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So you're looking for pictures, movies, video, or MP3
music on the Internet. You have a lot of choices, including file
sharing networks (Kazza, etc) and paid membership web
sites. How
does a Usenet newsgroup server service compare?
- Peer to Peer networks
- File sharing networks like Kazza, Morpheus,
and Direct Connect are technically amazing.
- The downside is that service is spotty,
and all of the programs (except direct connect and E-Donkey)
install spyware that you can't uninstall. They track your
usage, what sites you visit, pop up new windows with ads
(especially Gator) over everything you do. The part we
think is most unethical is that when you go to one of the
amateur webcam sites that pays its bills with links to Amazon or
some other store - the spyware hijacks each of those sales so
the webcam owner doesn't get the commissions. We think
that's unfair.
Check out Ad-Aware at lavasoft.de
for a free program that uninstalls at least some of the spyware...
- Another big problem is that filenames are often fakes, you never know if you'll end up
getting the whole file before the person on the other end logs
off, and you can wait days before you get a complete file.
Additionally you must expose your own computer files to the
internet, so that others can read your public directories.
-
But the worst part is that they are usually just plain old
slow. Your 1.5mbs cable connection doesn't do you
any good when the guy with the file you want is on a 128K upload
DSL line that is 20 hops away.
- MP3 files: If there is one place where file
sharing networks shine, it is in trading MP3 files. But
you have to know what you are searching for, and you have to
consider that some file names are mis-spelled on purpose to get
around filters.
- Video: File sharing networks are also good
for distributing large video files (avi and mpg). If you
are lucky enough to get a good connection to someone with a good
film library, your chances of downloading a full-length movie
are not that bad. However, finding full length movies is
not all that easy - more often than not, you end up spending 37
hours downloading a James Bond movie only to find the file stops
15 minutes before the end of the movie. On the other hand,
if you have a GOOD usenet server service with high completion
rates, you can reliably download movies very fast. But you
have to have a really good newsgroup provider.
- Images: Peer to peer is not the place to
find pictures. Picture file names rarely describe what is
in them, and most of the time that someone has gone to the
trouble to enter a file description in the hidden properties
fields, it is SPAM.
- Discussion / Community: While some of the
peer to peer networks include a chat function, it is rarely
used. It is also not archived, so it cannot really build
community. So if you are looking for a place to discuss
the career of model Julia Hayes and share pictures of her work,
peer to peer networks are not the place to do it.
- Paid web sites
- Payments: Adult topic web sites pop up and
close down quite quickly. Many are pure scams, others
overstate what they will deliver. Few give out information
about their actual operating location. When you are typing
in your credit card information online, you can't be sure who
you are actually sending it to. Further, many companies
set you up on "recurring" monthly fees without asking
you first. Stopping these fees can be a full time job, as
you get shuffled from one a form, to an email, to a billing
company.
- Fees: Most web sites charge at least $10
per month, some as many as $30. Sometimes this entitles
you to a family of web sites, although most are so
interconnected that they have what amounts to the same content
on each.
- Freshness: The majority of the adult web
sites are fairly static. They were created with purchased
pictures and videos, and once put online change little. At
best they may add one new photo series or video per week or even
month. If you like the convenience of a web interface with
picture previews, but want the fresh content that Usenet
provides, we highly
recommend
GUBA
or ThumbnailedNewsgroups
usenet access. These services collect all the picture and video
files posted to the alt.binary.* newsgroups, assemble the
pieces on their servers, creating pages of thumbnails for previews
of both pictures AND videos, which you can download as much as
you want.
- Topics: When it comes to topics, paid web
services do shine. There are specialty sites for
everything, down to corseted women who smoke cigars.
However, the Usenet newsgroup hierarchy is equally diverse.
- Usenet newsgroups
- Fees and Payments: For anywhere from $6 to
$20 per month, you can have access to an average of over 500,000
binary files that rotate daily/weekly. Rates are even
lower when you purchase services in 6 month or 1 year
packages. You will be able to find a physical office
location for the newsgroup server provider before providing all your payment
details (Don't sign up for any that do not publish this
information), and do not have to worry about some strange,
pornographic sounding company name showing up in your credit
card billings.
- File Types: If it can be stored digitally,
you can find it on Usenet. MP3 files are very common, with
many newsgroups devoted to specific bands and styles of
music. Video (avi and mpg) newsgroups are also growing in
popularity; although if you want to make use of the video
newsgroups it is important that you choose a newsgroup service
that has high completion and long retention rates (ie costs
more).
Pictures are where Usenet really shines. And finally, let
us not forget plain old text. There are some very good
writers out there who post their wares to Usenet, including
newsgroups devoted to erotic literature.
- Discussion / topics: The list of topics is
fairly exhaustive. There are also mechanisms to create new
groups as society creates new interests. For a complete list of defined
newsgroups (most service providers only carry the active ones), click
here.
- Freshness / requests: Estimates vary, but
generally 100,000 to 150,000 binary files are posted to Usenet servers
daily, with at least as many more posts that are text discussion. You never have to worry about stale content,
or not finding something new each week. The medium is contributive;
any person with access to the newsgroup can add both text and
files. Therefore, newsgroups include significant amounts
of amateur material. Further, if you have a special
interest you can usually post a text message asking if anyone
has material on that interest and it is quite likely that
someone will post what you are looking for. You most definitely
will not get that from a paid web service.
- Simplicity: Between the newsgroup hierarchy
itself and the functionality built into most newsreaders,
it's pretty easy to find and download the binary files you want.
For those who like the convenience of being able to preview
files before they download, the Web
Thumbnail systems like
GUBA
or ThumbnailedNewsgroups
are as easy to use as any commercial web
site, but include much more material.
- Copyright: One thing to keep in mind is
that files that you find on Usenet are not necessarily copyright
free. Many, many files have been copied from paid websites
and posted on the Usenet without their owners permission.
While it is not illegal per-se to download these files, one
should give thought before uploading files. For those that
wish to upload files, it is important to look for a newsgroup
server service that withholds the header records that can be
used to trace back to the original poster (look for an
"A" in the server
table)
Back to the newsgroup server list
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