Before the World Wide Web there was Usenet- a collection of computers with data that people could access with a newsreader via an Internet connection. Newsgroups on Usenet were the way people talked and shared files and information.

The Web, with its forums and blogs, has largely replaced Usenet as a way of talking but newsgroups are still one of the main ways that people share files whether its music, photos, multimedia or software.

Almost any kind of file that gets posted on the World Wide Web will probably be posted to binary Newsgroups some time- and a lot of other files besides. Unlike web file sharing, file sharing on Usenet is quick, simple and pretty much guaranteed to be successful.

Types of Newsgroup

There are two main kinds of Newsgroups- text based and binary.

Text based groups are available through google.com, groups.

Binary Newsgroups are the groups that carry the music, photos, multimedia or software type files. To download these you will have to pay a newsgroups provider like Giganews or Usenet News. You either pay a monthly fee or you pay upfront for a download quota.

How to Decide if Newsgroups are Worth it For You

The best way of seeing what’s available on Newsgroups and whether they are worth your time and money is to use a website like newzleech.com or binsearch.info/ These are free sites that catalogue postings to the popular newsgroups.

You can either search all groups for a particular thing you’re interested in or go into advanced search, select a Newsgroup and search that. If you hit a blank search for a particular newsgroup you can see all the recent posts that have been made.

How to Use Newsgroups with NZB Files

NZB files are files that contain the information of any particular posting like a movie, an ebook or whatever. They tell a newsreader the location of the posting and how to get all the pieces, including PAR files and any text messages or 'read me' files.

You can find NZB files on newzleech, binsearch or relevent web bulletin boards like nzbmatrix.

NZB files make downloading very easy. There is no need to go into a Newsgroup at all. Just find the NZB file on the web, import into the newsreader and hit 'download'. The newsreader does all the work.

Most newsreaders will handle NZB files. See the links at the bottom of page for a full list.

If you want the full experience of newsgroups, including reading messages and finding posts that don't use NZB files, check out the information below.

Newsgroup Readers

If you sign up for Newsgroup access you will need a newsgroup reader. There are plenty on the market (see links below). The best free reader- the simplest and most intuitive- is the Xnews newsgroup reader.

Xnews is very portable and has a very small footprint if you are using a computer other than your own. It is easy to clear all evidence of use from a computer- which is not true of the bigger newsreaders.

It is valuable for using on any public computers as it is never more than a quick download away.

How to View Image Files on Newsgroups

Most image files on Usenet are JPEG files, although sometimes GIF or PNG image files will be posted. Most newsreaders have a built in image viewer, though often it is quicker and easier to download the image files and view in a specialist viewer like Irfan View or ACDC.

You will see a lot of 'yEnc' JPEG files in newsgroups. These are encoded and compressed JPEG image files that any newsreader will unpack as they are downloaded and save or open as normal JPEGs.

How to Download Large Files like Movies or Games Files From Newsgroups

To do this you need to understand a bit about how posting is done in newsgroups. Very large files like movies or games, are split up by the poster using software like masterspltter or WinRAR. You need to download all the files and then reassemble them.

Re-assembling Split Files.

Files split with WinRAR look like this- part01.rar, part02.rar, part03.rar etc.

Make sure you get every single one of the part RAR files plus the PAR files that come with them. PAR files are important if the post is damaged in any way (see explanation below).

WinRAR is a program you will absolutely need for Newsgroups. A demo version is available (see links below), good for 40 days..

Make sure WinRAR is associated with RAR files and click on any of the downloaded WinRAR part files. The program will do the rest. If you get an error message saying some files are missing, try repairing the post with QuickPAR (see below).

Mastersplitter and HJ Split files look like this.

home movie 01

homemovie 02

homemovie 03 etc etc

The files are reassembled with either Mastersplitter or HJ Split.

Mastersplitter can be downloaded free (see links below). It needs to be installed and associated with ‘01’ files.

Files Split with Mastersplitter or HJ Split: How to open 01 Files

An advantage of mastersplitter is that you don’t need all the files to be downloaded before previewing multimedia files. As long as you have the 01 file click on it and mastersplitter will join whatever files you have. This will give you a video file. An incomplete video won’t play in Windows Media Player or WinAmp but it will play in Windows Media Player Classic, the excellent, open source, VLC player or AVI preview (links below).

If you can't join the files, wait for all the split files to download and use QuickPAR to repair them- if the poster has provided PAR files.

MPEG files can be split so that they will automatically assemble themselves as they are downloaded. They will play in Media Player Classic, AVI preview or the open source (free) VLC media player before they are complete. Once complete, they can be played in the Windows Media Player or a DivX player as well.

How to use QuickPAR with PAR Files

A good poster will take the trouble to make PAR files to go with their post. These are files that will repair multimedia and other large files. Repair is important with older posts (more than a couple of months old) because files are lost on the news servers as time goes by. It can drive you crazy if you download 200 parts of a movie or game file and find that one is missing or damaged.This will mean that WinRAR or mastersplitter can't reassemble the pieces that you have. PAR files should fix this.

QuickPAR is a free download (see links below). Install, make sure QuickPAR is associated with PAR and PAR2 files then click on any PAR file for repairs to begin.

If a lot of files are missing, you can try another server (if your provider has multiple servers). Just pick out the files that you are missing.

Automatic Repair and Re-assembley Of Split Files

Some newsgroup readers, like Grabit, offer automatic repair and processing of part RAR files. Like anything that is automated, it only works if everything the program needs is in place- so you need to understand the principles for those times when things are not in place.

Two Warnings On Newsgroups

Copyright

There is a lot of copyrighted material on Usenet newsgroups- movies, CD's, Warez- and other stuff that is illegal to use in many countries, so be aware of local laws. Some employers, colleges etc will crucify you for downloading this stuff to their computers.

Viruses, Trojans etc

Some groups have a huge amount of malware. A good anti virus program is essential. Run regular scans if you use newsgroups a lot. They aren’t the kind of viruses that will fry your computer but there are data miners and zombie makers by the thousand out there.