Most of us travel the web via our browsers without knowing about
a hidden treasure of media files that exists on a parallel
internet called USENET.

USENET is made up of discussion groups called newsgroups on just
about every topic you can imagine. These groups share more than
conversation, they share media files. Video, audio, pictures and
many other forms of media are posted daily into these groups.
The media filesare called binaries. I don’t know why their called
binaries, but that’s what they call them.

To get at the media on the USENET, you need a search engine that
allows you to search the binary files and discover which group has
them posted. I recommend http://yabse.com (Yet Another Binary
Search Engine)

Once you have found a file you want to get at you need a tool
to grab the file and download it. GrabIt is a free application
that finds pictures, movies, MP3 files, software and games on
Usenet news servers. You can find GrabIt at http://shemes.com.

Your internet provider probably provides access to newsgroups, so
I suggest starting there for the list of newsgroups you can access.

You may want to use a service that specializes in USENET access
if you want to get at older posts to USENET. Most Internet
service providers only keep a small amount of USENET around
for you to access.

You can use a service like Giganews.com if you want to get at
older postings. They keep a copy of the USENET binary postings
going back 120 days. They offer a free 3 day trial. Find them
at http://giganews.com

You will also need a couple of other tools to really make
full use of the binary library on USENET. There is a limit
to the file size that can be posted on USENET so files are
broken up into pieces and may need to be repaired if parts are
missing.

To reassemble the pieces you can use WinRAR from
http://www.rarlab.com/

If the files have problems, they can be repaired using
a tool called Quickpar which you can find at
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

Hope you enjoy the treasure you will find on USENET.