>https://www.binaries4all.com/beginners/
>Tutorial: Usenet introduction for beginners
>Page 1/3 of this article
>Usenet 101
>Since there are many tutorials at this site, I can imagine that you don't know
>where to begin, so here is an introduction.
>This howto is the best starting point if you want to learn how to download from
>binary Usenet newsgroups.
>What are binary Usenet newsgroups?
>This website is all about binary Usenet newsgroups, but what exactly are they?
>Usenet newsgroups have existed for quite a while and were originally meant as a
>place for discussions using text messages. The name of the Usenet newsgroup
>shows the subject discussed in that specific group. However, Usenet newsgroups
>can also be used for posting binaries (a general term for encoded data, like
>programs or music), which has become much more popular with the introduction of
>broadband connections to the Internet. You can recognize a binary Usenet
>newsgroup by the word binaries in the name of the group, for example
>alt.binaries.freeware.
>So what can be learnt at this website? Here at Binaries4all you will find all
>information that you need to be able to work with binary Usenet newsgroups.
>Are binary Usenet newsgroups kind of like Kazaa?
>Many people think binary Usenet newsgroups are rather like Kazaa (or other P2P
>programs), but this is not true! There are fundamental differences between the
>two, even though they can both be used for downloading. You can easily search
>for something on Kazaa, but what is on offer depends on the people who are
>connected to Kazaa at that very moment. Usenet newsgroups work differently:
>someone posts something to a binary newsserver, then all the newsservers
>exchange data and someone else can download it using his or her news server.
>How long the files are available on a newsserver depends on the quality of the
>newsserver. Some ISP's think of it as an extra and don't pay it very much
>attention at all. On most ISP's you can download a post for about three days,
>in other words a retention of three days. Sometimes the files provided on a
>news server are incomplete, and this also depends on the quality of the news
>server. There are also payservers, however, on which posted files are available
>for more than two weeks.
>Advantages of binary Usenet newsgroups over Kazaa:
> Higher speed; you can use the full speed of your Internet connection.
> More files available.
> Not dependent on other users for downloading.
> Less rubbish; Kazaa is swamped with fake files and viruses.
>Disadvantages of binary Usenet newsgroups over Kazaa:
> You have to respond more quickly, because the files aren't permanently on a
> server. However, that isn't that much of an issue anymore nowadays, because
> many payservers offer a retention of several hundreds of days.
>Where to begin?
>The basics of working with binary Usenet newsgroups are explained in the
>following chapters, divided in two topics: downloading and posting.
>Important: take your time! Do not expect that you have downloaded what you are
>looking for between now and one hour. Learning how to work with binary Usenet
>newsgroups completely just requires some time! This is NOT because it is so
>difficult (don't let us scare you), but just because the process consists of a
>couple of steps. Again: do not try to comprehend everything in thirty minutes,
>take your time!
>To the next chapter: -> Downloading
https://www.binaries4all.com/beginners/downloading.php
>Introduction for beginners
>Page 2/3 of this article
>Downloading, the basic steps
>Here are the basic steps. It is imperative that you do not skip a step.
>Step 1: Get access to a newsserver
>You have to have access to a newsserver in order to download from binary
>Usenet newsgroups. Some ISP's have their own (free to use) newsserver but
>you can also subscribe to a payserver like the ones on the left-hand side of
>your screen. Payservers aren't free but usually are much better (in terms of
>speed, retention and completeness of files) than a server of an ISP.
>Step 2: Choose and install a newsreader
>You need a newsreader in order to download files from binary Usenet newsgroups.
>That is a program that can connect to a newsserver (see step 1) and download
>the files from a binary Usenet newsgroup. There are several newsreaders and
>they all have their pros and cons. To help you to make a choice I created a
>comparative overview of newsreaders.
>Step 3: Finding out what has been posted to binary Usenet newsgroups
>There are hundreds of binary Usenet newsgroups. How do you know what has been
>posted to which Usenet newsgroup? If you do not know if something is available
>in a group, or to which group something has been posted and when this was done,
>then this is a challenge.
>Category 1) You are looking for something and you want to know if somebody has
>posted it to a binary Usenet newsgroup. For this purpose usenet communities
>exist where people inform each other what they have spotted in which newsgroup.
>Category 2) You know that something has been posted and you also know the
>filename or a part of the header (the visible title) but you do not know to
>which Usenet newsgroup it was posted. In this situation it is best to use a
>search engine for binary Usenet newsgroups and create an NZB file. Several
>search engines are listed at our Usenet NZB search engines page.
>NZB is an invention that has made downloading a bit easier. A search engine can
>create an NZB file which you can open with your newsreader. And then it has all
>the information it needs in order to download the files for you. This saves you
>the effort of downloading the headers of a newsgroup first. More information:
>What is NZB?.
>Category 3) You see something in a binary Usenet newsgroup but by examining the
>header (the visible title) you can not figure out what it is. In that case you
>can check whether the poster included an NFO file (with the extension .nfo).
>Usually there is some information about the post in the NFO file. You can view
>these files with an NFO Viewer (tutorial).
>Step 4: Learn how to work with your newsreader & download the files!
>We can download the files when we know where they have been posted. Of course
>we should first learn to work with our newsreader. Here at Binaries4all we have
>tutorials for every popular newsreader. You can find them in the menu on the
>left-hand side of your screen in the sub-menu of 'Downloading'.
>Step 5: Verify the downloaded files: are they complete and undamaged?
>Files can become incomplete or damaged while downloading (more information
>about the causes of incomplete files). This does not have to be a problem: we
>can use the program QuickPar to verify whether downloaded files are complete
>and repair them if necessary! Read our QuickPar tutorial for more information.
>Step 6: Extract the downloaded files
>Most of the large files in Usenet newsgroups are compressed with WinRAR so they
>are RAR files. Why? It is not possible to put a DVD as one large file (of 4GB+)
>in a Usenet newsgroup for example, it is too large. So it has to be split by
>WinRAR into parts with a maximum size of about 50MB per part.
>If the downloaded files are repaired, then we can extract them. You can extract
>RAR archives with WinRAR but also with the freeware program 7-Zip. We also have
>tutorials for these programs (click on the hyperlinks). Of course it is also
>possible that you downloaded other types of files like MP3 or JPG. Obviously
>those do not have to be extracted.
>Step 7: Burn to CD or DVD?
>If you downloaded a DVD you might want to burn it to a disc. This is the next
>step. We do not have tutorials for this step at Binaries4all but we intend to
>write them in the future.
>To the next chapter: -> Posting
https://www.binaries4all.com/beginners/posting.php
>Introduction for beginners
>Page 3/3 of this article
>Posting: the basic steps
>It is also possible to post (upload) files to a Usenet newsgroup so other
>people can download it.
>Important:
>When downloading from binary newsgroups on Usenet you will notice that besides
>free material there are also files that are copyrighted. Downloading or
>distributing copyrighted material is prohibited by law. This site isn't meant
>to promote distributing this material, it's only meant to explain how binary
>newsgroups and related software work. You won't find any links to such
>material, cracks or serial numbers here. Therefore our advise: study what is
>allowed by law and act accordingly.
>Step 1: Archive and split the files that you want to post
>If you want to post a large file (>50MB) to a binary Usenet newsgroup you will
>have to compress and split it into multiple files using WinRAR to create a RAR
>archive. This is not necessary for small files like MP3 and JPG files.
>Step 2: Create PAR2 repair files
>Files can become incomplete or corrupt in a Usenet newsgroup (more information
>about the causes of incomplete files). Therefore we have to create PAR2 repair
>files with QuickPar so the downloaders can use them to verify and repair their
>downloaded files. You can learn how to do this in our QuickPar tutorial.
>Step 3: Create an NFO file
>People who manually browse a Usenet newsgroup will look for an NFO file to find
>out what it is that you are posting. Please read our tutorial 'Creating NFO
>files' to learn how to create such a file.
>Step 4: Posting the files
>And then it is time to upload the files. This is explained in our PowerPost
>tutorial.
>Have fun at Binaries4all!
>Copyright (c) Binaries4all Usenet tutorials 2002-2023 [all rights reserved]
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