"Today we can announce that we will not only host .torrent files on RFM, but we are now able to host .NZB files as well. I do not plan to give you an indepth sight of the world of NZB's, but I will explain it a bit more. Eventhough most of you might have already been using NZB's since the stoneages.
Intro:
NZB's can be considered as .torrent files. They contain all the data that you need to download a certain file. However, unlike .torrents, the files have already been uploaded to a server somewhere in the world, so it will not require anyone to seed the file. This also means that you will be able to download at your maximum speed and will never have to look back as soon as the download has completed. There are some pro's and con's to this story though....
News servers, also refered to as Usenet, are a huge collection of servers across the globe and they're all connected to eachother. In the old days, they were used as an alternative for emails and forums. News servers were used for exactly that, to spread the news. Whether that was factual news, domestic or just random banter between a bunch of motorsports fanatics, you could use the news servers to discuss certain matters. Then somebody got the idea to start sharing actual files on these servers, also refered to as binaries. As a result, millions of people across the world are now uploading and downloading data using these servers and that's probably where they got the name 'Usenet' from.
Anyhoo, back to the point. There are certain sites on the web called 'Index sites'. These allow you to search and download NZB files of whatever content you're looking for. Again, the NZB's only contain data of which files to find and where to find them. So they're pretty useless, unless you load them into a newsclient. There are several clients out there, for Windows and Mac, free clients and clients you have to pay for. This is the catch of using news servers. You have to be prepared to invest a little of your money into it. But we'll get to that later. Just keep thinking that NZB's are the same as .torrent files and you'll be fine.
• Torrent -> Torrent client -> Downloading...... -> Happy you -> Seeding.... -> Happy us;
• NZB -> News client -> Downloading...... -> Happy you.
What will you need to have to be able to download content from usenet:
- News client (to download content with);
- Access to usenet (no access, no content);
- NZB index site (to find content you want to download).
News clients:
I can not really help you select the news client, although I can give you some tips. My personal favorite is Newsleecher, although it isn't for free. Very easy in use, doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out. You can find free clients using this link:
http://usenetreviewz.com/free-us…et-clients. I think Grabit and Sabnzbd are the most used free clients out there.
Usenet access:
Most ISP's (Internet Service Providers) support newsgroups. This means that if you check the website of your ISP and do a search for 'Usenet' or 'news server', you'll most likely find details to set you up with free access. The problem with free access is, that you will be throttled in speed by quite a lot. In case your ISP does not support Usenet or you simply want a faster connection, then you can always get a subscription at a Usenet provider. These are not free, but prices are incredibly marginable if you consider what you get in return.
Some examples:
- Eweka;
- Giganews;
- Hitnews;
But you can check this list as well, there are more providers that are not mentioned on the list, but these are considered the best:
http://usenetreviewz.com/best-usenet-providers.
NZB Index sites:
Index sites allow you to search for content and download the NZB files. They basically collect data from all newsgroups (servers) and provide you with easy access to this data. There are a lot of index sites out there, but here is a list of the index sites that are used the most:
http://usenetreviewz.com/usenet-search. My personal choice is Binsearch.info.
Closing:
Something that I can not forget to mention, is retention. Retention is the age of the uploaded data. If your Usenet provider tells you that they have a retention of 100 days, it means you can download data from usenet that isn't older than 100 days. You could try to download files that are 110 days old, but chances are that the files are broken. However, most uploads also contain PAR / PAR2 files. These are files that you can use to repair broken files with. Most files on usenet are split in many several rar files (ex. .r01 - .r50 or .rar01 - .rar50). If one of those files is broken (incomplete), then you can repair them using the PAR files. To check whether a file is broken or not, you use Quickpar (
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/Download.htm).
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Now what has all this to do with RFM, you might ask. Well, you can now upload NZB's to RFM so others have easy access to the motorsport-related files on Usenet. If you upload content of your own or if you find something on usenet, you are now able to upload the NZB's to RFM. I used to upload a lot of content to Usenet and I know some members are still doing that. So instead of only torrent files, we now offer the option of NZB / Usenet as well.
I also improved the search engine for easier access to all the data available here on RFM. If you want to search for a specific file, you can use the searchbox at the top of the site, select a category (using the radio button) and hit the search button. You can search in Torrents, NZB's, Forums and Members. Just don't forget to use 'AND' between your keywords to get the best results (ex. formula1 AND brazil AND x264).
For more information on Usenet and anything that goes with it, please visit Google. tongue
News servers / Usenet = collection of servers across the globe;
Newsgroup = server name;
News client = program to download usenet content with;
Usenet provider = provides you with access to usenet;
Binaries = name for useable files, not text;
Retention = age of the data on usenet;
Quickpar / PAR / PAR2 = files to repair broken downloads. "
