Downloading binaries from newsgroups
by Shawn M. Drew (April 9, 2002)
Introduction and Resources
First let me define "binary". A binary is anything you can't read in emacs.(or vi, notepad and any ASCII reader/editor out there). Basically these are mp3's, applications, movies, etc.
I'm always preaching about how much stuff there is on the newsgroups, yet people still never use them. They swear by "Napster, or Morpheus" saying "You can get files off there too, not just music!" The problem I have with them is that you are downloading from someones home computer, and therefore, it is not as fast or reliable as a server, hosted by an ISP (which you have a more direct connection to, most of the time.) This way, there is no web popups, no advertisements, just no-nonsense downloading what you want. Newsgroups are, however, a bulletin board type system. You only get what someone has posted in the last few days (or weeks depending on your news server) It is a community, and most of the time you can get what you want by posting something someone else has requested, then asking for what you want.
I am a bit of an idealist, so you may find some prejudices in here. I will try to list them first so you know what I am referring to.
1. There is a standards document which outlines a "best practices" for news software. Its called the "Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval" and they give this Approval and a rating to any newsreader they reveiw. I will attempt to keep these instructions to software that they "approve" of. Mainly software that score a 100% approval rating.
2. I am a Free Software advocate as defined by Richard Stallman. So I am biased towards software that is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
So if you don't see your favorite newsreader among the listed. These reasons are probably why.
Here is some software that can be used to perform the functions I will talk about:
PAN - (name is soon to be changed because of some naming conflict) This is a GNU GPL application that works remarkably well. It doesn't, to my knowledge, run on Windows, so this may not be an option for some of you.
Xnews - This isn't Free Software, as defined by the FSF but it scored a 100% on the GNKSA. This is, however, free of charge, and runs on windows
The Instructions
There will be more instructions as I get around to doing them.
Downloading with Xnews on a Microsoft System - I know, this is far from the GNU GPL, but so many people have asked me for instructions on this, and I think its the lesser of evils (as opposed to using morpheus or "wArEz" sites)
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