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dumwaldo
Premium
join:2001-03-12
| reply to Edge1
Re: Talk to me about EasyNews
said by Edge1  :Waldo - I got the idea for trying this from your post in one of the other threads. I've got to tell you that you quickly lost me with your post. What are NZB files, PAR viewers, rar parts, etc.? I sort of have a very vague idea after going to slyckdotcom or whatever, but I will obviously have to learn a whole lot more techie stuff to figure this out. So I guess I have to download a PAR viewer? I really don't understand what a viewer does. I'm already viewing the page. Oh well, I'll keep trying. I'm reasonably well educated but pathetically still need a 3rd grade explanation of what the heck is going on here  . Please bear with me. People who use and understand Easynews seem to clearly love the service, so I'd like to learn more about it. Thanks and keep the tips coming if you so desire - I'll certainly read them. DK I am going to try and dissect the questions from your post and give the most direct answers I can. Before i give any more information you should be aware that most of this advice applies to larger postings. For downloading music the best way that I know is to simply search using the search page and download the songs one at a time from there. The zip manager is just a hassle for small blocks of files like music CD's.
Keep in mind that usenet gets EVERYTHING; so there will come a day when you want something more substantial than a music CD. I am pretty confident in that notion.
DUDE, RAR FILES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF UNDERSTANDING USENET!!! I hope that gets the point across. Read this, »www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=5 and when you are done read it again. Then read it one more time and bookmark it to read it again in the future. Just in case i wasn't entirely clear you should really read this... »www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=5
What are NZB files
An NZB file is an index file. The information inside the file tells a newsreader EXACTLY where a post is on usenet. For your purpose the easynews website is your newsreader.
You can download NZB files from websites like »www.newzbin.com/ that index usenet posts. Newzbin charges $2 per month for downloading NZB files but there are many sites that offer these type of files for free. In my experience i have never seen a free site that does as good a job as newzbin.
Once you have downloaded an NZB file for a post you do not need to locate anything yourself. You would load the NZB file on the zip manager page of easynews and it will create a new page with just the post you want displayed on it.
PAR viewers
So I guess I have to download a PAR viewer?
The par viewer is a feature of the easynews website. You do not need to download anything.
In this picture, you can see that some of the search results have a link in them called "par viewer". One of those links is highlighted in grey.
When you click on a par viewer link for a post you are taken to a much less complicated page with ONLY the post associated with the par viewer you clicked the link from. In addition to that, any comments the poster made with the post will be removed and you will only see file names.
The new page that opens will look like this...
It is much easier to download larger posts this way. From this page it is very easy to create zip files using the internal easynews zip manager page. It is also much easier to use a download manager from this page than from the search results page.
If the archive of files are named with the part##.rar style of file names, you will find a nice surprise by scrolling down the page. The easynews website will put the files together for you and allow you to download the contents of the archive.
Look at this picture. It shows the end of the rar archive and after that it shows the link to download the MPG file as one file instead of using the rar parts.
Just a few closing tips to help understand when you are reading headers.
REQ is short for request. Often people will post files with a request for something in return. This is probably the main source for misunderstanding headers. Always look for the actual file name to know what you are downloading. You can spot the file names in post headers because they are in quotes. Not every post includes the file name in the header but for the most part all REPUTABLE posters will do this.
I am on the forum at least once a day. if you have any questions, please don't hold back. Ask whatever you want and it will not go ignored. My PM inbox is always open too if you have a question that requires specifics that shouldn't be posted. eg. location of specific posts.
peace,
dumwaldo | |
Edge1
Workin' Ta Live
Premium
join:2006-03-01
 ·Verizon Online DSL
|  Dudes - AWESOME replies. I really want to figure this out now. I get the message about RAR files and needing to read slyck.com about 20 times too .
Waldo - I appreciate big-time your patient and well-constructed explanation (complete with pictures for the newsgroup-challenged ). I've got learning to do, but those fundamentals you just shared are critical to understand whats happening and what the heck I'm looking at. I DID go to the newsgroups FAQ offered here, so between that, slyck.com, and your posts I sure better be able to figure this out.
Once again - I was highly impressed with the speed of downloads. I downloaded what I now believe was just one piece of a movie file (.avi.001) and of course I got about 48 MB incredibly quickly. Now I figure the file was a RAR type file (in pieces) because it wouldn't play in WMP (got some error about a codec) and had the .001 suffix. I don't know where the rest of the movie is, but now I think I might be able to find it based on your NZB explanation!
I'm sure I will have specific questions re: the process for downloading movie files, stitching them back together, and perhaps ultimately burning them to DVD. Methinks I want to finally pull the trigger on the DVD-RW purchase from Newegg  . If you can't already tell, I tend to be a late adopter of technology. Heck I just coverted from dialup a month or two ago. THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! | |
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