The challenges of figuring out how to download from binary newsgroups

[vladsmythe]

Wharfrat73 brought this up earlier and I was intrigued....does anyone have any tips?

[mooncusser]

methinks you'd exhaust your monthly download limit in about 15 minutes.

[daddyray]

I could do it a dozen or more OS's ago, when I used a 6112 mac. and a global village 24.4 fax/modem

[vladsmythe]

Originally Posted by mooncusser

methinks you'd exhaust your monthly download limit in about 15 minutes.

You're hilarious 'lil buddy!

[Five]

you need something called a 'newsreader'

I think mozilla firebird can do it

[wharfrat73]

It's a lot better to get a newsreader made specifically for binaries like Forte Agent or Free Agent.

http://www.giganews.com/usenet-university/

[harpsichord]

When I ran Windows I used a free client called Grabit, and now in Linux i use Klibido. IMHO a dedicated client does a better job than a browser. They offer search functions and better layouts/features. Grabit's site had a tutorial that was pretty easy to follow. They have also now included a tool to re-assemble the 'parts', where before you needed another app to do that.

Newsgroups allow you to downolad only 'headers' that will tell you what's available without downloading the entire 'item'. Large files are encoded into multiple parts that are "RAR'd", and you re-assemble after download. Most also have "repair files" included so you can correct errors or replace missing pieces.

In general, the advantage of newsgroups is that you usually download at or near your max pipe, without waiting on seeders. The disadvantage is you never really know what you have until you have it. It also depends on the service you use. Some ISP's offer newsgroups, but perhaps not all the ones you might want. Verizon recently dropped the binary groups, and most other useful or interesting groups, from their servers. A pay site like Usenet or Giganews will offer better retention and more groups.

[jabulon]

Interesting read this thread. Recently I got a Usenet account myself and I found a new treasure chest. Any way there were some usefull tips mentioned down the lines. Personally I find the actually searching for interesting stuff to be a bitch though.

[harpsichord]

Originally Posted by jabulon

Personally I find the actually searching for interesting stuff to be a bitch though.

You might want to check out Binsearch

http://binsearch.info

You can use it to search for a particular artist or topic, or you can use the 'browse newsgroups' link at the top right to scroll through a particular group (like alt.binaries.sounds.lossless, for example), all without downloading all the headers and using up any allocation you might have from your provider.

[tonebloke]

Originally Posted by jabulon

Interesting read this thread. Recently I got a Usenet account myself and I found a new treasure chest. Any way there were some usefull tips mentioned down the lines. Personally I find the actually searching for interesting stuff to be a bitch though.

I've been using Usenet for @ 7 years and have to agree that the search function can be a pain. Saying that, the amount of "stuff" there is amazing and it will cater for everyone. A new "global search" function has made life easier.
Even with it being a pay service it is very useful.

[jabulon]

Originally Posted by harpsichord

You might want to check out Binsearch

I already use binsearch, but thanks for the advice.

I guess what I meant to say was that I sometimes get crazy from all the abbreviations used in those 'news' groups. Let say you want to search for .... Neil Young. If you do a subject/filename search or even do a body search for that matter (when people include a NFO file) on those two words you'll get all the subjects containing those two words. That is what you have requested for. But I have noticed that a lot of people posting in these groups tend to use a lot of abbreviations. So they might use the abbreviation NY for Neil Young. So if you search for NY you'll get all the subjects cointaining the word NY, which for some people stands for an abbreviation for Neil Young, but for others I might be an abbreviation for New York or something else. Other people omit vowels. So Neil Young is abbreviated to nlyng. Then there are people who use some kind of numeral system like [123/456]. My on this abbreviation hard on is that it has something to do with the numbers of characters used for a file name. On a torrent site like this one people use a more normal way of spelling. But searching for interesting stuff on the internet in general is a bitch (and takes up a lot of time too) period.