[Five]

Newsgroups tutorial, 2004

Originally Posted by RainDawg

Usenet/Newsgroup Downloading

Usenet (aka newsgroups), like FTP, is an older way of sharing all manner of files over the internet. It has largely been replaced by BitTorrent as the preferred means of broadband fileswapping, but there are still some nice gems to be found on various usenet servers. I personally still regularly keep watch on alt.binaries.music.shn.dylan, where all of the new Dylan shows and (when he's not touring) many older ones as well can be found daily.

The major hindrance to usenet has always been the sporadic access that many people have to good servers. Traditionally, newsgroups were only meant to contain text and small attachments. A way of encoding files so that several thousands of text messages could be combined to form a single file was developed to work around this limitation. It is possible to upload files of virtually unlimited size. However, if even a single message of those thousands is lost, the file will be unable to be recreated. Since many Newsgroup servers begin to drop messages after several days, the durability of usenet uploads is rather poor. Sometimes, for large downloads, messages will begin being dropped before the final set has even been uploaded.

Some ISPs provide access to usenet as part of their service, so it is possible that you already can use them. For those who don't, you will need to seek out a third-party service. All of the ones that provide decent retention, which you will need to get larger files, will require a periodic fee.

This page is not intended as a tutorial on how to use Newsgroups/usenet to obtain files. There is a lot of information on the subject scattered throughout the web, and I do not intend to recreate the wheel. Be warned that this method is not recommended for people who are computer-illiterate or don't have the tenacity to struggle through learning several new software packages and techniques. For those who wish to pursue this avenue, here are some links to software packages that will help you get rolling.

• Slyck's Guide to the Newsgroups - A thorough guide to understanding binaries downloading through usenet, finding the right host service, and learning about the various filetypes you are likely to come across. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in getting into usenet trading.
• Grab-It Binary usenet Reader - A free, simple, and streamlined program for easily grabbing binary files from usenet. It is updated regularly, and just works with no added fees or unneeded widgets. I have been using it for years, and highly recommend people to switch over to this for simple usenet downloading.
• Quick-Par - An open-source program that can be used to make recovery volumes using the Par2 algorithm. Allows for recreation of partial file sets even when it is unknown which file or part will be missing.
• 7-Zip - An open-source program that can be used to decode all common file compression formats. Many people use WinRAR for decoding the .rar archives you frequently find on usenet servers, but I perfer this simpler, free, open-source counterpart. Also works with .zip, .tar, .cab, .7z, .gz, and others.