Since the time of pre-cursors to the Internet, communication has been the core aim of the game. We had mail, telegraphs, semaphores, telephone and more. ARPANET was one of the real breakthroughs allowing better and easier file sharing between separate parties. Eventually, this led to Usenet which lives on to this day.
As part of my Open Source journey in Raycast, I stumbled upon SABnzbd extension which intrigued me enough to look into…
Use-ing Usenet
The better known use of Usenet nowadays is file sharing. Very briefly, there are 2 parts:
- a provider - this is a, usually paid, service that aggregates NZBs (think of an “NZB source” as a “torrent” file)
- an NZB newsreader - this is a client that allows you to subscribe to the index then download the files (think of this as a “Torrent Client”)
Most of us who grew up during the boom days of early Internet with the infamous sound of dial-up Internet must have dabbled in IRC and Torrenting. Those who lived in more modern places with better access to Internet backbones may also have dabbled in Usenet but for those of us far from that, Usenet was not popular.
Thus, this was a great opportunity to jump into Usenet. After some research I settled on an indexer, signed up for a trial, downloaded SABnzbd, and started trying it out. I eventually did make PRs to improve the Raycast extension as well as for the SABnzbd API Client.
Once one has access to a solid Usenet indexer, they can gain access to their wanted files with security and speed. The actual pros and cons are numerous but generally, Usenet is great for those who can afford the provider costs.
I’ve definitely done my fair share of torrenting. Many years back I would need to go to other cities for certain projects (I used to think of myself as a RAM Expert) and I would take a “Master USB” that had Linux ISOs for easy booting and portable versions of various common Windows applications. I had slow Internet and Internet Download Manager, though a godsend, would still struggle. Thus, I would prefer to use Torrents to download the ISOs which was usually faster. About 3 months back, a user in a forum I am a part of mentioned that a Private Tracker had “Open Signups” for Christmas which led me to finally become a part of…
Private Trackers
Since I was a young ‘un I have heard about Private Trackers. The common user, when torrenting, goes to popular torrent sites AKA Public Trackers (one of the most famous ones being The Pirate Bay (Wikipedia Link)) then uses a P2P Client (μTorrent, anyone?) to download the Torrent files. The actual methodology behind the process: chunking, announcing, forwarding, etc., is super interesting but this article from Proton VPN will explain better.
The thing about Public Trackers is if you don’t want the latest and greatest, you will likely have to suffer extremely slow speeds (if there is a Seeder in the first place). There are also security and privacy concerns e.g. many ISPs do not like you torrenting on their network. This is where Private Trackers come in: an invite-only community of users who pull their weight with systems and checks in place to ensure people contribute and files that people want, stay in rotation.
Where one just has to “buy in” to use Usenet, Private Trackers don’t usually function like this. To get in, you need to be invited by an existing user of good standing - that user is then responsible for you e.g. if User A is invited by User B and User A messes up (there are many ways to do this) then, in a worst case scenario, both Users A and B will be banned permanently with (usually) no recourse for an appeal. This exclusivity is a double-edged sword. Hence:
Open Signup
”Open Signup” is a limited period where a Tracker allows non-users the opportunity to join a tracker without an invite; this could be in the form of an interview, promo or whatever pleases the admins.
Thanks to TorrentLeech’s “Open Signup” last christmas, which I wouldn’t have known about in the first place if it weren’t for a forum I am a part of, I got to be inclusive in the exclusive.
More to come in Part II.