Newsgroup Reviews » Newsreaders

Vote for the Best Usenet Newsreader

NGR — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:50:20 +0000

Which newsgroup reader do you like best? Vote for you favorite Usenet newsreader and view live results. We tried to include a good assortment of newsreader options for the poll. If we missed your favorite client please let us know so we can add them next time around.

Your choices for best Usenet newsreader include (in alphabetical order):

Visit our favorite newsgroup reader poll on NewsgroupReviews.com to vote and see live results. In addition we recently added favorite Usenet provider and favorite Usenet search engine polls with more to come. As always we appreciate your input and look forward to bringing more interactive features to NGR.

Newsleecher SuperSearch Now Supports 850 Days

NGR — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:40:19 +0000

Newsleecher released a new version of their popular newsreader (Newsleecher v4.0 Beta 18). With the update comes a significant bump in SuperSearch binary retention. Now you can search up to 850 days of posts inside SuperSearch. The service is normally offered along with the newsreader for $2.99 a month or an annual membership. However, Newsleecher is offering free access to the new SuperSearch update for the next couple weeks. All you have to do is download version 4 beta 18 or newer release.

Here is an exert from the v4 Beta 18 release notes:

This beta release connects to a brand new, and much improved, SuperSearch service engine. The new engine currently runs with 850 days of retention in the General category and more than 300 days of retention in the Erotica category, including all the alt.binaries.pictures* groups. Just like the old engine, the new engine supports true wildcard searching, and still uses the same Google-like syntax for searching. Note that advanced search features, such as specific Poster / Group searching haven’t been enabled yet. Also, because the engine is brand new, it might contain bugs which will be corrected as fast as possible.

Read our Newsleecher review to learn more about the newsreader and SuperSearch.

SABnzbd 0.5.2 Final Release : Download Available Now

NGR — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:15:46 +0000

On May 2nd SABnzbd version 0.5.2 final was released. The web-based newsreader is open source and can be downloaded for free at SABnzbd.org. If you enjoy the Usenet client please consider donating to the project either monetarily or by providing feedback for bug fixes or technical support.

Here are the SABnzbd 0.5.2 release notes directly from their forum post:

Changes:
- Add total-size fields to API-call History.
- Auto-search for free port when specified port is occupied
- Improve reporting of newzbin errors
- Keep trying when receiving garbage from nzbmatrix.com
- Remember end-of-queue action for next end-of-queue

Bug fixes:
- Large queue caused very slow UI and high memory usage
- Some very large rar sets failed to unpack
- garbled emails were sent
- Python user scripts now run properly on OSX
- SeasonSort could produce trailing spaces in paths, which fail on Windows
- Unpacking errors not properly reported to user script
- API: &nzbname= was ignored for some sites
- API: Server rename did not work properly
- Some updates to Danish texts

Already solved in 0.5.1 (never reached “Final”)

Changes:
- TV Season sort now has “affected categories” too.
- When detecting an unsupported unrar on Posix systems, drop unsupported features
(This may lead to files being lost when duplicate names exist.)
- When using only manual newzbin bookmark reading, allow automatic un-bookmarking
- Duplicate title checking in RSS is now done across all feeds
- Accept comma-separated list of recipients for email notifications
- Allow manual retry of URL-based NZB fetches when a bad NZB is received
- Add INI-file option “size_limit” that sets any oversized job to paused and low priority.
- Added French translation of email template
- Added Danish translation

Bug fixes:
- Fixed problems that could lead to an infinite unpacking loop
(when using a “sick” NZB and using +U instead of +D postprocessing)
- Fixed issues with accented characters in NZB names when using RSS
- Fixed issues with accented characters in category folder names when using RSS
- Plush: fix nzo range selection when clicking checkboxes
- Sorting examples were sometimes wrong
- Sorting couldn’t handle some pattern combinations
- Fixed priority handling for RSS feeds and newzbin bookmarks
- Fixed crash occuring when user profile contains characters outside ISO-8859-1
- Allow nzb-backup folder field to be cleared
- Fixed several translation errors and omissions
- Keep Windows awake during post-processing of last job (while queue is already empty)

Download location on SourceForge.net: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sabnzbdplus/files/

Take a look at our SABnzbd 0.5.0 post to learn more about the newsreader.

NZBVortex Version 0.7.0 Released for Mac OSX

NGR — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:59:36 +0000

For those who haven’t tried NZBVortex here is your chance. The NZB Usenet downloader was first released on February 12th and has been updated several times since including the latest release – 0.7.0 on April 30th.

NZBVortex supports Mac OSX version 10.5.0 and later. There are very few Mac newsreaders on the market (SABnzbd, Unison, Hogwasher, Hellanzb) so having another join the group is a nice addition. NZBVortex offers a free version and a full featured version for $9 which includes support.

Here is the 0.7.0 release information from the NZBVortex site:

Version 0.7.0 released – April 30th, 2010

This version adds support for accented characters in filenames, Cleanup files after download, supports moving the completed files to another location (temp/complete folders) and the option for you to manually start postprocessing of downloads.

This release has a lot of other fixes and tweaks mainly for low occurance issues.

Thanks go out to Povilas Griskevicius and Mamahuhu for their thorough tests!

Other new features:

Make post processing optional/delayable
Ability to move completed downloads to another location
After completion cleanup: Make configurable which file types to auto cleanup
Incorrect parsing of yenc message with ‘special character’ filenames
Cleanup filenames in NZB’s which contain set numbers in the filename ” (1/79)”
One-article files use crc32 field instead of pcrc32
Make NZB parse routine more robuust to it will not add nzb’s twice or download in same folder
Article state repair after restart was causing downloading of skipped files
During prefs save: only reset current connections if connection prefs are changed
Save invalid yenc message to file in “Application support” folder
Gather anonymous system info during Sparkle update
Sleep button doesn’t work if there are paused download in the listing
NZB waiting in “saving/downloading” state after “Need additional blocks: .. 1..”
NZB download folder should not end in .nzb even when cleanup falls back to default
‘Support’ filenames with an forward slash in it
Extra cleanup expressions
When reverting state of FileArticle to FileArticleStateWaiting also update File and NZBstate
Make sure a 0 bytes file will be saved if all articles are bad
Filename cleanup should accept accented chars
Increase max number of concurrent connections
Change button for Download location and NZB watch folder broke on 10.5
Incorrect display of total and nzb file size on large files

Read our NZBVortex profile to learn more about the newsreader.

SABnzbd 0.5.0 Final Release : Download Available Now

NGR — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:15:59 +0000

Earlier this week SABnzbd version 0.5.0 final was released. Since the web-based newsreader is open source you can download it free from SABnzbd.org. If you enjoy the Usenet client please consider donating to the project either monetarily or by providing feedback for bug fixes or technical support.

Let’s take a look at some of the cool features SABnzbd 0.5.0 has to offer:

1. Cross Platform Support (Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, BSD)

As the image notes SABnzbd runs anywhere. SABnzbd is written in Python and supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix and BSD environments. Better yet since SABnzbd runs in a web browser you can check in on your queue from anywhere.

2. Language Support (English, French, German, Swedish, Dutch)

The new SABnzbd 0.5.0 release supports multiple languages out of the box. These languages include English, French, German, Swedish and Dutch.

3. Customizable Themes

Themes for SABnzbd let you change the look and feel of the reader. Since it is all browser based adding a new skin to your PC or mobile device can make a big difference to usability. Themes include the default “SMPL”, Plush and a cool new Mobile skin which replaces the old iPhone template.

4. Third Party Applications

A major advantage to SABnzbd being open source is the ability to develop and use third party add-ons and applications like nzbStatus (Firefox), SABConnect (Chrome) and myNZB (iPhone).

Note: all the images above were sourced directly from the new SABnzbd homepage. They do such a great job of explaining the advantages of the client we couldn’t see recreating the wheel.

If you haven’t tried SABnzbd yet then go for it! Once you get comfortable with the web UI the reader is very easy to use. If your looking for an easy way to download, repair and extract binaries then SABnzbd is a great choice. Add in the ability to check your queue from anywhere, support for virtually any platform including mobile, customizable themes and some very cool third party applications and you get the new SABnzbd.

Latest Usenet Newsreader Updates : February 2010

NGR — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:03:04 +0000

While we spend a lot of time covering Usenet providers the newsreader vendors have been quite busy as well. Let’s take a look at some of the major updates and version changes over the last few months.

Visit our newsreader section to compare and contrast all the newsgroup clients. Then head over to the downloads page to grab the latest version of your favorite Usenet reader.

Newsreader: SABnzbd+
Latest version: 0.5.0 RC6
Release date: Feb. 7, 2010
Operating system support – Windows, Mac, Unix
Helpful links: Free download, SABnzbd+ 0.5.0 Quick-start, Release notes

Newsreader: Unison
Latest version: 2.0.4
Release date: Feb. 2, 2010
Operating system support – Mac OS X 10.5+
Helpful links: Demo download, Unison setup guide, Unison 2 features

Newsreader: News Rover
Latest version: 15
Release date: Sept. 8, 2009
Operating system support – Windows
Helpful links: Trial download, News Rover setup guide, News Rover 15 features

Newsreader: BinTube
Latest version: 2.8.9.3
Release date: Feb. 12, 2010
Operating system support: Windows
Helpful links: Free download, BinTube setup guide, BinTube review

Newsreader: Forte Agent
Latest version: 6.0
Release date: Nov. 21, 2009
Operating system support – Windows
Helpful links: Trial download, Forte Agent setup guide, Agent version 6 info

Newsreader: Thunderbird
Latest version: 2.0.0.23
Release date: Aug. 20, 2009
Operating system support – Windows, Mac, Unix
Helpful links: Free download, Thunderbird setup guide, Thunderbird newsreader info

New to Usenet? Take a look at our newsreader tutorial to learn more about how Usenet clients work and tips for choosing the right software for your needs.

SABnzbd+ 0.5.0 Newsreader Beta Released

NGR — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:18:27 +0000

SABnzbd+ 0.5.0 newsgroup reader is now in public beta. We had the opportunity to try it out a couple months ago and were impressed with the new enhancements and improved skins. For those not already familiar with SABnzbd+ the free Usenet client is open-source, web-based, cross-platform with support for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

Whether you already use SABnzbd or not the beta is definitely worth downloading. Drop by our SABnzbd+ 0.5.0 preview page to learn more about the new features and screen shots of the new quick start features. To learn more about the beta visit SABnzbd.org or download the 0.5.0 beta from Source Forge.net.

————

Here are the extended release notes from the SABnzbd wiki:

Core Upgrades

New Quick-Start Wizard – If you don’t have any servers set you’ll get a neat little five-page wizard allowing you to change all the config settings you really need to worry about. Stuff like “How should SABnzbd be accessible? Remotely or locally?” and “What’s your server address”, in a step by step manner. Features a button on the server page to test the connection to the news server, to make sure you have entered your details correctly.
HTTPS Support – The Web-UI now supports HTTPS and has a standard login window (if you use a login/pass). The URL no longer requires the /sabnzbd/ part, though the old URL is still supported.
File Quick-Check – We can now skip par2 verification altogether in some cases by performing a quick-check of file hashes before post-processing. If quick-check passes, then all the files are complete and we can proceed without doing the lengthy par2 verification step.
Localization System – We now ship with five localizations, English, French, Dutch, German and Swedish, and have a rather simple system for implementing new translations. If you’d like to contribute one, please inquire on our forums.
More Indexing Sites – SABnzbd now supports more than just Newzbin. See the support list for full details. Highlights include the RSS feeds for NZBMatrix and Nzbs.org
Revamped Config System – The configuration backend was overhauled in 0.5. Many of the config pages have been changed around to make more sense, you can now easily enable/disable servers, you can turn servers on and off with schedules and in general all server interaction is much faster than before. You also only have to restart SABnzbd for major changes to take effect.
File Association – .nzb files can now be associated with SABnzbd in Windows, so you can just double click them to load the file into your queue. You can set this up manually on other operating systems by launching SABnzbd with arguments containing a path, or multiple paths to local nzb/rar/zip files.
Password Support – Basic support for password protected rar-files is now in. It’s limited, but it works.
.TS filejoining – The file joining system now supports merging .TS files.
New Sorting Options – Date and Custom sorting options have been added, so downloads with a date can be sorted as such, and further customized sorting options can be developed by users.
Email Templates – You can now design custom email templates to report whatever information you want, including multiple recipients.
OSX Status Icon – SABnzbd now embeds itself in the menubar to give you some basic functions (no more Dock icon).
OSX Growl Notifications – SABnzbd now display Growl notifications (e.g. pause, resume, downloads start and finish…).

The API

0.4 introduced our API, 0.5 expands it to cover everything SABnzbd is capable of. Why does this matter? It means if you know any programming language and understand how to parse XML/JSON and POST data to an address, then you can write some application which can communicate with SABnzbd almost as easily as a template can.

The Queue & History

Per-Item Pause – Now, in addition to being able to pause the whole queue, you can also pause individual items in the queue. You can also force downloads to start while the whole queue is paused.
Temporary Pause – 0.5 also brings the ability to pause the queue temporarily. So if you just want to pause for 30 minutes while you use your internet connection for something else, you can. This is nice, as it means you don’t have to remember to go back and unpause SABnzbd.
Priorities – The queue now has four priorities, Normal, High, Low and force. Think of this as an easy method to move things around your queue, or to insert things into specific areas of your queue. One use case is to set everything to “normal” by default, so it works like 0.4.x. However, you can then add a new post or RSS feed as high-priority to have it be inserted to the top of the queue, or add one as low-priority to have it inserted at the bottom of the queue and keep below normal downloads that are added. Forced items will go straight to the top of the queue, and will continue to download even if the queue is paused.
Renaming – You can now rename items in the Queue, SABnzbd will use the new name as the completed directory name.
New History Backend – The history is now stored in a database, so we can handle larger histories better, and store more information about downloads. It also now survives between having the queue cleared.

Templates

New Default Template – With 0.5, the “smpl” template is now the default. The old basic template is still there, but is now called “Classic”.
SMPL – Has been reworked to be much faster and friendlier to use. The default page now shows the top 5 items from the queue and history. The queue and history are also now paginated to stop loading a massive number of items.
Plush – Complete backend rewrite to work almost exclusively off the API [so it's MUCH faster], and a reorganized (and more accessible!) main menu. The Queue and History also now have pagination built in, so you can have hundreds of items in both, and only ever have to deal with a manageable number of items on any given page.
Mobile – Thanks to the new API and the jQTouch Framework, we’ve got a brand new mobile theme. It’s full featured (save for config options), and gives you the ability to add new nzbs, reorder existing ones, manage the queue, etc. “Mobile” replaces the old “iPhone” template.

Forte Agent 6.0 Newsreader Released

NGR — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:32:17 +0000

Forte has released version 6.0 of their popular Agent newsgroup reader. The Usenet client has been around since 1995 and provides a number of premium features. The latest iteration of Agent (6.0) supports the 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.

Here are some of the enhancement in Agent version 6.0:

- Automatic server failover when downloading message bodies
- Faster Usenet header downloads (compressed headers)
- A new hide-quoted-text command
- Improved browser navigation
- New go-offline and retry-failed-tasks-now commands
- Improvements to searching

Forte offers a 30 day free trial of Agent. The software costs $29 to purchase and then $19 for upgrades. To learn more about the client read our Forte Agent 6.0 review or Agent setup guide.