Broadband Tech > Filesharing Software > [NEWSGROUPS] Newsgroup Basics

[NEWSGROUPS] Newsgroup Basics

Newsgroup Providers

As mentioned already, odds are the free newsgroup service provided by your ISP will most likely not be adequate to download binary files.

Slyck’s website (the most recommended website for Newsgroup general information) also maintains a list of all Newsgroup Providers. Follow this link and look at the list on the bottom right corner of the page: »www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=2.

For a very long time on this board »www.usenetserver.com/ has been the most recommended unlimited provider. Paying three months at a time brings the price down from $15 a month to $13.31 a month.

Most providers offer services that limit your download bandwidth per month. A single CD can be up to 800MB in size and a single sided DVD can be 4.7Gigs in size. Even though a download of such an item comes in the form of pieces of a compressed file, other files that might be part of the download (for use in error and missing part correction) may make the total download larger than the uncompressed source files(s). So, if you do not plan on paying for an unlimited bandwidth service, carefully consider how much and what you might be downloading. Also, even unlimited bandwith per month services plans normally will have speed caps. For example, »www.usenetserver.com currently has a speed cap of 2mb/s (equal to 256 Kilo Bytes per second). This would be excessive for DSL users, but might be considered low bandwidth for some Cable Modem users.

In the next message we’ll take a look at the most important piece of software you will need for download files: A Newsreader program that can handle binary files

reply to Lorne8
NewsReaders

Newsreader programs on the surface will look very similar to email programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, or Lotus Notes. The most common mistake people make when trying to deal with binary newsgroup files is using trying to use a common email/news program like Outlook Express to download them. You will need a Newsreader that is geared more toward listing and downloading binary files. Don’t worry though, because some of the very best ones are free. A good Newsreader can mean the difference between beating your head on the desk or easily selecting and download files with little effort.

Here is a quick list of the Newsreaders that have been the most recommended by people on this discussion board:

Power Grab
-Freeware
Homesite: »www.cosmicwolf.com/

XNews
-Freeware
»xnews.newsguy.com/
A good Xnews Guide: »www.slyck.com/xnews.php

NewsBin
-$35
»www.newsbin.com/

NewsLeecher
-$35
»www.newsleecher.com/

Newspro
-Freeware
»www.netwu.com/newspro/
MikeStammer’s Newspro Page
-A complete guide for how to setup and use Newspro as well as MikeStammers NPDL Mangager Newspro tool.
»mikestammer.com/NewsPro/
“NPDL Manager is a tool that lets you have complete control over your downloaded articles. When enabled in NewsPro, NewsPro will log all download activity to a file. NPDL Manager reads that file and displays it in an easy to use format.”

News Rover
-$30
-Recommended for Text messages but not for Binary messages
News Rover Guide: »www.angelfire.com/movies/mpegify···rdl.html

Next up we need to take a quick look at WinRar

reply to Lorne8
WinRAR

Homesite/Download: »www.rarlab.com/index.htm

Your going to need WinRar. It is a shareware app. You can use it forever but you will see registration reminders and nag screens. There really is no substitute for WinRar. You’re going to need it.

Most of the files you download will be compressed with WinRAR. WinRar is very similar to the commonly know WinZip application. A file that ends in “.rar” is just a WinRar version of a “.zip” file.

The reason why WinRar is so commonly used is it’s ability to quickly split a file into many small compressed pieces. When you download a file compressed with Winrar, you will either see a single file, or multiple Winrar pieces.

A single file will always have a “.rar” extension.

A split “.rar” file will be three characters and start with a “r” (myfile.r01).

Example:
Myfile.r01
Myfile.r02
MyFile.r03

To uncompress a split WinRar file all you need to do is to tell WinRar to uncompress a single "piece" (right click on a piece and select one of the "extract" options). WinRar will know what other piece belong with the set and use all of them to uncompress the archive. (simple)

WinRar won’t be enough though. It is the most commonly used compression program, but there’s one more type you’ll want to be ready for. Let’s talk about that in the next thread message

reply to Lorne8
Numerical File Extension Standard

Sooner or later you download or see a set of files that only end in an extionsion with three digits (.001, .002, etc). All you need to know is that these file types are just another way of splitting files into pieces.

JAS always seems to be the most recommended application to get for combining a numerical file extension split file.

JAS (Just Another Splitter)
-Free
-The most recommended on this board
-Excellent web guides on how to split and restore files
www.jas-etc.com/

Next we need to take a look at one of the most important things to know about when downloading files (especially large ones): PAR FILES.

Par Files

“understanding par files is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT thing someone needs to do if they are going to download large multi part binary files from usenet.” –dumwaldo

Par Files are extra files associated with a binary file set. You do not actually need to download them as they are only for the purpose of fixing file errors and replacing missing files. Par files use the same method as RAID controllers to restore missing or corrupted data. If you download a set of binary files (one file split into several files) getting all pieces without corruption you will not need any of the PAR/PAR2 files. Although it is good practice to download the PAR files. Also, you may not need all of the PAR files to fix a corrupted file or replaces missing pieces. The main PAR/PAR2 file will end with the extension “.PAR” or “.PAR2”. At the very least, you need to download that main file.

Recommended Reading: »www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=5

QuickPar
-Most recommended on this board
-made for both Par files and Par2 files (one stop shopping)
-Free
»www.quickpar.org.uk/index.htm

FSRaid
Excellent
»www.fluidstudios.com/fsraid.html

Tutorials
»www.quickpar.org.uk/Tutorials.htm
»abmefaq.net/

Another file type you might see are SFV files let's take a look at SFV files

reply to Lorne8
SFV

The main thing to know about SFV files is that you can ignore them. Between RAR and PAR/PAR2 files you will have everything you need. Some people like using SFV files and some do not. At first I’d recommended you avoid them. After you get comfortable downloading files it may be something you want to look into that will help you with your downloading.

An SFV file is a file that stores records about a files (or group of files) integrity. When you compare an SFV file against a group of RAR files, it will check those RAR files and tell you if they are complete or if they are "broken".”

Some people only use SFV files to get an index of all files associate with a download.

Guide and Quick SFV program download:
-Free
»www.smr-usenet.com/tutor/sfv.shtml

SFV Checker
-$8.95
»www.traction-software.co.uk/SFVChecker/
"SFV Checker Ensure your multi-volume file archives are complete and accurate!"

There's one more Newsgroup related file type to take a look at. Next, let's look at NZB files.

reply to Lorne8
NZB Files

NZB files are Newsbin files. Newsbin is a free web based Usenet files search engine. With an free Newsbin account, Newsbin offers some advanced features. Some features however are not free:

"A premium newzBin account is only 50c/week, with a minimum period of 4 weeks."

One advanced feature is the abiltiy to download NZB files. Basically with the NZB file a supporting NewsReader program will get all the information it needs to start download a file. You don't need NZB files

From NFX:
Everything you need to know - Newsbin.com's "What is a NZB File?" Page:
»docs.newzbin.com/index.php?pagen···nNZBFile

"Since newzBin indexes pretty much every file on Usenet, and maintains a database of them for around 25 days, we have the ability to generate a short summary file containing all the information a newsreader requires to download any given file, or set of files."

Note:
1)alt.binaries.nl gives you free access to NZB files
2)Another great feature about Newsbin is that you can setup a watchdog time to be automatically emailed when I file you're waiting for shows up.

You can download and work with files now, but how do you find what you’re looking for? Let’s take a look at that next.

reply to Lorne8
How to Find Files

There are two ways to find files. One way is by looking in the correct group (a group related to what you’re looking for and contains a large amount of posts). Another way is by using a Newsgroup file search engine.

To start off, you should look here: »www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=4
The most popular binary groups are listed there.

Here are a few search engines that have been recommended on this board before:

SEARCH ENGINES

Newsbin
»www.newzbin.com/

Easy News
Maybe rated as having the best search engine but you have to have a Usnet account with them. They are a “Usnet ISP”. Currently they are charging $10 per moth or 6Gigs (whichever comes first).
»www.easynews.com/

BioCrawler
»www.bincrawler.com/default.aspx

InfoNews
»nfonews.com/

UsenetJunkie
»www.usenetjunkie.com/

Alt.Binaries.Nl
»alt.binaries.nl/

I'll finish this thing off with some recommended reading next....

reply to Lorne8
OTHER GUIDES AND RESOURCES

Slyck’s guide to NewsGroups
»www.slyck.com/ng.php

ABME Faq's
»abmefaq.net/

TimDoc’s Downloading Guide
»www.timdoc.com/guide/Download_Gu···Doc.html

Slyck’s article: “Getting The Most Out Of Newsgroups”
»www.slyck.com/news.php?story=259

Web Forums for Newsgroup help:
»www.slyck.com/forums/viewforum.p···c2f29996

Usenetportal
A ton of usefull reviews articles and links.
»www.usenetportal.com/index.php

Listing of multiple newsreader programs & downloads
»cws.internet.com/news.html

Tucows Newsreader Download Section
»www.tucows.com/news95_default.html

NFO News intro to Newsgroups
»www.nfonews.com/default.asp?page=tutnews

reply to Lorne8
Whew.... I'm freaking tired.

Hope that's good.

Excellent work!!

Thanks for the time and effort involved in making this extensively thorough NNTP FAQ

reply to Lorne8
Thanks.... I'm still working on it heavily (learning as I go).
Plus, I seem to have really bad grammar problems.

reply to Lorne8
Great post Vorpal, I know I really would have appreciated reading this if I were still getting started.

reply to Lorne8
WHOA..

Huge post.. thanks a lot! I'm no beginner either but still, your effort is astounding!
I'm gonna check out Newsleecher.. it looks much more carefully executed than Newsbin Pro. We'll see
--
In a state of constant confusion :| ?? ?? ??

reply to Lorne8
How about the programs that are used to post binaries in newsgroups .

Great job by the way!

Ps that is just what i am trying to look for now.

reply to Lorne8
this is a fantastic post and i am glad to see that its always at the top of the forum. excellent resource you have assembled here Vorpal, you should be quite proud of yourself. big thumbs up dude.

BTW
ttboy, get Power-Post »www.cosmicwolf.com/
and do NOT post using your ISP's news server.

reply to Lorne8
Thanks, that makes me feel great
All the information came from this board though. I just thought it would be cool to combine and sum it up.

I meant to fix some things as I still see errors (amazing how many times you can go through something like that and still see so many mistakes). Plus, there were still a lot of things I didn't not understand and could update (like I had not idea you could associate a numerical file extension split file (.001) with WinRar to use WinRar for those types of files (found that out on this board too -> dvd536, and anon-sickened).

But, I guess when a thread gets a top-link you can no longer edit the original posts ('edit' link does not show up ???).

edit: just glancing over the winrar message I saw two spelling mistakes I had never noticed after going over the posts maybe 10 times (know = known and your = you're). Spell checkers only go so far....

reply to Lorne8
Well Done.

reply to Lorne8