• Torrents vs Usenet - Technologies Compared

    The big discussion about strengths and weaknesses of Bittorrent toward Usenet already takes place for longer time. Both technologies are very popular and have huge fans community. Nonetheless both networks have advantages and disadvantages if you take a closer look at it.

    Pricing

    Price is surely one of the important factors while we compare Bittorrent and Usenet networks. Downloading files through torrents is completely free. We personally advice to use paid VPN service to protect yourself from any problems while downloading different types of files. Generally, a VPN account would not cost more than $10 per month.

    Downloading of binary file from Usenet network is not free. A user would need a software (Usenet client - Newsreader, mostly free) and paid NNTP account that will provide him with access to Usenet servers. The prices for NNTP access depend on many factors like SSL encryption, download speed and volume, simultaneously connections amount and others. Generally you can get a good service for about $10 per month.

    Download speed

    The main advantage of Usenet is that it's much faster as torrents. The reason for this is that you do not need to find seeds and connect to the peers, you download directly from servers with defined and paid speed. Using torrents this speed can be achieved only if the file is very popular and has much users who share it.

    The disadvantage of Usenet is that the speed is always limited by provider. In some cases torrents would be even faster. Because of raising amount of DMCA abuses towards Usenet companies many files will be deleted from the servers and made unavailable for download. Although Usenet is not censored network many files will be eliminated and can not be downloaded anymore till users upload it again.

    Content Volume

    The main markets of Usenet are USA, Australia and some European countries. This leads to the fact that the most files in this network are english languaged. To upload file into Usenet is much more difficult as to share it through torrents. It takes time, special knowlegde and software to post a Usenet article with binary attachments. Not many people wish to spend their time into uploading of files. If we take a russian market then we will see that torrnets are very popular there and Usenet not. The reason is that there almost no russian files uploaded to Usenet. As conclusion we can say that torrent network provides much more data choise.

    Required software

    Usenet requires a download client called Newsreader. Also Bittorrent protocol would need a client like uTorrent to be able to download content. There exist different types of Newsreaders: some have already integrated NNTP access, some need a configuration of NNTP account to establish connection between Usenet server and personal computer. Torrent clients are already pre-configured and generally do not require any special configuration.

    Security

    The common Usenet providers already offer an integrated 256-bit encryption to protect the customer. Torrent network doesn't provide possibility to encrypt the transfer of files between peers. A user will need to pay for VPN service to protect himself while downloading.

    Usenet technique

    Usenet is built as a news network where everyone can post an article to one or more newsgroups. Today it's possible to attach binary files to the article and it can be downloaded by other users. It works similar to Email client. Big files will be divided into smaller parts and packed as RAR archives. Additionally PAR2 files will be created and uploaded too. These files will be needed to repair the archive if there any errors occur while transfering of RAR files to the Usenet servers.

    Summary

    Users can argue much which network is better. In reality Usenet and Bittorrent have advantages and disadvantages, so our opinion is that the best way to get a good file is to be familiar with both. If the file can be downloaded faster using Bittorrent then use it, if the file has a lower peers amount then try to get it through Usenet.

    We like both networks and think that both are a very useful technology developed by very wise people.

    Source: http://torrentus.to/blog/torrents-vs...-compared.html
    Comments 10 Comments
    1. duke0102's Avatar
      duke0102 -
      A nice comparison, a good read.
      I couldn't help but notice more usenet providers are disabling uploading for it's users which is a pain but I'll stick with usenet myself
    1. aliensf's Avatar
      aliensf -
      Nice article.
      I'll stay with usenet though, my ISP gives everyone a free usenet account
    1. duke0102's Avatar
      duke0102 -
      All free ones lack the SSL feature though don't they?
    1. brilman's Avatar
      brilman -
      Don't it seem like usenet files have been harder to find or is it just me

      I liked NZB's better but I've been useing torrents
    1. unclemilty74's Avatar
      unclemilty74 -
      Some shows are taken down within minutes cause the publishers know how to get shit done, but I've only run across about 5 tv shows that do that, so yeah torrent combined with usenet so long as you know what you're doing on both ends.
    1. torrentus's Avatar
      torrentus -
      It's true that Usenet will be attacked by DMCA very hard and new movies will be abuses during hours after they will be posted. So in this point Bittorrent is surely a winner. It will be not possible to filter out files from all peers, doesn't matter how much they try to achieve it.
    1. Jimathome's Avatar
      Jimathome -
      DMCA takedowns only happen in the USA as this is an American law, so often shows which are not available on US severs are still there on EU servers
    1. ng4ever's Avatar
      ng4ever -
      Quote Originally Posted by torrentus View Post
      It's true that Usenet will be attacked by DMCA very hard and new movies will be abuses during hours after they will be posted. So in this point Bittorrent is surely a winner. It will be not possible to filter out files from all peers, doesn't matter how much they try to achieve it.
      I found a provider with no DMCA.
    1. Camel's Avatar
      Camel -
      Most of the games, movies and music, I found with nzb sites. Now most of the good free nzb sites are gone. I prefer nzb over torrent, but now finding nzbs at places like binsearch without a description is hit or miss at best.
    1. Gribley's Avatar
      Gribley -
      Usenet technique
      ... Today it's possible to attach binary files to the article and it can be downloaded by other users.
      NNTP has been rocking away for more years than torrents and was unfortunately much better for the lack of exposure (really "today possible to attach binaries" - been 25+ years at least).

      However today NZB files and binary download clients so it has fallen into DMCA capture funland

      Torrents against NNTP (usenet)?..... I am a firm download fan of NNTP without the worry of uploads speeds and leeching clients. Post take downs and the endless <1Mb apps/films (spam/virus) and/or passworded crap (where they don` even change the names in the nfo to match :S) is taking a toll

      Sad times... but the torrents have muppets too