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Usenet tutorial?

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Okay, I'm making a new thread for this because, while this is being heavily discussed in the Torrents thread, usenet isn't a torrent issue. Hence: new thread.

DarthOsor: can you, or possibly someone else, give a tutorial here so we can use this thing to our advantage rather than having to wait out torrents? This would especially be helpful to college students with a locked server like myself. I downloaded something off a binary group once, but it was just the one time and I quickly forgot the specifics.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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I second this request.

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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First of all, find Forte Free Agent. Second, look on your ISP's werbpage for Usenet or Newsgroup settings. Lastly, you'll probably want to look up someone like Supernews or Giganews, as they will have a better variety of groups, and will have posts several days back.

PM me if you need anymore help.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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See, all that requires money. I, for one, don't have any to spare on this sort of thing.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Free Agent is......well, "free", and most ISP's already give you Usenet access. It just costs money for better access.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
First of all, find Forte Free Agent.
I tried out Forte a year or two ago, it's good for reading and posting to the text groups, but for the binaries I prefer Grabit (free) or Newsbin Pro ($35).

You will find a decent tutorial at http://www.slyck.com/ng.php.

Interesting little point: the reason I started learning how to use newsgroups, back in 2002, was because I read that DrGonzo was at the time posting SVCD versions of the SW trilogy!

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

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Go with Newshosting or Giganews..... the ones that the ISP's provide are practically bantha poodoo.......
And Forté Agent NON free version works splendid with binarys, at least it does for me.
Do, or do not. There is no try.
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You could also try these guys:

www.100proofnews.com

They seem to have a good service going there. If you try it, I'd like to know how good it is.
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Yeah, regular ISPs sometimes drop some of the parts (there could be over 100), or don't keep the posts after a few days.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I once made an in-depth tutorial on usenet some number of years ago with screenshots and the whole sha-bang. That looks like my new project. I'm drinking some beers tonight so I'm a bit sketchy but I'll begin cracking on a step-by-step guide with screenshots to the newgroups first thing tomorrow.

Usenet is a bit complex, but it is also incredibly useful (and pretty fast) for transfering large files amongst a group. I'm not on the fastest connection by any stretch of the imagination and I can fully upload a DVD in just under 2 days without using all of my bandwidth, and I can download about 3 DVDs a day from the newsgroups...also without using all of my bandwidth.

Also, the P2P thing may be coming to end here shortly...the US supreme court will be ruling this year. Soooo, let me get cracking on this tutorial project and I'll keep you all posted on the progress. If anything it is a good "old-internet" backup to keep the scene alive no matter what.

Wipe them out...all of them.

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Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
Yeah, regular ISPs sometimes drop some of the parts (there could be over 100), or don't keep the posts after a few days.


incomplete posts...well that is where 10%-15% par2 files come in (to be revealed at a later time)

...and group retention is awesome (20+ days or more) on the pay server that I use that costs me about $12 a month. Most ISPs offer usenet for free in any case. It's an incredibly versatile and time-saving way to share large files.

This is gonna be fun...stay tuned.

Wipe them out...all of them.

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"incomplete posts...well that is where 10%-15% par2 files come in"

Which is both a miracle and a whole new tutorial all in one.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: eDroj
Go with Newshosting or Giganews..... the ones that the ISP's provide are practically bantha poodoo.......
And Forté Agent NON free version works splendid with binarys, at least it does for me.


The big problem with Free Agent is that, last I checked, it hasn't been updated to work with par files, whereas I believe Agent (the pay version) has. What this basically means is that Free Agent doesn't recognize the multiple posts that make up the par as being part of the same file, and doesn't automatically decode them. I was trying to get my first OOT disc using Free Agent (Dr. G's ANH, before I discovered this website), and it was a pain to manually save the messages (which Free Agent thinks are just text messages) to disk and then decrypt them.

Especially if you're going to shell out the money for Giganews or another high-availability news feed, I recommend taking a look at NewsLeecher. It's a multi-threaded reader, meaning that it will open multiple connections to a news server. Most ISPs have their rates capped, but allow some number of multiple connections. If your ISP or news provider has multiple servers, you can set it up to do multiple connections to them too. I didn't buy NewsLeecher, but did use it during the free trial. With three servers and four connections to each, I had 12x the bandwidth of Free Agent. And, it seamlessly integrated the multiple parts of the par and decoded them too.

With no offense meant to you guys, it cracks me up that guys who are so smart in image processing, BitTorrent, etc. and don't know Usenet. For me, Usenet WAS the internet in the beginning- I started regularly reading news in 1989, back when the groups really were for news and commentary, not spam, porn, and file sharing. I haven't read actively in many years since web-based news and boards such as this suit me better, but I remember spending hours reading rec.arts.sf-lovers (when the Usenet community was small enough that SW, Trek, and everything else could share a group), then rec.arts.sf.starwars, and later a bunch of splinter r.a.s.starwars groups.

And somebody mentioned Grabit. I think I tried it before NewsLeecher, but there was some reason I didn't like it. I think maybe it saw each micro-part of a file as a separate message. (Basically, most of the posters in alt.binaries.starwars will archive a DVD into a rar archive and then add par information (which has redundant information that helps reconstruct the files if a few isolated pieces get lost). They split the rar into manageable chunks and post each chunk as a message, with about 100000 lines IIRC, and there will be 100-300 or so of these for a DVD. But the news servers actually break these up into smaller pieces to exchange them, and there will maybe be 500 smaller pieces to each big piece, which I'm calling micro-parts. Free Agent and most other readers I've used will report the big chunks as a message, and then will tell you if not all of the micro-parts are available, but I'm thinking that Grabit saw each of the micros as an individual message, meaning that it will show you tens of thousands of messages instead of hundreds. But I may be wrong on this last part- it might not have been Grabit, so it might be worth a try or I might not have had it set up right.

Sorry for the rambling at the last, but even if I'm wrong about Grabit I figure it might help someone understand a little more about how Usenet works. I think it's pretty amazing that a system designed for exchanging 100-line text messages works at all for multi-gigabyte files.

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Ok gang, first off free agent is out and Jaurez is in. Let me do my tutorial with all applicable links before anyone gets antsy about anything...it's all good. Trust.

btw...I've seen a few folks really digging the new Battlestar Galactica. Well thay've been posting it hot and heavy on a.b.dvd so I best get this tutorial up doublequick.

Tomorrow I should at least have the bare bones of it ready.

stay tuned...

Wipe them out...all of them.

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Originally posted by: JB522
Originally posted by: eDroj

With no offense meant to you guys, it cracks me up that guys who are so smart in image processing, BitTorrent, etc. and don't know Usenet. For me, Usenet WAS the internet in the beginning- I started regularly reading news in 1989, back when the groups really were for news and commentary, not spam, porn, and file sharing.


JB522, you know usenet? GREAT! Then if you want we can work together as tech support. Turn on your PM's and I'll send you the URL's to the tutorial B4 it's live. I'll be glad that you can help out.

On that note I am going to hit the hay...I'll get cracking on this first thing tomorrow gang.


May the force be with you.

_______________________

I amuse myself sometimes...



FAN: How long have you had these Special Editions?

McCALLUM: About three or four seasons.

LUCAS: They're for sale if you want them.

FAN: Let me see the original trilogy.

LUCAS: You don't need to see the original trilogy.

FAN: We don't need to see the original trilogy.

LUCAS: These aren't the movies you're looking for.

FAN: These are not the movies we're looking for.

LUCAS: You can give me more business.

FAN: We can give you more business.

LUCAS: (to McCALLUM) Move along.

FAN: Move along. Move along.




Wipe them out...all of them.

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Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
Yeah, regular ISPs sometimes drop some of the parts (there could be over 100), or don't keep the posts after a few days.
Several ISPs have opted to drop the high-traffic groups from their free service in order to get better completion and retention on the remaining groups. My ISP's Usenet feed is therefore quite reliable - but no a.b.dvd for me.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

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you should give

a.b.starwars

a try, it's not a group that has too much traffic, definetly not as much as a.b.dvdr (or similar) and thus has longer retention, and if you check today, you'll probably be able to catch a post of ESB (TR47) there.

Alex
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Originally posted by: atodorovic
you should give

a.b.starwars

a try, it's not a group that has too much traffic, definetly not as much as a.b.dvdr (or similar) and thus has longer retention, and if you check today, you'll probably be able to catch a post of ESB (TR47) there.

Alex


Which I'm posting


anyways...I'll begin work on the tutorial in about an hour or so...My brother has generously donated more webspace to me for it. I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

Wipe them out...all of them.

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The latest version 2.0 of Forte Agent (which you can try free for 30 days) handles rar, par, par2 and all other files superbly.

Each file can be downloaded at the click of a button as all the parts of a file are joined. On the old Free Agent, all parts had to be downloaded seperately and joined which was a major pain (the TR47 ESB post has 201 parts to all 100 or so rar files!!)

The program also allows yEnc encoded files to be posted and downloaded. I will let Darth Osar explain that one but basically the same posted file can be download in less than half the time.

I get access through my ISP as part of my normal standard monthly bill and all the posts are shown, mostly in full. Those that are missing can be repaired using the magical par2 files mentioned earlier.

Another bonus of Usenet is time. A torrent of a DVD that takes approx 6 full days for me to download drops to 36 to 48 hours on Usenet!!!

It has been said before and I will say it again, alt.binaries.starwars is the place to be and it fits perfectly with what is happenning here at originaltrilogy.com and the various torrent sites.

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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Well said Russ.

I'm beginning to work on the tutorial right now, it should be partially up later tonight.


Oh yeah, and how do you know that you are loved? Here's something cool, my mother-in-law just shipped me 4 retro OTC action figures in the star cases and 2 regular OTC figures (Bib Fortuna will fit in perfect in my Hutt collection). Tell me that isn't the coolest.

Wipe them out...all of them.

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we all need a mother-in-law like that btw Thank you for the TR47 post...

Alex
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OK Gang...

As promised I've begun a step-by-step tutorial on usenet (aka the newsgroups).

This is the first half of the tutorial...It isn't finished yet so don't start it yet.
It is a lot easier than it looks at first, and everything will be explained step-by-step,
and when you're done with this tutorial you will be on usenet...
posting messages, downloading files...the whole enchilada.

Right now this is merely up to allow for comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc...
All are welcome.

IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT BEGIN The Tutorial Yet!!!!

Usenet Tutorial (first half only)

Let me know what you think of the presentation.


Skip
(Darth Osor)

p.s. My brother has been cool enough to let me use some more webspace for free.
I owe him one now

Wipe them out...all of them.

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Looking very very good. It's so immensely helpful to see screenshots to help with the exact motion of things.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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Pages 2, 3, and 4 are now up. This is probably all I'll get to tonight.

We're over half-way there gang!

Check it out and let me know if it's too confusing.

Wipe them out...all of them.