**USENET PRIMER**
What's a good Usenet provider?
Easynews > * > Your ISP's newsgroups
Example. If you fetched headers for alt.binaries.mp3.complete_cd, the rundown might look something like this:
Easynews: 500,000 headers, 24 days retention, 99% completion
Giganews: 300,000 headers, 18 days retention, 92% completion
Usenetnews: 120,000 headers, 9 days retention, 75% completion
Any given ISP: 20,000 headers, 2 days retention, 20% completion
Should I use Outlook Express to read news?
Oh, HELL no.
Use
Forte Agent for text and smaller groups, and
NewsBin Pro for large binary downloads. It is a VERY robust and efficient program with low overhead. For individual files, it's good to use Easynews' web interface.
How do I find stuff?
1) Poke around blindly in the newsgroups and hope you get lucky
2) Search in each group using the Easynews web interface
3) Join a binary news search database, such as
Binnews
How does the file downloading work?
Because Usenet was created as a method for transferring text-based messages, a workaround is necessary to transmit binary files. What happens is that they are encoded using "UUEncode" or now, more recently, "yENC" -- a method of file encryption/compression that turns the binary file into a very very long string of text. The resulting "message" is broken into "parts" and posted onto the group. Your newsreader reads the first of these posts and usually knows to collate the subsequent parts and turn them back into the original file.
What's all this about RAR, PAR, SFV, NFO...?
RAR: Most files that are compressed and transmitted via newsgroups are done so with RAR encoding. It is more efficient than ZIP, has superior error correction, and allows the file to be broken into equally sized chunks so you're not stuck downloading one 1500MB file. A family of RAR files can be named "filename.part01.rar"...."filename.part04.rar"...etc or filename.rar...filename.r01...filename.r02...etc. they're both the same thing. The best tool for opening these is
WinRAR.
PAR: Let's say you find something you need on Usenet. It has files with filename.rar to filename.r50. However, you're missing files "filename.r22" and "filename.r45." Are you screwed? Not if the original poster was thoughtul enough to include the PARity, or .PAR files as well. These files are generally the same size as each chunk of the archive (RAR) files, and there should be a ratio of 1:3 PAR:RAR. What these files do is store parity data of the entire archive. By looking at the checksum of the file before and after the missing file, these PAR files can determine what data should have belonged in the middle, and generate a replacement RAR. Think of it as using DNA to clone an extinct species.
To use them, you should download the original .PAR (if available) as well as enough ".Pxx" files (i.e. P01, P02) to cover the number of missing RAR files you have. (technicality: you can clone infinite numbers of RAR files using just ONE Pxx file, but this is easier). The program
SmartPAR should be your tool of choice in this matter.
SFV: Not sure if your downloads are all there or if something is corrupted? Download the .SFV file that should be included with the RARs, and run
QuickSFV to make sure it's kosher.
NFO: Many times, a file or series of files will have an iNFO, or .NFO file included. Windows defaults to opening these with the System Info service, which won't help since .NFO is just plain text. re-assign the opening of .NFO files to Notepad. These files generally include distribution info, and essential information about the program or files it's associated with.
*more to come*
