A simple Newsgroup Tutorial for all

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WildGod
God Is Dead
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A simple Newsgroup Tutorial for all

Figure #1
Figure #2
Figure #3
Figure #4
Figure #5
Figure #6	Figure #7
Figure #8	Figure #9	Figure #10
Figure #11
Figure #12
Figure #13	Figure #14

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

1) Access to Newsgroups - Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) allow their users access to Newsgroups. If you dont have access to Newsgroups through your ISP, you can find a list at Slyck.com

2) A Newsreader - There are many Newsreaders available. Xnews seems to be both the most common and easiest to setup. This tutorial will use Xnews. Here is a listing of Newsreaders available:

»www.timdoc.com/guide/Download_Gu···sreaders

»download.com.com/3150-2164-0-1-1···acy=cnet

3) Winrar - Files on Newsgroups (depending on size) are split into parts and come in .rar and/or .zip formats. This basically means that the files are compressed and are able to be split up and later can be combined back to the original state using Winrar. Get Winrar here

4) .SFV verifier and .PARchive recovery program - Large files posted to Newsgroups are split into parts of around 15MB-50MB. Sometimes some parts of a file become corrupt during posting, rendering them useless. This is a
problem unless of course the poster also posts .PAR files. PAR files can replace a missing and/or corrupt file. There is one catch, you must have the same number of .PAR files as you do missing and/or corrupt files. A
newer recovery file system is PAR2. The differences between PAR and PAR2 is discussed here. In order to recover these missing and/or corrupt files you will also need a .PAR recovery program. Here are three:

FSRaid for regular PAR files
SmartPAR for regular PAR files
QuickPAR for PAR2 files

When browsing through Newsgroups you might also see a file ending in .SFV. This small file stores information about the full group of files. When opened with QuickSFV it will tell you how many files are in the total set and will tell you if any are missing or corrupt. To see how many files are in the full set before you even start downloading anything just double click on the .SFV file in
Xnews.

5) You will also need a CD/DVD burning program if you plan on burning the items you download. Nero is my burning program of choice. If you get a .bin and .cue combination of files after you unrar something, this will show you what to do with them.

Well now you have just about everything you need to venture into the wonderful world of Newsgroups, lets get it setup.

SETUP
STEP 1

Download an install your Newsreader of choice. I will be using Xnews for this tutorial. Start up Xnews, choose SERVER then NEW as shown in FIGURE #1

Enter the Server name in the space provided as shown in FIGURE #2

Enter a nickname in the space provided as shown in FIGURE #3

If you need to enter a Username and Password choose SPECIAL, then choose SETUP XNEWS as shown in FIGURE #4

Enter you Sever Address, Username and Password (if required) in the space provided then click OK as shown in FIGURE #5

NOW YOUR READY TO START USING NEWSGROUPS

STEP 2

You will should see a list of Newsgroups available to you.
Most Newsgroups only contain text files, some contain files other users have posted.
The Newsgroups which usually contain files start with alt.binaries.
An example can be seen in FIGURE #6

Once you find a Group you like you can Subscribe to that group (add to your Favorites) so that you can find it a lot easier the next time. To Subscribe to a Group, highlight it by clicking on it once then choose the Subscribe button shown in FIGURE #7

Once you Subscribe to the Group it will have a different symbol in front of it as shown in FIGURE #8

To only see the Groups you have subscribed to just click the All Button on the lower left as shown in FIGURE #9 (this one shows all) and FIGURE #10 (this one only shows subscribed groups)

Now double click on the Group to see what is in there. You may get a popup window like the one shown in FIGURE #11

If a popup window similar to the one in FIGURE #11 appears you will have to choose the number of headers to download. Slide the top slider to the left to get to the beginning of the headers and the bottom slider to the right
to get to the end. If your ISP gives you a download limit check to see if this limit includes headers, if so you may not want to download headers you have already seen. You can choose the RETRIEVE BUT EXCLUDE READ ARTICLES from the middle of the popup window. If you have no limit you dont need to worry about this, just set it as shown above.

After a few mintues of downloading the Headers (basically the title of the particular post), you will see a number of lines of postings. It should look something like FIGURE #12

In FIGURE #12 I have shown the most common Icons you will find, here is what they mean:
A -This Posting contains a number of text files, click on it and it will reveal more text files which you can double click on and read.

B - This file is an .sfv file, I discussed this above at #4 in the what you will need section.

C - This is a text file, notice the extension of
the file in this example,.nfo. Double click on it to read it's contents or you can also download it.

D - This is a corrupted part. Whatever this file contained is no longer useable.

E - This file is ok to be downloaded, it is not corrupted.

Other things to look at:
Postings usually contain information about what it is, for example the title of the file may be posted, the number of the file compared to how many are in the complete set (ex. 001 of 103 = 1st file of a total of 103) and the file extension.

Once you find a file or group of files you want to download, highlight the file or group of files you want and hit the Spacebar on your keyboard or Right Click on the file/group of files and choose (De)Qeue. You will now
see numbers next to the file, this is the Qeue order, files are downloaded in that order. If you decide you no longer want to download a particular file, just highlight it and use the same procdure as you did when you chose
to download it. After you have chosen which files you would like to download, click the Decode Button (FIGURE #13) or hit the F4 button on your keyboard.

If you wish to Cancel the download, just click on the Cancel Button shown in FIGURE #14

That's all there is to it. It may seem overwhelming but its quite easy after you get used to it.

HELPFUL TIPS

--To find a particular file in a Group, choose Group located at the top and then choose Find. Type in what your looking for (type only the first few letters since most Posts dont usually contain the whole title).
--Use sites such as NFONews.com and Newzbin.com to see whats available on on Newsgroups.
--RUN A VIRUS SCAN ON ANYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD. This goes for everything you download, not just on Newsgroups.

Please, please, please feel free to add to this.

And a big thanks to dumwaldo

for introducing me to Newsgroups.
--
TOOL-"I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave, I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down"-Sober
---
"UGLY AMERICAN" & PROUD OF IT


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