Due to constant demand, we have decided to add an introductory article about Usenet/Newsgroups. This guide explains how Usenet binary groups work and how you can easily download content from them. It also gives a brief introduction to Usenet and explains why it is such a great resource. This article is structured as a "Getting Started" example (explained below).
Introduction & Requirements
Newsbin Pro - I use this Newsreader client so it will be used throughout this guide.
WinRAR - Since a lot of files on Usenet are in split archives, WinRAR is needed a lot for file extraction and is covered in this guide.
HJSplit - This small utility can put together files that have been split up into several parts.
QuickPAR - QuickPAR is used in conjunction with PAR and PAR2 files to repair incomplete downloaded files.
Introduction to Usenet
Newsgroups are probably one of the most valuable sources of information exchange in the online world, but they are often overlooked by most Internet users who see them as ugly, complicated, way-too-much-god-damn-text and out-dated resources on the planet. This is far from the truth. It's true that the majority of Internet users have grown fond of the almighty "website" where user friendly graphics and easy to read font styles hold their hands through this dangerous online environment, but before this damn easy Internet world grabbed the attention of the planet, groups shared information on this bulletin board style system.
Usenet is made up of many many News servers all around the world. Messages posted on newsgroups are literally distributed to servers worldwide that carry the newsgroups. Newsgroups are primarily used to exchange text messages and always have been. However, if they have the ability to exchange text messages on a worldwide basis, couldn't they be used for wide scale file sharing? This is the thinking that led to binary messages being posted; literally files converted into binary data and posted as text on newsgroups. These spread worldwide, can be downloaded and rejoined back into the original file.
It sounds complicated because really the technical process is complicated. However, with the development of clients to read and download from binary groups and other things related to Usenet, it's not complicated anymore at all. In fact, by the end of this guide, you will be technically be able to download quite a lot of files from Newsgroups easily. Firstly though, let me explain how this example article is structured.
Example Explanation
This guide basically walks through the steps of beginning to use Usenet. In this guide, I find myself a premium News Server, install a News Reader (Newsbin Pro), configure it for my account, download a list of available groups, access groups, download headers, read text posts, download binary files and deal with file corruption. I also look at how much easier things like NZB files and web services have made finding binary files. There are also tips and suggestions and important information about copyright, pornography and censorship that you should read.
Where necessary I will put an explanation of what I am doing in the example article to help you understand better. For this example article I have enlisted the help of a News Reader called Newsbin Pro. You can use any News Reader you want, but you may have problems using them while following this article. So without any more delays, let's talk about Usenet providers.
