The Dutch Usenet provider XSUsenet is currently offering free lifetime accounts to access the Usenet. Usenet in this regard includes access to binary groups which usually are not offered for free Usenet users.

You get free life time access, a solid 600 day retention, no IP retention, no personal details on file. All you need to do to sign up is to enter information into the registration form on the provider homepage.

Here you need to enter a valid email address and a country (only Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are selectable). Once done you get the login and server details send to the email address that you have entered in the form.

You can then use the information to connect to the Usenet. The speed is capped at 1Mbit per second at two connection tops. Users who need more speed or connections can upgrade their account to premium access starting at $6.99 for a 100 Mbit connection per month.

Free Usenet clients that you can use are the web based SABnzbd or Grabit. Please note that Usenet or newsgroups are not only about downloading binary files. You find many discussion groups there, Mozilla is for instance using the Usenet for some of their development discussions.

It is likely that the company will eventually close down the creation of new free accounts. I’d suggest you grab a free account as soon as possible.

I have tested the service and it worked just fine. I received the confirmation email with the Usenet server information in my email. Setup was a breeze and connection speed was as advertised.

Users who are just starting with the Usenet, or want to try it without giving away personal information can use the service to do just that. It is not anonymous though, considering that the service still sees the IP that you signed up with and that you connect with.

You can check out the service’s homepage here. The sign up form is at the right side. (via)

Most private and public Usenet indexation services (like the public service Binsearch) allow you to download multiple files directly as NZB files that you can then load into your program to start the download. That’s almost like using a download manager for specific file types on the Internet.

NZBGrab is a desktop search engine for Usenet NZB files. You can use it to search three NZB Indexation services on the Internet. It supports the private service NZBs.org and the two public services NZBIndex and Binsearch.

You can use filters at the top to filter results, for instance by specific group, age or minimum and maximum file size. The completed box is handy as it will only display uploaded files that are completely available on the Usenet.

A right-click on a file and the selection of Download > Single Items, Smart or Collection downloads the selected files to the local computer system. You may need to set a download directory first under Settings though.

Users of the free Usenet client SABnzbd can integrate the search directly with their program. This basically sends all selected NZB files directly to the downloader bypassing the need to manually load the NZB into a compatible software.

One interesting feature is the Auto TV option which basically allows you to configure specific tv shows that you want to monitor and download from the Usenet. Please note that this may or may not be legal in your country.

NZBGrab is a handy program for users who prefer a desktop application to search for NZB files. The program seems to lack a universal search option which would search all supported NZB indexers right away. The program regardless of that is responsive and handy, especially so for SABnzbd users.

You can download the latest version of NZBGrab from the developer website. The program is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. If you need a reliable high class Usenet Provider, check out Giganews (that’s what I use).

The invention of the NZB format changed that. An NZB file contains information about all files that are part of an upload. This means that it was possible from then on to load the NZB file to initiate the download of all files of that package.

Even better was the fact that it was also the birth of Usenet indexers, who crawl the Usenet for files and offer on the fly nzb creations (check out our list of Usenet indexing sites)

nzb newsgroups downloader

The Usenet client had to support the NZB format, which nowadays most clients do. You may remember from previous posts that we are really fond of Newsbin, a commercial Usenet software, that supports nzb files and a lot more.

Those users who prefer a free bare bones alternative might find find a suitable program in HelloNZB, a NZB newsgroups downloader. The free program specializes in NZB files, which makes it very simple to use and configure. The specialization has a few disadvantages as well, more about that later in the review.

The Java application needs to be configured prior to usage. The first step is the configuration of a Usenet server under Server Settings in the preferences.

We recommend the premium Usenet provider Giganews, but there are cheaper alternatives available as well, and some Internet users may even be lucky enough to have free access to a Usenet server, courtesy of the ISP.

The program accepts NZB files after the initial configuration, which can be loaded from the program interface. There is unfortunately no drag and drop support at this point in the development.

All NZB files are loaded into the NZB queue. The files are displayed on the right and the connection information at the bottom. A click on the start button initiates the downloads.

HelloNZB is a very basic Usenet software. It lacks many features that experienced users require, including the ability to configure multiple servers, the ability to browse groups manually, different download directories, thumbnail previews, speed limitations or an option to automatically process downloaded files so that they are unpacked to a directory.

Still, users with an Usenet account who only download files occasionally may want to give HelloNZB a try. It is easy to use which makes it suitable for users of all experience levels.

The nzb format changed that. It was basically a file that could be loaded into the newsreader which would then add the referenced files to the download queue. Very handy and probably the main starting point for all usenet indexing sites who now offer nzb downloads to their users.

If you visit the main site of the Usenet indexing service you are informed that Newzbin “has to close as a result of [..] legal action”.

The announcement links to a blog post that contains additional information about the case.

Things are moving fast at everyones favourite Usenet indexer Newzbin. A Newzbin Editor let slip some interesting gossip to me on IRC. Apparently Newzbin has been put into administration yesterday because it couldn’t pay its debts. Word is that they owe the MPA £230,000 just in interim costs, and that’s without a full costs ruling or a decision on damages. Apparently they also owe a software development house over £500k. They also stopped taking payments a few weeks back.

It seems that Newzbin is gone for good but the nzb file will remain and thrive as it did in the last years. Check out our list of Usenet indexing sites for alternatives.

Even compressed videos such as rar files which is the dominant format on Usenet these days can be viewed when the first rar files are downloaded to your hard drive. No need to wait to download the complete rar set to start watching the movie.

The video will be saved on the hard drive which means that you can watch the video again and do not need to download it again from the Usenet.

NZB Player uses so called nzb files, which contain the information about the location of the file on the Usenet, to show the videos. A rule of thumb is that you can only use nzb files that point to one video which means that you can’t use nzbs that contain a movie on two cds for instance.

It is however possible to use nzb search engines to split these and create two nzb files which would work fine with NZB Player. Uncompressed MPG files will not play as well while compressed ones work fine. NZB Player can play avi files, vcd and svcd movies and several other files.

I especially like the feature that it streams the movie while you are downloading it which is great for preview reasons. Great software.

Read More:

NZB Player Homepage

You may not search through many newsgroups at once for instance or search for files in a large list of groups. Usenet indexing sites try to aid users by offering a way to search the contents of many newsgroups at once. They index new posts that appear in the observed groups and offer web interfaces that users can use to search for files.

Most of these indexing sites support the nzb format which has all the information about the files that you want to download. If your newsreader supports nzb you simply double-click the file and all information about the files are automatically added to your download queue.

I know of some users who only work with nzb files and do not download headers anymore. We also have to distinguish between public, private and pay indexing services. While I wont talk about the private services at all I would like to point out that they are usually forums where users share their finds and uploads.

A short explanation for the terms “automatic content” and “user content”. Automatic content means that all new posts are indexed and can be searched on the site while user content means that users report new files and only those are added to the database.

Alt.Binaries.Nl (free, automatic content) – indexes more than 2700 popular newsgroups for 45 days. NZB’s can be generated as well. Great but Binsearch is better.
Binsearch.info (free, automatic content) – probably the best service. Keeps records of more than 6500 groups for 120 days. Advanced search options and the ability to download everything that you like as a nzb. My recommendation.
Newzbin.com (down) (paysite, user content) – one of the oldest indexing sites on the Internet. You may take a look at the releases but you can’t see the filenames nor download nzb’s without paying for the service.
Ngindex (paysite, automatic content) – Ngindex has a great interface, probably the best with many information about the newsgroups that they index. Offers nfo previews and more but is unfortunately a paysite.
Nzb.to (invite only) (free after registration, user content – a user driven website in German with an excellent active community. Lots of nzb files are posted everyday. Mainly interested for German speaking folks.
Nzbrus (free after registration, unknown) – I can’t really say much about the site because I did not register at it. Just wanted to make sure it is mentioned here.
Yabse (free, automatic content) – indexing posts for roughly 100 days. Allows the generation of nzb files.

There is also a program called NZB Leecher which is able to search several of the mentioned websites and create nzb’s automatically from the results.

NZB Leecher is a small freeware program that lets you search most of the well know newsgroup indexing sites at once. It displays the results in its window and you can immediately select them to download in your favorite newsreader. It queries all indexing sites and displays the results in tabs which makes it easy to switch between the various indexing sites for best results.

You may select the retention between 1 and 60 days, select some of the popular groups or a general category such as TV or Games. You have to provide username and password for some sites before NZB Leecher is able to query the site. The results are displayed fast and with all the information that are needed. If you want to download some files you have to mark them first and then select download selected from the right-click menu.

You do need a Usenet account if you want to download any files from newsgroups. I suggest Giganews, the reason is posted below this article but you are of course free to choose any service that you want.