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Newsgroup Reader software?
- Thread starter ThatDood
- Start date
BillLeeLee
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,486
Just text or do you want binary?
All these should be able to do both, I think I used to use BNR2:
binary news reaper 2
xnews
grabit
All these should be able to do both, I think I used to use BNR2:
binary news reaper 2
xnews
grabit
For actual newsgroup reading and participation (non-binary downloading purposes), Gravity and it's sister-product created by the community (SuperGravity) are the best options. Some will recommend that old Agent thing but, it's old. 
For binary downloading purposes, all hail the king: Newsbin Pro, in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. The 64 bit version helps dramatically with newsgroups that have millions of headers you might wish to download. If that's the case, the side-effect product and service would be Giganews because they offer an "Accelerator" which can download millions of headers in no time flat. Works like a proxy server between Giganews and your news client and gives you massive boosts in speed. I have a 6Mbps cable connection that tops out at about 800KB/s most of the time; when using the Accelerator for header downloads, I reach equivalent download speeds of the headers (not the files, mind you) in the 40Mbps or higher range, several megabytes per second.
Obviously it only works with Giganews, but you can still use other news clients with it.
Some will recommend others like Newsleecher, GrabIt, etc. That's fine, the best way to decide is run all of them and see for yourself. But if you have any sense at all, you'll immediately see that Newsbin Pro is truly the cream of the crop.
For binary downloading purposes, all hail the king: Newsbin Pro, in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. The 64 bit version helps dramatically with newsgroups that have millions of headers you might wish to download. If that's the case, the side-effect product and service would be Giganews because they offer an "Accelerator" which can download millions of headers in no time flat. Works like a proxy server between Giganews and your news client and gives you massive boosts in speed. I have a 6Mbps cable connection that tops out at about 800KB/s most of the time; when using the Accelerator for header downloads, I reach equivalent download speeds of the headers (not the files, mind you) in the 40Mbps or higher range, several megabytes per second.
Obviously it only works with Giganews, but you can still use other news clients with it.
Some will recommend others like Newsleecher, GrabIt, etc. That's fine, the best way to decide is run all of them and see for yourself. But if you have any sense at all, you'll immediately see that Newsbin Pro is truly the cream of the crop.
TechLarry
RIP [H] Brother - June 1, 2022
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 30,481
IMHO, Agent was one of the worst pieces of software ever written. It had an interface only a mother could love.
The preferences were scattered all over hell and back, and to the best of my knowledge they never did make it so it could sort by subject/date properly when in grouped mode.
The preferences were scattered all over hell and back, and to the best of my knowledge they never did make it so it could sort by subject/date properly when in grouped mode.
Zepher
[H]ipster Replacement
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2001
- Messages
- 20,968
I use Agent and have been using it for a loooooong time, I think since 1995. it's easier to use than a few others I've tried.
I also use News Rover (free from my news provider) and I use it for direct keyword file searching.
I love easynews.
No crappy reader to worry about as it's web based, along with the option to use a reader if you choose. Many files are automatically unrared for you by AutoPar which is a godsend for movies, tv shows or other large files. So you would just download the unrar'ed file straight up in one shot with no further extracting which is a PITA.
They just upgraded their servers for 75 days retention on binaries as well. No overhead loading headers or any of that archaic nonsense. 10 bucks for 20GB which rolls over and you can get a bonus 2GB per month by filling out a survey. Crunch numbers for IBM and get an extra 2 GB per month. Be a customer for more than a year and you get 21GB for 10$. Sweet deal imho. No I do not work for this company, just singing it's praises as it's awesome. Check it out! They offer a free trial.
No crappy reader to worry about as it's web based, along with the option to use a reader if you choose. Many files are automatically unrared for you by AutoPar which is a godsend for movies, tv shows or other large files. So you would just download the unrar'ed file straight up in one shot with no further extracting which is a PITA.
They just upgraded their servers for 75 days retention on binaries as well. No overhead loading headers or any of that archaic nonsense. 10 bucks for 20GB which rolls over and you can get a bonus 2GB per month by filling out a survey. Crunch numbers for IBM and get an extra 2 GB per month. Be a customer for more than a year and you get 21GB for 10$. Sweet deal imho. No I do not work for this company, just singing it's praises as it's awesome. Check it out! They offer a free trial.
I used Easynews for 9 years, almost daily. Preached them from here to the moon, to the stars and back. Then one day I posted a question about piecing together some "files" - no mention of the content of the files, no mention of the filenames, post names, subject lines, nothing. The only thing I mentioned was the name of the newsgroup: alt.binaries.dvdr.
They terminated my account just for mentioning they were having retention issues with that particular group (that's what my posting was about) and they tossed me for it. Fuck 'em. And it was a server issue; one drive in a blade server crapped itself and took a few hours of postings with it and they hadn't gotten around to actually restoring the set properly - my question prompted them to fix it, actually, and the other two people just got in late, but they still lost their accounts which was totally unforgivable. The two other people had the same issue happen to them when they asked a question about why some files were missing that were well within the retention date on that one particular newsgroup and they had their accounts terminated immediately. Buncha fuckin' hypocrites over there, as I finally learned.
I'm ranting now, sorry. Suffice to say that I'm happier now with Giganews, no limits, no hit for downloading headers, faster connections than even Easynews (which was plenty fast but Giganews trashes 'em), the Giganews Accelerator for header downloads when I wish to browse the groups manually, and far better customer service in my opinion. It's $24.95 a month for the plan I'm on, but that saves me money in the long run because I had to keep topping off the Easynews account sometimes to get the stuff I wanted.
Mind you, for those new to Usenet and binary files posted there, Easynews is a great start, I'm not arguing with that at all. I miss them in some respects, was happy when the put the Global Search online finally. But I've got several sites to acquire NZB files and I'm pretty satisfied now. But I won't even mention Easynews much anymore except to share my experience(s) with them. I probably garnered them over 1,000 customers over the years, and I don't think losing my account for a technical question about their own servers (and not the content on them) was a fair shake.
Bleh.
</personal_rant_off>
They terminated my account just for mentioning they were having retention issues with that particular group (that's what my posting was about) and they tossed me for it. Fuck 'em. And it was a server issue; one drive in a blade server crapped itself and took a few hours of postings with it and they hadn't gotten around to actually restoring the set properly - my question prompted them to fix it, actually, and the other two people just got in late, but they still lost their accounts which was totally unforgivable. The two other people had the same issue happen to them when they asked a question about why some files were missing that were well within the retention date on that one particular newsgroup and they had their accounts terminated immediately. Buncha fuckin' hypocrites over there, as I finally learned.
I'm ranting now, sorry. Suffice to say that I'm happier now with Giganews, no limits, no hit for downloading headers, faster connections than even Easynews (which was plenty fast but Giganews trashes 'em), the Giganews Accelerator for header downloads when I wish to browse the groups manually, and far better customer service in my opinion. It's $24.95 a month for the plan I'm on, but that saves me money in the long run because I had to keep topping off the Easynews account sometimes to get the stuff I wanted.
Mind you, for those new to Usenet and binary files posted there, Easynews is a great start, I'm not arguing with that at all. I miss them in some respects, was happy when the put the Global Search online finally. But I've got several sites to acquire NZB files and I'm pretty satisfied now. But I won't even mention Easynews much anymore except to share my experience(s) with them. I probably garnered them over 1,000 customers over the years, and I don't think losing my account for a technical question about their own servers (and not the content on them) was a fair shake.
Bleh.
</personal_rant_off>
Newsbin Pro is $35.00 and Grabit is free. No contest. For Usenet discussion groups I've been using Thunderbird and it works fine for me. Sourceforge has Pan for windows which works pretty good for discussions and binaries on Linix so i expect it is the same in Windows. I used to be an Agent user but don't like the latest versions either.
Demon10000
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 4,502
I haven't found any software better and friendlier than newsbin. Highly recommended.
Newsgroups can be intimidating for someone who's never seen them, or understands what they are -- newsbin slaps a nice friendly frontend on it that even an experienced user can enjoy.
Newsgroups can be intimidating for someone who's never seen them, or understands what they are -- newsbin slaps a nice friendly frontend on it that even an experienced user can enjoy.