Newbie questions about Couchpotato and Transmission

[BBarker]

I got Plex running pretty problem free for now and would like to ask some questions about Couchpotato and Transmission. I am very green to these things and have done exhaustive reading but just want to get some clarification before I begin.

Am I right in saying Couchpotato is a search engine for torrents that looks at torrent and usenet sites for user specified items while Transmission is the client used to download these files once found? Do you have to be a usenet subscriber for this to work effectively and if so, what are some of the recommended sites? What about anonymity? I currently use PIA and am curious if I have to incorporate it into my search and download sessions like I currently do with my pc?

I apologize for the very greenpea questions, but this is something I want to get involved in and value everyone's opinion here very much.

 

[diedrichg]

CP searches for movies. You can either use a Usenet index site which then passes the .nzb to a downloader such as SABnzbd. Or, you can have CP search your favorite torrent engine which will then pass the .torrent file to Transmission.

As for Usenet, Astraweb is one of the more popular services for price and value. I purchase the 1000GB package for $50USD and it lasts me over 1.5 years. You will need a secondary service though because some of the files will not complete because of DRM takedowns.

I look for a Usenet provider who has SSL connections, the biggest blocks for the best price and with the longest retention. You can do some research here:
http://ngprovider.com/
http://www.usenetcompare.com/

There are so many ways to use Usenet and there is no right or best way. You can also utilize a seedbox to download nzbs ridiculously fast!

With torrents you can set up a RSS feed for it to search for a TV show on a certain day and time so that you can minimize your interaction with the files. I give the advantage to Usenet for automation though, once you are all set up you will rarely need to interact with the downloaded files.

 

[BBarker]

Good information as I didn't know that you would need a different downloader for usenet. Which is typically faster....usenet or torrents for high quality movie and music downloads? To be honest, I am thinking about trying usenet just because it's new to me and I'm interested in seeing how it works. How do you keep yourself anonymous with usenet?

 

[diedrichg]

By the way, a seedbox can be set up to download nzbs as well as torrents. Advantage is that you are not the one actually downloading the content. 2. The speeds are insane 3. SSL connection to the seedbox to download the content to your personal storage. Disadvantage is price per GB per month and it is very labor intensive to transfer the content from a seedbox to local storage.

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

@diedrichg I'm not sure why you would need a seedbox with usenet? As far a I understand there is no security or performance advantage to using a seedbox vs connecting to a usenet server directly with SSL.

@BBarker
I get my full bandwidth when downloading from usenet, which in my case is a bit over 100Mbps. Usenet servers usually offer an SSL option; in this case end-to-end encryption means no one in the middle would know what is being transferred, just what server you are connecting to, and the transfered amount.
For torrents, speed depends on the number a quality of peers. Torrents have no anonymity; I use a host blocklist but this isn't bullet proof, or you could pay for a VPN to make traffic terminate somewhere else.

 

[diedrichg]

@diedrichg I'm not sure why you would need a seedbox with usenet? As far a I understand there is no security or performance advantage to using a seedbox vs connecting to a usenet server directly with SSL.

You are correct, I misspoke. There was a time after I cut the cable cord that I was using a seedbox for seeding ratio torrents because I was unaware of the advantages of SSL through Usenet. Through Usenet I get downloads of 9000Kb but my connection is 75MB!

 

[BBarker]

I do use a VPN service now when torrenting but the idea of SSL is attractive because it should be easier to setup that trying to get my VPN to work only for searches and downloads and nothing else.

I was just going to create more folders in my media share for Watching, downloading and downloaded content and set up CP and SAB in the same jail I have plex. Is there any reasons I should not do this? Also, which order should I install the plugins or does it matter?

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

I don't think order of installing plugins matters. They use PBIs which are mostly isolated, except for when a library/binary has to be linked to the jail system.

As for how you structure your folders/plugins, it is completely your preference. It can work all in the same jail, or in different jails. I personally prefer having my downloading/organizing stuff in a single jail, and my streaming server (Emby in my case, but could be plex) in a different jail that that only has read-only access.

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

You are correct, I misspoke. There was a time after I cut the cable cord that I was using a seedbox for seeding ratio torrents because I was unaware of the advantages of SSL through Usenet. Through Usenet I get downloads of 9000Kb but my connection is 75MB!

Ahh, yeah I think seedboxes are more a torrent thing. They probably can help alot in that case because you aren't using up all your home's upload bandwidth. I don't have any experience with them personally though.

 

[BBarker]

I don't think order of installing plugins matters. They use PBIs which are mostly isolated, except for when a library/binary has to be linked to the jail system.

As for how you structure your folders/plugins, it is completely your preference. It can work all in the same jail, or in different jails. I personally prefer having my downloading/organizing stuff in a single jail, and my streaming server (Emby in my case, but could be plex) in a different jail that that only has read-only access.

This actually appeals to my sense of organization, having separate jails for my media server, downloads and then backup. I am really the only one in my household that will actively access the NAS and all others will use a PLEX app to get to the media server. I just need to find a good walk thru for setting up a separate jail and then installing CP and SAB into it. I really don't have a problem using my laptop to access torrents though uTorrent via my VPN but the idea of searching for specific types of media and hopefully a better selection of the same through usenet sounds appealing.