GETTING STARTED WITH NEWSGROUPS

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Usenet offers more than 50,000 different newsgroups to choose from, but before you can read them, let alone download any files from them, you need the following:

• A newsgroup server (which most Internet service providers offer free with your Internet service)

• A newsgroup reader program (such as Thunderbird, free from http://www.mozilla.org)

• A subscription to one or more newsgroups (these are free)

CHOOSING A NEWSGROUP SERVER

A newsgroup server is simply a computer that constantly adds, deletes, and updates messages from all over the Internet. When you connect your computer to the newsgroup server computer, you can start downloading files or exchanging messages with other people.

Newsgroup servers aren’t hard to find. Most ISPs run their own newsgroup servers, so if you have your own Internet service, you probably already have free access to newsgroups. However, the quality differs widely among different servers.

For instance, very few ISPs carry every available newsgroup. Some won’t carry newsgroups that offer blatantly pornographic images, while others filter out newsgroups where people regularly engage in heavy file sharing. When viewing the newsgroups that your ISP offers, be aware that you’re not seeing every available newsgroup—just the ones your particular ISP happens to carry.

Another issue is the server’s retention rate. A newsgroup is like a constantly flowing river of uploaded files and messages. Servers that keep a large chunk of this river available have a high retention rate—files may remain for several weeks or months before being deleted to make room for newer ones.

Servers that just offer a recent portion of the newsgroup content, by contrast, have a low retention rate, so the files may only be available for a few hours or a day or two at the most. The higher the retention rate, the greater your chances of finding the files you want to download.

To improve the quality of their newsgroup access, serious newsgroup users often subscribe to special newsgroup servers that charge a fee, but offer access to a larger number of newsgroups, unlimited file downloading, high retention rates, fast and reliable service, and spam filtering so your newsgroups don’t get overwhelmed with irrelevant ads and messages. (Like email, spam clogs many newsgroups.) When examining the following news servers, check their current prices, retention rates, and file transfer speed to find the one that’s best for you:

Anonymousnewsfeed.com http://www.anonymousnewsfeed.com

Binaries.net http://www.binaries.net

Newsfeeds.com http://www.newsfeeds.com

Newscene http://www.newscene.com

NuthinButNews.com http://www.nuthinbutnews.com

Supernews http://www.supernews.com

Tera News http://www.teranews.com

UseNetServer http://www.usenetserver.com

Usenet.com http://www.usenet.com

While most news servers carry a similar variety of newsgroups, some specialize in adult content that other ISP newsgroup servers won’t offer, as shown in Figure 3-1:

Adult Newsgroup Service http://www.adult-news.to

Gigantic Usenet Binaries Archive http://www.guba.com

The Usenet Binaries Newsreader http://www.usenetbinaries.com

Newsfeeds.com http://www.newsfeeds.com

XXX-News http://www.xxx-news.to

Figure 3-1: Some newsgroup servers specialize in newsgroups that offer X-rated pictures and videos.

With so many newsgroup servers to choose from, you’re certain to find one with the features you need. To keep up with the latest on various news servers, visit SMR-Usenet (http://www.smr-usenet.com) or Slyck (http://www.slyck.com) for reviews and comments about particular ones.

SMR-Usenet provides newsgroup tutorials and information about different newsgroup servers, such as a listing of the fastest servers and price comparisons of popular newsgroup servers. Slyck provides tutorials and information about file sharing that focuses on both file sharing networks and newsgroups (see Figure 3-2).

Figure 3-2: The Slyck website offers tips, tutorials, and hints for grabbing files from both newsgroups and file sharing networks.

SELECTING A NEWSGROUP READER

Most email programs can read information on newsgroups in addition to email, so if you have Outlook Express, you already have a primitive newsgroup reader. Most full-featured browsers, like Opera (http://www.opera.com) and Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org), also have limited, built-in newsgroup readers. Mozilla also offers a free, separate email/newsgroup reader called Thunderbird, which you can download from the Mozilla website, too. However, these programs are designed more for exchanging messages on newsgroups, not swapping files.

If you plan to do some serious downloading from newsgroups, you’ll definitely want a dedicated newsgroup reader, instead.

Dedicated newsgroup readers, like GrabIt, shown in Figure 3-3, offer: point-and-click downloading (missing from the simple newsreaders), as well as scheduling (which tells your computer to access certain newsgroups at specific times), specialized file searching (to help you search newsgroups for particular MP3s), and multi-session access (which allows your computer to connect to multiple news servers to ensure speed and reliability when downloading large files, such as movies). Here are some popular Windows newsreader programs:

Agent http://www.forteinc.com

Binary Boy http://www.binaryboy.com

GrabIt http://www.shemes.com

Pluckit http://www.pluckit.com

TIFNY http://www.tifny.com

Figure 3-3: GrabIt can help you find and download files from a newsgroup.

SUBSCRIBING TO A NEWSGROUP

To start accessing newsgroups, you simply tell your newsreader the name of the newsgroup server you want to visit (such as news.ispname.com). To do this, you typically have to click the Tools menu and then click Account Settings or Account Options, and then enter the specific newsgroup server name to use, as shown in Figure 3-4.

Figure 3-4: Most newsgroup readers let you specify the newsgroup server name in a dialog box that you can access with the Account Settings or Account Options command in the Tools menu.

Once you’re connected, your newsgroup reader will show you every possible newsgroup available through that particular newsgroup server. (Just remember that your newsgroup reader only displays the newsgroups carried by the server you’re connecting to, not every possible newsgroup available on the Internet.) Few people have time to search through 50,000 newsgroups, so tell your newsreader to list only those newsgroups with specific words in their name, such as “sounds.” That way your newsgroup reader only shows newsgroups like alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.pop or alt.binaries.sounds.country.mp3, as shown in Figure 3-5.

Figure 3-5: By searching for specific words in a newsgroup name, you can get a shortened list of newsgroups that you might want to subscribe to.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of newsgroups to the ones that seem interesting, you can choose which ones you want to access. While you can read messages and download files from a newsgroup without subscribing to it, many people subscribe to their favorite ones in order to track the different messages posted over time.

If you get tired of a newsgroup and don’t want to read its messages any more, simply unsubscribe from it.

FINDING FILES IN NEWSGROUPS

To find specific types of files, visit Bincrawler (http://www.bincrawler.com), a specialized search engine that helps you find files buried within different newsgroups.

Besides using a newsgroup search engine like Bincrawler, you can also browse through individual newsgroups manually. You can find newsgroups that specialize in audio files, video files, pirated software, pornography, and so on.

For example, the easiest place to find and download music is in the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 newsgroup. The reason for this is crossposting, which means that a single file can appear in multiple newsgroups.

Normally, people post songs in one newsgroup, such as posting Iron Butterfly songs in the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1960s newsgroup. One problem with posting files in a single newsgroup, though, is that some people might not know that certain newsgroups even exist. For example, you may search the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1980s newsgroup and never find your favorite Billy Joel songs, only to realize that an entire library of Billy Joel songs is available in the alt.binaries.sounds.billy.joel newsgroup, instead.

To increase the chances that people will find the files they want, many people crosspost any files they upload, which simply means that they post the same file in multiple newsgroups. So instead of just choosing a single newsgroup to post a file to, crossposting means you type multiple newsgroup names, separated by a comma, as shown in Figure 3-6. Crossposting ensures that nearly every song posted in a newsgroup will eventually appear in the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3s newsgroup, as well as in more specialized newsgroups.

Figure 3-6: To crosspost a file, type the names of two or more newsgroups, each separated from the next by a comma.

Unfortunately, the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3s newsgroup is so popular that files rarely stay online for more than a few days. If you don’t visit the alt.binaries. sounds.mp3s newsgroup within a few days of somebody posting your desired file, the server may have automatically deleted that file to make room for newer ones.

So when you are searching for MP3 files, try to find a specialized newsgroup that is likely to offer what you want, such as alt.binaries.sounds. mp3.elvispresley. If you can’t find such a specialized newsgroup, try searching for the MP3 file in the more general newsgroup categories, such as alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1960s. As a last resort, you can try the catch-all MP3 file newsgroup, alt.binaries.sounds.mp3s.

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