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GUIDE: How to Download from Usenet

MCP

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This guide will quickly and easily get you up and running for usenet download access.

What you will need:
  • SABnzdb - This is a small program that runs in your browser. You load an NZB file in it and it will download the files from usenet.
  • a usenet provider
  • (optional) NZBcc - NZB Completion Checker is a program that can load your NZB and verify all files are available for download. This is a great insurance so you're not wasting time downloading an edit that's missing files.
If you want a free service and don't mind a slow connection and monthly download limit of 25GB then check out XS Usenet. (ADDED 7/30/2012: Free accounts at XS Usenet have 10-day retention. This means you can only download files posted within the last ten days. Premium accounts have a 900-day retention.) If you prefer a fast connection and don't mind spending a few bucks I highly recommend NewsDemon. NewsDemon has some great cheap packages starting at $2 for 10GB and go up from there. I generally buy in 200GB for $20. This is not a monthly subscription but non-expiring blocks.

While we do recommend NewsDemon because of the number of options for premium accounts (i.e. monthly and block plans), and we do recommend XSUsenet because they offer a free service, we are not getting any sort of monetary kickback from either provider listed here. We encourage people to do a bit of searching and find a provider that's right for them.

1.) The first thing you need to do is choose your usenet provider and sign up. Even the free account from UX Usenet requires an account. The reason for this is because you will need to ever a username, password and server information into SABnzdg to download files.

2.) Install SABnzdg. This program is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux and runs in your web browser.

WARNING ABOUT SABnzdg: If you set the download folder to be the desktop, the program will search all the other folders on the computer and identify them as folders for downloading. If you delete those folders from the download list, SABnzdg will permanently delete most of the files in your folders. Most of your text, image and video files will be permanently deleted. Special Thanks to Brumous for informing us of this massive bug.

3.) Once SABnzdg is installed run it. You will be see a screen like Figure 1.

sabstill1.jpg

(Figure 1)

4.) Now it's time to configure the program. You should only need to do this once. Click on the Config button (A). You can go through here and configure things as you like, but the important one is Servers (Figure 2). Here is where you'll enter your NNTP Address (Host), the NNTP Port, your Username and Password. All this will be provided by your host. Click Save Changes. Click on Test Server to see if it can make a connection. If it can you're all set!

sabstillserver.jpg

(Figure 2)

5.) It is a good idea to go into the Switches setting and under Post Processing uncheck everything. This should prevent the program from trying to automatically decompressing the files and deleting the archive files. The reason for this is because if one of the compressed files is damaged the program will still delete the successfully decompressed files leaving you with the only option of re-downloading files. This is the safest method to ensure your time (and bandwidth) wasn't wasted. (Thanks to ssj for this tidbit. See his post here.)

6.) Go back to the main SABbzdg window by clicking the Download button (Fig.1 - C). If you have an NZB file click the Add NZB (Fig.1 - D) button.

sabstillupload.jpg


Click the Browse button and locate the NZB file on your computer. Then click Open and then Upload. This will add the NZB file to SABnzbd and automatically begin downloading it.

That's it! The file will download to your system and automatically unarchive the file.

(Alternatively, there is a program called Grabit that comes recommended by a few users here. While I won't be updating the guide to cover this program, it is easy to configure with their guided setup.)

ADDITIONAL GUIDE FOR USING PAR2 FILES TO REPAIR.

http://www.binaries4all.com/quickpar/repair.php

The guide is for QuickPar, but the updated version of the program is MultiPar. The steps should be the same.

Although if you use SABnzbd it has a built in PAR2 recovery method.
 

Rogue-theX

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Yay! Didnt even have to ask for a guide! :)
 

TV's Frink

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Thanks for this, Q. It will save me a ton of mod time. ;)
 

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Q2 said:
sabstill1.jpg

(Figure 1)​


If I may add something here. When I first installed SABnzbd there was a listing next the hard drive free space listing, where it says "128.89 GB Free Space", saying that I had no temporary free space, or something to that effect. I don't know if that's standard or not, but if you install it and you get the same thing you have to click on "Config", then click on "Folders", which you'll see on the left side.

sabnzbd.jpg


Now where it says "Minimum Free Space For Temporary Download Folder", if it's empty like mine was, just enter a number you feel comfortable with and follow it up with the letter "G". As you can see I set mine to "5G", which means that my Temporary Download Folder can store up to 5 GB's.
 

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thanks, Q2. any plans to guide us noobs thru uploading as well?
 

ssj

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shenkyu, neg! you must hold a sprawling map of the fanedit matrix in your skull. ;-)
 

megafat

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So, when do we see something like NZB's on fanedit.info or is that to be sent through PM's?
 

tranzor

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May I ask what OP are you guys installing Sabnzbd on? Running win xp and I get no screens like that at all. Instead it actually opens up a set up wizard in firefox which I do not like (I dl'ed it from the link provided in this post). Also giving a heads up that the free server seems to be down or no longer working for UX usenet
 

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tranzor said:
May I ask what OP are you guys installing Sabnzbd on? Running win xp and I get no screens like that at all. Instead it actually opens up a set up wizard in firefox which I do not like (I dl'ed it from the link provided in this post). Also giving a heads up that the free server seems to be down or no longer working for UX usenet

I'm running on Windows XP. Once you've got it installed and set up they tell you to be sure to bookmark http://localhost:8080/sabnzbd/ because you'll need it later. If you want to run SABnzbd you have to double-click the icon on your desktop and then open your browser and go to the url I posted. If you don't start SABnzbd first you'll get a page saying that it's unable to connect to the server, but if you start SABnzbd first you'll see the page that is shown in Q2's first screenshot.
 

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Frantic Canadian said:
I'm running on Windows XP. Once you've got it installed and set up they tell you to be sure to bookmark http://localhost:8080/sabnzbd/ because you'll need it later. If you want to run SABnzbd you have to double-click the icon on your desktop and then open your browser and go to the url I posted. If you don't start SABnzbd first you'll get a page saying that it's unable to connect to the server, but if you start SABnzbd first you'll see the page that is shown in Q2's first screenshot.

Ahh thank you for that clarification. When I had signed up to UX usenet, in the email they send you with your password and such it has the url for the free route. In that email clicking on it was also telling you it could not load up the page. Perhaps it is a temp glitch? Will try it again in a few days

.. Hmm the premium would not load either. Going to try something ...nope according to http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com the site or server is down. Ok will try again in a few days
 

Frantic Canadian

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tranzor said:
Ahh thank you for that clarification. When I had signed up to UX usenet, in the email they send you with your password and such it has the url for the free route. In that email clicking on it was also telling you it could not load up the page. Perhaps it is a temp glitch? Will try it again in a few days

.. Hmm the premium would not load either. Going to try something ...nope according to http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com the site or server is down. Ok will try again in a few days

No problem. BTW I just checked XS Usenet's site and it's up and working for me. Is this the site you're trying to access?
 

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Frantic Canadian said:
No problem. BTW I just checked XS Usenet's site and it's up and working for me. Is this the site you're trying to access?

the main site was working but these are the two addys it gives in the email and they are still not working. So I have no idea (since the downformeoreverbodyelse site verified they had a problem with it) if its from them or something on my end blocking it

http://reader.xsusenet.com/

and the free one:
http://free.xsusenet.com/

ok it is def glitchy or perhaps limited? Just worked now but was not working 10 seconds before that or earlier in the day

update update and now it is back down again giving "The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."
 

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I want to give a warning about SABnzdg from hard experience. If you set the download folder to be the desktop, the program will search all the other folders on the computer and identify them as folders for downloading. If you delete those folders from the download list, SABnzdg will permanently delete most of the files in your folders. Most of your text, image and video files will be permanently deleted.

After that terrible experience, I uninstalled SABnzdg from my computer. I will try Grabit instead.
 

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Brumous said:
I want to give a warning about SABnzdg from hard experience. If you set the download folder to be the desktop, the program will search all the other folders on the computer and identify them as folders for downloading. If you delete those folders from the download list, SABnzdg will permanently delete most of the files in your folders. Most of your text, image and video files will be permanently deleted.

After that terrible experience, I uninstalled SABnzdg from my computer. I will try Grabit instead.

That's a terrible bug, and I'm sorry to hear all your files were lost! I've amended the guide with your warning so others won't have the same thing happen.
 

ssj

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this whole usenet thing is giving me menstrual cramps. :-(

dealing with RS seems easy in comparison.

for those who've lost their mediafire accounts: does mediafire block the creation of a new account from your IP address? or is it the concern that a new account will be deleted once a DL becomes popular? until recently, mediafire had been the best tool for fanedit access, imho, and i'm probably going to have to skip some kick-arse fanedits if they're available only in nzb form.
 

Q2

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PM me with your usenet woes and I'll help you get up and running. It really shouldn't be that difficult. I manage to get up and running in less than five minutes.
 

Frantic Canadian

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Brumous said:
I want to give a warning about SABnzdg from hard experience. If you set the download folder to be the desktop, the program will search all the other folders on the computer and identify them as folders for downloading. If you delete those folders from the download list, SABnzdg will permanently delete most of the files in your folders. Most of your text, image and video files will be permanently deleted.

After that terrible experience, I uninstalled SABnzdg from my computer. I will try Grabit instead.

The easy solution to that is to just to create a "Downloads" folder in your "My Documents" folder. When you start downloading something it'll then create folders titled "Incomplete" and "Complete" in your "Downloads" folder. While you're downloading something the files will be placed in the "Incomplete" folder, but once the download finishes the files will be automatically moved to the "Complete" folder.
 

Q2

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Regardless, that's a pretty bad bug if it deletes all files within folders if you try saving to desktop.
 

tranzor

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does anyone know of any other free news group providers other than UX usnet since that just does not seem to work (check the links in post #12)
 
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