For the most part, due to limitations in both the hardware and the service contract, you probably won’t be downloading much directly from the Internet to the phone itself.  There are a few beta Android applications that claim to allow for eitherBittorrent or Usenet downloading, but I have not been successful in getting them to work, either with 3G or Wi-Fi connections.  AndroidTorrent can open .torrent files, but does not actually get the download started, while the Groundhog Usenet reader can download the headers from binary newsgroups, but it cannot, as far as I can tell, actually download files in a binary format, much less handle the more complicatedunrar and par operations.  Rapidshare and Megaupload also proved to be unworkable from the built-in Android browser.  And it should be mentioned that large-scale downloading would almost assuredly create problems of bumping into the actual limits to the supposedly “unlimited” data plans (rumored to be around 5GB a month).

Despite those unfortunate limitations, Android-powered phones can be very useful for members of the downloading community, just in the role of portable dashboards for remote operation.  Torrent-fu for Bittorrent, and NZBdroid for Usenet allow users to control downloading from where ever they are via the Android phone, queuing up files to be enjoyed later, but also in the case of Torrent-fu giving users the ability to scan commercial goods via their barcodes, search major Bittorrent portals like BT-Junkie and IsoHunt, and then initiate downloads, all remotely.  And, of course, those files could be accessed by the Android phone if the remote computer is set up to serve files as well (although video files, for instance, would likely have to be re-encoded before they could be watched on the phone itself, but that’s a different article).

Torrent-fu is a free application available from the Android Marketplace and works on all variety of Android phones.  It acts as a client application for uTorrent (or Transmission) when the latter program is set up for control via its Web UI.  A bit of knowledge about port forwarding will be necessary, but without too much hassle you can leave uTorrent running on your home computer, and then both manage and add .torrent files to it completely from your phone.  Downloaded .torrent files, integrated search from within Torrent-fu, or most inventively, via the scanning of barcodes, can all generate downloads.  As a test, I scanned an old Big Lebowski DVD, and Torrent-fu did an excellent job of providing me with a number of different options for download.  Overall, Torrent-fu does an excellent job of giving any Android phone owner the power to amass a large media collection, while entirely away from their main computer.

NZBdroid is also available from the Android Marketplace, for either free or a $.99 donation, whatever the user decides.  It is very similar to Torrent-fu in concept, except that this app remotely controls a user’s SABnzbd+ downloading from Usenet.  As a huge fan of Usenet (and SABnzbd+) I truly love this application.  Since SABnzbd+ is essentially designed for a web-based interface anyway, NZBdroid is a bit easier to set up than Torrent-fu and really just operates in the background, only appearing when an .nzb file is downloaded from the web to the phone.  At that point the NZBdroid icon pops up allows for the information contained in the .nzb file (which is essentially just an XML file anyway) to the SABnzbd+ instance running on the home computer for eventual download.  All the options presented to control SABnzbd+ from the web are present on the phone as well.  NZBdroid is simple, powerful, and is absolutely worth the suggested $.99 donation for anybody seriously into Usenet downloading.

We are still very much in the early days of smart phones, as they continue to evolve from merely portable telephones into what are essentially small but relatively powerful computing devices.  Their processing power, storage limitations and most crucially data transmission bottlenecks (both physical and financial) prevent them from being used currently up to their potential for downloading from Bittorrent, Usenet and direct download sites, but there are some very cool applications like Torrent-fu and NZBdroid that already give them some very interesting functionality.  And in the future we are likely to see even more powerful phones with greater storage and even cheaper bandwidth capabilities that will let users fully take advantage of portable computing.

Have any of you tried out these programs?  Other Android apps for Bittorrent or Usenet?  How do the iPhone or the Pre compare in this regard?  I’d love to hear any other experiences Zeropaid users have had with mobile downloading.

Thanks to pressure from NY Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, AT&T will soon join ISPs Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint in eliminating free Usenet access, specifically to the alt.bin and alt.bain newsgroup hierarchies that provide actual data files, in order fight child pornography.

“The pervasiveness of child pornography on the Internet is horrific and it needs to be stopped,” said Attorney General Cuomo in a press release from last year following the agreement.  “We are attacking this problem by working with Internet Service Providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business.  I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry.”

This new “model” begins next Wednesday, July 15th, for AT&T and means Usenet users will have to begin seeking an alternative if they want to continue downloading actual content.

“Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be offering access to the Usenet Netnews service,” reads a post on AT&T’s Usenet site. “If you wish to continue reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party vendors.”

That last part reiterates the idiocy of AG Cuomo’s efforts. All he’s really doing is forcing people to purchase 3rd party premium Usenet services like Giganews. The creeps who traffic child porn will just pony up the $3 to $30 bucks a month and go on with their lives, resulting in a probable net zero effect on the trafficking of child porn. The lack of free child porn certainly won’t deter them, and it’s pretty disheartening to learn an educated man like AG Cuomo thinks it will.

“AT&T takes its obligation to protect its customers from child pornography very seriously,” adds AT&T in a message on its Usenet’s “system status” page. “We’re working with public officials and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the effort to help prevent the distribution of this harmful and illegal content.”

It really had to begin discontinuing free Usenet access to alt.bin and alt.bain because it couldn’t effectively filter child porn. After AG Cuomo uncovered “88 different Newsgroups that contained a total of 11,390 sexually lewd photos featuring prepubescent children, and in some cases photos of children being raped and sexual activity involving animals” the writing was on the wall.

“While we will continue to provide access to newsgroups as part of our Internet Service Offerings, we will no longer include alt.bin nor alt.bain hierarchies because of the possibility of child pornography in those particular groups and the difficulty in ensuring that no child porn reappears in them.”

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

______________________

NEED AN ALTERNATIVE USENET PROVIDER?

The one preferred by most is Giganews, myself included, for it has more data, or “binary retention” (365), available than any other Usenet provider. It even boasts that Usenet members upload more than 5TB of new discussions and content on a daily basis.

Others include:

• Binverse
• PowerUsenet
• NewsDemon
• Newshosting
• NewsgroupDirect
• UseNetServer

]]> http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86599/att-quits-free-usenet-access-july-15th/feed/ 23 http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86562/usenet-service-usenet-com-loses-copyright-infringement-case/ http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86562/usenet-service-usenet-com-loses-copyright-infringement-case/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:13:16 +0000 DrewWilson http://www.zeropaid.com/?p=86562 While a few NZB sites have been targeted before, this may be the first time a service that offers UseNet access has been dealt with a blow. In court, UseNet.com has lost their case against the RIAA. The case has been going on since 2007.

“While others claim to have huge download limits,” UseNet.com says, “we deliver unheard of download limits and incredible access to two huge geographically diverse server farms. But huge download limits are of no use if you can not get the material you are searching for.”

Things might change after this legal blow.

“This action arises out of allegations of widespread infringement of copyrights in sound
recordings owned by Plaintiffs…”the decision states (source contains built-in-browser version), “copies of which are available for download by accessing a network of computers called the USENET through services provided by Defendants Usenet.com, Inc.”

The court document continues, “Defendants’ cross-motion for summary judgment argues that they are entitled to the safe harbor protections of § 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). All parties filed numerous additional motions to exclude certain testimony, as well as voluminous evidentiary objections. Plaintiffs opine that their motion for terminating sanctions alleges discovery abuse sufficient to require that I strike the Defendants’ answer and enter a default judgment in their favor (“Terminating Sanctions Motion”). For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiffs’ Terminating Sanctions Motion is granted to the extent discussed in this opinion, though not in its entirety; Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is granted with respect to all claims; and Defendants’ motion”

More excerpts:

Copyright infringement via services:

There can be no dispute that Defendants’ services were used overwhelmingly for copyright infringement. Indeed, Plaintiffs’ expert has testified that, based on a statistical analysis, over 94% of all content files offered in music-related binary newsgroups previously carried by Defendant UCI were found to be infringing or highly likely to be infringing.

Moreover, not only is there rampant copyright infringement of musical works occurring on Defendants’ service in general, but there is direct undisputed evidence that Plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings have been distributed and downloaded in violation of their copyrights.5 First, Plaintiffs’ evidence shows that both Plaintiffs’ forensic investigators and Defendants’ own former employees confirmed downloads of digital music files of Plaintiffs’ sound recordings from Defendants’ service.

Selling a service for the purpose of copyright infringement (A mistake made by Grokster):

The record in this case is replete with instances of Defendants and their employees specifically engendering copyright infringement and targeting infringement-minded users to become subscribers of Defendants’ service. First, Defendants’ own former employees have testified that their marketing department specifically targeted young people familiar with other file-sharing programs and suggested they try Defendants’ services “as a safe alternative to peer-to-peer file sharing programs that were getting shut down” due to copyright infringement lawsuits and resulting injunctions.

Wiping hard drives:

Based on the revelation of this new evidence, Plaintiffs promptly filed a motion to compel
production of responsive documents stored on Defendants’ employee hard drives, and requested an extension of the discovery period. A hearing was held before Magistrate Judge Katz on October 27, 2008 to address Plaintiffs’ motion and Defendants’ failure to produce discovery. At this hearing, Defendants’ counsel acknowledged for the first time that he was in possession of seven computer hard drives that had belonged to Defendants’ employees (the “Seven Hard Drives”). October 27, 2008 Hearing Transcript (“Oct. Tr.”) at 13:9-22. Initially, Defendants conceded that four of the Seven Hard Drives had had their contents deleted or “wiped” and suggested they would produce documents from the remaining three drives.

The court concluded that appropriate damage awards would be determined by Magistrate Judge Katz.

This default judgement could easily be seen as a major blow to UseNet service providers. For years, it was indeed common knowledge amongst those in the know that UseNet is practically immune from trouble. The defendants argued that they were under the safe harbour provisions of the DMCA, but the court didn’t buy it.

Because of all this, the once seemingly invulnerable service of UseNet, at least for inside the United States, isn’t so invulnerable anymore. Given that so few actions against UseNet have been taken, many might still see UseNet as a safe alternative compared to other alternatives, but for UseNet services in the United States, this case could spell trouble for the rest of the existing services on US soil.

Still, there’s been no known case, at least to our knowledge, that a UseNet user was ever busted for copyright infringement using UseNet, but it might be a little more tricky to connect to UseNet if other US based UseNet services start folding in a similar fashion to when an NZB site was targeted by the MPAA (many others voluntarily shuttered in response).

Regardless of what happens in the long run, this could be seen as the biggest blow to the UseNet network – legally speaking – to date.

[Hat tip: Ray Beckerman]

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications still in use, having been first conceived way back in 1979 by a pair of Duke University graduate students to basically post messages as a sort of public bulletin board system.

As I’m sure you’re aware it’s evolved greatly since then, a way having been devised to encode data into the same ASCII character set used to previously post simple text messages.

See in the diagram below how the process works, moving from the original content file, be it a .ISO, .AVI, .XVID, file etc. to the final, encoded pieces ready for upload to a newsgroup server. A newsgroup describes the hierarchies that messages are posted in, of which there are 8 major hierarchies referred to as the “Big Eight” (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk).

Now to access newsgroup servers and to “read” or download messages or content we first need to do a few things. It’s pretty straightforward, and may actually cause some of you to switch over from BiTorrent considering the security issues associated with the oftentimes open nature of a BitTorrent swarm.

1. Usenet Newsgroup Service Provider

Some ISPs offer very basic access for free. However, many ISPs in the U.S., such as Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, and AT&T, have stopped offering any sort of newsgroup or usenet access.

Prices range from $3 to $30 p/mo, each service having a variety of pros and cons to take into consideration. Some have data caps others offer transport layer security (TLS) encryption. Data retention, the number of days articles are stored on a news server before being deleted must also be considered.

The one preferred by most is Giganews, myself included, for it has more data, or “binary retention” (365), available than any other Usenet provider. It even boasts that Usenet members upload more than 5TB of new discussions and content on a daily basis.

Others include:

• Binverse
• PowerUsenet
• NewsDemon
• Newshosting
• NewsgroupDirect
• UseNetServer

For a review of different sites, pricing, etc. visit Anchordudes and Newsgroup Reviews.

2. Newsreader

A newsreader is an application that allows you to “read” newsgroup articles on Usenet. There are several types, of which the text type, like Outlook Express or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, is only usable for reading/posting text, and others like the binary grabber type, such as Grabit or Newsbin, which are for downloading binary content.

Alt.binz (free) is the one I’m currently using, but there are a number to choose from. Some are free and some require purchase, the pay ones offering advanced features, upgrades, etc..

• Newsbin Pro ($35.00)
• Newsleecher ($19.99)
• Grabit (free)
• Pan (free)
• Xnews (free)

3. Usenet Indexing Sites

Now we need to be able to find content in the newsgroups to download. The easiest way is to use Usenet indexing sites which do just that, indexing newsgroup posts so that you can browse or search by keyword for a particular piece of content.

Some, like Newzbin for example, are private and require an invite, and some require basic registration.

• NZBMatrix (free, reg)
• Binsearch.info (free, no reg)
• MerlinsPortal.net (free, reg)
• Newzbin.com (paysite)
• Newzleech (free, no reg) – considered the best free site around
• Ngindex (paysite)
• Nzb.to (free, reg)
• NZBIndex (free, no reg)
• NZBs’R'US (free, reg)
• Nzbrus (free, reg)
• Prettyboo (free, reg)
• YabSearch (free, no reg)

(There’s also a program called NZBLeecher which allows you to search multiple indexing sites simultaneously)

What now?

So you’ve done all three steps, have begun browsing for content, and now want to know what to do. All you have to do is configure the newsreader to connect to whatever newsgroup service provider you’ve chosen, presumably a subscription one, with the login information they send you after registration. The last thing to do is to simply open the a .NZB file associated with the content you’re trying to download.

I’ll go over this process with more detail in my next guide, and will show you step-by-step how to configure a newsreader and download content.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

By now, most American ISPs have dropped their UseNet services. These services typical come free when customers pay for internet access. The first ISPs to fold in the wake of political pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo were Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable. More recently, another two ISPs, AOL and AT&T, also bowed to political pressure. This leaves very few ISPs that carry UseNet for free left in the US.

The EFF recently wrote a commentary on the subject noting that many UseNet groups, even in the Alt.* hierarchy, contains legitimate and legal conversation. In fact, a study suggested that Child Porn on UseNet was the tiny exception (0.5%), not the rule. Still, the moves are heralded as an effort to eliminating child pornography from the internet. From the EFF:

Congress and the courts have struggled for more than 10 years to address the issue of “objectionable” Internet content, without a constitutionally permissible result. Two well-known attempts by Congress were the passage of the 1996 Communications Decency Act and the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. Both attempted to punish individuals who transmitted indecent material that was harmful to minors. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled these provisions unconstitutional because they block speech that would be protected by the First Amendment in contexts outside of the Internet. States have also attempted to preemptively censor material. In 2002, the Pennsylvania legislature attempted to hold ISPs criminally liable for child pornography available on the Internet. The Pennsylvania Attorney General was able to unilaterally and secretly order ISPs to block access to IP addresses suspected of containing child pornography, resulting in the blocking of many innocent sites (particularly when the same IP address was used to host a variety of websites). A state court soon struck down that law as unconstitutional for violating both due process and prior restraint of speech.

The censorship demanded by NY Attorney General Cuomo arbitrarily filters an entire electronic neighborhood due to the activities of a few of its residents. Measures already existed to take down objectionable material from Usenet. The kind of responsive enforcement that has been previously used balances free speech and the need to stop the dissemination of child pornography much better than the arbitrary, blanket ban to which the ISPs have agreed. Even so, the tactic will not stop committed child pornographers. ISPs are only blocking their own internal Usenet servers, access to Usenet groups on remote websites remains unblocked. As a result, these actions will do little to stop the threat they are intended to prevent.

(extra citation)

The EFF notes that since this is all a “voluntary” effort, a court challenge to protect the first amendment is unlikely.

Some may point out that UseNet, namely the Alt.* hierarchy, has been also used for downloading content. This is true and it may be the real reason why ISPs are dropping their UseNet services in the first place – because it costs money to maintain such servers. the New york Attorney General’s pressure may be simply be a great excuse for ISPs to cut costs and drop their UseNet services altogether.

Yet, in the mean time, Comcast is being drug over the regulatory coal bed over throttling BitTorrent. Many ISPs say that protocols like BitTorrent have overburdened their networks, thus creating a need to throttle BitTorrent in the first place. It’s been a well-known fact that the UseNet service is an internal service from the ISP whereas something like BitTorrent is a service not really offered by the ISP. UseNet would, obviously, save large amounts of overhead bandwidth. With these facts alone, ISPs across America are very likely shooting themselves in the foot by eliminating UseNet if they are remotely concerned about something that has been dubbed “network congestion”

People who download content, and not necessarily text messages, through UseNet aren’t going to simply go away – they’ll be finding other sources of content and it’s only going to add to bandwidth overhead at the ISP level. Some have suggested that since ISPs are dumping UseNet, premium UseNet providers will simply bring in a large amount of new revenue from users seeking to get their UseNet service back. To suggest that users will be primarily migrating to sites like GigaNews to pay a monthly fee is simply misleading – though a nice thought to those who already pay for UseNet access.

When users are use to getting UseNet for free through their ISP, it’s hard to imagine that they’ll be mostly going to pay services if they get cut off. What users use to getting content for free will do is simply find other free sources first – sources which are abundant on the internet today. Some may simply rely more heavily on private BitTorrent sites, or even public BitTorrent sites. Others might jump onto more well known P2P clients. Some might give things known as ‘Sharity’ blogs a try (blogs that post download links to content – one example being Rapid Share blogs) or possibly a search engine that searches upload sites. It’s highly unlikely that all the free sources would be exhausted any time soon and until that time comes, premium UseNet services will be competing against these free sources.

There’s a very interesting report on NewTeeVee about ISPs in the United States either talking about or already ending their UseNet service. The report hits a lot of key point such as the key one of ISPs simply letting the New York Stat atourney general say that it’s because of child pornography that UseNet should stop being offered as opposed to the reality of ISPs simply not willing to invest money into the infrastructure.

According to the report, Time Warner has already announced that it will stop offering UseNet services altogether. Road Runner, one ISP in the US said that few users use UseNet, so they would discontinue it on the 23rd of this month. The article concluded with the following:

Phrases like this usually mean that the service became too expensive to maintain. It’s likely that a few users were generating a lot of bandwidth, causing problems similar to the ones ISPs are facing with BitTorrent, the obvious difference being that Time Warner had to pay additional money to Newshosting for each downloader. Of course, cutting access to Internet services doesn’t really make for good headlines these days, which is why Time Warner must have been relieved when it got some help from the NY State Attorney General. Time Warner Cable’s chief ethics officer, Jeff Zimmerman, told the press yesterday:

“Online child pornography represents one of the worst abuses of the Internet. We stand with Attorney General Cuomo and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in our commitment to helping curb the spread of this abusive content. Among the steps Time Warner Cable is taking (is) removing Newsgroups from our Internet service.”

That sounds a lot better than “Our customer’s TV show downloading habits just got a tad too expensive,” doesn’t it?

UseNet has had an interesting relationship with the average downloader. Premium services offer vast amounts of server space and long data retention times as well. The problem for many is that it costs money – an issue some would rather skip maxed out download speeds and no share ratio’s and go straight to BitTorrent, ED2K or Gnutella to satisfy their download needs. The aspect of paying has caused some debate amongst the file-sharing community such as the idea of paying for a service to get downloads. This generally gets too close to the idea of paying for P2P which is generally associated with scam sites. The general rule is, if you pay for P2P, you’re getting scammed. This is why some opted to use their ISPs free UseNet access for whatever is possible to get out of it. Even if the retention times are, say, less than a week, it’s better than no UseNet at all.

This leads to another related part of the idea of UseNet which generally is associated with the propaganda going against private BitTorrent sites (and also generally false claims perpetuated by the major copyright industry) – private BitTorrent site operators profit off of copyrighted content. This has been a line of attack by the copyright industry for some time against The Pirate Bay and, more recently respectively, against the former OiNK website. What does this have to do with UseNet? Simply put, unlike your average private BitTorrent sites, UseNet users getting premium services actually do have to pay to get in on such a deal. Realistically speaking, the money really goes towards maintaining the servers and handling the bandwidth.

The problem, politically speaking, is that ISPs generally offer free UseNet access because UseNet also provides one of the oldest forms of sending messages. If the copyright industry were to attack UseNet, saying that it’s sole purpose is to pirate content (which is also untrue), it would be extremely easy for ISPs to simply play the safe harbor card because they merely provide access – not control it. Debate would then close and it would be the end of story.

Two questions may arise from this: 1. What if ISPs all simply stopped providing free UseNet? 2. If they all stopped providing UseNet, what if the child exploitation excuse was used against premium UseNet providers? There’s a chance that this particular card could trump the safe harbor provisions for OSPs (Online service Providers) It would be a lot easier to target an obscure company (obscure to the masses that is) than it is to target one of the major ISPs in the country if one were to set aside money issues.

Given that there are a number of users using UseNet to download media through the Alt hierarchy, there would no doubt be industry backing to try and ban the Alt. hierarchy which is where most of the “interesting” posts happen. If at least a good chunk of this theory were to ever come to pass, these events could very well set the wheels in motion for some interesting legal battles related to UseNet in the future – a lot of which centering around the question of ‘what can trump safe harbor?’. Again, we should stress that this is merely worst case scenario theory we’re talking about.

A few additional things to consider:

• The MPAA has gone after NZB indexing sites in the past
• Comcast and other ISPs have engaged in throttling practices with BitTorrent among other protocols
• In spite of safe harbor in the DMCA, ISPs in the US have started warming up to the idea of policing their networks regardless
• In spite of the FCC ruling, the Broadcast Flag has recently made a return in a way that seems to circumvent the ruling anyway (whether it was legal or not is in dispute)

Naturally, there are users who consider UseNet to be one of the (if not, the) safest ways to get content in the first place and any passing threat would be regarded as little more than theory – then again, many thought OiNK would never get shut down either. The difference is that UseNet has been around a number of e-lifetimes longer than OiNK.

A quick note: It has been reported that a number of ISP’s are ending their UseNet services. If none of the articles are downloading, chances are, your ISP has discontinued their newsgroup services.

Intro
Why UseNet?

Usenet has become important to many who download content for a number of years, yet few know the potential of newsgroups. Some today may think, ‘well, I use BitTorrent and I get everything I want at max speeds. I don’t need anything else!’ Well, that may be all fine and true, but for some, a share ratio has always been a nagging issue. It’s probably important to note that even if you don’t use BitTorrent, UseNet offers a very useful resource to get content. For BitTorrent users, on Usenet, there’s no share ratio, yet it’s quite easy to max out your connection speed downloading. How is that possible?

How does UseNet Work?

Wikipedia explains, “Usenet is distributed among a large, constantly changing conglomeration of servers which store and forward messages to one another. These servers are loosely connected in a variable mesh. Individual users usually read from and post messages to a local server operated by their ISP, university or employer. The servers then exchange the messages between one another, so that they are available to readers beyond the original server.”

So basically, in a way, it’s like the eDonkey2000 network where there is a number of servers that hold the network together. The difference, of course, is the fact that users are downloading directly off of the servers instead of downloading from each other.

Users can post something on what is known as newsgroups. Each group is basically a “discussion”. The discussion is a hierarchy and the most well known major hierarchy is the ‘alt.binaries’ ‘Alt’ stands for Alternative. The discussions can continue down the line like ‘alt.binaries.music’, ‘alt.binaries.tv’, ‘alt.binaries.tv.FamilyGuy’, etc. Think of it like a file path on your computer – it’s generally the same idea.

The messages on the servers propagate to different servers around the world so everyone has access to what is being “discussed” This is one way that UseNet is decentralized.

So what is an NZB file?

An NZB file operates a lot like a .torrent file. It points to a file or number of files on the usenet network. With a newsreader, an application that reads the newsgroups, one can simply open the NZB file and the newsreader will then find the files on Usenet and download the files from UseNet.

Connecting
OK, what do I need to know to connect?

It is entirely possible that your ISP doesn’t offer UseNet, but most ISPs do offer UseNet. The easiest way to find out is via a Wiki on NewzBin that shows pretty much every ISP around the world what the respective situation is on UseNet from the ISP. If you’re going to connect to UseNet, these graphs offer critical information to connecting to UseNet.

How can I connect then?

You’re newsreader will allow you to actually connect to the network. While there are a number of newsreaders available, it’s recommended that you use Grabit (no adware/spyware/malware). Once you install and configure it, you’ll probably see something like this when you open the program:

1. This will show the servers you use to connect to.

2. A nice feature that can tell you how much space you have left on your hard drive.

3. The ‘Batch’ tab will show you what you’re downloading and how many connections you have, etc.

Right away, you’ll want to click on ‘My Grabit’ that shares the same space as the ‘1.’ in it and click ‘add server’

In the above screen that pops up, just add th server name in the two places denoted as ‘1.’ and hit ‘ok’ The port number should be fine in most cases.

Downloading
Where do I get my NZB’s now?

There are a number of websites that offer NZB files. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll stick to an NZB search engine that scans UseNet for files and conveniently puts them into NZB files for us for now. This would be known as Binsearch. Unlike a number of other sites, Binsearch doesn’t index the NZB files, but it does create them for easy access. Simply do a search for what you want.

When you have found something you want, pay attention to the column on the far right that says ‘Age’. This will correspond with the retention you are allowed via ISP which can be measured in a mere few days. It’s important to remember that Usenet is like a river, there’s so many files going through the system that it’s impossible to keep them all. Eventually, files will get deleted from your provider strictly for the purpose of saving space and bandwidth. If the age is longer then your allotted retention on your service, you won’t get the file because it was already deleted off of the servers you can connect to.

Whatever you searched for, make an effort to try and find the release with ‘par’ or ‘par2′ files. While they also take up space, they are absolutely vital while downloading from UseNet in this fashion. More on that later. Tick the item you want and click on the ‘create NZB file. Now open that file with Grabit.

Number of Connections and Downloading

When Grabit opens the NZB, simply click on ‘Grab’ and the file will start downloading.

1. Number of connections

2. Area where your download will appear.

The ISP information directory will tell you how many connections you are allowed to have at a time, though this number is not known for every ISP. If all you see is a question mark next to how many connections you can have next to your ISP, the only thing you can do is experiment through trial and error. For example, if you have three connections, tick off 3. Setting the newsreader to download with the maximum connections will allow you to download more quickly – often allowing you to download at your modem limit.

You’re download will appear in the area occupied in the ‘2.’ area. The number of downloads in the “job” is merely the number of “lines” there are in the respective download. The release will download in whatever the download directory you set your client to download into.

Opening Files
Par Files

As you may have noticed, what you download is actually multiple files, even if it was suppose to be one file you were actually after. While there are multiple Rar and similar files, look in the folder (which should be named after either the nzb file or newsgroup) for some par or par2 files. These are what you’ll be needing to repair the release. The reason the release needs to be repaired is that there is a very good chance that the release was damaged at some point in the process.

To use the Par2 files, download and install QuickPar. Quickpar will take the Par files and repair the release if there is any damage. It’s usually a good idea to check the release before attempting to unpack it. For a more detailed guide on using QuickPar, check out the Binaries4All tutorial.

Rar and .r01, .r02, etc. Files

The release is separated into partial files. the reason for this is because there is a limited amount a release can have on a line. When a release is longer then one line, it’ll be split into multiple files. To make reassembly easier, the files are split into ‘.r01′, ‘r02′, etc. files. If you have WinRar installed on your system (demo or full), you can simply right click on the first part and click to extract the file. WinRar will reassemble the files into the release in it’s original form.

Download Quota’s

Many ISPs employ a binary quota. This means that there is a limit to how much you can download. The information is available on the NewzBin documentation site.

Troubleshooting
All I got were a bunch of text files, what’s going on?

This is probably one of the most common issues with using UseNet. If you got nothing but a bunch of blank text files, chances are, the files were removed from the server (typically because the retention ran out) The easiest thing to do is simply try and find a post that is newer and try again. Otherwise, you may be out of luck.

QuickPar says that I need more repair blocks still. Can I get more?

If you don’t have enough repair blocks, you can hope that the par files were posted separately. There is the occasion when using binsearch that a number of Par files were posted separately. Be warned though, sometimes those pars are for a different release and won’t work on the particular release you have downloaded. It’s not usually possible to find this though and you may not be able to repair the file, causing the whole download batch to be useless.

I can’t get what I’m looking for. Are there any other servers I can connect to for a longer retention time? / My ISP doesn’t offer UseNet, can I still use UseNet?

It may be possible to find a public server, but it’s unlikely it’ll be very good. This is why many users buy in to premium news services. The retention is far longer and the quota’s can even be unlimited. Unfortunately, this costs money. A few commonly recommended premium news services are GigaNews, EasyNews, UseNet Server and news.astraweb. While it may look strange to some to pay for such services, thousands do swear by premium news services.

Usenet may be the oldest and most widely popular traditional ways of getting movies and music. While it has, for the longest time, been one of the more secured ways of getting content online, it is also one of the more complicated and less user friendly ways of getting that content – outside of using NZB files that is. While BitTorrent and many other file-sharing networks have been touched by so-called “anti-piracy” organizations, Usenet has remained, for the most part relatively unscathed – unscathed until recently that is.

The SCPP recently announced (Translated by Google – original version) that they, along with SACEM and SDRM, successfully got a court to order French ISP “Free” to suspend 39 newsgroups for six months. SCPP operates in France and represents major record labels.

According to Wikipedia, Free, “Free claims to be the first profitable ISP in France” and is one of three major ISPs operating in France.

01net reports (Google translated – original version) that other French ISPs were pressured into discontinuing binary newsgroup access altogether in order to avoid liability. Free refused to do so because of their philosophy on the internet.

The site also reports that this isn’t the first time Free was forced to suspend newsgroups. Last year, Free was ordered byt the courts to suspend access to 14 other newsgroups.

Wikipedia describes the hierarchy of newsgroups as:

These were all created in the Great Renaming of 1986–1987, prior to which all of these newsgroups were in the net.* hierarchy. At that time there was a great controversy over what newsgroups should be allowed. Among those that the usenet cabal (who effectively ran the Big 7 at the time) did not allow were those concerning recipes, drugs, and sex.

This resulted in the creation of an alt.* (short for “alternative”) usenet hierarchy where these groups would be allowed. Over time the laxness of rules on newsgroup creation in alt.* compared to the Big 7 meant that many new topics could, given time, gain enough popularity to get a Big 7 newsgroup. This resulted in a rapid growth of alt.* which continues to this day.

So while this is a unique blow to newsgroups, at least in France, little will change since there will likely be other newsgroups popping up to circumvent this suspension of the groups. Though since newsgroups primary focus is on discussions, one might argue that this is also an attack on free speech.

The other thing to consider is the fact that France is part of the European Union. As we here at ZeroPaid already reported today which was followed up by our initial report three days ago, blocking access to the internet hit a roadblock by European parliamentarians. It is currently unclear how this legislation will affect the court decision to force the French ISP to suspend newsgroups.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/French_ISP_Ordered_to_Suspend_39_Newsgroups’;

“AOL recently blocked its 32+ million users from accessing the world’s largest file archive, Usenet, and the US government is demanding to see search logs from Web giants like Google and Yahoo…” said Nikolai Zamlynski, company spokesman. “Enter MacLoader — Usenet for the masses!”

MacLoader gives millions of AOL users back access to the vast world of Usenet entertainment downloads, and provides peace-of-mind to surfers concerned with Internet privacy.

“Truly, MacLoader couldn’t have arrived at a more apt time: you get complete anonymity and a blazing fast connection to the Net’s largest collection of movies, software, music, pictures and games, from the most modern, straight-forward desktop software available. MacLoader makes traditional P2P and file sharing networks like Kazaa and BitTorrent obsolete.”