News groups and downloading stuff

[sharon]

I got this info from a mate, just wanna share with you guys but I've never tried it though.

OK, news groups... You will need a reader program, a parity checker and an 'unstuffer' - assuming it is movies you are interested in. If it is ..mp3's you may not need the 'unstuffer' but it is just as well to have it anyhow.
So, start with the reader. I use Grabbit - it's a free download so just go ahead and get that.
Then the parity checker - again, a free download. Get Quick Par.
Then get Stuffit Standard. It's a trial thing but if you get the standard edition it will nag you after 30 days or something but it will continue to work just fine.
Once you have those installed you will need a newsgroup account. I can't remember the name of the one I use and I don't have the details here. Doesn't matter though. You can poke around the net and find one. Have a look in Google. Just check that the one that you pick handles all the binary news groups. Some times they are referred to as 'dot bin groups'..... Whatever one you pick, just get a one month or less subscription till you see what it is like.
Then, log on and download the group list. The first time you do that it will take a while coz there are a lot of groups. Then have a look through the list. Generally the name of the group will tell all. Pick a group or two or three that you are interested in and 'subscribe' - a strange name for it since it is a free process. Then download the group file list. Movies are split into a lot of sections so be sure to get everything with the same name when you download. Before you download just take a good look at the file numbers (you will understand that when you see them) and if there are gaps in the sequence don't bother - there will be files missing and the parity check will fail. One or two missing files is OK coz the parity program will re-construct them from repair files that are part of the download but big holes in the sequence will not be repairable.
OK, after you have downloaded the files, say for a movie, go to the top of the download folder and double click on the first file that looks like it might be part of the movie. No harm done if you get the wrong one, just try again with a different file. The Quick Par prog will fire up and check the files and do any rebuilding that is needed. (if it can) then, once it finishes you might see that the file name and/or the extension has changed (not always, so again, no worries). Click again and the unstuffer will do its thing (if it doesn't start automatically start just fire it up and drag one of the downloaded files into it). It will use the files to build the actual DivX or what ever it is. Some times there will be minor variations to this but it will soon become obvious what to do. After you have done one or two downloads you will get the hang of it. To make things easier to handle be sure to make a new folder for each download when you are getting movies. That's not essential but it really does make things easier to keep a grip on. After it is all processed and you have a movie I would just scan it with a virus scanner then get rid of the downloaded files and sit back with the popcorn.
Now, be careful! Newsgroups can be VERY addictive. But lots of fun....

[DrB0b]

Ummm, Sharon, Usenet newsgroups have been around since 1980

[AntRobertson]

Usenet newsgroups have been around since 1980

Dangnamit new-fangled technologies!!*







*I've never been able to work them out

[DrB0b]

Usenet newsgroups have been around since 1980

Dangnamit new-fangled technologies!!*
*I've never been able to work them out

One of my first paid jobs was downloading usenet porn and making it available on the local net for the academic staff at a Uni near where I lived. That was in 1981 or 82

[AntRobertson]

^Isn't it funny that one of the first things achieved with all this type of new technologies is always to make the dissemination of porn easier.

[sharon]

Oh... sorry then, I thought it's new.. well.. at least it's new for me.

[Butterfly]

There is thread I opened somewhere here about it that explains it all

need to be a geek though to understand it