SABnzbd is a download manager for Usenet newsgroups.

Usenet is a discussion system where users can create new topics and reply to them. This system was created at the beginning of 80's, when the Internet did not exist as we know it today. Despite being a system so old, is still being used, and one of the major uses is the upload of files so that they can be downloaded by other users.

The process of downloading files on Usenet networks is something complex, because we have to browse through the different newsgroups to find what we are looking for, and download all the parts of a file. This can take several minutes or even hours, if we do not use any additional tool.

Thanks to SABnzbd, the process of downloading files hosted on Usenet newsgroups will be more simple. To make use of this program all we need is to download the .nzb files of Usenet group news. To download and search for .nzb files there are a multitude of sites on the Internet dedicated to index, and to offer this type of files. You can make an analogy between the .torrent files and the .nzb files. The .torrent files contain information about a download, and to download the content we have to use a BitTorrent client. In this case, the .nzb files contain information about a download and use SABnzbd to download the content of .nzb file.

To access the program, we need to use a browser and go to the web address we have chosen in the setup, usually it is: http://localhost:8080/sabnzbd . The program creates a web server, so if we set up our router properly, we will be able to access the program from any computer in the world, which means that we will be able to add new .nzb files at any time and place.

The use of the software is very simple, we only need to configure the Usenet server that we want to use, and add the .nzb files that we want to download. We will be able to add .nzb files that we've downloaded on our hard drive, or enter the URL file.

The software can be used by other programs to add new files to download queue. To do that, this software provides an API key that we will be able to enter into other programs, so it can add new downloads automatically.

Downloads from Usenet servers tend to be very fast, so we can configure the program to limit download speed, so we don't saturate Internet bandwidth. It is also usual that Usenet providers limit on the number of gigabytes downloaded per month. We can configure the program so it doesn't exceed the limit imposed by the access provider.

We can also schedule different actions to be executed at any time of the day. For example, we can schedule to limit download speed from 8 am to 8 pm, or, at 10 in the morning, to pause all downloads and resume it at 17 in the afternoon.

We can create categories to classify and organize downloaded files, this way when we add new file, we can assign it to a category and it will automatically be saved in the directory that we have associated with the selected category.

In the main interface we will see a list of files that are being downloaded, and the files that have already been downloaded. It also shows the speed of downloading files and buttons to pause or delete the downloaded files.

The software is cross-platform, so that we can install and use it on Windows, Mac and Linux. We can download and use the program free of charge.