| Style | Newbie Software | Power-User Software |
| Search and Destroy | ezNZB | SuperNZB |
| Pick and Choose | ezGroups | The unPoster |
| Vacuum and Sort | JpegJet WatchFast |
NewzScape WatchFast |
| Text Browsing | NewzToolz |
Your ISP has a Usenet server with many terabytes of files, and you want to see what’s there. Obviously, this is not an easy task since just looking at a list of files would take forever. How you are able to look at the data is just as important as how fast you can download what you want. Newsgroups allow several different methods of access.
The Search-and-Destroy Method
For historical reasons, newsgroups don’t have a simple search feature, but they do have something much better: an intelligence service. These “indexing” sites monitor all the files posted to newsgroups and provides various ways to search. Once you select a file, the sites makes an NZB file for you which contains pointers to the data on your ISP’s Usenet server. Then you plug the NZB file into a program like SuperNZB which rapidly downloads the file. This is the state-of-the-art when it comes to downloading at top speed.
See our NZB sites page for a list of NZB-indexing sites..
The Vacuum-and-Sort Method
With this method, you use a “binary downloader” program like JpegJet (for newbies) or NewzScape (for power users). You enter your newsgroups, click the start button, and the program automatically finds and downloads all the files in that newsgroup without you having do anything further. Later, when the program has downloaded a bunch of files, you use a program like WatchFast to rapidly review the files and decide which ones to keep.
This method is ideal for rapidly building a large collection of files. It is also great for automatically keeping up-to-date with your favorite newsgroups. Both JpegJet and NewzScape, after downloading everything they can find, will continuously monitor your newsgroups and immediately download new files as they appear.
The Pick-and-Choose Method
Using this method, a newsreader program like ezGroups (for newbies) or The unPoster (for power users) reads through the data on the news server and presents you with a list of files. Then you scroll through the list, click on the ones you want, and click the Download button. This method is ideal if you like to see what is available, but only want to download a few things. For example, in a newsgroup dedicated to very large files, it would be very time-consuming to have NewzScape download everything there. After all, why download a huge file that you may not have any interest in? In newsgroups dedicated to smaller files, it isn’t a big deal to view a file and then toss it.
Text Browsing
In addition to files, there are also discussion newsgroups – thousands them – where people talk about every subject imaginable. Google has re-labeled these newsgroups “Google Groups” and you can use the Google web page to view them. However, Google does not provide access to the binary newsgroups, so you can’t view or download any files. You can use Outlook Express, which comes free with your computer for discussion newsgroups, however, Microsoft is no longer supporting the program and it is very out of date. It has no idea what to do with pictures in the new yEnc format, so it is much better to use a newer program such as NewzToolz.