Torrents -> Usenet: What should I know?

[Bidule0hm]

I can order the ribbon on ebay I guess, shouldn't be too expensive, and I already have the connectors (from old IDE cables... yes, with the proper technique you can disassemble and re-crimp them, not the best thing but it works very well) :)

Edit: well, actually I was wrong, it is expensive (well not that expensive but still far more than I can afford to do a silly fun test :P)

 

[jgreco]

That's perfectly reasonable for a 40 pin cable, but it is a nightmare on the more recent Ultra ATA 80 pinners, which are finicky as fsck.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yeah, only used this technique on 0.05" pitch cable because of what I do with the cable/connectors (breadboard), 0.025" pitch would be a nightmare... :D

 

[Scareh]

if you really want to try out usenet, there are a few providers that give out free trials: http://www.eweka.nl/en dutch site, offering a 50mbit 7day trial, upgradeable to 100mbit, that'll give you a nice idea

 

[ovizii]

I was looking to do the exact same transition from torrents to nzb for DMCA reasons. NOT downloading bleeding edge only.
Have been searching around for days and still confused about the two parts one needs to nzb.
One is basically the access + download + bandwidth + https and the other some sort of search?

And how do these tie in with sickrage for example?
I would need to get rid of all torrent parts in sickrage and replace those settings with nzb settings?
Then replace Transmission with SABNZBD?

Anyone can sum it up quickly or give me a link to a guide pretty please? If I google transition to NZB from torrent I get plenty of old articles but nothing new.

P.S. is there any need for a VPN after this switch? If I get this right, DMCAs would be served to the NZB providers, not to the downloaders?

 

[danb35]

To use NZBs and Usenet, you need a few things:

1. An indexer for a source of NZBs. There are lots of these; some are free, while others require payment. I've used www.usenet-crawler.com with decent results, and it's free.
2. One or more Usenet hosts. Time was that your ISP included this as part of your subscription, but those days are gone. Again, there are lots of hosts with lots of different plans. I'm using usenetserver.com for $10/mo. Some folks recommend having more than one, so the second one can fill the gaps in retention of the first; I haven't felt the need to do this so far.
3. A news "reader"--not that anybody actually reads usenet any more, but this is the client program that reads the NZBs and determines which message IDs to fetch. SABNZBD serves this role.

You configure your newsreader (i.e., SABNZBD) to connect to your Usenet host. You configure Sonarr/Sickrage/CouchPotato/whatever to use whatever indexer(s) you've chosen, the same way you do for torrent indexers. You then configure Sonarr/Sickrage/CouchPotato/whatever to send the download requests to SABNZBD rather than (or in addition to, if you prefer) Transmission.

 

[ovizii]

@danb35 thanks a million that sums it up very nicely.
I don'T mind going with your recommendations but I noticed that most Usenet hosts offer VPN too. Is that necessary? Just wondering as most come with their own VPN software which I'm not going to be able to use since I will doing all this on my freeNAS.

 

[danb35]

I don't see any real reason for a VPN for usenet access, unless you're behind a firewall that would block your access to NNTP. I guess if you're concerned about your host's server logs being subpoenaed, a VPN might protect you a bit, but to be honest that's not a concern that's bothered me significantly. But then, I don't use a VPN for torrents either (although I do see why one might be desirable there).

 

[diedrichg]

My setup

Servers:
Astraweb (primary), SSL News (completion backup server). I used to use Tweaknews as the backup server. Astraweb - I purchase the $50 1TB block. SSL News - I purchase the 250GB block.

Indexers:
Newztown - primary, free, I can send you an invite if you like
OZnzb - secondary (not paid for yet but maybe one day soon), I mostly find everything on Newztown

TV search:
Sonarr - LOVE IT!

Movie search:
Couchpotato - the one and only, definitive

Music search:
Headphones - it's okay, quite slow. I prefer to search manually with Newztown, etc

Books:
Librarian - I don't use it. Same answer add music, I can manually search

Comics:
Mylar - I don't use it.

Downloader:
SABnzbd - the one and only, definitive - has a tried and true stable background

NZB Drone - tried it but SAB did everything I needed and is the most widely supported/accepted by other programs and online services


Check out the tutorials at
http://htpcguides.com - your OS platform is at the top of the page

 

[pirateghost]

My setup

Servers:
Astraweb (primary), SSL News (completion backup server). I used to use Tweaknews as the backup server. Astraweb - I purchase the $50 1TB block. SSL News - I purchase the 250GB block.

Indexers:
Newztown - primary, free, I can send you an invite if you like
OZnzb - secondary (not paid for yet but maybe one day soon), I mostly find everything on Newztown

TV search:
Sonarr - LOVE IT!

Movie search:
Couchpotato - the one and only, definitive

Music search:
Headphones - it's okay, quite slow. I prefer to search manually with Newztown, etc

Books:
Librarian - I don't use it. Same answer add music, I can manually search

Comics:
Mylar - I don't use it.

Downloader:
SABnzbd - the one and only, definitive - has a tried and true stable background

NZB Drone - tried it but SAB did everything I needed and is the most widely supported/accepted by other programs and online services


Check out the tutorials at
http://htpcguides.com - your OS platform is at the top of the page

I'm always on the hunt for more indexers. Was thinking about setting up my own again soon if I can't find a decent one.

BTW nzbget(formerly nzbdrone) is awesome.

 

[depasseg]

Got another extra newztown invite? (what's the limitation of a "probation" account?)

I ran my own nzedb indexer for a while, it just got to be too unstable and ever changing. Maybe things settled down over the past year.

Here's a helpful site for configuring FreeNAS with the pieces (just install sonarr plugin instead of sickrage):
https://www.jruehlig.com/wordpress/installation-configuration-of-freenas-plugins/

 

[ovizii]

@diedrichg: awesome ,thanks for all the info! I wouldn't mind an invite for Newztown

 

[ovizii]

Got another extra newztown invite? :) (what's the limitation of a "probation" account?)

I ran my own nzedb indexer for a while, it just got to be too unstable and ever changing. Maybe things settled down over the past year.

Here's a helpful site for configuring FreeNAS with the pieces (just install sonarr plugin instead of sickrage):
https://www.jruehlig.com/wordpress/installation-configuration-of-freenas-plugins/

Any reason you're recommending sonarr over sickrage?

 

[diedrichg]

Got another extra newztown invite? (what's the limitation of a "probation" account?)

I have one invite left and I'll give that to ovizii . Once they have their account they should have two invites available to share one with you. Free account is 30 grabs and 200 API requests.

 

[ovizii]

Awesome! Thank you! @depasseg, you can have an invite from me once I've figured things out

 

[diedrichg]

Once I switched from the DOA Sickbeard to Sonarr, I never looked back. Yes, I tried a short stint with Sickrage but I couldn't be happier with Sonarr and its capabilities. The dev is constantly updating it and monitors the forums for user issues for what seems like 24 hours per day.

 

[pirateghost]

Sonarr is nicer interface, faster searching, and actually handles failures and nuked releases

 

[depasseg]

Any reason you're recommending sonarr over sickrage?

Like @diedrichg and @pirateghost mentioned, it was the logical choice as the follow-on to SB at the time, and SR hasn't added anything that that sonarr doesn't; as well as I love the interface, failed retry's, and quick support.

 

[ChiknNutz]

...Here's a helpful site for configuring FreeNAS with the pieces (just install sonarr plugin instead of sickrage):
https://www.jruehlig.com/wordpress/installation-configuration-of-freenas-plugins/

So I attempted to go thru this guide, but am really at a loss here. I spent several hours last night trying to get this all to work. Is all this really necessary just to make these programs work? OMG, if this is the case for every plug-in, I might just hang up my hat now as this has simply been an exercise in frustration for me.

In brief, what I didn't do is install them all in a single "download jails" folder like he showed (referring to the video), I just installed each plug-in from the WebGUI. Is it necessary to do so? Now I do have each of the programs working, but there clearly isn't something right. I am attempting to use SABnzbd, Couchpotato and Sonarr. All I messed with last night was SAB and CP. The issue is that SAB doesn't seem to "pick up" the movie request from CP. Further, what I noticed in the "Downloaders" section of CP for SAB configuration is that if I were to use "localhost:8080" it won't work when I hit the "Test Sabnzbd" button. However, if I put in the full IP address (in this case "http://[IP address]:8080/") the test is successful. Is this part of the issue or not so much? FYI, for my Usenet provider, I am on the 7-day free trial with PureUsenet, so am really wanting to get this worked out within the week to see overall how I like this.

I have checked the Couchpotato logs and this is what it says when I attempt to get a movie (but I don't know what setting to check):

12-03 09:30:59 ERROR [core.media._base.searcher] There aren't any providers enabled for your downloader (nzb,nzb). Check your settings.

Argh, there is just so much to all this I hardly know where to begin.

 

[depasseg]

Since you didn't put them in the same jail, they are effectively running on different machines, hence needing to use the IP address instead of localhost. Putting them on the same jail (VM) greatly simplifies the notification and automation between the different services.