Basically you want one primary usenet service, doesn’t really matter what (they all have pros and cons but for a normal users they’re basically the same), and another secondary service on a separate backbone (see https://whatsmyuse.net) to get good coverage without being hurt too hard by takedowns.

It’s kinda not cool in the usenet world to recommend specific services because there’s so much shilling going on. I’ll tell you what I use but please don’t take it as a specific recommendation. No affiliation with any of these.

For indexers I use nzb.su and drunkenslug. The former seems to have better coverage but the latter is faster. I hear nzbfinder is good too.

I use frugalusenet but only cos I got a deal that makes it $34/year. It comes with a free secondary block account on a second backbone so it’s kinda helpful in that way. But overall coverage isn’t as good as two well chosen providers. They often post good deals to Reddit/etc so keep your eyes open for a good one (Black Friday is a good time)

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

Some other person here, and thank you for the info! I’m soooo out of touch on Usenet… I used it as a chat room wayyyyy long ago when I was a wee one, but never for downloading stuff.