Usenet veterans will tell you: for the best Usenet experience, you’ll need multiple Usenet providers.
Why?
Because when one provider fails to grab a certain file, your backup provider(s) can step in to pick up the slack. It's a lot easier and a lot less hassle to grab the exact NZBs that you want.
Now, you might be thinking: “That sounds complicated… and expensive”.
But it’s actually not!
Keep reading to find out how to use multiple Usenet providers at the same time, the quick and easy way.
Choosing Multiple Usenet Providers
First, you need to choose your providers. Our recommendation would be to use:
- A monthly subscription to a provider on the Omicron backbone, like Newshosting
- A block account with a provider on another backbone, like UsenetExpress or Usenet.Farm
- Related: A Complete Guide to Usenet Backbones
If you set these up the way we suggest, then most of your downloads will go through your unlimited subscription, which you pay for monthly. And any remaining data will go through your block account.
This helps you save money, since you only pay for a block account once and it lasts until you use up all of the data. For many users, that will be several months, if not years. That saves you from paying a monthly fee for an extra provider that you’re barely using, while still giving you the benefits of multiple Usenet providers.
How to Set Up Multiple Usenet Providers in SABnzbd
For the next step, you’ll need a NZB downloader. We’ll be using SABnzbd, but NZBGet works too – and will have a pretty similar setup process.
1. Download and install SABnzbd, if you don’t already have it
2. Click on the SABnzbd shortcut and go to Config (hint: it’s the little gear icon in the menu bar at the top of the window)
3. Click on Servers
4. Click on Add Server
5. Add your first server using the info you got from your Usenet provider, setting it to Priority = 0
Note: We’d also suggest enabling SSL
6. Do the same thing to add your second server, setting this one to Priority = 1
And… well, that’s pretty much it!
You can now start downloading. SABnzbd will try to download from your monthly subscription first, since it’s set to priority 0, and will only pull from your block account if it needs to.
If you ever want to add or change servers, you can use the Enable box and the Priority settings to swap them around. Just remember that Priority = 0 is for your main server, which SABnzbd will pull from first.
By the way, if you need even more help with setup, you can check out our guide on SABnzbd and Newshosting Usenet Setup.
Multiple Usenet Providers Wrap-Up
Hopefully that covered all of your questions about why to use multiple Usenet providers, which ones to pick, and how to set them up.
If you have any other questions – or just want to share your setup – make sure to leave us a comment.