To search all newsgroups for an article, go to www.google.com and click the "Groups" tab
To download files from the NewsGroups (pictures, videos, MP3's, etc.) use FREE AGENT (www.forteinc.com)
Newsgroups
Newsgroups began in the early stages of the Internet as simple text bulletin boards, and have become a critically useful service for millions of people. Therer are tens of thousands of "groups", each it's own specialized category. There are two kinds of groups - regular text, and binary. The binaries allow the attachment of a file to your text message - or you can simply post up a file with no message.
There are many newsgroup reader programs - but 90% use "Forte Agent", or it's popular "Free Agent" free version. Both are available at www.forteinc.com
|
To search all newsgroups for an article, go to www.google.com and click the "Groups" tab |
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To download files from the NewsGroups (pictures, videos, MP3's, etc.) use FREE AGENT (www.forteinc.com) |
Newsgroup Servers
The postings are all contained on servers around the country. The servers are continually communicating and updating one another. Each server has it's own limits as to how long it will retain posts before deleting them - and how many posts it will store. The millions of large binary attachments have strained the servers to the breaking point - so the ISP's have had to re-think and constrain the size and number of binaries that they will accept.
When you post a message it is sent to your ISP's newsgroup server (servers are typically named "news.ISP_name.com" or "nntp.ISP_name.com". From there it is quickly propagated through the world to thousand of other newsgroups servers.
Posting Binaries (attachments)
Binaries give the Newsgroups power, making almost anything available - music, video, warez, etc. But to post properly to binaries you need to know the limitations. Binaries are broken up into "parts" by the server, and these parts are propagated to other servers. In addition, each part is comprised of "lines". If you send the server parts that are too large - it will break them up into "segments" - bad, bad, bad. The gols is - one part = one segment.
The servers have a limit to how many lines per part, and how many parts they will accept !! The trick is to set the size of your parts to enough lines to maximize the size of the part - but not too many lines so that the servers either reject the part, or break it up into multiple parts.
To safeguard
against the server breaking up the parts - the programs themselves set
limits. In general, I advise you to use 400k Parts which is 8893 lines
with Forte Agent (using PowerPost 2000, use 10,000 lines in the settings to make sure it does not get broken into two parts by the program).
NOTE: again, and I cannot stress this enough - this help is to accomplish the goal of posting attachments to the Newsgroups in parts that will not be broken up. In otherwords, you want each "part" (where a part is a file, but is a portion of a larger file - for example, you would take a large application and break it up into multiple RAR files - each RAR file is one part. If the Posting program breaks a part up into multiple sub-parts, those are called "segments"
- your post may go through just fine, but in general you want each Part to be sent as one segment)
Max size Server will Accept for one Part
My Newsgroup server (news.mindspring.com) will allow parts as large as 400 k to be uploaded in one piece. To test, I also used 450k which uploaded in two parts . . . so the actual max per part is somewhere between 400k and 450k, so to be safe use 400k.
Max Size Programs will send for one Part (adjustable)
1) Forte Agent (uses encoded data to calculate bytes per line)
Default max is 630k, which it says is approx 10,000 lines. Assuming linear relationship:
1 line = 63 Bytes
5000 lines = 315k
6000 lines = 378k
7000 lines = 441k
7500 lines = 472k
*** 10,000 lines = 630k
*** This is the default max of Agent, so this is probably a safe amount - "safe" meaning the parts will propagate from server-to-server without being rejected for being too large. Unfortunately my server will not accept that much per part - remember it accepts 400k as one part and breaks up 450k into two parts.
THEREFORE USE THESE LISTINGS TO KEEP YOUR PARTS TO 400k OR LESS !!!!!!! I would recommend using PowerPost with 10,000 lines, and use 400k parts (create RAR files from the attachment).
NOTE: 1 line is actually 45 bytes of BINARY data, which gets translated
into 61 bytes of ENCODED data (+ the 2 end-of-line characters makes 63
bytes of data for each line.
2) PowerPost 2000 (uses binary data to calculate bytes per line)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(excellent Posting program) has a default max of 5000 "lines" per segment. Anything over 5000 lines will be broken up into multiple segemnts.
By creating test files sizes and posting to alt.binaries.test I was able to ascertain that the number of lines for a 400k part is exactly 9098. So assuming the relationship is linear (rounding file size down to be safe - also you should subtract about 20k from the part sizes to be safe so that your parts won't be broken in two by the posting program):
5000 lines = 219k
6000 lines = 263k
7000 lines = 307k
7500 lines = 329k
10,000 lines = 400k
3) Actual number of lines that shows up on Server
This is the results of an actual test post. I posted one 400k part, and then used Forte Agent to see the posting, and it listed as 8893 lines. So again assuming a linera relationship - here is what you can trust to be the lines vs file sizes (again rounding down the file sizes)!!!
1 line = 45 bytes
5000 lines = 224k
6000 lines = 269k
7000 lines = 314k
7500 lines = 337k
10,000 lines = 449k
NOTE: 1 line is actually 45 bytes of BINARY data, which gets translated
into 61 bytes of ENCODED data (+ the 2 end-of-line characters makes 63
bytes of data for each line.
Getting set up and Using Forte Agent
Before You Get Started - YOU NEED A GOOD ISP, WITH A GOOD NEWSFEED (GOOD NEWSGROUP SERVERS). Earthlink is excellent !!
***** to be sure, call your ISP to get the news server and pop server addresses
5) connect to internet, start up Free Agent, and click "Online/Get New Groups (this takes quite a while to download the names of all the newsgroups)
6) scan through the groups on left pane, click once on each group that interests you, and hit CTRL-S to subscribe to it ("subscribe" just means that this is a group that you want to see in your Free Agent browser - there is no actual "subscription" sent out)
7) click "Group/Show/Subscribed Groups" - this will allow you to see only the groups you want, and not have to wade through 30,000 groups
8) click on group that you want to check out left pane, so that it is highlighted
9) select "Online/Get New Headers In Selected Groups", wait as they download to the right pane
10) look through the posted headers in the right pane - to download a multi-part posting and have it re-combine into one file automatically, click once on any one part to hightlight it (do not need to click on multiple parts), then CTRL-D (to download) if it is a pic, use CTRL-L to launch it (view it)
11) the file will get saved to your FreeAgent directory by default
NOTE: CTRL-D only downloads the file, CTRL-L saves the file (just as CTRL-D does) and then runs it. I don't use CTRL-L for movies, since they take a while to download, and will suddenly start playing without notice, just as company walks in
Newsgroups
FAQ
I. USENET BASICS
=================
A. How It Works
----------------
[N] AOLers, for your info: Usenet is the correct name for what America Online calls just "newsgroups." The reasons for AOL shying away from the term Usenet will become clear later in this FAQ.
Usenet articles are sent from one news server to another much like email, via Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). The articles I post to my server are forwarded to my server's "mailing list" of other news servers, which then send the articles to their list of servers, and so on. Usenet articles ripple out from the originating site, taking varying amounts of time and various routes to travel to you.
Since posted articles are treated like email, Usenet was never meant to handle binary material; just ASCII text. To work around this, early net gods devised ways of converting (encoding) binaries into text for posting to "bulletin boards" (the ancestors of Usenet), and then back to their original binary form (decoding) after downloading. Many encoding schemes are available, but UUencode/UUdecode is the accepted Usenet standard. A good newsreader can detect binaries and perform all of the encoding/decoding for you. Many email programs do the same, enabling you to send binary files via SMTP, converted into ASCII.
Many binary files (programs, sounds, multimedia) are quite large when encoded. In order to handle this situation, Usenet provides that large articles can be broken into several pieces and linked together. We call these multipart posts.
III. DOWNLOADING
================
A. The Posts Explained
------------------------
[N] Q: What do those fractions in the subject header mean?
A: Large binaries need to be split up into multiple, linked parts for posting. The fractions indicate the part number. For instance 5/32 is part 5 of a 32-part file. You need all 32 parts available on your server to successfully download the video. (See section III.E. Missing Parts.)
[N] Q: What does it mean if there are two different fractions in a header?
A: If there's more than one n/n expression in the header, the first usually indicates the how many files are in a series, such as diddle_a.avi, diddle_b.avi and so on. Please note, Free Agent (and perhaps some other newsreaders) will choke on these "false fractions" so posters are requested to kindly refrain from using them. Agent handles them just fine, though. If you have problems, retrieve the message bodies individually, then select all the parts and use Manually Decode Binary Attachments to force Free Agent to join the parts correctly.
[E] Q: What's a 0/n (or 0/XX or 00) part and is it important?
A: Oooh, yeah! It's important alright. That's the beginning of the multipart post where the contributor includes a text message for you. It usually contains system requirements for viewing the video, where to find the needed codec or player, and a description of the contents (the movie review). A very high percentage of the questions posted in the ABM* newsgroups are the result of readers ignoring these introductory texts. Tsk, tsk! News flash for posters and AOL members: There's now an option in the AOL newsreader to filter out all text messages in binaries groups. Unfortunately, the part 0/n posts are also filtered out, leaving AOLers completely in the dark.
[N] Q: I downloaded a video but all I see is a bunch of jumbled junk on my screen. Where's the video?
A: That jumbled junk IS the video, encoded into ASCII for posting to Usenet. Well, that's what it looks like. If each line begins with an M, it's UUencoded. If not, chances are it's MIME base 64 encoded. How to handle each is explained later on under C. Newsreaders and D. Decoding Offline.
[N] Q: How can I convert a txt file to a video? My Filegrabber won't let me download any other way.
A: Hello, AOLer. How did I know, eh? Basically you can't. If you didn't get the "download file" option it usually means you're missing parts of the post on your server. If you see that all the parts ARE there, then either the post is mime or the Filegrabber just isn't working (again). In these two cases, see section III.D. Decoding Offline. As a matter of fact, please read ALL of this DOWNLOADING section. By the time you're finished, we won't have to convince you that you NEED to spend as little as $19 a year extra for a top news service and software to solve all your downloading problems. To help you find only complete multipart posts, AOL has now given you the option of filtering out all text posts and incompletes. The downside of this feature is that you won't be able to read part 0/n of the posts, which usually contain important information about codecs and system requirements, as well as a description of the clip. AOL took out essential ABME material but left in all the spam pictures! You also won't be able to find incomplete posts, including any you might be waiting for. Other ABME readers can see at a glance which parts are missing and request that those parts be reposted.
[N] Q: What if the Filegrabber says the message is too long to download?
A: Keep clicking the More button until the whole body of the post is in the window.
B. News Servers and Known Problems
------------------------------------
[E] If your server misses lots of posts, consider getting a different ISP or subscribing to a supplemental newsfeed. Excellent newsfeed means better than 85% complete posts within 24 hours of posting, including multiparts in chunks of 10,000 lines or more, and getting all parts of huge files. Good retention is at least 3 days, often longer. Yes, there really are such servers! You can see which ISPs have dial-up access in your area at http://www.thelist.com or http://www.thedirectory.org.
[E] To guarantee that you'll get complete posts from your favorite cappers, just get on the same server(s) they use. Most of the majors post to Extra Newsguy, Altopia or AT&T Worldnet.
[E] Be aware: Some large servers use "farms" of machines, and each time you log on you get a randomly assigned server. Occasionally, that machine might not be correctly synchronized with the others in the news farm, so it does not give you messages you should be getting. Suspect you have this problem if some posts "expire" prematurely or if you are missing parts that you know other members have retrieved. Ask your provider how to force a connection to the same machine every time. Also, if using Agent, click on Options | User and System Profile | System, check the box titled "Server Creates messages out of order." In Free Agent, click on Group | Default Properties | Retrieving, check the box titled "Server Creates messages out of order."
[E] Here's what we know about some ISPs, listed alphabetically. If you're on a large provider you think is great and it's not listed, we'd be happy to pass along that information, especially for ISPs outside the U.S. Please post "Attention: FAQ" in one of the discussion groups.
A list of news-only services follow the ISPs.
o America Online (http://www.aol.com) -- [This is admittedly a long rant, but there are 11 million people on AOL who need to know there's a solution to their problems.] Not an Internet Service Provider at all, but an "online service" which operates very differently from an ISP. Usenet is not a priority for AOL, so you have two big problems. First, AOL's news feed is terrible! Second, AOL's newsreader program just plain stinks. It lacks most of the basic features standard newsreaders have that make downloading so easy. And just wait until you read the sections on newsreaders, connectivity problems and missing parts. You're going to be amazed at what everybody else can do that you can't.
Furthermore, AOL's server is not the standard NNTP type, so you can't even change your software unless you have a different news server to connect to. Now, no one is saying you have to dump AOL altogether. But if you want to download from ABME, it is simply inadequate. Keep AOL, but ADD another service as follows, and then use a great freeware newsreader to connect to it:
You can sign up with a top Internet Service Provider and switch to "bring your own access" billing for AOL. This will cost you about an extra $10 per month ($20 for the ISP and the AOL fee drops to $10); or...
You can subscribe to a news-only service in addition to AOL, for as little as $19 A YEAR more, and connect to the news server via your AOL dial-up access to the Internet.
o AT&T WorldNet (http://www.att.com/worldnet/) -- Excellent newsfeed and customer support, good retention. Uses a "news farm" server system (see above for potential problems). On the whole, many satisifed customers.
o Erol's (http://www.erols.com) -- Worth checking into if you live in or near the Boston to Washington corridor. Excellent newsfeed and prices, good retention and customer service. Currently supports 56k flex modems but not X2 or cable. However, Erol's was recently acquired by RCN Corporation, a cable and telecommunications company, so we're watching for new access options.
o MindSpring (http://www.mindspring.com) -- Long retention of binaries, about 8 days currently, and excellent newsfeed. In 1997 they bought PSI to expand nationally. If you're not in the southeastern U.S., Mindspring's original territory, check to see if they have upgraded the POP in your area. They have already upgraded New York and some other major markets. There is some question as to whether Mindspring will continue to offer unlimited connection time for a flat rate.
o MicroSoft Network (http://www.msn.com) -- On online service, similar to AOL in quirkiness, newsfeed and desirability, but at least you can use a third-party newsreader. If you have MSN, you probably realize you need a supplemental newsfeed.
o Netcom (http://www.netcom.com) -- Dropped ABME rather than upgrade their servers to handle the volume. While you're shopping around for another ISP, you can access their UK server to get ABME: nntp.netcomuk.co.uk.
[E] Supplemental newsfeeds, subscription:
Your mileage will vary with each of these since it's a remote (vs. local) server connection, so make sure it will be usable for you BEFORE you sign on. Do a ping to the server and look for packet loss. Do a traceroute as well. If MCI is in your path your connect speeds will be very slow. Try out the one with the least packet loss to you.
Don't be fooled by services with high numbers of newsgroups carried, since thousands of groups are defunct.
o Airnews (http://www.airnews.net) -- $9.95 a month plus $9.95 setup. Verrry long retention of binaries, good speeds and excellent newsfeed. When posting via Airnews, your ISP/NNTP information will be added to the headers, so if complete anonymity matters to you, consider this a "download only" service.
o Altopia Full Access ("alt.net") (http://www.altopia.com) -- $10 to $40 a month, for low to high speed access, respectively. ONLY ONE DAY RETENTION for binaries groups! There has been a waiting list for this service for as long as I can remember, probably because people like to POST via alt.net for the anonymity and great propagation.
o Newsguy, formerly Zippo (http://www.newsguy.com) -- Only $19 a year, the best buy in the list, and most of the spam is filtered out by the Zippo Hippo. Connectivity varies, depending on the path between your ISP and Newsguy, so check into that before signing. Some members are getting fast downloads, others can't even connect at times. Definitely worth a tryout, though, for the price.
Extra Newsguy, formerly Super Zippo (link to it from the newsguy page or go to http://extra.newsguy.com) -- $69.95 a year or $9.95 a month. The same great newsfeed as regular Newsguy, but more groups, a bit longer retention, Usenet image and sound archives, web space (min. 6 month subscription) and extra email accounts.
o Newscene (http://www.newscene.com) -- $120 a year or $12 a month. New, and so far reports are mixed.
o Supernews (http://www.supernews.com) -- $90 a year or $10 a month. Free trial available. Claims to have complete posts and very long retention, but no mention of binaries in this claim. ABME readers mention incomplete posts and rotten customer service.
Some other pay services to try, from the Altopia home page (go there for current links):
o Bahnhof Liberty News
o Barditch News Server
o BuffNET News
o Netcene Internet Services
o Newsdex
o Randori Communications
o Real News
o VIP-News
Windows:
-------
o We unabashedly endorse Forté Agent, simply the best newsreader available ($29, http://www.forteinc.com). Too many features to list here, but the most important for ABME participants are offline reading, kill and watch filters, full in/out email, configurable for multiple servers or users, automatic MIME and UUdecoding, joined retrieval of headers for multiparts, customizable view filters and sorting, global search, extensive help file, and a keep article command (see III.E. Missing Parts to find out why this is important). Free "add-ons" are available to fix timeout errors (see III.F. Connectivity Problems). Offered for both Windows 3.1 and 95 in many languages. A FAQ and help with Agent can be found in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent or get the FAQ, the manual and some great add-on utilities from the "unofficial" mirror site hosted by a member of the Forté support team, http://sd.znet.com/~lance/.
o Of all the freeware readers around, Forté's scaled-down Free Agent has the most helpful features for downloading large multipart binaries. Same download and help sites as Agent.
Waste of Time:
-------------
Netscape News, MS Internet News, and MS Outlook Express -- Tried them all and can assure you they are lame for multipart binaries. Get a real, dedicated newsreader client. Even the freeware ones outperform any of these.
[N] Q: What's the difference between an online and an offline newsreader?
A: The "waste of time" reader built into your web browser is a good example of an online reader. Same for AOL. There's nothing to see unless you're connected to a server. Agent and most of the others above are offline readers, which transfer information from the news server to data files on your hard drive. You can disconnect from the server and even disconnect your modem, and still be able to read the headers and all the posts for which you've retrieved bodies. Also, offline readers keep track of which posts you've already seen, so you only have to get new headers when you log in again, not all headers.
Offline readers require quite of bit of free hard drive space to accommodate those data files, but they are worth it because of the possibilities they present. More about this in the Missing Parts and Connectivity Problems sections. If you already have an offline reader, be sure to read its help file about how to purge and compact the data after each session.
People using Windows 95 with fat32, be aware that your news program might misread its disk usage and fail to compact the data files at times. No biggie, just force it to by clicking on Compact Databases during a session.
[E] Q: When I try to download a binary, my newsreader tells me there's no attachment, but I know there is!
A: Then it's probably MIME base 64 encoded, and you are probably using FREE Agent or another newsreader that won't decode it. When you learn to recognize mime posts before downloading, your best bet would be to have an alternate free newsreader to use for downloading those. Otherwise, see section III.D. Decoding Offline.
[N] Q: When I download a video, it plays for a few seconds and then stops and all I see is garbage on my screen.
A: Odds are very good you're using Netscape News or MS Internet News or Outlook Express, and your software only decoded part 1 of the multipart file. To fix the error, highlight and download all parts of the file. Count them and make sure every part is there. Then, after you have the message bodies downloaded, right click and look for "combine and decode" or something similar. When you're done, go get a real newsreader that will let you do this automatically for a bunch of files overnight, keep files indefinitely while waiting for missing parts to be reposted, and even restart your download after a timeout.
[E] Q: How can I stop and resume a long download?
A: Most newsreaders don't have this function built in, but with an offline reader you can trick it. If you see just a single header for the multipart post (e.g., in Agent you retrieve headers joined), split the file into its parts. Sort by subject. To avoid accidentally purging them, use the keep/lock command on all the parts (Forté users, hit K). Then retrieve the bodies. Stop and resume any time you want, so the download only has to begin again at the current part. When all bodies have been retrieved from the server, click on save and remove the lock so the post can be purged.
There are additional benefits to downloading piecemeal as described above:
(1) You don't have to completely restart the download if your connection cuts out.
(2) If an intermediate part has been corrupted by any of the news servers along the route to you, its actual line count will usually be noticeably smaller or larger than the other parts, and often this is only apparent after the message body has been retrieved. If this happens, ask for a repost of that part and fill it in using the methods descibed in III.E. Missing Parts.
[N] Q: Can I use (Free)Agent or another newsreader with AOL?
A: No and yes. You cannot use it to access AOL's news server, but you can subscribe to a supplemental news service for as little as $19 a year (or an ISP) and connect to that. The service will give you the news and mail server IDs you need to enter into (Free)Agent's Options. All you have to do to connect then is dial your modem as usual, then open (Free)Agent.
[N] Q: Can I use (Free)Agent with MSN?
A: MSN requires the use of a proprietary encrypted password authentication method to access their news servers. Free Agent does not support this method, but Agent does. See Help | Release Notes | Secure News and Email Logons.
D. Decoding Offline
--------------------
[E] Even if your newsreader decodes both UUE and MIME base 64, there are times you may need to decode a post offline. For instance, it's possible to save encoded parts of the same file from two different servers and then use your decoder program to assemble them (concatenate).
Saving Downloads for Offline Decoding:
-------------------------------------
o If the file is UUencoded (every line begins with "M"), save as .UUE; if it's MIME base 64, save as .MME.
o If you have all parts of a post on one server and your newsreader has this feature: Retrieve all message bodies first. Make sure the parts are sorted in the correct sequence, then select them all together. In (Free)Agent, click on File | Save Messages As... and choose "no dividers" and "bodies only, no headers."
o If the parts are on more than one server, or if your newsreader doesn't have a command for saving the parts already joined, then download and save each one individually with temporary sequential filenames, such as file01.mme, file02.mme, etc. Choose "no headers" if you have that option. Exception: In Agent and Free Agent, you can download the earliest parts joined as described above and save them joined, then change servers and APPEND the missing part to the file. Change back to your primary server and append the remaining parts. It's a tricky process, though. See E. Missing Parts for more details on saving from two servers.
o AOLers: If your Filegrabber doesn't give you the option to download the file (as opposed to the article), the post is either MIME or an incomplete UUE post or the Filegrabber isn't working (again) for some reason. You must have all the parts and download them individually. After downloading, examine one of the files in any text reader to determine whether it's MIME or UUE. Rename the files accordingly, then decode.
Decoders and Configuration:
--------------------------
There are many decoders available for both Windows and Macintosh. After installing, associate the decoder with file types .UUE and .MME (may be different for Mac) so that it will open automatically when such a file is double clicked. Configure your decoder to join multiparts (concatenate). Occasionally, a Usenet poster will bundle several files into one MIME post (not in ABME, please!!!) and a good decoder will extract all of them if configured correctly. Here are some shareware decoders to try out, in three different flavors. See what you like:
o XferPro from Safasoft (for both Windows and Macintosh, http://www.shareware.com): The easiest and most reliable of them all, IMO. Just double click on any file you want to decode. XferPro will create the new file with the correct filename in the same directory and then close by itself. If the filesize says 0, not to worry. That will right itself after refreshing the view or using the file. Try to play the video or extract the zip file you just decoded. If all goes well, delete the encoded file(s).
o Wincode (Windows only, archive sites): Many like the standard Windows GUI (graphical user interface) and most Usenetters are familiar with it, if that's any comfort.
o CoderPad (Windows only, http://www.winfiles.com or http://users.aol.com/lamprog/coderpad.html): Standard features, plus cut and paste input directly from your newsreader.
E. Missing Parts
-----------------
[E] Q: Does all the chat and spam in ABME hurt a large post's chance at coming through complete?
A: YES and YES!!! The more spam or garbage messages in circulation, the farther back the binaries are in the queue. The number of posts actually matters much more than the size. Each message must go through the same channels as binary parts do, and only so many will go through at once. Consider the handling required to process 1,000 2-line posts as opposed to a single 2,000-line binary. Reduce the spam and the chat, and you will see more complete posts. This is why we're always hammering people to use the discussion groups.
[N] Q: Then just post the files in one piece, doh!
A: Cute. You must have missed the paragraph way back at the beginning of this FAQ where we explained why large posts are broken up into pieces. News servers have packet size limits, which vary somewhat but are definitely present. As a general rule, the larger the article size, the fewer Usenet news servers will get the parts. Multipart posts in smaller pieces generally mean greater distribution with fewer problems. If you really did skip right to this part of the FAQ, please stop right here and read from the beginning, otherwise you won't understand much of what follows.
[N] Q: Okay, if you have to post in parts, can't you guys post ALL the parts?
A: We do! Why would anyone deliberately post incomplete? Once in a while you'll see an aborted post, where the upload timed out and the originator didn't know how to resume it or cancel the unusable parts, but that's the exception.
[N] Q: I almost never see complete posts. What am I doing wrong?
A: Most likely, just using a lousy news server. If you skipped it, please go back and read III.B. News Servers and Known Problems.
[E] Q: But I'm on one of the better servers. Is there something in my setup I missed?
A: Make sure your newsreader is set up to receive articles in random order because that's how the parts travel. In Agent, click on Options | User and System Profile | System, check the box titled "Server creates messages out of order." In Free Agent, that's in Group | Default Properties | Retrieving.
[N] Q: How come the parts don't show up all at the same time?
A: Since message routing on the Internet is dynamic, pieces 4 and 5 of an 8-part file may have been routed through many more machines than the rest of the pieces. Articles sometimes land on a particularly bogged down news server between you and the originator where they are spooled (saved on disk) until the server has enough resources to do its part of the broadcasting. Sometimes, by the time those parts get moving again, your server has already expired posts from that date and you miss out.
When faced with fragmented multipart posts, it's always a good idea to wait a couple of days for all the pieces to show up. If they never do, you should contact your news administrator to report the problem. Your newsadmin can sometimes check for logjams upstream and correct them, but only if made aware of the problem.
[N] Q: I've seen files in ABME with over 100 parts. You gotta be kidding! No one can get those complete... right?
A: Wrong. While smaller files are obviously more easily digested by many more people (and therefore, the better way to post) good servers get all those parts just fine.
[N] Q: I notice that the posts from certain people are always incomplete, so they must be doing something wrong.
A: Maybe, maybe not. There are several factors involved. First, take a look at the path in the headers of those posts. Chances are, you'll see a long list of servers between yours at the beginning and the poster's at the end. Every hop is a chance for a part to be dropped. The question, then, is which one of you is too far away from the Usenet backbone. Odds are, it's you. If you want to guarantee that you'll get complete posts from your favorite cappers, just get on the same server(s) they use for posting. Most of the veterans post to Newsguy, Altopia or AT&T Worldnet. A post is always complete on the originator's server.
On the other hand, some people post in chunks that are too big for many news servers to handle, and some servers have dropped packet size limits way down in an attempt to cope with increased Usenet volume. In 1996, 15,000 lines per part was common. In 1998, anything over 7,500 lines (or even smaller) is often stopped in its tracks. If you only see part 0/n of the post and the last part, which is often much smaller than the intermediates, then the post has obviously run into packet size limits someplace.
[N] Q: Okay, but where? If there's no standard, how can I tell if my server is being stingy or the poster is being extravagant with packet size?
A: What's the largest individual part size you see in ABME? If it's fairly small, and if you see a lot of posts missing their entire middles, you can safely assume your server is filtering out larger parts.
[E] Q: How can I get the missing parts?
A: If you've given the post a couple of days to propagate and have all but a few parts, most contributors will cheerfully re-up the missing ones for you. Post your request in ABMED, Attention: <poster's nym>. DON'T POST THAT TO ABME or you'll be contributing to the spam problem! (Posters, are your follow-ups set to ABMED?)
[E] Q: But I was told a long time ago it's impossible to repost just parts. As a matter of fact, I remember a whole lot of flames directed at newbies who asked for them.
A: All that has changed, thanks to a veteran ABME capper known as Templeton Peck, the author of Peck's Power Post (freeware, http://maikon.net/templeton/). That's the posting software most ABME contributors now use because it can restart a post after a server disconnection and also enables reposting individual parts.
[E] Q: The parts I asked for were reposted, but I still didn't get all of them. Can't I just ask the poster to send them by email?
A: Ummm... no, better not. Lots of reasons. (1) What you're asking for is a substantial amount of upload time for just yourself. That's an awfully big favor to ask. (2) Mail servers have both packet size limits and total user mailbox size limits, so emailing is probably a waste of time anyway. (3) If you didn't get the parts, then other readers on your server didn't get them either. Usenet posting gives everyone a crack at completing their downloads. (4) As mentioned previously, your end of the transaction is to get on a better server if the one you use is inadequate for large binaries newsgroups. It's not fair to continually lean on people for reposts yet fail to make improvements on your end.
[E] Q: Can I save parts from more then one server and piece them together?
A: Yes, definitely, assuming you mean from exactly the same post. (Mixed posts may work, but only under certain conditions beyond the scope of this FAQ.) If you don't have a second membership somewhere, free news servers are a great resource for finding a stray part now and then (see III.B. News Servers). Here are two different methods of piecing the file together:
(1) If you use Agent or Free Agent (or another good OFFline newsreader), retrieve the bodies individually for the parts you have. Click on Edit | Select All, and hit K (keep command, padlock icon). Now all the ABME headers from your primary server are marked kept and you'll be able to tell them apart from any you get via the secondary server. Change the NNTP server ID and get ABME headers again. If the missing parts fill in, retrieve their message bodies, then save your completed file. To clean up the mixed-source headers, click on Edit | Select All, and hit delete. Any extraneous headers (not locked) from the second server will be deleted. Then you can remove the locks from the rest, restore your server ID, and you'll be back to normal again.
(2) People who already have two servers set up, each with its own newsreader, may prefer this method. Retrieve message bodies and save each part individually, with sequentially numbered filenames and either .UUE or .MME extensions. Decode offline (see III.D. Offline Decoding). Exception: Agent and Free Agent users can save the first parts joined (without separators or headers), then switch readers and APPEND the next part. Switch back to the first newsreader and append the rest.
[E] Q: If the missing parts I request don't come through immediately, the ones I already have will be gone from my server. Is there some way to keep those parts while I'm waiting for the rest?
A: Yes. However, with an ONline newsreader, you'll have to save each part individually to your hard disk and then decode the file offline when it's complete. If you're using an OFFline reader, the methods below for either Agent or Free Agent should work for you. The difference between the two, in this instance, is Agent's ability to display a single, joined header for multiparts and more sorting options.
Agent users:
1. Split the incomplete message into individual parts.
2. Select all the parts and hit K (keep command, padlock icon).
3. Hurry up and retrieve the bodies for those parts before they disappear from your server. Leave them right where they are, no saving, no decoding, no further action required until the rest come through.
4. When the missing parts are reposted, split them (if there's more than one, they might be displayed joined at first) and then retrieve the bodies.
5. When you have the bodies for all the parts, sort the message list by Subject so the parts fall into correct numerical order. Then:
(a) If the headers are identical, click on part 1 and hit "A" (save command). You're all done! Well... except for removing the padlock(s) and purging.
(b) If the reposted parts have a different subject header from the original post (for example, Attn: Sparky, etc.), you might find it easiest to create a folder and move all the parts to the folder, then select all of them by clicking and dragging. Otherwise, select them while they're still in the main ABME browser window by clicking on part 1 and then scrolling down to the last part and hitting shift-click, THEN find the new parts and add them to the selection with control-clicks. Now click on Message | Join Sections. Use the Up and Down buttons on the screen to put the new parts into correct number sequence with the rest. Click on Save. Done!
Free Agent users:
1. Select all the parts and hit K (keep command, padlock icon).
2. Hurry up and retrieve the bodies for those parts before they disappear from your server. Leave them right where they are, no saving, no decoding, no further action until the rest come through.
3. When the missing parts are reposted, put a padlock on them and retrieve the bodies.
4. When you have the bodies for all the parts, select them by clicking on part 1 and then scrolling down to the last part and hitting shift-click to select all with identical headers. To select reposted parts with different headers, find them and then use control-click to add them to the list of selected parts.
5. Click on File | Manually Decode Binary Attachments. A dialogue box will pop up with the parts listed. Use the Up and Down buttons on the screen to put the parts in correct numerical order. Click on Save. Done!