Safe P2P????

[evil jose]

With all the shit going on I'm getting worried about downloading. Suggestions? I'm probably doing my last bit of downloading tonight before I uninstall Kazaa :(

[DarkWolf]

Keep Kazaa around for the hard to find stuff. But go get XNews (doesn't need to be installed), and sign up with a good newsgroup service (or if you already have newsgroups, and they're not moderated, have at it!).

If what you're looking for isn't there ... it's probably not anywhere. Most of the legit shit on Kazaa is just stuff people have downloaded from newsgroups, then put them in their shared folders for redistribution over Kazaa and the like.

Newsgroups = almost complete annonymity.

[DarkWolf]

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, unless your newsgroup service has a capped download speed, you can always expect pretty much full speed downloads ... unlike p2p where you rely on the person(s) on the other end's connection(s).

.5KBps anyone? :rolleyes:

I'll take my 140 - 170KBps, thank you very much :D

[Stang2be]

Yeah not too many ppl use newsgroups. Mostly just other techies that I know of. Any idea if comcast filters their news? I think they are just reusing/reselling someone elses news service. How are things in Allen DarkWolf?

[AbecX]

Originally posted by 64falcon
Yeah not too many ppl use newsgroups.
LOL!! I can gurantee there is more newsgroup users then Kazaa users.

[MoonDog]

Originally posted by AbecX
LOL!! I can gurantee there is more newsgroup users then Kazaa users.

Thats what I was thinking. I always thought that there were 10s of millions of users in the various newsgroups, verses the 3-4 million on Kazaa.

[Stang2be]

and here I thought the newsgroups were just for pictures.

I usually get my p2p type stuff the old school way via ftp from IRC friends in low places.

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by 64falcon
Yeah not too many ppl use newsgroups. Mostly just other techies that I know of. Any idea if comcast filters their news? I think they are just reusing/reselling someone elses news service. How are things in Allen DarkWolf?

Not sure if Comcast filters their news. I think they just use another service, but not sure which one.

Best we've found so far, is UseNet (http://www.usenet.com). Has all known newsgroups, uncensored, unmoderated, multiple OC12 connections, 1 - 3+ week retention times, and enough servers to pick and choose from to safely say 100% completion. Unlimited membership is $40 / month with up to 3 simultaneous connections. I got with a couple buddies, and we're splitting the cost, and all three of us can be on, and downloading, even from the same servers, at the same time.

And things in Allen are pretty much the same as in McKinney. It's pretty sad, actually. :p

[AbecX]

Originally posted by 64falcon
IRC

<-- #redhathelp on EFNet ;)

[evil jose]

Thanks for the info guys!

[evil jose]

Thanks for the info guys!

AbecX is gay!

[Osiris]

Originally posted by evil jose
Thanks for the info guys!

AbecX is gay!

:eek:

[Mr Evil]

Comcast uses GigaNews. I think there is a 1 gig limit tho. And Im pretty sure I can't see the good binary groups I like thru them. Plus, I believe there is a 1 gig download limit per month per account.

[evil jose]

OK, where can I find a list of free newsgroups that I can mess around with? And what's Comcast's newsgroup info?

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Mr Evil
Comcast uses GigaNews. I think there is a 1 gig limit tho. And Im pretty sure I can't see the good binary groups I like thru them. Plus, I believe there is a 1 gig download limit per month per account.

Ouch! 1GB / Month? Damn. I'd tag that in a day, easy. That sucks.

Jose, I haven't seen any free servers that are unmoderated (meaning all the binary, multimedia, and exe groups are either non-existant due to their filtering, or the attachements are stripped, making all the threads just plain text). Also, I think they are heavily capped on your download limit.

I know UseNet is a month to month thing. $9.95 / month for the lowest package, but only offers access to news.usenet.com :( $14.95 / month will get you Gold access, which gets you the Colossus East & West servers, which have everything, and each have a 500MB / day limit (use both, and that's 1GB / day).

$19.95 gets you Platinum Access, which is access to all the servers, except unlimited.usenet.com, and they all have a 750MB / day cap. Use them all, and that's about 12GB / day.

For $29.95 you get Elite access. Same servers, just the download cap is 13GB / day when using all servers (all servers have a 500MB / day limit, with the main binary servers having a 3GB / day cap. Elite membership breakdown (http://www.usenet.com/elite_pop_up.htm). Basically when you choose Elite, I guess you choose which type of membership, Elite Multimedia, Elite MP3, etc, and the two servers pertaining to that membership become 3GB / day, while all the rest stay at 500MB / day).

Then there's Unlimited, which is $39.95 / month. Access to all servers, including unlimited.usenet.com. All servers have 1GB / day cap, except unlimited.usenet.com, which are unlimited.

I'd recommend just starting with the Gold package to see if you like it. If you don't, it's only $15 out of pocket. If you do, but need more download options, move up to Platinum or Elite, or even Unlimited if you want (do like I did, and get a couple friends to split the cost with. Between the 3 of us, it's costing each less than the Gold membership / month to all have unlimited access).

[xtremcoder]

so anyone want to show us new people how to use these newsgroups? ive heard about them for a while but never read up on them...

[Nano]

For music in particular, soulseek is exceedingly good for rare stuff. ( slsk.org, afaik ) and usenet for anything else, really.

[Mr Evil]

Originally posted by evil jose
OK, where can I find a list of free newsgroups that I can mess around with? And what's Comcast's newsgroup info?

Just sign up for the 5 day trial at GigaNews.com. You get 5 days or 1 gig download, whichever comes first. Use my referal link and get 1.5 gigs.

Unlimited download / day (based on your acct)
access to all newsgroups
unmoderated, etc.

[DarkWolf]

Our only problem with GigaNews was a monthly limit. Unlimited per day may be nice, but when you run out of your limit for the month, that kinda sucks.

With UseNet, there's no monthly limit. The limit per day goes up from 750MB / day, to 13GB / day, to Unlimited / day if you sign up for the unlimited account. 12GB per day for Platinum accounts. If you can use 12GB in a day ... I bow to you :D This works out well for multiple people using the same account.

GigaNews's breakdown:
10GB / Month = 0.33GB / day
20GB / Month = 0.66GB / day
40GB / Month = 1.33GB / day
100GB / Year = 0.27GB / day
200GB / Year = 0.55GB / day
400GB / Year = 1.10GB / day

Granted, if you only use it yourself, maybe this might work for you. But if you go in with a group of people (like me) to cover the higher costs, these limits aren't going to be suited for multiple users very well. GigaNews offers 10 connections I see. Which seems nice, until you realize that with up to 10 people using it would drain the download limit in no time. Suddenly $43.99 / month becomes exponentially more when that 1.33GB / day is being far exceeded. Or that $359.99 / year becomes exponentially more, when that 1.10GB / day is being far exceeded.

Just a comparison:
UseNet Gold = $14.95 / month, 3GB / day, ~90GB / month
GigaNews = $11.99 / month, 0.33GB / day, 10GB / month

UseNet Platinum = $19.95 / month, 12GB / day, ~360GB / month
GigaNews = $22.99 / month, 0.66GB / day, 20GB / month

UseNet Unlimited = $39.95 / month, Unlimited / day, unlimited / month
GigaNews = $43.99 / month, 1.33GB / day, 40GB / month

Personally, even for someone just wanting to use these services by themselves, I think UseNet is the better way to go. But definitely UseNet, if you want to go in with a group of people.