UsenetHub – very cool and easy to use, search or browse, image/video preview, tag cloud & more, adult subsite available (NSFW) NZBStars – brutal interface but powerful, search or browse with image/video preview thumbnails NZBIndex – 700 days of Usenet posts, 888 newsgroups, advanced search NZBFriends – 750 days of Usenet posts, 1097 newsgroups, image/video preview thumbnails, advanced search Check out our in-depth post about Binsearch Usenet Search. These are the most popular Usenet search engines:ī – 1,100 days of indexed Usenet posts, searches 400 to 3,155 binary groups. Nonetheless, Usenet search engines remain a good option, especially for beginners. Lastly, it may have indexed content that has been taken down and is simply no longer available. Or it may have indexed content in posts that are older (called retention periods) than your Usenet provider carries.
That’s because the big disadvantage of using a Usenet search engine is that there is no guarantee you will be able to download the results because the search engine may be indexing Usenet content that you cannot access.įor example, the search engine may have indexed content contained in newsgroups which your Usenet provider doesn’t carry.
Like a newsreader search, a Usenet search engine is also free and easy to use, but Usenet search engines are the least effective of the 3 options. With some (mostly older) Usenet search engines, you can click on the search results and your newsreader will open and try to download the posts. Maybe you will even “graduate” to full-fledged automated content gathering on Usenet.To download, the leading search engines will let you save the search results as an NZB file ( create NZB) which you can download and open in your newsreader to download the posts.
You'll soon catch on and realize that Usenet is no harder than torrent file-sharing.
You can also check out our step-by-step Guide to Usenet and experiment with one of the NZB search indexes above. You have nothing to lose with a risk-free trial.
If you want to get your feet wet with Usenet, take advantage of a generous free trial (14 days / 30 GBs) offered by top Usenet newsgroup provider Newshosting, and give Usenet newsgroups a try. What's more, Usenet is safer & more private when compared to torrent file-sharing.Ĭombine this with the fact that Usenet can also be faster than torrents and it's not hard to understand why Usenet is experiencing a resurgence, even at 30+ years old. In fact, NZB files help Usenet to rival even torrent file-sharing as a source of abundant content and new releases. What's important to take away is that NZB search sites open up a fast and easy way for you to access even more Usenet content. If an NZB indexer you want to join is currently closed, you need to keep your eyes open, usually on related online forums such as the subreddits UsenetInvites or Nzbinvites, or by monitoring the NZB search site's Twitter account, for when it re-opens again.Ī good, unbiased source of additional information about NZB search index sites is the SABnzbd wiki. However, please note that an invitation- or members-only NZB search community is no guarantee that it won’t be infiltrated by potential snoops, so use your common sense and exercise caution.Įven if an NZB indexer is open for registration, it can be closed and later re-opened again at any time. The members-only barrier for some NZB sites is to keep their activities private and to make sure the community members using the NZB search can be trusted to a degree. Some NZB search indexers are “open” meaning they accept anyone as members while others are by “invitation-only” meaning you have to receive an invitation, usually from an existing member, before you can join. Many NZB search indexers cater to the newest releases of media files and each NZB indexer has its own advantages and disadvantages.
An NZB search indexer is a search engine that indexes and helps you find NZB files (just as a torrent index helps you find torrent files).