> -----Original Message----- > From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 1:11 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: RE: Missed last weeks Battlestar Galatica > > If you don't mind point me to a nice "for dummies" primer would be very > helpful. I haven't done usenet since like 1995.
Which server did you use (not reader software, but server)? Most ISP servers are sheer crap - some can't even keep a whole day's worth of posts. This may be why you can't find anything - it's not there to find. USENet may very be too complicated to just get a single episode - Torrents or P2P or other options are generally easier to learn. But personally I GREATLY prefer just paying for a service and using it sharing stuff on my machine. ;^) It's also a game of patience. You can be pretty sure that the hot new TV Shows, music, etc will be posted - but you've gotta make an effort to catch the more esoteric or older stuff (although the good stuff never seems to go out of style). Here's a good overview of the stuff involved: http://www.slyck.com/ng.php But, in short, you need: 1) A good Server: +) The server must actually serve the binary groups: many ISP servers (for example SBC's) don't). In addition it should have most, if not all of the groups you want. +) The server should have good retention. "Retention" is the length of time for which a server can archive messages (based on the storage capacity of the server). A crappy server may only be able to retain a day (or much less) of a popular binary group - a really good server might do upwards of several months. In general I would consider "good" to be more than two weeks. +) The server should be speedy for your connection/location. Unfortunately there are some really good servers that are just plain slow... very slow.... super slow. 2) A good binary news reader: +) For large binaries it's ESSENTIAL that the newsreader combine post-parts into one logical display unit. A single movie/episode of a show might be uploaded in 3,000 distinct parts (because news servers generally refuse very large messages). However those 3,000 parts generally represent a more manageable 30-40 segments (usually "RAR" segments). A good news reader will only show you those segments and not all the individual messages. +) It should handle multiple servers. This is important for speed: you can configure multiple servers and the software will automatically combine them into one "super server" and pull messages from all at once. +) It should support "NBZ" files - these files are actually nothing more than a collection of "shortcuts" (message IDs) to all the files of a binary post. They make it easy to find the parts you need for something but they IN NO WAY guarantee that your server will actually have those parts. +) It should handle LARGE numbers of messages. A weeks worth of alt.binaries.multimedia, for example, can be several million posts. Newsreaders like Outlook Express or Thunderbird just can't deal with that kind of deluge like a dedicated binary reader. I LOVE USENet Explorer ( http://www.netwu.com/ue/ ). It's da balls. 3) A PAR tool: PAR (parity) files can be used to both verify that a downloaded file is correct (not corrupt) and, when there's enough of them, fix the corruption. It's all voodoo, but let's say you have 39 parts of a 40 part file. Using two or three large PAR segments you can rebuild that part (or ANY part) of the file. It's like magic and it's really useful. On windows I use QuickPAR ( http://www.quickpar.org.uk/ ). 4) A RAR tool: RAR files can chop very large files up into smaller chunks. This way huge files can be uploaded/downloaded over a period of time and missing/corrupt segments can be uploaded without having to redo the entire file. I use WinAce ( http://www.winace.com/ ) for all my compression needs (it does ACE, RAR, Zip, etc). It should also go without saying that to really do large binaries well you'll need a large pipe - broadband is essentially a necessity. Check out the link I sent - it does a fine job of covering the lingo. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:171293 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
