whole "scene".

-You don't have to guess about a movie. Torrent/P2P posters don't know what an nfo file is. Very frustrating to not know if a movie is ntsc or pal, or if anything is ripped, even something like "is this the 2008 remake or the 1973 original"

-Most movies are not DVD format,there's avi,divx,etc. Nothing wrong with that but usenet has DVD's

I'm not saying that usenet is better than torrent/P2P i just think that most torrent leechers do so because its easy and free and there are alot of positives to usenet which a little less easy and not really free.

Usenet (and IRC) are all about freedom and are all about ANTI-control of the internet "waves". IMO Private tracker sites, which are growing are all about controlling the "scene".

Regards,

Hugo

[Overlord]

Pro: More efficient bandwidth usage for the home user. You've only got the size of whatever you're downloading to worry about. With BT, you're using double the bandwidth if you're seeding 1:1, triple for 2:1, and it just gets worse from there.

Pro: No ratios to worry about.

Con: Can sometimes be difficult to determine legit uploads from viruses/trojans (esp. apps).

Con: Fewer non-scene HD releases than BT sites.

[Sonnentier]

Pro-----------------------------Con
- open for everyone----,,---- you have to pay for it

[iLOVENZB]

How can I forget about the costs.

Added that as a Con

[tusks]

There's definitely a virus problem but they're usually very easy to filter through.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Unless your a grab em' all kind of person....you can search almost anything and out of 25 results, 20 could be virus's, ya just gotta pay attention, don't go whilly nilly on them, unless you packing NOD32 or something similar :lol:

[zzzpt]

Recently some ppl are posting files that obviously are virus ou garbage.
But that happens in torrents too ;).
Most of the times you just have to check the file size, or see who is the poster, or check if "that" release even exists.
Or you can still come here and download NZBs :D

[Beck38]

Yeah for the most part you have to pay. But for me you pay for freedom.


Every thing you mentioned is right on; I've said this before and will repeat it now, torrents are for 'little kiddies'. Why, you ask?

Because instead of paying a little tiny bit (for me, usenet server costs are around 1/4 above what I pay for internet service to begin with), and the amount of time I would have to spend chasing after stuff on the torrents would quickly get 'real old', and I do mean, REAL OLD. On usenet, 90+% of the time, I know exactly what I'm spending time (and money) to get. Back when I 'tried out' P2P, about 80+% of my time and effort was wasted in chasing after things that (usually) really didn't exist.

Or maybe they did, but the 'system' wouldn't deliver what it promised.

Now, I know that folks in Europe (especially) don't realize it, but where I live, most counties (sub-part of states) are LARGER than most European countries (France excluded, but Texas is about as big), and fast internet access is few and far between, and expensive when it is available.

That's why usenet costs are a small percentage of the total internet ISP access costs. For me, lets se, Astraweb is 25% of what my internet line costs are (to do the math for you, I pay $35US for 3Mb/s and astra is $11, so... there's the math).

VERY cheap as part of the total costs. I could go cable-modem, but P2P is banned on that system, so so much for 'faster'. Plus the costs are 2-3 times higher for around 5 times faster.

So you're right, it comes down to aggravation. I won't deal with it, haven't for about 10 years. Usenet been 'berry berry good to me!'.

[hugoblank]

Yeah for the most part you have to pay. But for me you pay for freedom.


Every thing you mentioned is right on; I've said this before and will repeat it now, torrents are for 'little kiddies'. Why, you ask?""

It's funny I was going to say that torrent/P2P advocates are for peeps, noobs, adolescents, children, cavemen ("its so easy even a...") also, but I didn't (until just now).

I'm really not ANTI-torrent. I will occasssionaly d/l a torrent. I just don't think that the folks that are so militant about the superiority of torrents have any real experience with usenet.

The real reason the torrent folks don't like usenet is not because its not free, its because you have to have a little gray matter between your ears in order to appreciate it. Irc is free. I bet the torrent advocates don't even know how to spell irc.

Hey if you don't mind begging, and dancing around and jumping thru hoops to get to all these private torrent tracker sites that want you to believe they own the scene, thats cool.

I just wonder if the folks know where the real source of the scene releases are. Do you all think its torrents, usenet, irc or other?

Regards,
Hugo

[mata7]

pro

can download a full 50GB BD in one Day, love it :)

[GWashington]

My comments:

Retention is much, much better than torrent sites, so I don't think it is a very big con at all.

Costs are minimal compared to internet service in general and especially in light of the fact that many torrent users now use seedboxes, which can easily run $50/month.

[Darth_Duane]

Cons: There is no community, which may or may not matter to most but I enjoy it.

Cons: With torrents you generally get comments from users that have tried the file and it's easy to spot a bad release if you aren't one of the first to grab it.

Most the pros have been mentioned.

[piratebot]

...

[hugoblank]

Cons: There is no community, which may or may not matter to most but I enjoy it.

Cons: With torrents you generally get comments from users that have tried the file and it's easy to spot a bad release if you aren't one of the first to grab it.

Most the pros have been mentioned.

I agree with you about the community thing but ironically I've always felt that, say on newzbin i get alot of comments about posts whereas with, say isohunt it seems that they are rare. EDIT: You might be right, one of the "slumdog tor. has 180+ comments. That is alot.

The thing that really makes torrents look goofy is that there is no nfo (or the like). I just looked up "slumdog millionaire" on a torrent site. They're almost all DVD rips, but some are 650MB, 750MB,1.1GB, 1.3GB so whats the difference? Are there languages ripped, extras ripped, are they NTSC, etc. I guess we'll never know because some dork put a dvd, thru one of the DVDtoSomething? apps that tell you to insert the dvd then hit "start". You're done! And said dork thinks that PAL means your buddy.

C'mon you know that's lame and its true.

Regards,

Hugo

[tesco]

For me, lets se, Astraweb is 25% of what my internet line costs are (to do the math for you, I pay $35US for 3Mb/s and astra is $11, so... there's the math).
Your math sucks.

[CarpeNoctem]

Cons: There is no community, which may or may not matter to most but I enjoy it.

Cons: With torrents you generally get comments from users that have tried the file and it's easy to spot a bad release if you aren't one of the first to grab it.

Most the pros have been mentioned.

I agree with you about the community thing but ironically I've always felt that, say on newzbin i get alot of comments about posts whereas with, say isohunt it seems that they are rare. EDIT: You might be right, one of the "slumdog tor. has 180+ comments. That is alot.

The thing that really makes torrents look goofy is that there is no nfo (or the like). I just looked up "slumdog millionaire" on a torrent site. They're almost all DVD rips, but some are 650MB, 750MB,1.1GB, 1.3GB so whats the difference? Are there languages ripped, extras ripped, are they NTSC, etc. I guess we'll never know because some dork put a dvd, thru one of the DVDtoSomething? apps that tell you to insert the dvd then hit "start". You're done! And said dork thinks that PAL means your buddy.

C'mon you know that's lame and its true.

Regards,

Hugo


i completely agree, i find a whole lot more crap on torrents then i do on usenet.

i personaly like usenet much more but i do love the communities in a couple of torrent sites i use, but now with seedboxs becoming more popular is becoming hard to compete when i have a resonably slow up.

but for me it also depends on what im downloading.. for music, usenet cant compete with the likes of what.cd **perfect example of seedboxes making it hard to keep good ratio**

but for HD, DVD/DVD9, DVD rip - movies in general Usenet owns torrent in style.

i think a really good private usenet site is missing within the usenet community.. there are a couple out there iv looked into but i have to say i dont spend any time in them..

[Overlord]

For me, lets se, Astraweb is 25% of what my internet line costs are (to do the math for you, I pay $35US for 3Mb/s and astra is $11, so... there's the math).
Your math sucks.
He means 25% of ISP+Newsgroup:
$35+$11=$46
$11/$46=0.24

[Darth_Duane]

Cons: There is no community, which may or may not matter to most but I enjoy it.

Cons: With torrents you generally get comments from users that have tried the file and it's easy to spot a bad release if you aren't one of the first to grab it.

Most the pros have been mentioned.

I agree with you about the community thing but ironically I've always felt that, say on newzbin i get alot of comments about posts whereas with, say isohunt it seems that they are rare. EDIT: You might be right, one of the "slumdog tor. has 180+ comments. That is alot.

The thing that really makes torrents look goofy is that there is no nfo (or the like). I just looked up "slumdog millionaire" on a torrent site. They're almost all DVD rips, but some are 650MB, 750MB,1.1GB, 1.3GB so whats the difference? Are there languages ripped, extras ripped, are they NTSC, etc. I guess we'll never know because some dork put a dvd, thru one of the DVDtoSomething? apps that tell you to insert the dvd then hit "start". You're done! And said dork thinks that PAL means your buddy.

C'mon you know that's lame and its true.

Regards,

Hugo

I mostly use torrents for Games and Apps, so I can't really comment on movies. I can see where you are coming from though. For a game or app I will always see enough comments to make me feel comfortable that it's working.

[iLOVENZB]

The thing that really makes torrents look goofy is that there is no nfo (or the like). I just looked up "slumdog millionaire" on a torrent site. They're almost all DVD rips, but some are 650MB, 750MB,1.1GB, 1.3GB so whats the difference? Are there languages ripped, extras ripped, are they NTSC, etc. I guess we'll never know because some dork put a dvd, thru one of the DVDtoSomething? apps that tell you to insert the dvd then hit "start". You're done! And said dork thinks that PAL means your buddy.

Agreed. I downloaded any oversized "Gran Torino DVD Rip" and it turned out to be a DVDSCR :lol:.

No nfo just english subs.

I'm sorry p2pers but you're fucking hopeless.


I mostly use torrents for Games and Apps, so I can't really comment on movies. I can see where you are coming from though. For a game or app I will always see enough comments to make me feel comfortable that it's working.

Don't get me started with p2p crackers/downloaders.

You look through the comments and they complain that a scene rls from a quality bot like loder (On TPB) is a 'virus'.

They can't even read nfo's on how to apply cracks and bitch about scene rars.

[Darth_Duane]

Well that's a public tracker for you ;p.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Agreed. I downloaded any oversized "Gran Torino DVD Rip" and it turned out to be a DVDSCR :lol:.

No nfo just english subs.

I'm sorry p2pers but you're fucking hopeless.


I mostly use torrents for Games and Apps, so I can't really comment on movies. I can see where you are coming from though. For a game or app I will always see enough comments to make me feel comfortable that it's working.

Don't get me started with p2p crackers/downloaders.

You look through the comments and they complain that a scene rls from a quality bot like loder (On TPB) is a 'virus'.

They can't even read nfo's on how to apply cracks and bitch about scene rars.

P2P is still good, you just have to know were to look...I have two great ed2k sites and one or two torrent sites that have just as much as Newsgroups do...NGs are faster for me, but ed2k has the old/collector/and 0day/movies/games/music that everything has...

That's what you get for downloading something without no NFO or info, bandwidth waster :lol:

[CarpeNoctem]

P2P is still good, you just have to know were to look...I have two great ed2k sites and one or two torrent sites that have just as much as Newsgroups do.

thats a joke right ? if you think p2p has the content of usenet your not looking hard enough

[SonsOfLiberty]

P2P is still good, you just have to know were to look...I have two great ed2k sites and one or two torrent sites that have just as much as Newsgroups do.

thats a joke right ? if you think p2p has the content of usenet your not looking hard enough

No it's not a joke.....why not try visiting some other sites....like for instance, I would rather have www.fileheaven.org over any site and the content movie wise will, well smoke whatever your thinking. I can get exactly the same stuff from p2p and trusted sources....so it's maybe you who's not looking hard enuff :whistling Don't believe me, use Google :ermm: Maybe you should use something else besides Ares?

[CarpeNoctem]

No it's not a joke.....why not try visiting some other sites....like for instance, I would rather have www.fileheaven.org

why thanks for the insight.. iv got plenty of experience here also


over any site and the content movie wise will, well smoke whatever your thinking.

sure thing matey :blink:


I can get exactly the same stuff from p2p and trusted sources....so it's maybe you who's not looking hard enuff

i dont need to look hard, usenet is easy to find everything im looking for .. and i didnt say "YOU" couldnt find what "YOU" were looking for..



Don't believe me

its not a matter of me believing you, its a matter of me not agreeing with that your saying.


use Google Maybe you should use something else besides Ares?

i worked for google contracting for a while so im pretty sure i can use it just fine ;)

[Beck38]

Your math sucks.
He means 25% of ISP+Newsgroup:
$35+$11=$46
$11/$46=0.24

OMG! I bet you can make change in your head w/o resorting to a calculator...:w00t:

Everybody these days has stories on how the pimply teenage type at the store stands there with vacant eyes trying to make change because the cash register is wacky, or whatever.

Right now I'm trying to change wireless phone companies (maybe), and standing in the shop juggling the brochures and tossing the costs around (both start-up and monthly), and trying to get a straight answer from the clerk is.... pretty bad. I usually find some box with small print in it that changes everything, or makes the 'deal' they're trying to get me interested in either moot or 'not doable', by the 'small print'.

And these are the guys that are supposedly gone through all the marketing junk/classes.... right! Well, unfortunately, out of the 4 choices (one of which I'm on right now), one has good phones but lousy network, another has okay phones but no wifi, the other has wifi but no international service, and the fourth has a pitiful network with pitiful phones.

I'll probably stick with what I've got, but trying to get accurate info out of the store drones is about... impossible.

And I think trying to get good info on usenet v. p2p is pretty bad as well. You use what you're comfortable with, but I've gone back and forth a couple of times and end right back on usenet every time.

[cooldude75ph]

For comments about any scene release, I check out comments left by other uses on private torrent sites so I verify if a release is nuked or nuked. If it's okay, I then proceed to download w/ my newsreader.

[SonsOfLiberty]

why thanks for the insight.. iv got plenty of experience here also


over any site and the content movie wise will, well smoke whatever your thinking.

sure thing matey :blink:


I can get exactly the same stuff from p2p and trusted sources....so it's maybe you who's not looking hard enuff

i dont need to look hard, usenet is easy to find everything im looking for .. and i didnt say "YOU" couldnt find what "YOU" were looking for..



Don't believe me

its not a matter of me believing you, its a matter of me not agreeing with that your saying.


use Google Maybe you should use something else besides Ares?

i worked for google contracting for a while so im pretty sure i can use it just fine ;)

Well then why be such a smartass about it then? I've been using emule for as long as it's been around, and millions and millions obviously think it's good to :lol:

I use usenet for all the new hot files, that way I don't have to worry about my ISP contacting me, but for almost everything else is P2P.

Oh, ok, think about this for a second, on eMule, files are shared for as long as the file keeps hoping from user to user, as with Usenet, it's only available for 365 days, unless someone reposts...for longevity and rare/old movies P2P is SO much better, but for quick downloads on newer stuff, Usenet is the way to go. But if you want quality rips (AFR) and the like , eMule is the way to go.

[hugoblank]

So much for a "friendly" discussion!

I hope you don't think I'm a smartass just because I don't agree with you.



I've been using emule for as long as it's been around, and millions and millions obviously think it's good to :lol:

To me this could be considered a CON not a PRO. C'mon now, your making it too easy for me to comment on this point. That's not fair. I won't even go there. Sorry, I could never use that argument


I use usenet for all the new hot files, that way I don't have to worry about my ISP contacting me, but for almost everything else is P2P.

I don't understand why your ISP would contact you. Can you d/l as much as you want from usenet? If you can't that might explain your affection for P2P.


for longevity and rare/old movies P2P is SO much better

Couldn't disagree with you more. Almost all my usenet activity is with movies. Maybe what you consider rare/old movies is different from me. For me DVD's from the Criterion Collection might be considered classic/old movies. I'm d/l a 1964 Japanese classic film (Criterion)that I requested just 2 days ago from a newsgroup that just posts CC movies. Now to me thats service!


But if you want quality rips (AFR) and the like , eMule is the way to go.
To me a "quality rip" is an oxymoron but then again I don't know what you mean by AFR. Especially today there's no reason for me to not go for a full DVD5/9 only.

To me, the fact that you said you're worried about being contacted by your ISP when you're using usenet explains everything.

Regards,
Hugo

[zot]

To me a "quality rip" is an oxymoron but then again I don't know what you mean by AFR.

AFR stands for Advanced Filesize Regulation, which is a recent DVD-rip standard that relaxes the traditional 700MB file size standard, so you can burn several of these AFR files onto a DVD-R without having empty space left over. I don't think AFR is used outside of the hardcore ED2K community.

I just realized that this month marks my eight-year anniversary since I began using edonkey. :D
(But since SR, SC, PD101/DD and SL shut down, I've largely dropped out of the ed2k 'scene')


When Bittorrent started getting popular, I rarely used it, since I could use newsgroups for big files (and fast downloads) and recent and popular material, and I used ED2K for all the rest. Over the past 4 or 5 years, ED2K has declined, while Bittorrent and usenet have grown tremendously in both popularity and available material. And then "one-click" file hosting sites like Rapidshare have literally exploded.

As far as releasing files go, I somehow always seemed to feel safer releasing files on ED2K than posting them on usenet. When releasing on ed2k, it's easy to just share the file for a day or so, then unshare it and move on to something else. With Usenet, though, I was always aware that I was identifiable from the article header info, which remained for as long as the file was available. With ed2k releases, it was very easy to disappear into the crowd (and then out of the crowd), making it difficult for any possible investigator to figure out who the original releaser actually was.

Another thing is that some for-pay NSPs (warning to all Highwinds users!) mark every post of an account with a unique code, making it possible for anyone to trace all your posts (and find every post you ever made) regardless of how many times you changed your details such as name, email, or IP address.

[hugoblank]

Thanks Zot for the info about AFR.

I think you make a good point about the "flexibility" a P2P poster has and the more permanent nature of usenet postings and security. I think (hope) that usenet is not under as much scrutiny as P2P is right now.

I think that originally P2P was targeted at a mass market of folks that either thought that usenet was too complicated or were new to the whole thing. And since that time P2P operators have tried to be more discriminating, i.e. private sites, etc. I think that this change is related to security issues more than it has to do with sharing ratios and leeching concerns.

Ironically. a few posts before this one, someone was boasting about the the millions and millions of ED2K users. It seems to me that it would be easier and more fruitful to "go after" the millions and millions of those folks, than to bother with the thousands and thousands of others.

For me, outside of what I see as the pro's of usenet, I think there is an advantage to not being apart of the millions and millions who sign up for the "simple, anyone can do it" plan.

IRC and Usenet have been around for a really long time and I think there's a reason for that. Kazaa, and other P2P's haven't survived long at all and, there's a reason for that too.

Regards,

Hugo

[Sonnentier]

@hugoblank

It's not like eDonkey doesn't have classic movies, there's plenty of japanese CC content available.

[hugoblank]

@hugoblank

It's not like eDonkey doesn't have classic movies, there's plenty of japanese CC content available.

I'll check my post again but I don't think I said or implied that. I thought I was just giving an example. Maybe you got a little rattled and read "in between the lines". That's OK, it happens.

I'm really not trying to take away your donkey. I'm sure there lots and lots and lots of "quality rips" on Edonkey. I'm sure it has everything YOU could ever want. Why else would you be so quick to defend it. I'm happy for you. You're one of the millions and millions of folks that just love your donkey.

Believe me, what you don't get is I really, really want YOU to continue to like your donkey so much that you never feel the need to roam. Trust me, I don't think YOU would like usenet. Its kind of complicated and definetly overated! Stick with eDonkey, its better.

Regards,
Hugo

[SonsOfLiberty]

I use eMule and Usenet, the ed2k base has more of a community, it needs that. As with usenet it's just a server that at anytime can be shut down, why do think ISP's dropped their "newsservice" well most anyway not all. I'm not defending it, it's another alternative, and yes ed2k users are as much watched as torrent users. This is why usenet is still under the radar, which is why if you decide to download lets say "Watchmen" you would be a major target. As with usenet, only you and you news provider know. So if usenet went the way of Napster and was shutdown, then P2P will still be here..as long as I/You/Community share the file it will be around for along time. As for movies I'm saying this....fileheaven.org has archive more than 250,000+ movies from any year and ever genre. Most of those movies you can't find on usenet, noir even buy them. There are tons and tons of ed2k sites out there and they all have great content, and so does usenet. I'm on a shared connection and as I'm not putting the bill :lol: I've been in the ed2k community for almost 10 years, so maybe that's why I'm biased, but if usenet wasn't a pay for service it would be the only thing I use, as I was saying about retention, certain games I wanted that were more than 2 years old I couldn't find on usenet, they were well seeded on torrent and ed2k. I'm sure every user runs into that. Like I say I roam, depending on what network the file is on that I want. I see more pressure be applied to usenet in the coming years more than ed2k, because ed2k is now serverless (Kademlia) :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kad_Network

But if your saying that I'm a P2P nut job I'm not, I use all forms of Filesharing, torrent the lest, emule next, and then usenet. I guess my whole point, ed2k sites have a tight knit community, requests, good shares, rare movies, but then again, I've been at the site since it' been open, 2001 or something. I like usenet, but it's only so long till it's starts getting heat.


[quote="hugoblank"]

I just realized that this month marks my eight-year anniversary since I began using edonkey. :D
(But since SR, SC, PD101/DD and SL shut down, I've largely dropped out of the ed2k 'scene')




No snap, former ShareLive, and Pleasuredome101, ok and DrunkenDonkey, wow...that's the early days :D I tried starting SL back up again, the website is open source, and I never could get it to run, so I left it, but I've began trying again, doubt I'll get far :ermm:

And speaking of Usenet heat, BREiN is going after NZB sites, uh oh
http://www.slyck.com/story1840_BREIN_Plans_to_Move_against_NZB_Sites

[hugoblank]

But if your saying that I'm a P2P nut job I'm not, I use all forms of Filesharing, torrent the lest, emule next, and then usenet. I guess my whole point, ed2k sites have a tight knit community, requests, good shares, rare movies, but then again, I've been at the site since it' been open, 2001 or something. I like usenet, but it's only so long till it's starts getting heat.

I don't think you're a nut job at all. From what you're saying you have experience with a lot of different sources. So to me you have a perspective on things. Its the dopey kid that has never used anything but torrents but runs to defend his toy that is comical.


And speaking of Usenet heat, BREiN is going after NZB sites, uh oh
http://www.slyck.com/story1840_BREIN_Plans_to_Move_against_NZB_Sites

This is a good article. "But there's little denying that once the newsgroups have you hooked, all other methods of file-sharing seem a bit juvenile."...."There’s the news server at the heart of the newsgroup community, and with the ISP safe harbor provision protecting these entities, the newsgroups will be around long after their P2P contemporaries have vanished."

I've never understood why the Dutch are so in to the scene. You can't go anywhere on usenet and not find FTD or nl somewhere. It figures that their own government is looking into it.

I still think that the more popular the file-sharing spot the more vulnerable. Let's just hope that we all stay under the radar.

Regards,

Hugo

[Sonnentier]

Staying under the radar is relative. It's a long time ago when Usenet really was a secret.

When I was in France on vacation last year, I already saw it in the press:

http://img3.imagebanana.com/img/e562f7l2/thumb/p2pmag.jpg (http://img3.imagebanana.com/view/e562f7l2/p2pmag.jpg)

There also has been a lawsuit from the music industry against usenet.com.
Now this wasn't about the newsgroups per se, but obviously public awareness about this method increases.

On FST, viewers in Newsgroups seem to catch up those in BitTorrent.

[CarpeNoctem]

Well then why be such a smartass about it then?

whoops sorry, didn't know having an opinion other than yours makes me a smart ass, i'll think twice about having opinion next time

[buscuitboy]

The BIG con of P2P vs Usenet for me is the speed issue. With P2P, you are relying on others to be connected and what their upload speeds are. I have had simple files take FOREVER on bittorrent cause not to many users with it were online. Where as usenet is usually lightning fast cause you are getting it directly from a server of some sort.

Usenet is a little harder to learn at first, but once you get the hang of it, its a snap. Sometimes, P2P can have harder to find stuff too, but I usually have found 95+% of the stuff I want on usenet so not a huge deal.

BitTorrent is probably easier to use overall & because of this, I know some ISPs are throttling it, but I would suspect its just a matter of time before ISPs really start throttling usent & try to clamp down on it as well (if they already haven't). My ISP doesn't seem to be throttling my usenet downloads right now since I am still getting great speeds for all material, but they have limited my monthly traffic to about 250GB/month so maybe this is their temporary answer right now. This is usually more than enough for my needs right now, but who knows down the road with all the streaming technologies and media available online.