It requires a subscription, which scares off most of the casual “just looking to try it” users. It’s as simple as getting a Usenet subscription. Usenet providers are sort of like ISPs. Each provider will have an umbrella of servers that they sync with, so it’s worth researching which provider you want to go with. Most will have a wide variety of content, but they all follow different policies regarding things like DMCA takedowns. Many people like to get two different subs so they can have a primary and a backup provider.

Subs typically come in both monthly subs and usage subs. For instance, the monthly sub will be unlimited access for a month, while a usage sub will just be like 100GB of download bandwidth, and you don’t get charged again until you use that 100GB. If you’re doing a lot of downloading, you’ll probably want a monthly. So most people will have a monthly subscription for their primary, then a usage sub for their secondary. So they only actually use their secondary if something is missing from their primary, and they’re not constantly maintaining two monthly subscriptions.

Actually using Usenet will require a Usenet reader, which is a program that actually interfaces with the Usenet network. Sort of like how a torrent program is used to download torrents. Most readers will integrate with services like the *arr suite to automatically search for and download content. If that’s something you’d be interested in, look into the suite and see which readers work best.

But that would break the first rule of Usenet.