This MU fiasco has left me in the lurch. I think I'm going to swear off file hosts altogether and invest in a SeedBox instead.

Any recommendations? I'd like something with 60-80 GB or so space, utorrent support and FTP interface for me to download. A known and stable service, at a reasonable cost.

I've been looking at extremeseed: it wants me to shell out 40 bucks a month, not doable unless I have no other option. Anything cheaper you guys know about?

 

If this doesn't cross the line about the warez talk, it comes about the closest i've ever seen.

 

I used to use ggshq. 15$ per month. 100 gb space.

It is a good site with basically everything you are looking for.

 

Torrent is not warez. I thought that was clear enough for anbody. o_0

This is no more "warez talk" than asking what download manager you think is best.

klackerz: Thanks, I'll check that out.

 

Still the closest thing i've seen to it here.

Aside from obvious references of course.

 

Filesharefreak used to have some decent reviews and lists, but they seem to have died, last I looked.. Sent PM to alternatives, since those sites are definitely warez.

 

I've personally used feralhosting.com (fantastic quality) but I've also heard good things about whatbox.ca.

 

If you're used to file hosts then consider making the switch to usenet instead.

All files are currently retained for 3.5 years before being discarded. There's no such thing as a "dead torrent" on usenet.

All files download at the maximum speed your connection is capable of. There's no such thing as a "slow torrent" or waiting hours for a final torrent piece to complete before you can grab it from your seedbox. Just like a file host, if the file exists you can download it instantly at full speed.

Due to historical reasons, releases are available first on usenet. Bittorrent and file hosts get them later.

Getting a decent usenet system going involves a usenet account and a usenet indexer. A good indexer has RSS feeds, automatic email alerts for new search term hits, APIs for integration with various automated tools, and a commenting and reporting system so that bad files are swiftly removed from the index. It can take a little bit of work to get used to using usenet, but once you do it's very low maintenance and hassle free.

Costs:

Astraweb Unlimited speed and downloads $11/mo [on special, usually $15/mo]
NZB Matrix £7 GBP [one time fee for lifetime access to the indexer]

That comes to $21.90 for the first month and then $11/mo thereafter.

 

If you want torrents, just get an invite to a ratio free private tracker like ptm and skip the seedbox.

 

There's always been pirate talk on various levels, it's when idiots start linking to torrents that they get thrown out. We've talked about isohunt, piratebay, demoniod, and a few other alternatives before, so long as you don't link to files to download, or recommend "hey go here and steal this from this place" the talk is usually okay, and if not you'll find out rather quickly and harshly.

 

Let's clarify a little.

Usenet isn't the source of scene releases. They are first uploaded to so-called topsites. Most of these are available on torrent sites seconds after their release (usually it takes ~40-60 seconds for a file of size around 1GiB to be available).

As for usenet binary retention times, they are not set in stone and vary from one provider to another, usually between 100-300 days.

Setting a rss feed for your torrents is quite easy, and once you're done, it's not only hassle-free, but also free.

The only thing going for Usenet is the fact that ISPs like to QoS torrent traffic away, especially during rush hours.

 

Yeah, my ISP throttles torrent traffic like a red-haired stepchild. One of the reasons I'm considering a SeedBox - that way my own downloads will be through FTP, which is amazingly fast for my ISP. (Faster than HTTP by a lot, in fact.)

The reason why I haven't considered UseNet is because I don't know much about it, and my ISP doesn't offer it. Besides, frankly speaking speaking a lot of the stuff I download are actually very very legit (le gasp!) and my main source for them are torrents. Also, the only part of "the scene" I'm interested in deals in torrents as one of the primary means of networking, and I'm not sure how to... map... all my needs to UseNet. (I think that came out wrong, somehow. )

Wow, PC language is a hassle.

 

"The Scene" hates torrents, usenet, and pretty much anybody who's not part of it.

On the topic: if you're up to it, renting a VPS and setting up a linux distro yourself should be cheaper.

 

A VPS would be cheaper? Really? I would've thought SeedBoxes would get away cutting corners on everything except the bandwidth... o_0

 

I believe that's the case for some of the most exclusive and competitive torrent sites, but it takes longer to filter down to the public/semi-public p2p sites which is where most people have access.

First of all, 100-300 days? Pffft. This isn't the 1990s. No usenet provider worth their salt has less that 1000 days, and it's rare to find one with less than 1200 days right now. Giganews, Astraweb, Supernews, Highwinds, Easynews, etc. are all 1200+.

When practically every Tier 1 Usenet provider in the world is at 1200+ days retention for binaries, then it's pretty safe to say that usenet currently keeps its files for 3.5 years, because for just about everyone with a usenet subscription, this is the reality.

• And it's faster than torrenting. Always. There's no such thing as "seed moar plz".
• It's relatively anonymous to download whatever content you like. No one's ever had any nastygrams in the mail from usenet downloads.
• Encrypting your usenet connection is pure simplicity. Most [all?] Tier 1 providers advertise this feature.
• It's similar enough to filelocker services that the transition should be pretty easy.
• It uses a lot less bandwidth to download the same size file as bittorrent would take.
• No uploading required. Ever. If your uploads are metered by your ISP, then this is a biggie.
• It's similar or cheaper than setting up a seedbox, and perhaps less hassle too.

 

@Mors: a seedbox is basically a VPN + a fee of setting it up for you.

You might as well compare free usenet providers to these sites. After a quick look on a tracer channel, I can say that first 17 of 17 traced trackers for pretty much any release had it under 3 minutes.

Meh, maybe. They don't advertise that, though.

Umm.. No. Again, if you're comparing crappy trackers to a paid service, it's pretty weird.

As above

Yeah, it's terribly difficult in µtorrent, for example:

Huh? How's that supposed to work?

We aren't in 1990's, are we?

 

There aren't any. "Free" usenet is effectively an old discussion board. Text only; no binaries.

As a member of the public I can get a paid usenet account or filelocker account up and running in minutes. Anyone can do that. Getting into an exclusive private bittorrent site [eg. FTN - is that still a big deal?] on the other hand is not so easy. There's a lot of begging for invites and knowing the right people/places to ask before you can get in.

Semi-public torrent sites like Demonoid are pretty damn open.

Aside from all of this, in OPs case, he's effectively going to be paying a monthly fee for access to Bittorrent by using a seedbox or VPN. For many situations it's worth considering paying that same [or smaller] fee for usenet access instead.

Where on Earth are you getting these ideas from!? Retention is one of usenet's biggest selling points and a point of contention and rivalry between various providers. You can't help but see it plastered over almost every Usenet provider's site.

Not really. I'm using the most common implementations of each service. All file sharers on usenet use a paid account. Most active bittorrent users would use... what? Demonoid, perhaps. I doubt anything much better than that.

Does Demonoid not have any languishing torrents anymore?

And, yes, usenet is always faster. Even if you gave a torrent every possible advantage [eg. 1000 seeders and no leechers], you'd still download it faster from usenet due to bittorrent's horrendous network overheads in comparison to NNTP. IIRC, bittorrent's overhead without uploading to leechers is something like 15-20%. I can't find a source for that info, but trust me that it's hugely obese.

It doesn't matter though, because no such unbalanced situation is likely to exist. You'll be spending bandwidth on uploading to other users and using up even more of your bandwidth.

You can avoid hosing your own connection by using a seedbox, but why go from peers -> seedbox -> home, when you can cut out the middle man and go straight from usenet server -> home.

Sure, but your IP and downloads are still exposed to everyone on the tracker. You rely on all of your peers being honest and none of them being associated with moneyed copyright holders. It's only a matter of time...

Explained above. BT is a fantastic torrent for handling swarms, it just uses a hell of a lot of network overhead to do it.

It really depends on your local internet situation and ISP's plans as to whether or not your uploads are going to be counted. eg. In Australia they sometimes are, it depends on your ISP and plan. My ISP offers a slightly more expensive plan which doesn't count uploads, but because I don't torrent I have no need for it. Ironically, in the 90s I don't think anyone in Australia was counting uploaded data except for Telstra.

There are plenty of places around the world where data allowances are limited and I'm guessing that many of them would count uploads too.

 

People getting seedboxes are probably on good private trackers, so let's not bring up sites like demonoid.

I think yak makes some good points about Usenet, but I don't know if it's that much better (if at all, depending on the criteria you value).

Speed - Usenet will always be faster, true, but compared to good private trackers, there is virtually no difference. Shit is fast either way.

Retention - Usenet retains content long enough nowadays that retention probably isn't an issue (plus stuff can always be reuploaded). Although in absolute terms, torrents have a theoretically unlimited life. In practice, speed on old torrents is probably variable, although again, on good trackers you can expect decent rates.

Breadth/variety of content - For rare shit, torrents are better. Obviously all the mainstream stuff will be available on both.

Ease of use/management - Let's just call this a tie...with the right setup, I'm pretty sure both experiences can be amazing.

Community - Torrents, for sure.

Other uses of a seedbox - Consider that a seedbox is pretty much just a server. If you have other uses in mind (file server, game server, webhost, VPN, etc.), then suddenly a seedbox becomes more cost-effective.

Cost - Absolute cost is probably similar. Random note - splitting a seedbox with people can make things a lot cheaper.

Other things related to torrenting

Regarding the whole "download to seedbox and then to computer" thing, it's not really a big deal imo. Usually you're not going to watch content immediately anyways, and you can always torrent through a VPN on your seedbox.

Ratio management can definitely be a pain. With a seedbox, though, this is pretty much a non-existent issue (not to mention the existence some unnamed super-awesome ratio-free trackers).

Conclusions

Usenet is good, no doubt. But for some reason Usenet advocates always hold it up as being /way/ better than a nice private tracker + seedbox setup. I don't think it's quite that clearcut. As far as cost goes, I think it really varies a lot depending on your setup...I would hesitate to absolutely state one method as being cheaper. For example, you could get a seedbox for a couple months, acquire an insane ratio, and then "survive" off of that for the next year. Depending on the plans, a continuous Usenet plan could be cheaper than a continuous seedbox.

Personally, I'm not making enough money to really justify either right now (so I'm just using torrents without a seedbox). When I do have enough money this summer and/or next, then I might use both. If I ever have need for the other things a server can do besides just act as a seedbox, though, then Usenet will be less attractive to me.