How to Download From Usenet
Usenet predates the World Wide Web by more than 10 years and remains the Internet's largest discussion forum. Consisting of thousands of newsgroups and no central server, Usenet allows the Internet community to post and read messages as well as share binary files such as image, audio and video files by encoding these large files and splitting them up into smaller parts spread across multiple messages. These files can then be downloaded and reconstructed with the use of newsreaders that support binary downloads.
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Instructions
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Get Setup to Download Files from Usenet
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Get an account or access to a Usenet server. In the past, most Internet service providers either hosted their own or provided access to third-party Usenet servers for their customers. This has become increasingly rare, however, despite Usenet being an important part of Internet access. If your ISP provides the service, you will need the NNTP address and any login information required. If Usenet is not included with your Internet service, you will need to find a Usenet server to use. You can subscribe to commercial services can for a fee as low as a few dollars a month.
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Install newsreader (NNTP) software. Email programs such as Microsoft Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird allow you to read newsgroups, and there are many freely available readers for the operating system of your choice. If you wish to download binary files, you will want Usenet binary downloading software, which is a little more advanced and capable of downloading and decoding binary files in bulk. For maximum support, try to find software that also supports the NZB format. You can save yourself a lot of time by using NZB files to automatically point your reader to all the articles it needs to download specific files.
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Open your Usenet binary downloading software and add a new server. You will need to enter the Usenet server address and the port (usually 119) and, if it is a non-public server, your username and password.
Download Files from Usenet
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Download the list of newsgroups available from your Usenet server. The option to do this will vary between Usenet readers and binary downloading, but it is often found under the server options. It may take several minutes the first time you download the list. Once downloaded, you will only need to do periodic updates to ensure that you have a current list of available groups.
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Subscribe to groups that interest you. A typical Usenet server will have thousands of groups to choose from, so make use of your newsreader's search feature to narrow down the type of content you are looking for. Subscribing to a group will allow you to return to it quickly as well as keep up with new articles posted to it. Keep in mind that newsgroups can easily contain tens of thousands of articles going back months or even years, so if your Usenet software allows you to delete articles older than a certain number of days, consider using it to save time.
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Browse through the articles that interest you. When it comes to Usenet, subject lines are key. Most newsreaders and downloading software will let you search article subjects for keywords of interest to you to speed up your search.
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Select articles containing parts of the file(s) you want to download. In most cases, the files will be split over multiple articles so make sure you select all of them. Use the subject lines as guides to keep track. They should read something like "part 1 of 22." If any parts of the file are missing, you might save yourself wasted time by not even attempting it since the file probably won't decode properly without all the parts. A lot of images can fit within the constraints of a single article, so you may be able to view them in the newsreader simply by opening the article.
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Start the download. It may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes to download your files, depending on how many articles there are and how much data has to be decoded. If all goes well, your binary downloading software will have converted the file from a lot of cryptic text to a binary file.
Download Files from Usenet using NZB Files
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Download an NZB for the Usenet file(s) you want to download. NZB files contain instructions that your Usenet binary downloading software needs to find all the articles containing parts of the file you want. These files can be found around the Web and there are Web sites dedicated to keeping track of them.
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Open the NZB file with your Usenet downloading software. Once open, you should see a list of Usenet articles that will need to be downloaded.
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Start the download. You may need to select these articles first if your newsreader software has not done it already. Once started, the downloading software will grab any encoded data in these articles. If all the articles are available from the Usenet server, the file should be downloaded and decoded automatically.
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Tips & Warnings
Most Usenet servers have limits on how much data you can download within a set period of time. Keep track of how much you have downloaded so you do not exceed your limit.
Just because files are available via Usenet does not mean that they are legal. Make sure you aware of what you are downloading and any copyright laws that may apply to you.
