usenet vs torrent

[buffotoad]

I don't know much about either. Is one better than the other - what are the pros & cons of each?

Thanks for any help.

[Nosebleed]

Usenet.

[twikoff]

of course, i assume you are only talking about for access to legal none copyrighted material!

i prefer usenet
biggest pro is that its much more anonymous
and much safer, since you're not 'sharing' anything
on the down side, only whats currently posted is available
and there is a higher learning curve

torrent will give you easier access to more data
torrent is a much easier target, if people are using it for illegal activity

[Nosebleed]

Sure, only what's posted on Usenet is available, but only a torrent that's seeded is actually available. Usenet is much more reliable in that respect. If something's posted, you can expect it to be there for 30-50 days (depending on your server) and you can expect to download as quickly as your connection will permit. Torrents go up and down and it can take days or even weeks for a download to complete. On the other hand, hard-to-find files can be found on torrent websites, whereas Usenet is usually home to "newer" files quicker, if you know what I mean. And, like twikoff mentioned, it's much mor anonymous, thus safer to use than torrents. Plus, with torrent websites, you have to piss around with registering/looking through 100 different sites if you want something in particular. With Usenet, just use a binaries search engine (http://www.binsearch.info).

[dtcarson]

I fourth Usenet.
Pros:
* you're dl'ing from a news-server, not Joe Blow's 128k connection, assuming he remains online/sharing; so as long as it's on the server, you can get it, and generally much much quicker [I have dl'ed 5 MB files in about 20 seconds or less, whereas that same file might take 2-20 minutes via torrent]
* consistency--you're much more likely to get a file that is named correctly, and that is complete.
* you don't have to seed/share
* availability - most ISPs carrry 20k-50k+ newsgroups, with various retention rates, and if yours sucks, you can get a third party for less than 10 bucks a month
* easier to use -- like Nosebleed says, navigating the torrent sites is a pain, whereas newsgroup information is all stored in one place [assuming you're only using one provider].

Cons:
* more "reactive" than "proactive"--while you can search, you are limited to what is currently stored on the newsservers; this can change daily, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.
* learning curve - most of the 'good' newsreader programs have a slight learning curve. I spent some time learning Agent a few years back, and have been using it ever since.

[joeblow69]

I fifth Usenet. I use Grabit! for downloading, and HJSPlit to put the files back together. It's pretty easy.

[buffotoad]

Yes, I'm only talking about for access to legal non-copyrighted material.

Thanks for the explanations - I will find a newsreader and have a go at usenet.

[matome]

Thanks for the explanations - I will find a newsreader and have a go at usenet.

Xnews (http://www.download.com/Xnews/3000-2164_4-10144167.html) -free & awesome

[Nosebleed]

Files you'll need:

Newsbin (http://www.newsbin.com) (the best newsreader)
DAMN NFO Viewer (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Text-editors/DAMN-NFO-Viewer.shtml)
QuickPar (http://www.quickpar.org.uk/)
WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com/)

For more help read Slyck's Guide to the Newsgroups (http://www.slyck.com/ng.php).

[dtcarson]

Par files rock, and I'm surprised Winrar, with its better compression, isn't more widely used. I've always used Agent as a newsreader; though I've heard their latest versions are actually a step backwards.
Re: .nfo files; I've just associated .nfo with Notepad, and that seems to work fine.

[Nosebleed]

I did that too, but DAMN makes the NFOs look as they should and hyperlinks any URLs so you can easily visit a linked website.

[twikoff]

meh
been using agent for over 10 years now.. have tried all these crappy replacement news readers, and havent ever found one that i think matches up.

i use notepad for nfo files.. no need to add extra software for that

and yea.. winrar and quickpar are essentials

[twikoff]

I've always used Agent as a newsreader; though I've heard their latest versions are actually a step backwards..

as i mentioned.. i have been using agent for over 10 years.. and hadnt upgraded to a new version in about the last 5-6 years..
i recently said what the hell and tries one of the latest releases..

at first it bothered me.. took some getting use to
but now that i have played with it some.. Im really digging some of their advancements... the only thing i didnt like was the way they have it configured to browse through groups you arent subscribed to.. you basically have to use the search feature for that.. but thats minor, and may actually be for the best... i mean, you could always just search for 'binaries' and browse through them all that way anyways.. ;)

ohhhh.. and with the new version.. they have a friggin deleted files section.. so when you delete headers & attachments, they go to trash.. so you have to dump trash or it keeps filling up.. Im sure there is a setting to turn that off, but Ive been too lazy to look

[Josh-da-man]

Usenet is good as long as you have access to a decent news server.

And speaking of news servers, the Earthlink servers have been shit for the past couple of weeks. Are they upgrading or just letting them go to hell?

[Nosebleed]

You still download headers? Doesn't Agent have NZB support? I haven't downloaded a header in at least a year. Oh, and DAMN is under 200KB. It's not like you have to install a bloated program, but I guess I can see why the lazy wouldn't want to download it.

[twikoff]

You still download headers? Doesn't Agent have NZB support? I haven't downloaded a header in at least a year. Oh, and DAMN is under 200KB. It's not like you have to install a bloated program, but I guess I can see why the lazy wouldn't want to download it.


never said i hadnt tried it
if you reread my messages.. youll see i said i had tried the other crap that has come out over the past decade + .. and havent found anything that i think is worth a damn.

[Nosebleed]

never said i hadnt tried it
if you reread my messages.. youll see i said i had tried the other crap that has come out over the past decade + .. and havent found anything that i think is worth a damn.

:hscratch: I got what you said the first time. I asked if you still waste time downloading headers. Unless you're confusing DAMN as some sort of newsreader.

[dtcarson]

You still download headers? Doesn't Agent have NZB support? I haven't downloaded a header in at least a year. Oh, and DAMN is under 200KB. It's not like you have to install a bloated program, but I guess I can see why the lazy wouldn't want to download it.

Is that really necessary?

I used to use Damn, and I've use NFOViewer, I think, in the past. I got a new computer. I don't click on links in nfo files, and they're small enough that I can manage scrolling down two screens to read it all. Why download a program when I have one that does just what I need? "Laziness" has nothing to do with it.

I do still download headers; I don't know if the version of Agent I'm using supports .nzb files [I don't know much about them], but when I browse the groups, I don't see many .nzb files posted.

[twikoff]

:hscratch: I got what you said the first time. I asked if you still waste time downloading headers. Unless you're confusing DAMN as some sort of newsreader.

ah.. i did assume damn was some sort of newsreader
for an nfo viewer.. doesnt seem worthwhile to me.. i rarely even open nfo files.. and if i do, its typically a 5 second process to open it, copy what i need, close it.. seems silly to install another application for that.

[Nosebleed]

Of course it's not necessary, but it can be handy from time to time. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I download a lot of NFO files and actually read the information that's contained within. So such a program is beneficial to me.

As for NZBs, they eliminate the need to browse through a newsgroup or spend an hour downloading/updating headers. There are a number of web-based sites where you can browse what's available in newsgroups then create an NZB file. What the NZB does is load only the files you want into your newsreader for downloading. See: binsearch.info (http://www.binsearch.info), binaries.nl (http://www.binaries.nl), and Easy News has something similiar for its members.

[twikoff]

i typically pull all the headers from my groups (i watch 15-20 groups daily, and quite a few others when im bored) in 2-3 minutes.. so i dont have to spend an hour downloading/updating headers :whofart:
it use to take maybe 5-10 minutes with the old version of agent.. but the new version has 6 connections running at once by default and pulls all my groups headers in just a couple minutes max.. and Im typically browsing the first, while the others come in.. so thats minimal
just easier for me to browse through headers, select what i want, and download
rather than browse through, make a list, create a file, then download.
i dont really see the point in the extra steps

[Nosebleed]

i typically pull all the headers from my groups (i watch 15-20 groups daily, and quite a few others when im bored) in 2-3 minutes.. so i dont have to spend an hour downloading/updating headers :whofart:
it use to take maybe 5-10 minutes with the old version of agent.. but the new version has 6 connections running at once by default and pulls all my groups headers in just a couple minutes max.. and Im typically browsing the first, while the others come in.. so thats minimal
just easier for me to browse through headers, select what i want, and download
rather than browse through, make a list, create a file, then download.
i dont really see the point in the extra steps

Years ago, I'd routinely have to wait 30-60 minutes to download a few million headers from a group. But if you're browsing small(er) groups and stay on top of your shit each day, I can see how it wouldn't be a problem. If that's the case, using a web-based search engine and creating NZBs would be extra work.

[dtcarson]

Of course it's not necessary, but it can be handy from time to time. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I download a lot of NFO files and actually read the information that's contained within. So such a program is beneficial to me.

No, we're all lazy and stupid, we don't read nfo files.

Maybe the .nfo files you're getting are longer/larger; it would take me longer to download that program than to read most of the nfo files I get. The benefits you've given for a stand-alone task-oriented nfo viewer do not sound like an improvement over simply using Notepad, for my uses.


As for NZBs, they eliminate the need to browse through a newsgroup or spend an hour downloading/updating headers. There are a number of web-based sites where you can browse what's available in newsgroups then create an NZB file. What the NZB does is load only the files you want into your newsreader for downloading.

So you browse websites, create an NZB file, load that into your newsreader, *then* go online to retrieve the bodies? I guess if your newsserver has hundreds of thousands of headers, if you're not joining parts, if you're on dialup, or if you're reading a thousand groups, that could be useful. I hit 'get new headers in subscribed groups', give it ten seconds to get started, then go through skimming and marking the headers to see what I want to download. By the time I get to the bottleneck group, all the headers are downloaded.
Even when I was on dialup, I just downloaded all the headers, marked what I wanted, purged the rest, then set the others to download, using DUNce and some Agent-restart program overnight or while I was at work [this was in the days of getting kicked off after 12 hours].
My connection is fast enough, and I read fast enough, combined with a good but growing set of kill/watch filters, that there's not a bottleneck. I'll admit I'm only subbed to about 50 newsgroups, but it takes less than two minutes to download headers. If I haven't checked in a week or so, it might take up to four, and most of that bottleneck is in one group.

What groups are you subbing to that you're seeing 'millions' of headers? Even when I let it slide a couple days, the largest I've seen is a couple hundred thousand. Does that count each *individual* header? Like I have it set to join parts; if not, a single 10MB file might be 100 separate posts which you would then have to manually join then download [or vice versa]. I will admit RoadRunner's binary retention is not the greatest, but still.

[twikoff]

yep.. its a daily routine for me (typically 2-3 times a day).. the groups I use are massive and if i let them slip for a few days, it would be an overwelming amount to browse through.

and when i recently moved to a new city.. i dumped my pay news service because the speed of my ISPs free service is blowing them away.. :D

[dtcarson]

yep.. its a daily routine for me (typically 2-3 times a day).. the groups I use are massive and if i let them slip for a few days, it would be an overwelming amount to browse through.

If I go too long before checking [vacation or whatnot], I just 'catch up' with the heavy traffic groups. I know I'm missing some stuff, but I'll just start fresh, unless there's something I was particularly looking for/waiting for.


and when i recently moved to a new city.. i dumped my pay news service because the speed of my ISPs free service is blowing them away.. :D

What pay news service did you use, and how many groups did you get/do you get? I've always just used whatever my ISP offered, which has been adequate for my needs.

[twikoff]

Ive used usenetserver and most recently giganews.. because i got annoyed with the slow speed from my asp (i figured it was roughly 1mb / min.. which is roughly 15kbs).. and with giganews, i was getting around 150kbs.. but with my current local isp, i average at least twice that

[Nosebleed]

Maybe the .nfo files you're getting are longer/larger; it would take me longer to download that program than to read most of the nfo files I get. The benefits you've given for a stand-alone task-oriented nfo viewer do not sound like an improvement over simply using Notepad, for my uses.

Different strokes for different strokes. For me, the 10 seconds it took to download the ~500 KB program made it worthwhile since, as I mentioned, I download and read plenty of NFO files.

So you browse websites, create an NZB file, load that into your newsreader, *then* go online to retrieve the bodies?

This is the process:

- type query into search engine
- find result I want, click check box to select it, then "Create NZB"
- NZB then automatically loads in NewsBin, and the files start downloading themselves

My news server has around 40 days of retention, so yeah, some groups I routinely download from would have millions of headers to retreive if I were to download headers.

Maybe the difference between us is that I don't browse newsgroups looking for things to download; in most cases, I know what I want ahead of time, so I search for it, then create the NZB file.

[twikoff]

This is the process:

- type query into search engine
- find result I want, click check box to select it, then "Create NZB"
- NZB then automatically loads in NewsBin, and the files start downloading themselves

My news server has around 40 days of retention, so yeah, some groups I routinely download from would have millions of headers to retreive if I were to download headers.

Maybe the difference between us is that I don't browse newsgroups looking for things to download; in most cases, I know what I want ahead of time, so I search for it, then create the NZB file.

yea.. if you know exactly what you want.. i guess i could see
but Im browsing, looking for something to catch my eye.. and i cant imagine how it would work to try and get it into an nzb, since there would be so many similar and/or unnecessary files..

i need more control over what i download

and yea.. i have a long retention period as well.. but since its just updating anything new since the last refresh, its only a few thousand per day, per group.

[twikoff]

This is the process:

- type query into search engine
- find result I want, click check box to select it, then "Create NZB"
- NZB then automatically loads in NewsBin, and the files start downloading themselves

My news server has around 40 days of retention, so yeah, some groups I routinely download from would have millions of headers to retreive if I were to download headers.

Maybe the difference between us is that I don't browse newsgroups looking for things to download; in most cases, I know what I want ahead of time, so I search for it, then create the NZB file.

yea.. if you know exactly what you want.. i guess i could see
but Im browsing, looking for something to catch my eye.. and i cant imagine how it would work to try and get it into an nzb, since there would be so many similar and/or unnecessary files..

i need more control over what i download

although reading your steps.. that pretty much sounds like just generating a queue.. which is exactly what Im doing when i select the files to download.. Its just storing in the apps queue, rather than a seperate file.

and yea.. i have a long retention period as well.. but since its just updating anything new since the last refresh, its only a few thousand per day, per group.

[twikoff]

I've always used Agent as a newsreader; though I've heard their latest versions are actually a step backwards..
i just remembered the biggest thing that sold me on keeping the new version of agent
the queue/resume work great

in past versions.. when you had an error.. it pretty much made you stop.. and you had to restart anything you have going
with the latest releases.. on any error, it automatically retries after like 11 seconds.. then if it continues to have the error, it retries after like 30 seconds.. etc... but it doesnt halt anything
and since it has like 6 operations working at once, it will continue to download other group headers or files at the same time that its having issues with one area..

and the task manager is nice too.. so you can see what all you have queued up.. the status of all of your queued tasks... and you can move different tasks up or down the list, if you want them to finish quicker.

and i think the 6 connection limit is set by my isp, now that i think about it.. because i have had the error that it tried to exceed 6 connections.. so that has to be from my isp, since the app tried for more..

[Nosebleed]

yea.. if you know exactly what you want.. i guess i could see
but Im browsing, looking for something to catch my eye.. and i cant imagine how it would work to try and get it into an nzb, since there would be so many similar and/or unnecessary files..

binsearch.info is quite intuitive in that respect. It recognizes which files belong to a post and groups them all together (rars, nfo, sfv, pars) so more often than not, you just click one box and generate the NZB.

NZBs just store header data which is loaded by the newsreader. I guess it's a way of only downloading the headers you want and bypassing all of the others.

[Nosebleed]

i just remembered the biggest thing that sold me on keeping the new version of agent
the queue/resume work great

in past versions.. when you had an error.. it pretty much made you stop.. and you had to restart anything you have going
with the latest releases.. on any error, it automatically retries after like 11 seconds.. then if it continues to have the error, it retries after like 30 seconds.. etc... but it doesnt halt anything
and since it has like 6 operations working at once, it will continue to download other group headers or files at the same time that its having issues with one area..

and the task manager is nice too.. so you can see what all you have queued up.. the status of all of your queued tasks... and you can move different tasks up or down the list, if you want them to finish quicker.

and i think the 6 connection limit is set by my isp, now that i think about it.. because i have had the error that it tried to exceed 6 connections.. so that has to be from my isp, since the app tried for more..

Not to be a dick, but are these new features in Free Agent? Because stuff like that has been integrated into most other apps for years now. Just seems like Free Agent is years behind what some of the other developers are doing. NewsLeecher, for example, has an integrated Super Search which will quickly search all binary newsgroups.

[twikoff]

Not to be a dick, but are these new features in Free Agent? Because stuff like that has been integrated into most other apps for years now. Just seems like Free Agent is years behind what some of the other developers are doing. NewsLeecher, for example, has an integrated Super Search which will quickly search all binary newsgroups.

too late

as i mentioned.. i havent upgraded agent in at least 5-6 years
like alot of 1.x users, the releases were great and leaps and bounds above anything else available.. so never needed to bother with upgrading (which is weird for me, because I typically upgrade all my software religously)..

i havent tried free agent in at least 10 years.. so cant say anything about it.. but agent is easily better than anything else on the market (from a straight out useability standpoint), and always has been.. in my opinion.

[Mordred]

I'm guessing he's using the Real Agent.

I used to use Agent ages ago, but it drove me nuts that it saved the files I downloaded in the groups, so I'd have to go through and delete everything I had downloaded from the groups so it wouldn't use double the space.

About two years ago I moved to Xnews and it was a revelation. I loved and it and never looked back, quickly deleting agent off my machine.

Then about 6 months ago Roadrunners retention got really bad, a little over 24 hours on the binary groups, and completion was quite often awful. I looked around for a fills server, but I really didn't want to have monthly limits and I didn't want to pay $10-20 a month. I found Astraweb which sells unlimited monthly accounts, but also by the Gigabyte. They were offering 90GB for $25 with no timelimit for use, so I bought a chunk. I then found that Xnews worked okay with multiple servers, but was really slow on my machine, particularly when DL large numbers of headers.

I found a program called Grabit which is wonderful. It allows me to DL everything I can from Roadrunner, then if I still need fills, I can DL them from Astraweb, but it automatically only DLs the parts I need. Overnight I went from using 5-10gig from Astraweb a month to around 1 gig. Grabit is fast, has a decent interface (terrible if you want to look at files in the newsreader ala Xnews), allows multiple connections a pretty good queuing interface and has a built in binaries search engine (which costs money to use fully, but allows searching with limited results for free). I highly recommend it.

[twikoff]

I'm guessing he's using the Real Agent.

I used to use Agent ages ago, but it drove me nuts that it saved the files I downloaded in the groups, so I'd have to go through and delete everything I had downloaded from the groups so it wouldn't use double the space.

thats a setting you can turn off
you set it to use minimal space and it doesnt keep the attachments
or set it to purge on close
etc...

personally.. harddrive space has never really been an issue for me, so I liked having it there.

[zuffy]

Xnews (http://www.download.com/Xnews/3000-2164_4-10144167.html) -free & awesome

That's what I used to say until I start using Newsleecher. Xnews can't touch Newsleecher except the free part.

[TheMadMonk]

And speaking of news servers, the Earthlink servers have been shit for the past couple of weeks. Are they upgrading or just letting them go to hell?

I thought it was just me. I have no idea what is going on with them.

[Blitz6Speed]

That's what I used to say until I start using Newsleecher. Xnews can't touch Newsleecher except the free part.

DAMN STRAIT.

I use newsleecher exclusivly, it is the best program ive used (ive tried them all, literally) and its the least pc hog of them all. Not to mention the slick interface. I use Newsleecher + Usernetserver + my Comcast upgraded cable internet and i NEVER go slower then 1038k/sec. 700 meg file takes 7 or minutes, if even that.

[Mordred]

I tried using Newsleecher but it had serious problems with using my fill server along with Roadrunner. It couldn't seem to handle servers which had different article completion and would crash constantly. Grabit does this perfectly.

[T-bone22]

Can someone help through setting up this process? My isp is roadrunner, so how do I setup my client with their server? Do I need a username and password? I've downloaded grabit as my client and using .nzb from search engines should suffice for me. Anyone that can help me get started I would really appreciate it.

[Xanager]

Tbone - hopefully someone who uses Roadrunner can reply, but you can try this in the meantime. The server is probably something like "news.rr.com" Some ISPs require you to logon with a user/pw, but a lot don't. If they do though, your user name is probably the same as your email address (the stuff before the @) and your pw is probably the same as the one for you email address.

I use Giganews for my server and Newsbin (replace s w/ z) for getting all my nzb stuff. For some reason that word is blocked with the forum filter I guess. They have a feature called "watch dog" where you just put in a phrase and if anything is posted with that in it you'll get an email with the link.

I download with this program: SABnzbd (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sabnzbd/)

It is fairly new, but it all runs through your webbrowser. There is no external application. It has a certain folder that it watches, when a new nzb is found, it downloads it, pars it, unpacks it, and puts it in an appropriate folder. I pretty much only use nzbs now. I don't remember the last time I actually downloaded headers and looked for stuff.

[dtcarson]

I'm a browser, not a searcher, as well, so that affects how I use the program. And I still actually read/browse some text/discussion newsgroups, with which nzb's obviously wouldn't help.

And like twikoff, I've been using the same version of Agent for years. I've experimented once or twice with newer versions, but any improvements I noticed were outweighed by minor negatives or new things I'd have to learn. I've got a process and habits which work for me, so I haven't bothered upgrading.
RR's servers were very bad a year or so ago, they've gotten better with completion [though retention is still an issue].

The RR news server address should be something like news-server.*yourstate*.rr.com, or maybe just news-server. There should be some help files on the rr.com website that tell you exactly what to use. You shouldn't need a username or password.

[joeblow69]

Can someone help through setting up this process? My isp is roadrunner, so how do I setup my client with their server? Do I need a username and password? I've downloaded grabit as my client and using .nzb from search engines should suffice for me. Anyone that can help me get started I would really appreciate it.
From The RoadRunner Faq (http://home.san.rr.com/main/rrfaq/):
your newsserver is news-server.san.rr.com

You might want to notice the faq author mentions this:
I just subscribed to AirNews myself ($9.95 a month) - personally, I think the usenet articles available on RR are severely lacking.

[twikoff]

its funny
in a thread asking which is better (more preferred)
its 100% discussion of usenet
i guess we dont need a poll

[Mordred]

its funny
in a thread asking which is better (more preferred)
its 100% discussion of usenet
i guess we dont need a pollYeah, I think you just definitively proved the answer to the OP's question :)

[Nosebleed]

its funny
in a thread asking which is better (more preferred)
its 100% discussion of usenet
i guess we dont need a poll

:lol::thumbsup:

[darkside]

I used to use usenet, but since I switched to SBC Yahoo here in San Antonio I haven't been able to find a news server. I'm guessing they don't offer one here.

[T-bone22]

Hey thanks for all yor help and thanks for introducing me to usenet, the speeds I get from this are ridiculously faster than those I got from torrents. I just have one more problem. I downloaded a very large file split into about 90 or so rars and came with 12 or so .par2 files. So when the download was all done I had a number of incomplete and missing files. I downloaded quickpar and double clicked on one of my par2 files, and it ran through all the files and ended telling me I needed like 1000 more blocks. So I decided to load my nzb again and redownload the files that were screwed up. This was tedious but I got it down to only needing 100 more blocks. I have no idea if I'm on the right track or if there's a much simpler way to do this. Any help would be awesome.

[ike0000]

I use usenet first. If I dont find it there I get a torrent. If I dont find it there, a very distant third option is p2p (imeshlight).

[twikoff]

Hey thanks for all yor help and thanks for introducing me to usenet, the speeds I get from this are ridiculously faster than those I got from torrents. I just have one more problem. I downloaded a very large file split into about 90 or so rars and came with 12 or so .par2 files. So when the download was all done I had a number of incomplete and missing files. I downloaded quickpar and double clicked on one of my par2 files, and it ran through all the files and ended telling me I needed like 1000 more blocks. So I decided to load my nzb again and redownload the files that were screwed up. This was tedious but I got it down to only needing 100 more blocks. I have no idea if I'm on the right track or if there's a much simpler way to do this. Any help would be awesome.

odd are
since you just hit your server for the first time.. you picked a set that is near the end of your newsgroup servers retention.. so there were probably alot of missing pieces.. or it was just a really bad post
so you either browse for enough fills, that the pars will be able to reconstruct the rest.. you put in a request for some of the missing files.. or you wait and catch it on the next post

this is another instance of why i dont understand why you would want an nzb file.. you need to be able to track down fills and such

and the nzb didnt tell you that the attachments you were going to be downloading were primarily incomplete?

if you are going to use a free isp news server with a short retention.. you have to stay ontop of it and catch things before they start to slip away.

[dtcarson]

Pars are very helpful, but yes, you need to have a certain percentage of the files to be able to recreate the rest of them. It could be like twikoff says, some of the parts have already expired on the server, or your server has a problem with completion.
Sometimes if you have 'parts of a part', if that makes sense, the pars can recreate it as well.

[kitkat]

I used to use usenet, but since I switched to SBC Yahoo here in San Antonio I haven't been able to find a news server. I'm guessing they don't offer one here.
You should have one. In the bay area it's news.sf.sbcglobal.net. There's also news.sbcglobal.net, but I think it's read only. that may have changed.

[Silt]

I used to use newsgroups (NewsBin Pro + .nzbs) exclusively until Cox's newsgroup retention went down the shitter in the past year or so. As I don't want to pay for a real newsgroup service, I find myself using torrents more and more.

Currently if I can't grab a quick .nzb, I don't bother with newsgroups...it's just too time consuming to get what I want/need without them. It's far easier and faster to click a link or two to start a torrent than it is to deal with dling headers, search through the headers for what I want, download, run QuickPar, and then finally extract the file(s). As I normally remote home from work to start my torrents, download time isn't an issue for me as I don't care if it runs all day....though it's not often I find I'm getting slow dl speeds from a torrent.

For my friends that are new to dling...I always point them to bittorrent first and give them this link (http://www.slyck.com/ng.php) for a how-to on newsgroups if they want to try them.

[Nosebleed]

this is another instance of why i dont understand why you would want an nzb file.. you need to be able to track down fills and such

Just search for the filename then grab the files from another group or newer posting, if possible. That seems easier than scouring multiple newsgroups for a handful of files.

BTW T-bone22, if the newsreader you're using can look on multiple servers to complete files, then load a bunch of the rr.com news servers into the program and let it try to complete the files that way. You may find some files on the east coast, for example, are complete on the west coast.

[atlantamoi]

I found a program called Grabit which is wonderful. It allows me to DL everything I can from Roadrunner, then if I still need fills, I can DL them from Astraweb I use the same setup, except BellSouth instead of RR. I've only tried Grabit and see no reason to stop using it. Very pleased with how it works. My ISP supposedly only has 48 hour retention and so I just use the pay-as-you go for fills from Astraweb. Hardly ever need it.

I went w/out using QuickPar for a couple of months when I first started using Newsgroups and can't believe how indespensible that program is, especially for low retention servers.