Seedbox vs Usenet: Why a Seedbox is a Waste of Money
November 09, 09 by sharky 7,618 viewsBefore everyone throws their hands in the air screaming blasphemy for FSF denouncing seedbox usage, let it be known that FSF didn’t write this article. However, we thoroughly enjoyed it as it sheds much light on the validity of Usenet in comparison to BitTorrent/seedboxes, so we thought it be apropos to republish it (well most of it, anyways). The following is an excerpt taken from Usenetshack.com - who recently wrote an entertaining & informative rebuttal to seedbox use through the perspective of a Usenet subscriber.
This article is mainly a (really late) carry-on to FileShareFreak’s article entitled "10 Reasons Why You Need a Seedbox". Most of the reasons they state are perfectly valid for Bit-torrent users, but as we’ve already mentioned, this article is to show the Usenet path… so let’s begin.
And now on to the 10 reasons FileShareFreak suggests:
1. Speed - Seedboxes are fast because they’re most likely located in a data centre with a big chunky line in and out. And that is absolutely one hundred percent true in most cases, you’ll likely see much greater (10x-20x) throughput as opposed to your standard home broadband connection. But what use is that when the files you may want to use are now located possibly hundred of miles away on your seedbox with your only means of access being your home connection? While you’ll see better speeds downloading off your seedbox than from the torrent directly, this is a unnecessary step which you simply don’t need to undertake. With Usenet and a decent provider (you’re looking at approx similar costs to a seedbox if not less, see bottom of article) you’ll be able to max out your connection just like you could downloading from your seedbox - with the massive advantage of not taking the initial step of downloading something on to the server in the first place: that part is all handled by the Usenet provider. They get their files from people uploading to them, and from other Usenet servers the world over. Any one file uploaded to your Usenet providers’ server will be shared with every other Usenet provider or nntp (the protocol involved) on the net, yet you never lose your single point of contact with that one server.
2. Advantageous Downloading & Uploading Abilities - Your upload rate will be much larger than a home connection, so you can keep a good ratio on your tracker and not get kicked off for being a leech - Which is great, and goes along with the Bit-torrent philosophy but now you’re effectively paying for membership to that private tracker by requiring yourself to have a seedbox. This point isn’t even an issue with Usenet, there’s no such thing as ratios unless you choose to be part of a private newsgroup/usenet community. You can download as much as you want (provider plan permitting) without uploading a thing and while we don’t recommend this, it’s perfectly feasible due to the way Usenet works. Once a file is uploaded once, that’s it - no more seeding is needed, the Usenet providers handle the “seeding” (really called ‘mirroring’) to the other Usenet providers which gradually makes the files accessible everywhere and by anyone.
3. Competition - You’ll be more competitive with other seeders and therefore go further in the community you’re a part of. Other Usenet users cannot tell how much you’ve downloaded, so as we’ve said before, the ratio idea doesn’t exist as such. There are a few usenet uploading communities, some of which have channels on IRC or forum boards and they keep a tally of how much you’ve uploaded or how many request you’ve filled but this is all just for the competitive side of things, not out of necessity to download more.
4. Your home internet is untouched - As the seedbox handles the torrent, you’re free to do what you like with your connection. But this isn’t strictly true though is it as we’ve already mentioned. As any files you download are on the seedbox, you’ve still got to somehow get them on to your computer and this means utilizing your home connection. But anyway, the download isn’t usually what brings a connection to a grinding halt: it’s the upload that you’ll want to keep an eye on. Most home internet connections have at least 10x less upload bandwidth than they do down, if not more, and this creates is what creates the bottleneck: Bit-torrent uses the upload to seed the files and this means that other applications (such as your browser) can’t get web requests out as fast therefore creating the feeling that everything has slowed down. This doesn’t happen with Usenet as you are only using your upload bandwidth to send tiny packets of data (KBs not MBs) to your Usenet provider telling it which headers you want to download. And even if the maxing out your download is a problem, most programs support throttling the download, leaving enough download bandwidth for your games, chat, browser and other internet apps. We have lots of experience downloading at 15MBit/s+ while getting a ping of sub 20ms on some Counter-Strike servers. (For the more technical: QoS on your router/switch sorts it so you don’t even have to throttle your Usenet download).
5. Torrent from anywhere - Access to your torrents from anywhere via a web browser. A massive benefit for those that work or are not at their main computer for long periods of time, nothing like queuing up something on the train to use when you get back home. This is easily set up with Usenet, SabNZBd has a fantastic web interface (in fact, its only interface) which handles this like a dream, we’ll be writing an article on how to set it up very soon. It also has the added bonus that the files you download actually end up on your computer waiting for you and not some server miles away.
…
Points 6 through 10 can be found in the original article, "A BitTorrent Seedbox vs Usenet: 10 Reasons Why a Seedbox is a Waste of Money".
©2009 • XHTML • 
01 • Medic Says: 09.11.09 at 3:23 pm
Usenet links are often dead when you are looking for something older than a month.
02 • v Says: 09.11.09 at 4:23 pm
Medic, it depends which Usenet provider you go for.
Personally, I’ve found astraweb to be the cheapest and with a really nice retention rate (this means how long the files are actually stored for, astraweb has 450 days retention right now).
It’s also unlimited and comes with SSL.
You obviously went with a crappy provider.
Giganews is another good provider, but they’re more expensive, I’ve tried both and haven’t really noticed much of a difference, Giganews has 459 days retention for almost double.
03 • v Says: 09.11.09 at 4:24 pm
Whoops, I meant double the price at the end there for Giganews.
04 • Yarkz Says: 09.11.09 at 6:14 pm
I’ve tried multiple usenet providers, including astraweb and giganews and about five others, all downloads where at about 150 KB/s or less no matter who it was, and I had a 15 MBit connection.
05 • ekoboy Says: 09.11.09 at 6:19 pm
I prefer use UseNet which NZB file downloading usenet is very easy since we don’t have to wasting time downloading the headers. I use news.astraweb.com pay $11 / month for unlimited download which max 20 connections I can download max speed from my T1 connection without worry about upload and no ratio!
I use NZBs.org for the NZB file, trust me once you follow my method, you will leave the seedbox world and make them “shitbox” lol!
06 • undead_m0nkey Says: 09.11.09 at 6:42 pm
probably one of the lowest quality articles i have seen on fsf…
disappointment
07 • spluge Says: 09.11.09 at 7:08 pm
yeah what a joke,
who says u need a seedbox forever on any site. U use a box for a month or two , build up your ratio and then your fine. From there just use my home connection because like many my hime dl is fine. Now if u live in some 3rd world shanty town well maybe do something else
08 • Twist Says: 09.11.09 at 8:39 pm
Nice article sharky. I would like to remind you guys that this is “FileShare”Freak not “Bittorrent”Freak. Anything the constitutes file sharing is perfectly fine in my opinion.
09 • Usenet Guy Says: 09.11.09 at 10:26 pm
@YARKZ
LOL, you did something wrong there chief.
I hate torrents, sloooowwwww.
I am with Astraweb on a 12Mb connection with SSL 256 bit encryption. I max out my connection every time, emphasis on every time. Another thing, I don’t have to worry about people spying on what I am downloading. No one can but Astraweb, which they don’t keep records of. However, they do if you upload to keep spam off their servers. With NZB’s, Usenet couldn’t be easier. I admit, there was a learning curve back in the day but with sites like Newsleech, Binsearch, TVNZB, and others, it couldn’t be simpler.
010 • dogma Says: 10.11.09 at 2:53 am
omg stop talking about usenet
011 • Aliandro Says: 10.11.09 at 3:30 am
Ok, why are you people bashing Usenet so much?
I don’t really like it as I have tried it a few times and it just didn’t tick with me, but come on. Just like TWIST said, its called FILEshrefreak not bittorrentfreak. We have torrentfreak.com for that.
Either way, a nice article and somewhat informative as far as I’ve read.
It may not be up to the standard we’re used to here on FSF, but thats because FSF didn’t write it.
012 • jrocket Says: 10.11.09 at 8:02 am
how can you ‘try it and not like it’
you cant get caught.
its real fuckin fast.
if you are paying for a service like ddl or seedbox or slot this still is the best option.
013 • big dog Says: 10.11.09 at 8:48 am
Seedboxes are for ratio geeks
014 • SpeckPeak Dealer Says: 10.11.09 at 10:31 am
visit my site
http://sites.google.com/site/speckpeak/home
015 • brent Says: 10.11.09 at 3:01 pm
i pay for a seedbox and use free usenet which has 120 retention and maxes me out
016 • epicSEEDS Says: 10.11.09 at 8:39 pm
I prefer bitorrent + seedbox, becuase i doubt you have access to a large database of older and rare movies in usenet. I have never used usenet so correct me if I am wrong. I am talking about the massive retro movie collections trackers like passthepopcorn has.
017 • tatootian Says: 11.11.09 at 7:16 am
usenet sucks for music though, even with headers, doesn’t have a lot of shit on TR/TT
018 • RaGe Says: 11.11.09 at 8:20 am
dedi server is the only way to go
019 • randomnut456 Says: 11.11.09 at 8:45 am
usenet sucks at music and at getting old files.
try rapidshare if you want new AND old files but dont care about the music (it’s cheaper than usenet).
and try torrent if you want new files, old files and a lot of music..
020 • leaveAreply Says: 11.11.09 at 9:24 am
usenet sucks , seedboxs sux, public trackers rocks
021 • macx Says: 11.11.09 at 4:20 pm
dedicated FTW!
022 • RapidTreggy Says: 12.11.09 at 2:37 pm
Personally - I think Usenet is boring - no offence - no atmosphere - just my opinion - but I really enjoy the banter on sites
023 • binaries4ever Says: 13.11.09 at 5:09 pm
I think that usenet is the best place to get TV shows/movies but not for N00bs
024 • ist Says: 13.11.09 at 5:11 pm
all p2p is for noobs
025 • davus Says: 13.11.09 at 9:39 pm
There are a lot of shows that I download via my seedbox and torrents that simply arent available on usenet. I watch a lot of shows from the UK and AUS that dont seem to get captured by the scene groups. All of the stuff I want is only on private torrent sites.
026 • zzenn Says: 13.11.09 at 11:45 pm
Usenet is great for new content and many non-scene and obscure releases that practically never make it to any kind of torrent site.
027 • bla Says: 14.11.09 at 6:14 pm
@ 026 and for crappy and fake releases
028 • xk2 Says: 22.11.09 at 5:41 am
Can we go for at least a month without another battle of the fanboys… get over it, you aren’t going to make people that love torrenting change and you aren’t going to make people that love usenet change Full stop!
Also, I agree with 026… well sort of, some times I can’t find a release of something that may be considered a bit to out for people to seed on torrent sites but most of the time I can find it on a torrent indexer somewhere.
029 • yum yum Says: 27.11.09 at 4:59 am
If you aren’t an uploader, and you use a seedbox, then you are retarded. And were probably touched inappropriately by a parent as a child. That’s not my opinion. It’s a fact.