News server FAQ (Part 2)
Q: What is an NZB?
A: Short answer: It's a text file telling your news client which posts/articles to download to be able to reconstruct a binary file. (For those interested, open an NZB file in Notepad.)
Long answer: NZB is an XML-based file format for retrieving posts from news servers. NZB is effective when used with search-capable websites. These websites create NZB files out of what is needed to be downloaded. Using this concept, headers would not be downloaded hence the NZB method is quicker and more bandwidth-efficient. Each Usenet message has a unique identifier called the "Message ID". When a somewhat large file is posted to a Usenet newsgroup, it is usually divided into multiple messages (called segments or parts) each having its own Message-ID. An nzb-capable Usenet client will read the Message-ID from the NZB file, download them and decode the messages back into a binary file (usually using yEnc or Uuencode).
Q: If I download an NZB from an international site, will it use my international cap?
A: No - not if you use one of the two local servers to retrieve the data for it. (And you're using a local-only account, of course. It doesn't help if you're using "blended" bandwidth.)
Downloading the NZB file itself from an international site will use international bandwidth, but NZBs are small in size.
Q: How do NZB sites work, I know Newshost is local, do these sites have SA (local) content on them or only international content?
A: NZB files describe content on the Usenet network in general. You can use any news server to get data off the Usenet, but if it is not cached locally on the IS or SAIX server - i.e. someone's already downloaded it recently - then it will come across quite slowly.
Q: What is retention time?
A: This can refer to how long an NZB archive keeps uploaded NZB files before deleting them, how long a news server keeps content cached before deleting it or how long an article will be available on Usenet.
Newshost retains NZB files indefinitely - files which haven't been downloaded for some time are deleted.
The retention time of articles on Usenet generally depends on the age of articles that the news server will allow through. SAIX/IS news servers allow articles to be downloaded which are +-200 days old. If it is older, the news server will probably reply with "article not found".
Q: Where can I get NZBs?
A:
Newshost is a local site, which helps for getting stuff that's cached on the local servers.
Otherwise
NZBmatrix is a good international resource. Also try
NZBsRus,
AnimeUsenet,
NewzLeech or
alt.binaries.nl.
Q: What programs do I need for the news server?
A: You need a Usenet client. Try
GrabIt or
Alt.Binz, both are freeware. See
this discussion for a comparison between the two.
For more options, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_clients
Q: I'm using GrabIt and it says 100% downloaded, but there are no files downloaded?
A: This is a known bug in GrabIt which happens the first time you use it (it was supposedly fixed, but I still hear reports of this happening). Make sure that you download the "Grouplist" for your news server first. What happens is that the articles get stuck in GrabIt's cache directory and are not decoded. It can be decoded manually using yEnc, but it is tedious to do this.
Make sure to download the grouplist first, or try using Alt.Binz instead.
Q: "SAIX news servers now mirror the very popular GigaNews servers." According to this you have free access to Giganews but I'm not sure how to login?
A: No, SAIX just uses Giganews as their content provider, i.e. the content is downloaded from Giganews to the local servers which is then passed on to the users. This is the case with both SAIX and IS, the only difference being in the way they cache. Mirroring Giganews implies that SAIX resells Giganews Usenet services, this is NOT the case. Having access to the SAIX news server does not mean you have direct access to the Giganews servers.
Q: I have never uploaded anything, but as far as I understand all I need to do is locate an NZB file on newzleech.com and post it on newshost.za.net. Is that how it works?
A: To be able to download from the news server, you do not have to upload the NZB to
Newshost, it will download regardless. Although it is a good idea to share with other users, who would then be able to help you download it into the cache faster.
To be able to upload to
Newshost, You have to request to be upgraded to an "uploader" account first. You have to include various types of information when you upload an NZB, such as quality info if it's a movie, and an IMDb link etc. The exact requirements are on the
Newshost site.
Q: Newshost shows that this is cached but it is not? Why?
A: With so many people using it, the IS server often doesn't cache stuff for very long - sometimes it's so short that a whole NZB package cannot be cached before pieces of it become uncached again.
Or else there's a temporary problem which sometimes occurs, and stuff doesn't get cached at all for some reason...
Reporting on
Newshost is only an indication of the file "possibly" being cached. There is no way to determine whether a file is cached or not, except to download it and see what speed you get. Also, since it is users reporting it being cached, there is also the possiblity of it being misreported.
Q: This has been downloaded x number of times, how can it not be cached?
A: There is no way of determining how many times the actual files have been downloaded. Normally a question like this refers to how many times the NZB file has been downloaded on
Newshost. An NZB might have been downloaded 50 times, that is not a guarantee that someone has downloaded the actual files into the cache.
Q: How do you search for more stuff that is on the news server?
A: GrabIt and Alt.Binz have built-in Usenet search functionality. But generally speaking, it's wise to stick to valid NZB packages from
Newshost, or any of the other international sites mentioned in this FAQ. You should be able to find anything you want that way.
Q: I want "this and that", can someone upload it for me?
A: Because internet usage costs so much for us South Africans, generally we do not upload the actual content to news servers. I'd estimate that nearly 100% of the content on Usenet comes from other international users.
As South Africans, we only upload the NZB file so that others on local only accounts can also access it. You can request an NZB on the
Newshost forums if you can't find one yourself.
You can use a valid NZB from anywhere on the internet to get content from the local servers - it will obviously be uncached, though.
Q: I really feel like uploading content, not just an NZB, how do I do it?
A: While it is possible to upload actual content to the local news servers, doing it is probably too difficult for most novices. The standard method of uploading binary content to Usenet is to first archive the files into RAR archives (for large files usually in 20 MB or 50 MB parts), then create Parchive files. Parity files are used to recreate missing data. This is needed often, as not every part of the files reach a server. These are all then encoded into yEnc and uploaded to the selected binary groups. You have to make sure that you post into the appropriate news group, also note that most groups have rules concerning uploading.
Taking all this into account, it is easier just to stick to downloading. There is enough content uploaded anyway to satisfy most users.
Q: I've added an NZB to the queue in this or that program, but nothing shows up?
A: It is possible for NZB files to be corrupted, try and obtain the same NZB from another source.
Q: What's up with those PAR2 files? Do I need to download them all?
A: Should it happen that a file becomes corrupted or a file is missing, then it is possible to recover it by using the PAR2 files. The small PAR2 file is used to check the files for errors or omissions, use
QuickPar to do this, Alt.binz also have PAR2 checking built in. After checking the files, it will state that you need to download x blocks to be able to repair the files. The larger PAR2 files are named *.volyy+zz.par2, where +zz indicates the number of blocks in that PAR2 file. You only need to download exactly x blocks. E.g. if you need 3 blocks, download the PAR2 file with 1 block and 2 blocks.
It is NOT needed to download all of them, or even just the largest one. You just need to download the number of blocks that you need. Downloading all or more than you need will only waste your bandwidth and it will also put unnecessary files into the cache.
