You can get to NewzScape’s history database by going to:
Tools Menu -> History Database
The History Database keeps a list of all the files that the program downloads. As you look through the files in your downloads folder, you will often want to know who posted them and you can find that out here.
The History Database can also serve as a filter to prevent further copies from being downloaded. For example, suppose that the program has downloaded a file comprised of 100 posts. If somebody then requests a re-post, NewzScape will not download it again as it will be marked as done.
For single-part files, you can also eliminate duplicates by turning-on the DupeNuker setting for the newsgroup. The difference is that if NewzScape finds the filename in the History database, it will not download it. The CRC checking that the DupeNuker setting turns on can only be done after the file is already downloaded – you have to download the file before you can tell it is one you have already downloaded. In some newsgroups, people often post different files with the same names, so if you frequent such groups, you will not want to use the History database to eliminate duplicates since you will miss many files. Keep in mind that spammers will post the same files over-and-over with different names, so the only way to eliminate those is by using the DupeNuker feature. Some spammers will also slightly modify their files before re-posting them so that even CRC checking cannot detect them since they are, technically, different files. If you know of an algorithm that can detect near duplicates such as this, please let us know.
If you do a lot of downloading, the History database can grow large very rapidly, so you should come to this window periodically to check it. You can also turn this feature completely off by clicking the Settings button and un-checking the “Use History Database” box.
You can use the Delete button to remove entries. If you do want a multi-part file to be downloaded again, delete its entry. If you want to save space in the NewzScape.sdb database file, you can delete as many entries as you want.
By default, the most-recent 1,000 entries are loaded when the window opens. To see more, click the Reload button.
The headers button will show you the main message-headers of the selected file. The program doesn’t store all headers, however if you want to see other headers such as “Path”, you can use the Test Server window in our free program, NewzToolz. What you do is log onto your Usenet server, go into the newsgroup, and then request the message-header. An example of how to do this can be seen on this page. Message-headers take up a lot of space, so if you never look at them, make sure you keep the setting turned off.