The *arrs unfortunately don't really work that well with oneclick hosters. I had a setup of jdownloader combined with filebot and a sharehoster premium account once in a while, and then using Plex to access the media. Since then I switched to *arrs in combination with Usenet and am glad I could leave the oneclick hosters behind. Especially when you are frequently paying for them, it's absolutely worth the money (Usenet providers and indexers are mostly paid and I would recommend against free ones). If you are interested, this guide is an excellent entrypoint.
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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How can I get started on usenet? I’ve been wanting to use it for years but never figured out how..
Get a Usenet provider, a download client and a few indexers, set them up, and start downloading. Maybe automate with *arr apps at some point.
Some suggestions:
- Provider: UsenetServer ($1/month trial + $50/year discount)
- Downloader: SABnzbd
- Indexers: NZBGeek, altHUB, NZBIndex, abook.link (Forum), SceneNZBs (German), Tabula Rasa (invite only), NZBCat (invite only)
Most indexers let you search for free on their website, but grabbing download links and using their API with *arr apps is limited (e.g. 10 downloads and 100 API queries per day) unless you pay for VIP access (usually about $10/year/indexer). So you can try out a few, maybe pay for one or two that give you good results, and keep using the rest within the limits of free accounts.
Are you German? Then this guide would probably be the best way to start. If not, I cannot really recommend a good guide. But you'll essentially need a Usenet provider (like eweka.nl) to access the Usenet and an indexer (like SceneNZBs) to find stuff. These two can be combined with e.g. SABnzbd as a downloader and the *arr software suite to automate the discovery and downloading of media.
Thank you. I have to think about that. But I'm kind of opposed to pay. I'm not sure if I'm alone with that, but it feels wrong to me, to pay someone to handle stolen goods for me. That's not my idea of piracy. I'd rather wait 3 days for those super slow downloads to finish. But you're probably right and someday I should visit the Usenet and see what it's all about.
Then I can only recommend jdownloader to collect the links and download the files and filebot for organizing and consistent naming. The sharehosters cannot really be automated, because they have captchas everywhere and there exists no standardized index (like for torrents or Usenet). Instead, everything is forum based (like Serienfans or movie fans). And for just organizing manually downloaded files, I found the *arrs not really feasible.
If you don't want to pay for an account anywhere (VPN/Usenet/Debrid/...), then you might want to try out Torrent + I2P. I haven't used it myself, but from what I know it's a slower but completely provider-less alternative to VPNs for anonymization, and Torrents are free ofc.
That being said, you'll have a much easier time if you pay for a seedbox for example. It's just a small server in a datacenter somewhere, that happens to be better connected and more private than your typical home internet connection, and that you can use however you like.
Thanks, that's a good idea to try.
Regarding the seedbox... I have a VPS and also a NAS at home. I can use any of that. But both are tied to my name and bank account. How do you people operate seedboxes? Are there providers that do that anonymously? Do you pay in crypto currency? Or how does that provide any benefit over using something that has my name and address on the contract?
You mainly depend on the fact that the providers don't keep logs and don't have to disclose your info. It's not 100% safe, but nothing really is. The risk of misconfigurating your VPN and accidentally leaking your IP is very real as well for example.
Ah, I get it. You operate it behind a VPN and the seedbox is just a means to get a 24/7 running Linux machine. I think I could do the same on my NAS at home. I mean it takes the same court order to reveal my identity whether it's my internet service provider or my hosting provider... And the VPN is the only thing protecting me if I were to torrent pirated stuff... Or am I missing something?
The juristiction where the provider operates, and the logging/disclosure requirements are very important! ISPs are often required to keep logs, VPN/Seedbox/Hosting providers usually are not. I'm not a lawyer and so on, but I could also imagine that logs from some VPN showing your IP was used to download/upload something are not as good as evidence as a mandatory (and probably somehow checked/verified) logs of an ISP are.
Another thing are provider incentives. If you're running a general purpose hosting business you probably don't want any shady stuff on your servers, and so you're pretty happy to comply with any reasonable information request in that direction. As a VPN/Seedbox provider your business depends on people feeling safe and private on your servers, so you'll do everything in your power to fight these requests, and there is a lot that can be done to fight them. And ofc if they do as they say and don't keep logs then they don't even have the requested information.
You operate it behind a VPN and the seedbox is just a means to get a 24/7 running Linux machine
I don't think you need Seedbox + VPN. You can do that of course, but just one is usually enough. The important bit is that other torrent clients don't see your personal home IP address, and the provider that does know your IP doesn't have the obligation or incentive to disclose it. But if you want the extra protection you could search for VPN/Seedbox providers that accept crypto as payment, and chain multile VPNs or VPNs and a Seedbox, so none of them have the full picture. I think that's pretty overkill though, and probably hell to set up and maintain. At that point you should probably go with Tor or I2P instead, because that's basically how they operate (onion/garlic routing).
seedbox is just a means to get a 24/7 running Linux machine
They usually have very beefy connections, far better than what you get for your home internet, especially when it comes to uploads (asymmetric subscriber lines etc.).
Ditch OCH and switch to Usenet. I still regret not switching earlier. File hosters are outdated (from the usability perspective), restricted (in terms of usage), and overpriced.
There is no automation for file hosters. Solving filecrypt captchas and pushing to jdownloader is not possible to automate.
PS: It's called file hoster not OCH.
I've never really understood Usenet. As i understand it, usenetb is essentially centralized. Even though the experience might be better, i feel it is less safe? Also when taken into account there is payment and therefore zero anonymity..
I guess the idea is (make of that what you want):
- Usenet is not illegal by itself (but well, same goes for torrenting)
- As long as law enforcement doesn't get its hands on the server it can't tell what you download, as long as you use TLS (no VPN required, but doesn't hurt either)
- But even if: Usenet providers (hopefully) don't keep logs of what you downloaded, so for all we know you just paid the provider to download actual news/Linux ISOs?
- But even if they do: You are not uploading anything -> you are probably less interesting to law enforcement and they might just ignore you (especially if you use some payment method that might require going through some extra steps to link it to you as a person)