November 09, 2009 by sharky
Before 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.
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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".
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