Paging JustinTempler, please explain USENET

[sgreger1]

My goal is to seed to at least 1:1. If there's a shit ton of seeders, I sometimes cut it short, or I'll extend it on a low seed torrent.

Yah I do the same, if the ratio is good than I don't bother with it. I like to seed all of the older content, the hard to find stuff that is less in demand. That way when someone looks for it there is at least like 10 people seeding lolol.

[lxskllr]

My goal is to seed to at least 1:1. If there's a shit ton of seeders, I sometimes cut it short, or I'll extend it on a low seed torrent.

[sgreger1]

sgreger, just like with condoms, if you put your tor/proxy config on the wrong way, it's pretty much useless. And private trackers are exactly what the name sounds like. They're bittorrent trackers which are closed to the general public. If you want to get on them, you typically either have to get an invite from someone you know, or pass some sort of interview. They often enforce ratio policies, so you can't just bounce on a torrent as soon as you've finished. While they can get taken down, it's typically much less common simply because it's more effort to get on them, and the people using them tend to be a bit more paranoid about it..

Ah that is what I figured. Well I don't personally have the luxury of being a member of any such private networks but I can see how that would be way more legit than using public trackers/TPB/ISOhunt etc.

And anyone who downloads a torrent and then doesn't seed at least for a while is a dick. I know it increases the risk on your part but the system fails if people don't seed their content. I have a 40mb/s down 7mb/s up connection so I just let it run and it never seems to eat up too much bandwidth even when I have it set to max. Don't knwo why some people refuse to do this.

[shikitohno]

sgreger, just like with condoms, if you put your tor/proxy config on the wrong way, it's pretty much useless. And private trackers are exactly what the name sounds like. They're bittorrent trackers which are closed to the general public. If you want to get on them, you typically either have to get an invite from someone you know, or pass some sort of interview. They often enforce ratio policies, so you can't just bounce on a torrent as soon as you've finished. While they can get taken down, it's typically much less common simply because it's more effort to get on them, and the people using them tend to be a bit more paranoid about it..

[sgreger1]

How does that work? If my IP address is coming from Nebraska, or maybe Germany, who gets the DMCA notice? ISPs(in America) don't send letters to people on their own volition. They're forwarding notice from from someone else. If the IP address isn't coming from my ISPs block, no nastygrams can be received.

I am not technically inclined enough to explain it, but I have read that in several places where people claim that tor, proxies etc haven't stopped them from getting a note from their ISP's. Not sure how it works to be honest, but just like a condom, nothing is 100%. It's still good to be try and be protected though.

[voodooman]

The reason Usenet isn't getting hit is the same reason why Mac's dont get viruses; because it just isn't used as frequently and therefore they focus their attention on people using Kazaa or downloading torrents.

not exactly, but that is the reason people like to keep quiet about it. MPAA, RIAA, etc., focus on p2p methods because users actively participate in distribution, uploading to others on the network. then they try to claim lost revenue equal to the retail value of the media if everyone you sent a couple bytes to had bought it through legitimate channels. this way they can get huge monetary restitution. $$$
if you are strictly on the download side of things, and only consume the media for yourself, they would be hard pressed to convince a judge that you have deprived them of hundreds of thousands in sales. they could still press charges, and maybe even get you some jail time, (not sure) but there isn't much money in that for them.
this is my understanding.

[lxskllr]

As for Tor, a Proxy etc, none of those will stop you from getting a DMCA letter from your ISP, it happens to people all the time.

How does that work? If my IP address is coming from Nebraska, or maybe Germany, who gets the DMCA notice? ISPs(in America) don't send letters to people on their own volition. They're forwarding notice from from someone else. If the IP address isn't coming from my ISPs block, no nastygrams can be received.

[sgreger1]

One small correction... Using Tor or a proxy most definitely will evade the goon squads, but it's much slower, and in the case of Tor, abusive of the system. I'm ok with Tor being used for the occasional download, but it should be reserved for more important free speech needs. It's a valuable resource for places in the world where saying "fsck the government" will get you a late night visit from the man, and no one sees you again.

Edit:
An amusing site. Obviously it's highly error prone cause an IP address doesn't mean much, regardless of what some tards in the legal system think, but it may give you an idea of your profile...

http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/



Bunch of dicks :^D

Yah, I used this site before. It got me on one movie I may or may not have downloaded only as a backup since I had already purchased the dvd, but other than that it doesn't show shit. It's wildly inacurate, the guys on reddit all tried it out and the results were mainly nonsense.


As for Tor, a Proxy etc, none of those will stop you from getting a DMCA letter from your ISP, it happens to people all the time. The reason Usenet isn't getting hit is the same reason why Mac's dont get viruses; because it just isn't used as frequently and therefore they focus their attention on people using Kazaa or downloading torrents.

Since getting on Usenet the experience is a million times better than torrents. I download at 4 megabytes per second anything, games, movies, there has been nothing I have searched for that wasn't on there, so not sure what waz3rm is refering to, it has all the same shit as TPB or any other torrent site has but you can download it in minutes instead of days. Shit shows up there quicker than it does on TPB even. I just don't see any advantage to torrents, they are soooooo slow and your ISP easily figures out what you are doing. By accessing astraweb through an SSL connection I am not metered to the 250gb download limit comcast has and can direct download any file in a matter of minutes (as opposed to hours with a torrent).


And it is safer only in that the servers don't keep a list of what IP's are downloading from them. Not saying it means it's fullproof but torrents are being heavily monitored these days.

@ Shikihtohno, can you enlighten me about what a "private" tracker is? I am no expert in any of this and am curious what a private tracker is and what makes it better or how one goes about getting one. Thanks man!

[jet80]

no idea on this one

Slightly OT but this makes me think how fed up I'm getting with scripting in web pages now asking me whether I want to leave a page really or this that and the other and when trying to visit eg a German website I'm automatically redirected to the UK equivalent (I assume from my IP location) even though I don't want to look at that site *sigh*

[shikitohno]

I don't use a proxy, but then again, I don't download off public trackers. Also, point #1 is still crap, because a DCC/XDCC file transfer is still a one way transfer unless you choose to set up an fserve yourself. If you guys really think you're gaining security advantages, you're fooling yourselves, though. Security through obscurity rarely works as well as people would hope, and if Usenet really is as superior to torrents as you claim, you'll see a mass exodus of users from torrents to usenet over a couple years. Once that happens, suddenly you'll start seeing people get knocked down. Really, private trackers are more suited to a lot of your concerns. They're not perfect, but then again, they don't claim to be either.

By the way wa3zrm, I resent the claim that lynx is dead like the gopherspace. I still use lynx regularly. Newsbeuter+lynx makes RSS real easy for me, and lynx has saved me more than a couple times when X has gone mad.

[wa3zrm]

Using a proxy most definitely will evade the goon squads...

Excellent point lxskllr... IMO, anyone using the Internet today w/o being behind a proxy and running updated firewall + antivirus software is nuts! There are far to many crazies out their. Back in the late 1970's & early 1980's, we all knew each other with UNIX being our common bond... that's sure not the case today.

[lxskllr]

One small correction... Using Tor or a proxy most definitely will evade the goon squads, but it's much slower, and in the case of Tor, abusive of the system. I'm ok with Tor being used for the occasional download, but it should be reserved for more important free speech needs. It's a valuable resource for places in the world where saying "fsck the government" will get you a late night visit from the man, and no one sees you again.

Edit:
An amusing site. Obviously it's highly error prone cause an IP address doesn't mean much, regardless of what some tards in the legal system think, but it may give you an idea of your profile...

http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/

Hi. We have no records on you.

This means you are using a private torrent tracker or, of course, you may not be a torrent user at all! It happens. Please, entertain yourself. Feel free to see what other people have downloaded. The search box is on the top. If you have any friends who use torrents, use it to scare them off. We also have a widget that you can install in your website, blog or Facebook page. Or you can just send them a link to this site. They will see a table similar to what you see below. The only difference — they will see their downloads.

Bunch of dicks :^D

[sgreger1]

USENET has two big advantages

1. No filesharing. You don't have to worry about getting any letters from lawyers working for the MPAA, or ASCAP etc etc. It's a one way transfer from the usenet server to you.

2. 1200 days of retention - In English that means if someone uploaded some obscure file to a newsgroup three years ago, you can still get it. It doesn't matter if the show, movie, or music was popular enough to keep the torrent alive. There's a crapload of music, books, documentaries, just about anything you can think of.

Yah point #1 is especially what has brought me towards switching to Usenet. It is faster, much carries a lower risk imo. No one wants a DMCA letter from your ISP etc (not that I am downloading anything that would warrant that), but for me it has opened my eyes. Downloading shit on piratebay is so easy to get people in trouble, they watch the trackers and know exactly who you are, and using Tor or a proxy won't stop them from contacting your ISP and telling them you been ****ing up. They only have the capacity to sue about 6,000 people a year, but each year you could be one f the unlucky few. They usually go after the ones that offer search services like Kazaa etc but still, it's too easy to track who downloads stuff off piratebay. What if I were in an oppressive government and wanted to distribute a .pdf of a rebel message? With torrents I would easily be caught, as would anyone sharing such a document.

For the like $10 a month, usenet is way worth it.

[justintempler]

USENET has two big advantages

1. No filesharing. You don't have to worry about getting any letters from lawyers working for the MPAA, or ASCAP etc etc. It's a one way transfer from the usenet server to you.

2. 1200 days of retention - In English that means if someone uploaded some obscure file to a newsgroup three years ago, you can still get it. It doesn't matter if the show, movie, or music was popular enough to keep the torrent alive. There's a crapload of music, books, documentaries, just about anything you can think of.