Just wondering what a rough split is of people using either Usenet, torrents, or both?

I’ve only just discovered Usenet and while it is paid, it is very cheap and much more convenient than torrents.

Using torrents as well with the *arr suite set up for my various Linux ISOs.

  • NotBadAndYou@ttrpg.network
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    5 months ago

    Usenet as daily driver works 99% of the time. Only use VPN/torrents for extremely new or very obscure shows. $5/month pays for unlimited Usenet and VPN.

      • shrugal@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        This UsenetServer discount link gives you 1 trial month for $1, then $50/year after that, and includes a 1TB TweakNews block and a paid PrivadoVPN account.

        • Sunny' 🌻@slrpnk.net
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          5 months ago

          Just want to let you know that Privado VPN is not a private vpn, please read their privacy policy before buying into their services.

    • kamiheku@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      Only use VPN/torrents for extremely new or very obscure shows

      Interesting, I would have thought torrents would be better for older stuff due to their theoretically infinite retention. Like, can you find, say, LOTR: The Return of the King on Usenet at the moment? Someone has to have uploaded it in the past ~2 years (retention period) or something for it to be available, right?

      • davidfreina@lemmy.davidfreina.at
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        5 months ago

        Afaik most usenet providers have a retention period of 3000+ days (some even reaching 4000+). I’ve downloaded multiple things from the 90s without any problems. The oldest media in my collection is from 1957, so retention really isn’t a problem I would say.

      • Footnote2669@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        LOTR = anything from 4K HDR 7.1 Atmos, down to DVD is available (theoretically, as you can have items that exists, but can’t be fully downloaded so don’t work, because of DMCA and other things). The oldest release I see is 5800 days old and the newest is 4 days old. So people keep reuploading stuff if it’s popular enough. (I still can’t find some episodes of Ben 10 tv show lol)

  • veroxii@aussie.zone
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    5 months ago

    20% torrent and 80% stremio with real debrid.

    Stremio and RD is just so easy. Torrent for anything I really want to keep forever in very high quality.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I have no idea what to do or how to even get started with Usenet, so I just use a VPN and torrent as needed.

    • bzxt@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      I am also in that basket. To me Usenet seems like another, older protocol that achieves practically the same thing. If someone is more knowledgeble, feel free to correct me or explain further.

  • viking@infosec.pub
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    5 months ago

    I’m mostly downloading fairly recently released stuff, so there’s no shortage of torrents on public trackers.

    I also don’t want any payment details associated with anything not explicitly legal, so that’d be a further deterrent from Usenet. Sure, I could use crypto, but even that links me to a wallet that might someday be traced back to me, so I’ll pass.

    • overload@sopuli.xyzOP
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      5 months ago

      I have wondered this as well. Seems like it is pretty linked.

      Tbf, Usenet and indexers are strictly speaking, legal.

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        Right, but whatever I’m doing on there really isn’t.

        As a matter of fact my current jurisdiction doesn’t even pursue copyright infringements, but I still don’t want to be linked to anything commonly seen as shady.

        • overload@sopuli.xyzOP
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          5 months ago

          Fair enough, I was under the impression that if you are using SSL, all an ISP or VPN provider could see is that you are connected to whichever backbone provider you were connected to. I.e. The content of what you are downloading is encrypted.

          You could be downloading stuff that is not illegal, and I don’t think that is necessarily knowable by anyone except yourself.

          I may be way off here, I’m not an IT person, but that was my understanding of SSL.

        • GasMaskedLunatic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          It’s funny you put it that way, because torrents are based fundamentally on the idea of freely hosting the data so nobody has to pay to access it.

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        You pay for traffic. There are some free versions out there, but they limit you to 10-25 GB or something. Might be an option for the 1% you can’t find on public trackers.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        You can get free accounts from sites like Eternal September, but you only get access to text groups, which are mostly full of spam anymore. If you don’t download much, it’s best to just get a block account.

  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    I’m 100% torrents if I need it. Fmovies or other sites seem to have the minority of what I want to watch.

    Is there a guide on how to use usenet? What does it offer that torrents does not? Is it nitch stuff?

  • Nyarlathotep@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    100% Usenet here. Maybe I am basic, but it has everything I want and grabbing stuff is very easy.

    Once in a great while I cannot find something and then I ask a friend to check his private trackers.

    YMMV