- It is important to know that anything posted on newsgroups will have a retention, meaning that it will stay on the server for a certain amount of days (depending on your newsgroup provider). Free servers (including ISP servers) usually last anywhere from 3-7 days, while pay servers are 30+ days.
- Also all files are usually "cut up into pieces" and you will need to "put those pieces back together" using a program like winrar.
- Newsgroups is probably one of the fastest ways to download. Speeds I get average 750 KB/s on a 6Mbit connection.
ANYWHO LETS GET STARTED
Software Needed
- Newsreader (Grabit, Newsbin, Newsleecher, etc)
- Archiver (WinRar, Power Archiver)
- QuickPar
Setup
Download a newsreader, the popular ones are listed above. In this tutorial I will use Grabit, since it is free and I personally use it.
Step 1:
Download and Install Grabit, just like you would any other program.
Step 2:
Most cable internet service providers offer a newsgroup server. If you do not know if your ISP offers a newsgroups, go to their website, call them up, etc... If they do provide one, find out the newserver's address. If they do not provide a newserver you can sign-up for a premium provider such as Newshosting.
Most servers require username password, so check that option.
(In this example we use comcast.net.)
Now click next
Step 3:
Enter your ISP's username/password. If you're using your ISP's newsgroup server, its usually the primary email account, followed by the password. If its a free server, well thats just up to the free server. Click next.
Step 4:
Make sure the checkbox is checked.
Ok now you should be done setting up grabit. Now onto how to download.
Methods of Download
There are three basic ways to download:
- Old School
- Search
- NZB
Old School:
Basically the old school method for downloading is to subscribe to a group, download all the headers and search for what you wanted to download, since this isn't really practiced that much anymore... we'll skip this. If you really wanna learn how to do it... mess around with your newsreader.
Search:
Grabit comes with a built in search feature, but you can only search with it 3 times a day, unless you pay for a yearly account. Other methods is using search sites like:
Yabse
Bin Search
alt.binaries
NG Index
These sites will enable you to search for something specific that you may be looking for and will provide detail information on where it is located, some will even provide NZB files.
NZB:
This is the bread and butter of this site and the most easiest way to download all nzbs will be provided in the Usenet forum section. Users will create nzb files that will contain an automatic link to all the files needed and will open up in your browser.
All you gotta do is double click the nzb file.. and then a dialogue like this will pop up. Ensure that "NZB file" is selected, the correct server is selected and that you save incompleted files.
Now What?
Ok, now that you're done downloading. You need to "rebuild" those split up pieces.
Install WinRar (or Power Archiver).
Ok now go to the folder where the files are located (default: C:\Program Files\Grabit\download)
You'll have something that looks like this (containing a whole bunch of rar files):
Usually you right click the first rar file and select "Extract Here"
Power Archiver will look gold and winrar will look like purple set of books, either one will extract the files.
If it doesn't extract, try selecting the last file, usually will be named "****.rar"
Other Things
Sometimes you'll have one or more files corrupted, missing, misnamed, etc... You can use .par files to repair or rebuild these files.
All you gotta do is have QuickPar installed... and double click one of the par files.
