[Tutorial] Usenet/Newsgroups - How Do I Access & Use It?

Last edited by mt877 on Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:54 am; edited 6 times in total

Tutorial: Usenet - What is it? How do I access and use it?

I've seen several messages referring to usenet in the forums. I've even mentioned it in my own answers to others.
What I haven't seen is a simple explanation / tutorial about usenet and how it could be used to enhance or
supplement a d-addict's users audio and video sharing experience.

So I decided to demystify usenet for the casual audience and for those who would like to access and use usenet
for text based discussions in a variety of newsgroups (forums), and binary downloading from the "alt.binaries"
hierarchy of newsgroups.

What is it?...

Usenet refers to the collection of newsgroups which are distributed around the world on the Internet and other
networks. Each newsgroup acts as a public discussion forum and may be read by anyone at any Usenet
site worldwide using a newsreader. When a user posts an article to a newsgroup the article is distributed
around the Usenet network to those sites carrying the particular newsgroup. Thus, in a short time (10 minutes
to a few days), the article will reach an audience of many thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands)
of people. Definition Source

How do I access usenet...

You may have access to usenet already and not know it. Many cable, dsl, and dial-up internet service providers (ISPs)
include usenet as part of the internet package you pay for. Check with your ISP if usenet is available. If it is,
you will need the newsserver name and find out if you need to authenticate for access (typically your normal
account login and password would be used, if needed).

If your ISP does not provide usenet access, you can still access usenet via a commercial usenet provider.
A few names come to mind, easynews, giganews, usenetserver. These usenet providers are known for
their reliable uptime, binary file retention and access to quite a few newsgroups not available from your
ISP provided usenet account.

So far so good, you either have access via your ISP or you set up an account with a commercial service. To connect
to your account, you'll need a newsreader. There are many newsreaders available, some are better than others.
If all you want is to participate in text only discussion newsgroups then you can use MSOutlook, For serious
usenet users I would recommend a newsreader that has both text reading and binary downloading capability.

To get you started....

For Windows users:

XNews - A freeware, text and binary on-line newsreader. Built in Yenc decoding. Supports multiple
newsservers. Excellent on-line documentation.

For Mac users:

MT-NewsWatcher - A freeware, text and binary on-line newsreader. Versions available for OS 9 and OS X.
Built in Yenc decoding. Supports multiple newsservers. Excellent on-line documentation.

For Linux users:

Pan - A GPL'd, text and binary on-line newsreader. Versions available for most flavors of Unix, MacOS X,
and Windows. Built in Yenc decoding. Multi-threading, don't know if it supports multiple newsservers.
On-line documentation is in the works, read the features and FAQ for now.

Please read the documentation for your newsreader for best results.

Okay, I think I've provided some helpful material to get you started. If you decide you like using usenet,
you can learn as you go.

Some tips:

When you setup your newsreader, NEVER use your real name or email address, but you probably already knew that.
If you post messages or binaries from your ISP news account, your IP address will be revealed. For best anonymity
subscribe to a reliable commercial usenet provider, you'll be happy you did.
Once you find a newsgroup you like, just hang out (lurk), sit back and get a feel for what the crowd is like by reading
their message threads. Ask if a group FAQ is available. Not all groups have a FAQ, so be your courteous self.
Park your ego at the curb before entering a group. Flame wars can erupt when least expected over simple stupid
misunderstanding and when people read too much into a message. Avoid trolls by kill filtering, Don't be drawn into
their troll-bait messages. A few trolls can upset a newsgroup in short order, and the friends you made may turn
against each other. Don't let this happen to your favorite newsgroup(s)!
Downloading binaries from usenet requires a new tool set that you'll have to obtain and get used to using.
The attached FAQ from alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese, (aka abmj) is a very worthwhile read and
covers just about everything you need to enjoy usenet in general and a visit to abmj in particular.

Some asian binaries newsgroups of interest:

alt.binaries.anime <-- anime movies and tv series fan-subbed
alt.binaries.asianusenet <-- asian movies
alt.binaries.dvd.asian <-- no need to explain this
alt.binaries.korea <-- often incomplete binaries, you might be lucky though
alt.binaries.movies.martial.arts <-- asian action flix, usually E-Subbed
alt.binaries.movies.zeromovies <-- many asian movies (not 100% asian)
alt.binaries.multimedia.anime <-- the same as a.b.anime
alt.binaries.multimedia.chinese <-- Chinese tv and movies, RAW / C-Subbed / E-Subbed
alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese <-- Japanese tv and movies, RAW / C-Subbed / E-Subbed
alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese.repost <-- no need to explain
alt.binaries.multimedia.korean <-- Korean tv and movies, RAW / C-subbed / E-Subbed
alt.binaries.multimedia.martial-arts <-- same as a.b.movies.martial.arts
alt.binaries.multimedia.sentai <-- Japanese Sci-fi SuperHero tv and movies
alt.binaries.multimedia.thai <-- Thai tv and movies, RAW / ?Subbed?
alt.binaries.nospam.cd-r <-- asian movies
alt.binaries.sounds.jpop <-- Japanese Popular music and sometimes music videos
alt.binaries.sounds.korean <-- Korean music
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.chinese <-- Chinese music
alt.binaries.vcdz <-- Vietnamese tv and movies
alt.binaries.vcdz.repost <-- No need to explain

You'll also find asian movies posted in other video related groups, you'll just have to search.

Good Luck! You're on your way to usenet nirvana now. cheers

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:34 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

thanks for writing this useful tutorial. thumleft

well, i dont use the usenet anymore. for me personally the usenet was dead with the fast success of the www in 1993. if there weren't commercial news providers and those binary groups it would be long long dead.

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:35 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Good job, finally someone took the time and did it.
So next time anyone asks what is ABMJ just link to this thread

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 8:36 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

MoerkJ will kill me for this ^^
*slapping with wikipedialinks*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

-- guenny

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 8:51 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

no no guenny I'm getting used to it. Laugh

Wikipedia is always very usefull and has always interesting info. did you know that...

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 12:57 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hrhr, yup the archive is pretty useful Smile

u can still read the original post of linus torvald when he started programminng the linux core.
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=1991Aug25.205708.9541%40klaava.Helsinki.FI

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 1:28 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

mt877: you are AWESOME!! Not Worthy

this was an extremely good definition of usenet.

i had an idea of what it was, but just needed a little clarification. the stupid thing is that i used usenet waaaaaay back in college, but we always just referred to it as newsgroups. it was how *my friends* got dirty pictures Glare

one thing that wasn't mentioned was how the speed of usenet compares to bt or other sources (on an avg)?

EDIT: i was also going to ask MoerkJ or one of the other mods if they could make this into a sticky or add it to the FAQ?

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 1:57 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:17 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Sticky it is, and yes, the speed is as fast as you can reach, since you don't depend on any peer to peer connection

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:00 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Great, glad some folks are finding this useful. Thanks for making it a sticky.
Now it's back to usenet to hunt down something else to download... ;-)
hmm... no winking eye Emoticon

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:59 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Wow, max out your connection? Jesus..

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:50 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 2:29 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Just found out about this today

Use www.bincrawler.com to search for files posted on usenet Crazy

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 11:13 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Updated entry below here.

Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If you are comcast user from attbi days, then expect comcast netnews to stop working Dec. 31. Comcast offering comcast giganews
accounts as replacements, but basically no more free ride on camcast netnews anymore.