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You are probably familiar with the word Usenet ( or sometimes referred to as "newsgroups" ) If you have been using computers for the last 10 years. Most ISPs allowed their customers in the early years to use Usenet as a way of communicating with other people. Much like today's forums but with less special functions.

Most ISPs blocked access to Usenet at some point in time, or just blocked access to certain newsgroups while others removed the access all along. Some freaks posted kiddyporn on Usenet that became wide spread and this was among the reasons why they blocked the access.

From Wikipedia:
"Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. It was established in 1980, following experiments from the previous year, over a decade before the World Wide Web was introduced and the general public got access to the Internet. It was originally conceived as a "poor man's ARPANET," employing UUCP to offer mail and file transfers, as well as announcements through the newly developed news software. This system, developed at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was called USENET to emphasize its creators' hope that the USENIX organization would take an active role in its operation (Daniel et al, 1980)."

The similarity with p2p applications

If you are familiar with bittorrent or other p2p applications, you probably know that you will have to upload to be able to download. Most p2p applications use this ratio system as a way of everyone to spread the content and become distributors themselves. This works very well within most networks. But if you are downloading content that is not legal in your country, you are also spreading the content yourself and that could put you in a tight spot if the law catches up with you ( not very likely though! ). Usenet is different than any other p2p networks because you don't have to share the content ( Usenet is not a p2p network! ). This means that you will be able to maximize the performance of your internet connection ( depending on your Usenet provider of course ). The similarity between bit torrent files and Usenet files is that the links to the content you want to download is "compiled" into a single file. A bit torrent file is called .torrent. A Usenet file is called .nzb.

Usenet access

You need a Usenet user account to be able to access Usenet. There are numerous Usenet providers available but you should choose wisely among them. Some cheap ones are often unstable or have reduced download speeds. The one i use and recommend is Giganews. Platinum access gives you unlimited download bandwidth allowance and the prize is US $25 right now. Some people might think that it's too expensive, but the prize you pay is for the bandwidth so this is really cheap if you download lots of files off Usenet.I have a 10mbit connection and the capacity of my internet connection is maximized every time i download.

Usenet clients

To download files from usenet you will need a client with the ability to handle .nzb files. The old Usenet clients ( like outlook ) was great for posting textual content to Usenet, but now Usenet is full of spam and unrelated content so you don't want to waste your time browsing for content. And Outlook does not support .nzb files anyways

Grabit for windows
This is a really good windows client
Hellanzb for linux
This is the best linux client. You can leave hellanzb running if you have ie. a file server.

Links to nzb sites

NZBindex
Good Usenet search engine if you know what you are looking for
Merlins portal
The best index of nzb files. Updated daily ( requires free registration! )

There are other nzb sites too. Some cost money but most are free ( i don't want to pay for this service because I am able to find the files using a search engine anyway ).