Newsgroups vs. Torrents

Which is better for downloading films and music and why?

I was all ready to get my head around torrents, when a fella at work told me not to bother, as Newsgroups (using Grabit) are secure, and quicker - the catch being you have to pay. Is that the pay off then? Is there more to it?

Any advice or thoughts or rants appreciated.

"downloading" as in "stealing" ?

i have never used newsgroups and would like to know more. torrents are satisfactory way of getting us tv series at the mo, but if there's a better way...

Torrents present more of a legal worry if the enterntainment industry come after you, because the law treats uploading (i.e. seeding) stuff as a much worse crime than just copying it. The people who are getting sued at the moment are almost entirely torrent downloaders.

News groups are pretty good. Highly secure (no logs are kept by the provider and the tunnel to your home PC is done via SSL) and super-quick (megabytes per second, easily), they are handy things. The real downsides though is that you have to rely on somebody actually uploading the item you want to a news group, be able to find the bloody thing (there are hundreds of thousands of news groups, each with hundreds of thousands of posts per day) and, as mentioned earlier, you've got to pay.

It's not for the faint of heart, but the pay off, imo, is worth it.

I subscribe to Giganews - costs me about $25US a month...which I feel is worth it considering how much I get from it.

Other than the advantages already mentioned on this thread, it is also much, much faster than P2P on the whole...certainly more consistent.

If a torrent has very few seeders it can take ages to get stuff down.

With Usenet, even on my shitty 4Mb connection, a 10Gb BluRay rip takes about 5-6 hours...

A standard definition episode of a 40 minute show takes about 8 minutes or so...standard def DIVx rip about 20.

Addy did a Tutorial

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=289074&highlight=newsgroups

thx....... im in the same boat as the other poster.

Re Uploaded the file cause it was deleted.
http://rapidshare.com/files/315816075/Idiots_guide_to_Newsgroups.doc.html

Astraweb have a good deal on at the moment $5 a month for unlimited d/l

I use Rapidshare. Films down in less than 10 mins usually unless going for HD.

6 euros or so a month.

Me also.

^ me to not every month Money

looking for a File Joiner * looks at useful Freeware/Shareware - 1. Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms. maybe Joiner File

$5 a month for unlimited d/l

I use easynews and use my brothers log-in. Cost - nothing. He currently has 465gb allowance left, I've no idea how much he gets for what he pays but if it isn't used, it gets added onto the following month. Don't find it that difficult to find stuff - it's easy enough to run a search.

Newsgroups for HD films.

A decent newsreader like Altbinz will enable you to search or browse groups, and filter results based on date,size etc. If its up there, you'll find it!

You have to pay for it (15 euros) but it really is a small price to pay for such an easy to use programme. The price includes free future updates, too. (and no, you can't download a pirate version of it, as the author has incorporated a unique user authentication login )

Newsgroup forums / search engines..

Binsearch

newsleech <currently down

ngindex

United Forums <wankers where you have to say 'thanks' to get the password, but fair content.

NZBsRus ok forum with a fair search faculty


Newsbin is ace, but you gotta pay for it.


As for your newsreader.... Grabit is tres cool! ... and free

GrabIt is great, but not quite as function filled as NewsBin is. It's also mega unstable and crashes on my Win7 every now and then

I see Giganews is beta testing Vyper VPN which will be included with their diamond service at no extra cost.

Mandelson will just love it.....

That's been handy for seeing US only content recently.

no need to download:
ninjavideo
fully streaming us tv the day after it airs in the US - like an illegal bbc iplayer, except it has the full series on there, and back series too...

Thanks for you thoughts on theivery (gentlegreen). So Newsgroups pan torrents in every way bar cost then. I can stretch to a few quid for a month of accumulating...

boo, files gone again, any chance of another up??

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qb5y25

Awesome, I'll d/l when i get home...... thanks very much.

right it looks as though ive got it working ish....... but when i try and download files the program (NZB Drop for mac) goes through the files and reports them all as missing, and then says 'expired' at the end?

Is this to do with me using my ISP as a news server? hence i should pay for a newserver? or is it likely to be cause by something elsE?

e2a: I've just managed to download some stuff that hasnt been sitting around as long, so it must be the ISP news server innit?

Yeah I think the paid for news servers have a longer retention period - they keep hold of posts longer.

Technically, neither protocol is faster than the other, speed depends on too many variables, both can maximise bandwith under ideal conditions. Files are no safer from viral infection either, unless filtered on private servers.
Newsgroups are currently safer from risk of litigation if the files are copyrighted. Copyright agents have invested in software that specifically monitors torrents for breaches, which are easily identifiable from unique IP addresses of the swarm. Using a private torrent tracker minimises that risk, as the IP addresses are not readily visible in the public domain.

Newsgroups are harder to publicly monitor, so have remained relatively unscathed.

right before i take the plunge and pay for a news server, giganews seems to be the best in all the reviews..... sound about right?

I have only ever used Astraweb or Virgin.
For stuff only a few days old I grab with Virgin, anything Virgin wont find I just use the select other server function in Grabit.
Astraweb do a $25 - 180GB pay as you go package which I find ideal for my usage.