A Guide To Downloading From Usenet

With the right set-up, downloading from Usenet can be fast and reliable. This is what I recommend:

• Get a reliable provider like Usenetserver (if you are in the US or Asia/Pacific) or Tweaknews (if you are in Europe) — and optionally a back-up on a different backbone like XS News (see this article for details)
• Get a comprehensive index like NZBGeek (see this article for details)
• Install SabNZBd — a reliable Usenet downloader (see this article for for details)
• Plex for organizing and watching the videos you download (see this article for details)

Automating Downloads

These download automation apps are also worth installing:

• Sonarr — for TV shows — requires a bit of setting up but worth it because it works with Plex nicely
• CouchPotato — for movies — personally I could do without this, but it convenient once set up

I don’t recommend these automation apps:

• Sickbeard (no longer being developed)
• Sickgear (a replacement for Sickbeard but Sonarr is more robust)
• Headphones (doesn’t connect to Usenet — seems be designed to get you to sign up their indexing service)
• Mylar (really bad a handling files)
• Lidarr (difficult to set up with Docker)