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No Subscriptions, No Surveillance: Usenet My Way

dean

• 2 min read
No Subscriptions, No Surveillance: Usenet My Way

Streaming subscriptions are expensive, and one usually isn't enough. So I took full control in a way that lets me get everything I want without relying on torrents (no seeds, poor download speeds) and moved to Usenet. I can find almost everything I want and max out my bandwidth.

I decided to round out my media stack with NZBGet for Usenet downloads and NZBHydra2 for federated search. Here's how I set everything up on my self-hosted blackbox Debian server using Docker.

📦 Step 1: Install NZBGet via Docker

I used the LinuxServer.io NZBGet image for ease of use and active maintenance.

docker run -d \
  --name=nzbget \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Australia/Brisbane \
  -p 6789:6789 \
  -v /home/dean/nzbget/config:/config \
  -v /mnt/Crucial1TB/nzbget/downloads:/downloads \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/linuxserver/nzbget
  • Config path: /home/dean/nzbget/config
  • Downloads: /mnt/Crucial1TB/nzbget/downloads

I accessed the web UI at http://blackbox:6789 and configured NZBGet with the appropriate folders, credentials, and categories.

🔍 Step 2: Set Up NZBHydra2

NZBHydra2 acts as a unified search engine across all NZB indexers—like the Jackett of Usenet.

docker run -d \
  --name=hydra \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Australia/Brisbane \
  -p 5076:5076 \
  -v /home/dean/hydra/config:/config \
  -v /home/dean/hydra/data:/data \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/linuxserver/nzbhydra2
  • Web interface: http://blackbox:5076

In the NZBHydra2 UI, I linked it to NZBGet under "Downloaders" using:

  • Host: nzbget
  • Port: 6789
  • Username/Password: as configured in NZBGet

📡 Indexers & Usenet Providers

🧾 Usenet Providers

To keep costs manageable while maintaining great access and retention, I went with:

  • Frugal Usenet — my primary unlimited provider
  • ViperNews — used as a block account for fills (cheap and reliable)

🔍 Indexers

I added the following indexers to NZBHydra2:

  • NZBGeek — excellent search results, active community
  • AltHUB — strong retention, useful for niche and older content

Both were added under the “Indexers” tab in Hydra with API keys. I enabled search, caps check, and result aggregation.

🧪 Testing the Setup

I used a few test NZBs and search queries to verify:

  • Hydra searches returned results from both indexers
  • NZBGet handled NZBs correctly and downloaded to the right folders
  • Retention and fill coverage worked as expected between Frugal and ViperNews

🧰 Monitoring & Maintenance

  • Watchtower handles automatic container updates weekly
  • Uptime Kuma monitors NZBGet at port 6789
  • I’ve kept the setup lightweight without Sonarr/Radarr for now—manual searches via NZBHydra2 work just fine

While Usenet is generally fast and reliable, DMCA takedowns sometimes make files unavailable. In those cases, I fall back to qBittorrent and trusted public trackers to grab what Usenet couldn’t.