The only indexer that does open registrations that is worth its salt is drunken slug. Their restrictions for basic accounts is not that bad.
If you wanted I could send you one of my invites, because getting in took me years of waiting. It would come with a “you know what you are doing and are not gonna cause trouble” clause tho.
Is the indexer where you get the nzb files from? I’ve got a jellyfin/arr server going with torrentleech as my main source for movies and shows currently. I was thinking of getting into Usenet again for ebooks and music, but it seems like tech has advanced since the days when I used Forte Agent to manually download things.
Yea the indexers really just keep the nzb files then the backbone providers who have the data. So you need an account with say drunken slug then one with a backbone provider like usenetgroupsdirect. That is where it gets a little confusing because you can buy two types of access to bulk data and each has their pluses and minuses.
If you are keeping up so far I told you about one backbone provider but its best to actually get in with a few others. That is because if you think about it these backbone providers have kept a log of large chunks of usenet on harddrives. So backbone providers do not have access to all of the data. So what you do is get a subscription with usenetgroupsdirect for a flat monthly fee. Then say you use an nzb file from drunken slug and it cannot find it on there. Well that is where a usage based block account comes into play. You end up paying like $10 for 100GB to newsdemon and your data is probably on there.
Since you have your jellyfin/arr setup going all you would need to add is SABnzbd as a the download client and Drunken Slug as the indexer. You want to be careful with this setup if you have a free account because you only have 25 API hits on Drunken Slug a day. You do not want automation banging away at that and you should just use sabnzbd to do your downloads manually. Lucky the unlimited API and downloads is super cheap per year compared to others I have seen.
Let me know if you have any questions as I tossed a lot at you at once.
Ah. No, this is great info, thank you for laying it all out. On my own, I’d gotten as far as contemplating installing sabnzbd and then buying some gigs from usenetgroupsdirect but the idea of also paying for an indexer was kind of throwing me. I’m already on a budget so not really in this to spend money, if you know what I mean. Mostly, I was just exploring down this path to automate lidarr and readarr, but it sounds like doing so for free is out of the question. Guess I’ll probably stick to manually using soulseek and irc for music and books when needed. Thank you again, this was very helpful!
Glad I could explain somethings for ya. For me I have never really had to pay for the hardware I am using because I am the one with the keys to the IT graveyard at work. Its why I can spend a little on extra things like usenet access. I also setup access for my friends via ombi so they can just go in there and select shows they want to see and all I gotta do is approve them in a discord channel for download. Check it out because its nice for personal use too and integrates well with jellyfin.
I was contemplating maybe setting up my friends and family with jellyfin boxes for the holidays next, er this, year (2024), so maybe the nzb stuff will be more viable when there’s more of us. Especially with everyone cracking down on the login sharing lately. Either way, useful to know.
The only indexer that does open registrations that is worth its salt is drunken slug. Their restrictions for basic accounts is not that bad.
If you wanted I could send you one of my invites, because getting in took me years of waiting. It would come with a “you know what you are doing and are not gonna cause trouble” clause tho.
Is the indexer where you get the nzb files from? I’ve got a jellyfin/arr server going with torrentleech as my main source for movies and shows currently. I was thinking of getting into Usenet again for ebooks and music, but it seems like tech has advanced since the days when I used Forte Agent to manually download things.
Yea the indexers really just keep the nzb files then the backbone providers who have the data. So you need an account with say drunken slug then one with a backbone provider like usenetgroupsdirect. That is where it gets a little confusing because you can buy two types of access to bulk data and each has their pluses and minuses.
If you are keeping up so far I told you about one backbone provider but its best to actually get in with a few others. That is because if you think about it these backbone providers have kept a log of large chunks of usenet on harddrives. So backbone providers do not have access to all of the data. So what you do is get a subscription with usenetgroupsdirect for a flat monthly fee. Then say you use an nzb file from drunken slug and it cannot find it on there. Well that is where a usage based block account comes into play. You end up paying like $10 for 100GB to newsdemon and your data is probably on there.
Since you have your jellyfin/arr setup going all you would need to add is SABnzbd as a the download client and Drunken Slug as the indexer. You want to be careful with this setup if you have a free account because you only have 25 API hits on Drunken Slug a day. You do not want automation banging away at that and you should just use sabnzbd to do your downloads manually. Lucky the unlimited API and downloads is super cheap per year compared to others I have seen.
Let me know if you have any questions as I tossed a lot at you at once.
Ah. No, this is great info, thank you for laying it all out. On my own, I’d gotten as far as contemplating installing sabnzbd and then buying some gigs from usenetgroupsdirect but the idea of also paying for an indexer was kind of throwing me. I’m already on a budget so not really in this to spend money, if you know what I mean.
Mostly, I was just exploring down this path to automate lidarr and readarr, but it sounds like doing so for free is out of the question. Guess I’ll probably stick to manually using soulseek and irc for music and books when needed. Thank you again, this was very helpful!
Glad I could explain somethings for ya. For me I have never really had to pay for the hardware I am using because I am the one with the keys to the IT graveyard at work. Its why I can spend a little on extra things like usenet access. I also setup access for my friends via ombi so they can just go in there and select shows they want to see and all I gotta do is approve them in a discord channel for download. Check it out because its nice for personal use too and integrates well with jellyfin.
lmao, been there! Unfortunately my IT graveyard is ebay nowadays. Not quite as thrifty, plus they don’t pay me.
Ombi sounds interesting, thanks! Similar to Overseerr/Jellyseerr, I think?
I was contemplating maybe setting up my friends and family with jellyfin boxes for the holidays next, er this, year (2024), so maybe the nzb stuff will be more viable when there’s more of us. Especially with everyone cracking down on the login sharing lately. Either way, useful to know.