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PostPosted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:16 pm  Post subject: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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  • Access
  • Principle and history
  • Data
  • NZB files
  • PAR files
  • Newsbin Configuration
  • Fixing Corruption with PARs
  • Sites
  • Groups

Access

To download from usenet you must:
  1. Access to newsgroups
    I use usenetserver.com, they have a affiliate scheme so if you want to sign up here's mine, I'd appreciate that! They have 101 days retention and you can have 10 connections, speed limit of 1MBit/s (which means 1mbit/s constant download speed)
  2. Newsgroup Client
    I use newsbin pro and this intro will use that in examples
  3. QuickPar
    For corruption recovery
  4. WinRAR
    der!

Principle and history

Newsgroups, or rather USEr NETwork newsgroups are not new, this is a common mistake by newbies under the impression that its a new alternative to p2p. Just because you've never heard of them, that is likely due to your lack of exposer to computing on a larger or historical scale.

In fact, usenet newgroups are actually far, far older than the WWW and the http protocol. Data is served over the nntp protocol, primarily designed for text and discussion at technical institutions and universities.. the main priniciple is large data servers that sync messages between other large data servers, with the messages split by groups.

The technology requires data posted by one user to propagate to your isps/hosts newsgroup server.

I won't repeat this all, you can find out detailed background at Wikipedia. Just wanted to present the fact that usenet newsgroups are not new, and the posting of binaries was later developed on top of the network.

Wikipedia wrote:
Usenet was originally created to distribute text content encoded in the 7-bit ASCII character set. With the help of programs that encode 8-bit values into ASCII, it became practical to distribute binary files content. Binary posts, due to their size and dubious copyright status, were in time restricted to specific newsgroups, making it easier for administrators to allow or disallow the traffic.

The oldest widely used encoding method is uuencode, from the Unix uucp package. In the late 1980s Usenet articles were often limited to 60,000 characters, and larger hard limits exist today. Files are therefore commonly split into sections that require reassembly by the reader.

With the header extensions and the Base64 and Quoted-Printable MIME encodings, there was a new generation of binary transport. In practice, MIME has seen increased adoption in text messages, but it is avoided for most binary attachments. Some operating systems with metadata attached to files use specialized encoding formats. For Mac OS, both Binhex and special MIME types are used.

Other lesser known encoding systems that may have been used at one time were BTOA, XX encoding, BOO, and USR encoding.

In an attempt to reduce file transfer times, an informal file encoding known as yEnc was introduced in 2001. It achieves about a 30% reduction in data transferred by assuming that most 8-bit characters can safely be transferred across the network without first encoding into the 7-bit ASCII space.

The standard method of uploading binary content to Usenet is to first archive the files into RAR archives (for large files usually in 20 MB or 50 MB parts) then create Parchive files. Parity files are used to recreate missing data. This is needed often, as not every part of the files reach a server. These are all then encoded into yEnc and uploaded to the selected binary groups.


Your concern here is likely binaries.

Data

Because of the limitation on message size, binary data is stored across several message posts and reconstructed by your news client.
Corruption is a distinct possibility because, for example, if your file is not on the servers anymore (retention ranges from days to several months, depending on how much you pay for access) you'll have messages that make up part of a file missing from the binary. There's a simple method of parity to recover corruption.

NZB Files

NZBs were introduced to save bandwidth to get content. You do not need to subscribe to a group and download headers anymore to see what content is available. Like the introduction of ed2k links with edonkey2000 that meant you no longer had to rely on searching the network to find data, nzbs were introduced so you didn't have to download all the headers for messages and select and download to start a download from newsgroups.

An nzb file is similar to a torrent file in many ways, the file itself does not contain any useful information beyond when you maybe able to connect to get the data. A nzb may point to data that isn't there, or isn't on your isp server. Its up to you and your newsgroup client to acquire the data.

As far as nzbs go, you need to understand that the file just says which group the content is located, the message details, etc. Just metadata. You will need a client that can understand and download the content referred to in the nzb file.

PAR files

The concept of parity should be okay with anyone in a technical or mathematical field. Its basic checksum maths.
Essentially when you have a release you can generate a certain amount of parity, a check on bit encoding, to allow for recovery from corruption. Here's a simple demonstration

Release MSG1: 0101010111011010011
Release MSG2: 1001010110100100011
Parity: 1100000001111110000


Release MSG1: 0101010111011010011  (This is known)
Corrupt MSG2: ?001?1011010010?01? (There are several unknown bits [?])
Parity: 1100000001111110000 (This is known)
Recovered 2: 1001010110100100011


Easy, we don't know the first bit, but because the checksum of the par is 1 and msg1 is 0, it must be 1, etc.)

How par2 files work is the releaser states a certain amount of parity and upload those files for users to be able to repair any missing data they have. Checksums are done on parts of files called blocks. When you run the par2 file you'll checksum your files for corruption. If you have corruption, you'll be told you require xyz blocks. You'll need to get the number of corresponding par2 files. Blocks are indicated by the +xy at the end of parity files.

For example if you need 11 blocks, you can grab any number of par2 files that add up to 11blocks or more, ie.
+01 and +10, or just one +12, etc.

Setting up newsbin pro

1) Install :)
2) Go to options and set a download folder and a temp folder:
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3) Setup a folder to load nzb files from, useful if your setting up nzb on a remote pc like me. You can put nzbs in here for them to load into newsbin. If your nzb is called horror.nzb, it will download the rars into a folder called horror. If your on a local pc you can just open nzb with newsbin for them to be added, but i'd still setup a folder to load nzb from.
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4) Next add your server
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5) In ye olden times you'd have to subscribe to groups, but with nzbs there's no need. You get nzbs from this site, http://www.nzbsrus.com , https://binsearch.info , etc. Anyway, lets add your server:
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6) Setup your connections
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7) NZBs downloads are added to the download tab
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8) Scratch tab is where your par files from nzbs are added. To download from the scratch, right click a file and click Add to Download.
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NOTE: If a file is incomplete, or refuses to complete, right click the file and click retry download. Try this a couple of times, if you have black blocks, right click and click "Assemble incompletes and delete". You'll be needing pars to fix the missing parts

Using pars to fix a download

1) Load the par2 file that should have downloaded with your release. You can either double click the file under the Files tab, or go to your completes folder and double click. You should have quickpar installed. For the first time you install, run through the options and check the monitor and auto-repair. When you double click you'll get a pop up that will say how many blocks you need after its scanned the files:
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2) Download the required number of pars, here +5 were needed... so I could have got anything over that, or some files that added up to more. I just chose the +05:
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3) The quickpar app will scan for the blocks in the folder, add them and begin to recover/repair:
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4) When done all should be well:
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List of nzb sites
http://forum.dead-donkey.com (nzb section)
http://scifi.dead-donkey.com (nzb section)
http://www.nzbsrus.com (registration, daily limit of 5 downloads)
http://www.binsearch.info (old school like navigation of groups, click the boxes next to files and click create nzb)

List of groups
Horror
Main Sources
alt.binaries.multimedia.horror * Popular and biggest horror newsgroup
alt.binaries.dvd.midnightmovies * DVDrs

Smaller Groups
alt.binaries.sleazemovies
alt.binaries.ath * Poorer Retention on ISPS
alt.binaries.ratcave

Scifi
alt.binaries.multimedia.scifi
alt.binaries.multimedia.scifi-and-fantasy

HDTV
alt.binaries.hdtv
alt.binaries.hdtv.repost
alt.binaries.hdtv.x264

Movies
alt.binaries.movies.xvid
alt.binaries.movies
alt.binaries.movies.divx
alt.binaries.movies.zeromovies

TV
alt.binaries.tv

If your looking to pay for signup, which is likely needed I use usenetserver.com, this is my affiliate link:
http://www.usenetserver.com/?refer=154973
ISPs are rarely able to provide a decent fill rate, although you may be able to get things like tv episodes for the past day or so given their popularity.

Enjoy.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:41 pm  Post subject:
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The buggers haven't honoured the referral scheme.

If you signed up following the use of this guide, and used the referral scheme... if you could do me the huge favour of sending an email to:
support@usenetserver.com with the following:
Quote:
Anyone who has been referred by you just needs to email us with their username and your referral ID stating you have referred them.


My referral is: 154973

That would be great.


Despite the fact that their referral scheme is shit, I've not had any problems with their service :)

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:28 pm  Post subject:
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I'm sure PC_A was ok when he referred me :wacky:

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:01 am  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:01 pm
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The NZB Site List (2008)
http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44446


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:15 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Devil, Probably
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:58 pm
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spudthedestroyer wrote:
List of nzb sites
http://forum.dead-donkey.com (nzb section)
http://scifi.dead-donkey.com (nzb section)
http://www.nzbsrus.com (registration, daily limit of 5 downloads)
http://www.binsearch.info (old school like navigation of groups, click the boxes next to files and click create nzb)

List of groups
Horror
Main Sources
alt.binaries.multimedia.horror * Popular and biggest horror newsgroup
alt.binaries.dvd.midnightmovies * DVDrs

Smaller Groups
alt.binaries.sleazemovies
alt.binaries.ath * Poorer Retention on ISPS
alt.binaries.ratcave

Scifi
alt.binaries.multimedia.scifi
alt.binaries.multimedia.scifi-and-fantasy

HDTV
alt.binaries.hdtv
alt.binaries.hdtv.repost
alt.binaries.hdtv.x264

Movies
alt.binaries.movies.xvid
alt.binaries.movies
alt.binaries.movies.divx
alt.binaries.movies.zeromovies

TV
alt.binaries.tv


Anymore links that I should check out?
:beerchug:

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:56 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2003 9:40 pm
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Location: In a dark room...
http://nzbmatrix.com/index.php offers 20 NZB downloads per day for registered users.

http://www.newzleech.com/ is similar to Binsearch, but I find that it shows new uploads quicker.

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Last Release: The Food of the Gods (1976)
NZB: download/file.php?id=436

Coming Soon: Cat's Eye, The Uncanny, Food of the Gods 2, The Devil's Men, Studio 666.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:44 am  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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Thanks :beerchug:

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:07 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:13 pm
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Anyone able to help me out with the following? I downloaded a rar-file which I found through eMule search. Unfortunately, it is passworded and I don't know the password. Apparently, it was posted on Usenet, so I was wondering if someone could check if the password was posted here too.

The file: ed2k: Terminal%20Choice%20Discografie%20By%20Pieperx.rar  [1.36 Gb] [Stats]

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:14 am  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:31 am
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If nobody can tell you the password, you could try a password cracking software. There are some especially made for archives like this.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 4:41 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:13 pm
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Yes, I have seen those. Most of them can't crack anything complicated however. And if they can, it can take months before they find it.

I'm actually hoping someone here has a Usenet account and is willing to log in there for me to see if the password is posted with the file and then tell me the password :)

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:51 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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Well there's *loads* of archives:
http://binsearch.info/?q=Terminal+Choic ... 00&server=
So you'd need to know the specific file; and i can check.

I find rar password protecting quite a vile practise for mass consumption

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:06 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
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Thanks, spud :) Tell me what you need more: I posted the ed2k link to it, so you have name, size and hash already. What else? I'll give you cookies!

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:52 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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Slayer wrote:
Thanks, spud :) Tell me what you need more: I posted the ed2k link to it, so you have name, size and hash already. What else? I'll give you cookies!

Its been retagged, repacked, etc. newsgroups have binary limits; ie. you've posted something not from news.

The guy who has taken it from news has taken another release, tagged in and repacked it putting a password on it.

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 3:39 pm  Post subject: Re: Usenet / Newsgroup Simple Guide
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The Ancient One
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Well, I found the password. It was somewhere in a WinRAR screen. So, yay! I'm happy now! Thx for support!

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