FirstLoveMovies

I've never used NewsBin, but its NZB data format is useful on its own.

Well, back in the old days one had to know the good groups where stuff was posted and one used a "newsreader" that worked similar to a POP/IMAP email client. Nowadays many binary groups are so huge that it is impossible to load all headers, so one typically goes to http://binsearch.info/ and creates an NZB file of interesting search results and uses that to download the stuff. NZB can be thought of as a "torrent" file in Usenet context. Here is one example of an NZB file (zipped) attached to this post:

how secure are the usenet sites ? can they log and keep a record of what you are downloading ?

i just joined astraweb using paypal !! and i noticed when i logged in it says hi to me using my real name!!
are there other ways of joining these sites and remaining anon and without being tracked ?

maybe it just wants to be pals with you.

That's strange.....I also use astraweb & paid with PayPal but it makes no mention of my real name (unless it IS actually loverboy!)

Did you pay astraweb direct or use their reseller who appears to ask far too many questions, including full name.

lb

cool i have a website friend now, i may invite astraweb round for a few drinks !!

i paid direct from paypal

Well, if you pay by PayPal or credit card (and usually there aren't many other oprions anyway), they have your real ID regardless if they say hi or not. Some years ago I heard that in the US, you could buy an anonymous prepaid credit card. Don't know if that's still the case or if it was a rumor in the first place.

BTW, http://torrentfreak.com/paypal-bans-use ... ns-121121/

Astraweb has long retention, many groups (including all the ones we need ) and fast speed (I always had full 100MBit). But they started to censor encrypted uploads due to DMCA, so downloading actual Blurays and rips became a lottery.
Alternative: SSL-News. 12.99€/month for 150MBit + Unlimited. Quite OK. Also full speed always.