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How to Download Music from Newsgroups

By soulxtc

An easy-to-use reference guide for those looking for a way to download free music with Usenet newsgroups.

Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications still in use, having been first conceived way back in 1979 by a pair of Duke University graduate students to basically post messages as a sort of public bulletin board system.

It’s evolved greatly since then and has become a robust means of downloading music, music, and more like file-sharing programs such as BitTorrent, KaZaA, eDonkey, etc..

In this guide I’ll show you how to get started using newsgroups to download your favorite albums.

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1. Usenet Newsgroup Service Provider

First you’ll need a newsgroup subscription so you can access music to download.

Some ISPs offer very basic access for free, with important hierarchies like alt.binaries (where most copyrighted material can be found) omitted so its important that you subscribe to a service so you can access the latest and greatest music.

Prices range from $3 to $30 p/mo, each service having a variety of pros and cons to take into consideration. Some have data caps others offer transport layer security (TLS) encryption. Data retention, the number of days articles (i.e. music) are stored on a news server before being deleted must also be considered.

The one preferred by most is Giganews, myself included, for it has more data, or ?binary retention? (365), available than any other Usenet provider. It even boasts that Usenet members upload more than 5TB of new content on a daily basis.

Others include:

• Binverse
• PowerUsenet
• NewsDemon
• Newshosting
• NewsgroupDirect
• UseNetServer

For a review of different sites, pricing, etc. visit Anchordudes and Newsgroup Reviews.

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2. Newsreader

Next you’ll need a program so you can actually download the music from the newsgroups.

A newsreader is an application that lets you ?read? newsgroup articles on Usenet. There are several types, of which the text type, like Outlook Express or Mozilla?s Thunderbird, is only usable for reading/posting text, and others like the binary grabber type, such as Grabit or Newsbin, are for downloading binary posts that contain content like music.

Alt.binz (free) is the one I?m currently using, but there are a number to choose from. Some are free and some aren’t. The pay ones usually offer advanced features, upgrades, etc..

• Newsbin Pro ($35.00)
• Newsleecher ($19.99)
• Grabit (free)
• Pan (free)
• Xnews (free)

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3. Usenet Indexing Sites

Now we need to find a place to search for music we want to download in the newsgroups

The easiest way is to use Usenet indexing sites which do just that, indexing newsgroup posts so that you can browse or search by keyword for a particular artist or album.

Some, like Newzbin for example, are private and require an invite, and some require basic registration.

• NZBMatrix (free, reg)
• Binsearch.info (free, no reg)
• MerlinsPortal.net (free, reg)
• Newzbin.com (paysite)
• Newzleech (free, no reg) ? considered the best free site around
• Ngindex (paysite)
• Nzb.to (free, reg)
• NZBIndex (free, no reg)
• NZBs?R’US (free, reg)
• Nzbrus (free, reg)
• Prettyboo (free, reg)
• YabSearch (free, no reg)

(There?s also a program called NZBLeecher which allows you to search multiple indexing sites simultaneously)

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4. Show Me How to Do It!

For the purpose of this guide I will show you how to actually begin downloading an album, but please note that nothing was actually downloaded just in case anyone would try to accuse me of illegal downloading.

a) Pick a site and enter the name of an artist

As you can see I used NZBIndex to find some Beatles albums.

b) Download the music album’s .nzb file

The .nzb file is what lets you retrieve the corresponding data from the newsgroup server.

c) Open the .nzb file in your newsreader

d) When it’s done just unrar it and you’re ready to go.

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It’s that simple.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

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Also check out How to Download Movies from Newsgroups

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on September 10, 2009 (boomark / email).