Posts Tagged ‘Usenet’

Until recently when I needed to download media, either from Usenet or torrents, I searched for it manually. This usually involved either using a web based service or an IRC channel, searching for keywords and sifting through results that include spam as well as resolutions and file-types that were not what I was looking for. After successfully downloading the files, I would then manually sort them into their respective folders in my media collection, and rename them if necessary. This was especially tedious for items released on a regular basis (such as television shows), as the process would have to be done weekly for each item.


I realized there must be an easier way.


I had already been using SABnzbd for a while, as it was the only binary newsreader I could find with support for iPhone remote management, and I have to say, I loved it. SABnzbd has a very clean, intuitive interface, and although it doesn’t have quite the features of applications like Newsbin, it has many addons, such as the chrome and Firefox extensions, and a number of iPhone apps. Also, SABnzbd is free, open source, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. All the applications that will be used in this article utilize the extensibility of SABnzbd. Some can be used without it, but much of the functionality would be lost.

Sick Beard is a program that will periodically search for specified shows on various usenet search sites. When Sick Beard finds the episodes it is looking for, it downloads the NZB file, and sends it to SABnzbd for downloading. Sick Beard also comes with a script for SABnzbd post-processing, allowing for automatic renaming and sorting of downloaded media.

Sick Beard also supports downloading of NZB files to a “black hole” folder, rather then sending them directly to SABnzbd. This allows for other applications to pick the files up for downloading. In addition to usenet download support, Sick Beard also provides some torrent support, although there would be no provided post processing script so some extra configuration would probably be required to get file renaming working properly.

CouchPotato is similar in concept to Sick Beard, only it works with movies. Simply search for a movie using the application, and select the movie you want from a list of movies matching your search query that CouchPotato pulls from IMDB. The application will then search for all the movies in your queue at specified intervals, download the NZB file, and then either send the file to SABnzbd for downloading or send the file to a “black hole” folder, similar to Sick Beard.

These programs are the best I have found for the job, but off course these are just a couple suggestions. Episodebutler offers similar functionality to Sickbeard, although I have no personal experience with this one.

Also, a completely different route to go would be simply using RSS feeds. This can cause an issue however, as reposts will be downloaded multiple times.

While BitTorrent might be all the rage, I’m a Usenet guy.

I am honestly not very patient when it comes to obtaining things I want, so waiting hours or days for downloads to complete has never been my strong suit. Aside from the original Napster, BitTorrent and similar P2P apps have never been something I have enjoyed using. Usenet however, is a completely different experience – one which I highly recommend.

You may or may not have heard of Usenet before, but it has likely been around longer than you have. In fact, the first spam message ever delivered was done so via Usenet. It’s the Internet’s oldest and best-kept “secret”. This is partly because Usenet is kind of like “Fight Club” in that the only real, yet unofficial rule is, “You do not talk about Usenet.”

I on the other hand do tell people about Usenet. However, I only do so provided I have deemed them technically capable enough to handle the task. This is really one of the main reasons why I think Usenet remains a little more obscure than most other online technology. While Usenet is not as complex as say, compiling your own Linux distro from scratch, there is definitely a learning curve that stretches beyond the patience and understanding of most people. I find that the benefits of Usenet far outweigh the cost and effort associated with using it.

The major highlight of Usenet is that there is virtually no waiting. You don’t have to wait hours for a slow download to complete. You don’t have to sit and hope that there are enough peers available to grab that old file you are looking for. When something is posted to Usenet, it’s there for good (almost). When you select a file that you want, you are able to download it as fast as your broadband connection can handle, provided you selected a good Usenet provider. Everything is “just there” – no waiting, no fuss…you just grab and go.

That said, if you are contemplating leaving the world of trackers and leechers behind, I will be more than happy to lead you to the path of enlightenment…

Continue reading “An Introduction to Usenet” »

Written from the ground up in C#, MailBin is a small application that checks your Gmail account for NZB,  Zip, and .Torrent files, allowing you to remotely queue up Usenet and BitTorrent downloads at any remote location.  It’s a great tool for when you find something you want to download while away from home, but you want it to be ready by the time you get there.

If you are an avid fan of Usenet or BitTorrent, and happen to use a newsreader/torrent client that will auto queue files (Like Newsbin or uTorrent), give it a try!

Visit the MailBin download page

I have put together a little program that will accept any number of directories as input and “Suction” the contents of any subdirectory to the top folder, deleting all empty subfolders left behind after the operation.

Morehpperliter was quite fond of the “Unify” function in DirUtils, which does not run on 64-bit machines and as far as I know is no longer developed, so he asked if I knew of an alternative.  I did not, so I created one.

The program is simple, lightweight, and very handy if you have to wrangle a lot of files (this means you Usenet and BitTorrent users), so give it a try!

Visit the Suction download page