Mount a share as a drive

Make a share appear as an ordinary drive or folder. Programs open files from it normally, and only the bytes they actually read are fetched from Usenet. Nothing is downloaded up front.

This is how a 20 TB library is usable on a laptop with a 256 GB disk.

What you get

A drive letter on Windows, or a folder on macOS and Linux, containing the share's files. Explorer, Finder, VLC, Plex, Jellyfin and Kodi all treat it as normal storage. It is read-only — nothing you do can alter the share.

The machine that mounts it needs no Usenet account and no UsenetShare license. It needs only the scoped, read-only key inside the kit you download, which you can revoke at any time. That is what makes it safe to mount on a media server, a games machine, or a family member's PC.

Your own published folders can be mounted too, not just shares you imported.

Prerequisites

The S3 object storage gateway must be on. It is the engine underneath the mount, and it is off by default. If it is off, the mount panel offers to turn it on for you in one click — take the offer.

The mounting machine must be able to reach this one. If you mount on the same PC, that is automatic. Mounting from another machine needs a LAN-reachable address; the panel warns you when the endpoint has resolved to a loopback address that only works locally, and Settings → S3 / Object storage → Public endpoint is where you set the address other machines should use.

Mount it on this PC — the one-click route

If you want the share on the machine you are already using:

1. Open the share and choose the Usenet Drive tab.
2. Choose the Network drive door.
3. Press Set up on this PC.
4. Approve the administrator prompt.

It installs what it needs, sets up a mount that comes back after a reboot, and reports Install finished. The drive appears at the location shown on the panel.

Mount it on another machine

For a media server, a NAS, or any box that is not the one running UsenetShare.

The easy way: the panel's Install on another machine option gives you a single command to paste on the other box, backed by a one-time token valid for fifteen minutes.

The manual way, if you would rather see what it does:

1. Pick the target's operating system on the panel — Windows, macOS or Linux.

2. Download kit (.zip).

3. Copy the zip to the other machine and unzip it.

4. Run the mount script:

   Platform	Run	Needs
   Windows	Right-click mount-usenetdrive.ps1 → Run with PowerShell, approve the admin prompt	WinFsp, which the script installs
   macOS	bash mount-usenetdrive.sh	rclone + macFUSE
   Linux	bash mount-usenetdrive.sh	rclone + your distribution's FUSE package

5. Point Explorer, Finder, Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi at the mounted location.

The Windows script also registers a logon task, so the drive comes back when the user signs in.

Using it with Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi

Add the mounted folder as a library the same way you would a local one.

Two things to expect, both consequences of streaming rather than faults:

Scanning a large library takes a while the first time. The scanner reads metadata from every file, and each read is a network fetch. It settles down afterwards.

Playback starts after a short pause. The player has to fetch the beginning of the file before it can show you anything. Seeking to an unwatched part of a large file pauses similarly.

Once a file has been downloaded, it is served from your disk and costs no provider connections at all — so a file you have already pulled down does not compete with anything.

Connections are shared, and you can choose the split

Downloading and streaming both draw on your provider's connection limit. When both are active they get half each, and a banner at the top of the app shows the split with three buttons: Share 50/50, Download 100%, Streaming 100%.

Download 100% really does stop streaming until you switch back. That is the point — during a big download it stops a mounted drive from competing, and during a film it stops a download from ruining playback.

Revoking access

Each kit contains its own scoped key, so you can withdraw one machine without touching the others.

• Revoke this key on the panel that minted it, or
• Settings → S3 / Object storage → the scoped keys list.

Revoking takes effect immediately. The mount on that machine stops working; the share is unharmed and other machines keep going.

Revoke a key when you retire a machine, when you lend and then un-lend access, or if you suspect a kit has been copied.

The other mounting jobs

The Usenet Drive tab has more than one door, and there are adjacent features people confuse with mounting:

Mounting a share does not let you browse inside a disk image the share contains. The mount presents the .img file as a file; opening its filesystem is a separate feature, which is guide 11.

When it goes wrong

The mount panel says the gateway is not enabled. Take its one-click offer, or turn it on at Settings → S3 / Object storage.

"The S3 endpoint resolved to a loopback address." Fine for mounting on this PC, useless from another machine. Set Public endpoint in the S3 settings to this machine's LAN address.

rclone says symlinks are not supported without --links. The kit predates that flag. Download a fresh kit from the same panel and run its script again.

The drive vanished after a reboot. On Windows the logon task restores it when the user signs in, so it appears after sign-in rather than at boot. On Linux and macOS the manual mount does not survive a reboot by itself — use Set up on this PC if you want persistence.

Everything is slow or stalls. Check the connection-split banner first: a download may hold 100%. Then check the machine can still reach the gateway — a changed IP address breaks a kit that hard-coded the old one, and a fresh kit fixes it.

Playback stutters on large files. Raise Settings → Performance → Streaming Prefetch Window, which controls how far ahead a stream reads. See Recommended settings.

Next

• S3 object storage — the gateway underneath this
• Recommended settings