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Usenet or Bittorrent

Clownfused edited this page Apr 17, 2019 · 11 revisions
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Table of Contents

  1. Intro
  2. USENET
    1. Recommended NewsGroup Servers
    2. YouTube: Understanding USENET
    3. USENET History
    4. USENET Advantages
    5. USENET Disadvantages
  3. Torrents
    1. Torrent History
    2. Torrent Advantages
    3. Torrent Disadvantages
  4. Summary

1. Intro

Before you start deploying a server, you need to ask yourself on which route you are going to select in order to obtain your desired media. You can obtain your media one of three ways. Either through USENET, Torrents or through a combination of both. PG is more USENET focused due to the simplicity, security, and speed that USENET provides, but we do offer torrenting programs. Let's have a small discussion and talk about the pros/cons and understanding what both methods provide.

2. USENET

I. Recommend NewsGroup Servers

Here are top 5 tier news-server recommended by PlexGuide! Very well known for completion and speeds:

  1. NewsHosting
  2. UseNetServer
  3. EasyNews
  4. Pure USENet
  5. XLNED

II. YouTube Video - Understanding USENET

PG YOUTUBE: Understanding USENET

III. USENET History

Back in the day (which is not too far away), content was shared through the use of newsgroups. Personally, recall in trying to use it the first time (1999); USENET was complicated, time-consuming, and difficult to use (which now is not the case). Most USENET companies provided a USENET Client/Reader that enabled you to view their forums. Traditionally, the forums utilized are not what they are today. Most of the forums contained simple postings with shared files that a user would download with the provided software. Imagine downloading hundreds of files to discover that one file was bad.

USENET - Year: 1981

The achilleas heel of USENET was that bad files would result in you either searching for new content to REPEAT the long drawn out process or you had to repair the file with the software provide. Even worse, USENET was not unlimited. You would have spent $10 - $20 a month just to download several gigs of content (which was a lot back then). Yes, all the bad downloaded files counted against the user. As you can see below, a legacy episode of the Simpsons reveals the idea of USENET back then.

USENET - 20th Century Fox's - Simpsons - Comic Book Guy

Sadly yes, people did chat and post messages within newsgroups; but they are all currently dominated through the use of binary (file) posts. So if visit a newsgroups site, you'll notice they'll talk about data retention. Data retention is the files and postings that the newsgroup hosts are holding onto. If you discover shows that you once found before, they may not exist if the USENET provider deleted all of the older posts. This is why it is important to pay attention to the hosting providers' retention policy. As of now, many are holding on to post for the last 3500 days.

USENET - Generic Server to Client Set Up

IV. USENET Advantages

  • Does not require the use of a VPN
  • Easily tops 100MB (1 GIG) speeds
  • Does not require sharing files back or maintaining some type of ratio
  • Utilizes SSL encryption that prevents others from snooping on your activities
  • Automation Software such as Radarr, Liddar & Sonarr take full advantage of
  • Useful for independent automation and requires little to no oversight

V. USENET Disadvantages

  • Tends to be confusing for new users
  • Does require a user to typically pay for an indexer (yearly) and a host (monthly)
  • DCMA takedowns of certain files can result in some files never being obtained
  • Requires a stronger server to process, restore, and repair files

USENET - (1) File Being Sought (2) Age of the Files

3. Torrents

I. Torrent History

Bittorent has a unique history in that it mostly gained popularity starting in the early-mid 2000s. Usenet existed but was very painful to use. Sharing platforms such as Kazaa and Napster dominated the times. Through a series of legal troubles, Kazaa and Napster were targeted due to their centralized platform in offering free media content. It was argued that it was no fault of their own because users were choosing to select and download content from a blind server; meaning that it was unmanaged and that organizations were not responsible for what users chose to do. It was a weak argument that eventually lost and what shuttered and closed their doors. As a result, the rise of BitTorrent started to gain traction in that users were sharing content from each other in a decentralized manner.

Furthermore, through a series of court cases, there has been traction that users are ultimately responsible for content being shared through the use of an IP address. It is the reason why so many users required VPN connections when selecting to torrent. There has been a series of legal problems in that some courts find it difficult to sue a person in that they have to prove it was that exact person offering the content (such as a 13-year-old kid within grandma's open wifi network). Though torrenting is still used, it has been become quite a popular target due to people settling quickly. As a result, private torrents are being utilized... but the concept is misleading in that any organization can join the private torrent site and still target users for a lawsuit.

II. Torrent Advantages

  • Easier to understand over NZB - USENET
  • Technically Free (some cost with private indexers)
  • More availability for unique files over Usenet
  • Does not require a powerful server

III. Torrent Disadvantages

  • Requires a VPN
  • Slower compared to NZBs - Newsgroups
  • Requires sharing and/or maintaining some type of ratio
  • Easier to track your activities; torrent websites are malicious and/or mine your CPU
  • Automation Software such as Radarr, Liddar & Sonarr more painful to use due to sharing
  • Requires some oversight; checking VPN and sharing/ratios checks

4. Summary

NONE SO FAR

📂 Click Here - NZB's from USENET Server - PG Members Receive a 60% Discount

Installing PlexGuide

  1. PlexGuide Install Information

Preplanning & Information

  1. PG Folder Structure

Domain and Port Control

  1. CloudFlare Tunnel

Primary Applications

  1. Plex

Useful Links

  1. PG YouTube Channel
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