NewsGroups

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by Mr.Cheeks, Mar 22, 2006.

  1. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    Hi all,

    Mods, Admin: Delete this post, if it is not allowed & then accept my apologises.

    Now, this dude at coll was talking to be about software, i said i generally use t0rr3n7s, and upload until i get a share ratio of 1:1 on that t0rr3n7 unless its really good then, i just let it upload a lot more, but he suggested to me to use Newsgroups.

    I done a quick googley and got some info, but i can not find any free groups as the ones i had noticed were free reg but £ per how much you dowload...

    Could anyone enlighten me how these groups work and where i can go???

    Cheese....
     
  2. Nelix
    Honorary Member

    Nelix Gigabyte Poster

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    Never used them personally, but I am sure someone on here will know everything you need to know.
     
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  3. d-Faktor
    Honorary Member

    d-Faktor R.I.P - gone but never forgotten.

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    well, usenet (as it is called), and specifically the alt.binaries newsgroups, together with irc channels have always been a great resource for software. even though both usenet and irc are old technologies, predating the p2p era, they are very much alive and thriving today, hosting a lot of legally challenged content. most providers have their own newsservers, but with limited support. this is great for the download speed, because it keeps traffic inside the provider network. but as soon as retention time went down and certain groups were banned, many people went to paid thirdparty newsservers.

    i still use usenet and irc a lot, but i haven't been active in the shady part of it for quite some time now, so i can't really help you there.
     
  4. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    I have been a user of newsgroups for many years.

    1) Check with your ISP to see if it has it's own servers, or bundles someone elses servers. Unfortunately, because the volume of postings is so huge it needs a big investment to keep these going, so many ISPs have dropped this system.

    2) If 1) doesn't work then you need a subscription to a news provider. One of the best these days is Giganews. I use Newsfeeds mostly because I signed up ages ago and can't be bothered to change. Most of these companies take a monthly sub and allow you a certain volume of traffic.

    3) There *are* free servers out there, but nearly all of them restrict themselves to the text-only groups as this is a tiny fraction of the over-all bandwidth.

    4) OE is very poor at handling news - get a decent reader. I have been using Agent for many years and I like it, but there are many others.

    5) You will need to get fairly conversant in how large files are broken up on the newsgroups. This fragmentation has to happen because of technical limitations on article sizes.

    Harry.
     
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  5. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    Harry-

    1- No...

    2- im a tight @55, i only pay for something i can feel...

    3- are you still able to down?, not fussed bout the actual speed. could you point me? being blocked @ work to search for it...

    4- got it home, all ready to go...

    5- fine with me, know bout split up files...

    Cheers, not cheese!...
     
  6. d-Faktor
    Honorary Member

    d-Faktor R.I.P - gone but never forgotten.

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    i'm not sure, but i don't think harry was talking about the split file technique as you may use for storing a large file on multiple floppies. a newsgroup can be seen as a large shared mailbox. when you post a message with a binary attachment it is often too large. but it is possible to post multiple messages all with a piece of the attachment. you need a usenet client that is able to identify the different parts and join them for you, or split them as you post such a message.
    to confuse matters, the file that was assembled from those smaller parts, may be part of a split file set. :blink
    you will also have to know about parity files (vaguely similar to raid technology) and crc checking.
     
  7. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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  8. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Indeed - PAR files and the like are vital aids to getting a good binary reassembled! And in knowing when a download has been hijacked by others (a not uncommon occurence).

    Harry.
     
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  9. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    Could you explain even more???

    got details from google, but blocked the the links, but strangely your links work?

    cheers anyway?
     
  10. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Have a read of this page and the rest of this site.

    Harry.
     
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  11. d-Faktor
    Honorary Member

    d-Faktor R.I.P - gone but never forgotten.

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    check out http://www.timdoc.com/guide/Download_Guide_TimDoc.html. it's a very comprehensive document, and as far as i can see it's general enough to be safely posted here. it's a bit of a read, but after that you'll be fully up to speed about all the things (usenet client, parity files, file plitting, crc verification, etc.) we talked about here.

    [edit] or check harry's link. :biggrin
     
  12. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    cheers, its going to be kinda long winded as i am only after...
    (actual reference to specific software removed by Bluerinse, as this info stepped outside CF's comfort zone).
     

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