Mimo Usenet Guide Part 3 : Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts

Welcome to the third and final installment of our Mimo Usenet Guide.  In Part 1 we discussed how to install Mimo.  In part 2 we covered the top 10 Mimo newsreader features.  Now in part 3 we’re going to share some tips, tricks and shortcuts to help make your Mimo experience even more enjoyable.

We found a few shortcuts and keystrokes helpful in navigating and using Mimo newsreader rev. 0.1.9 and would like to share them.  We’ll keep the post updated with new tips so please send us any you might come across – feedback (at) newsgroupreviews.com.

Giganews Newsgroups

Mimo Tips and Tricks

1. Run Mimo in full screen mode

I know this one is simple but it helped so much.  When we first tested Mimo it felt like something was missing.  Mainly from a UI perspective.  Just like any new reader we had to figure our way around.  Finally someone said “Hey, we’re not running in full screen mode”.  Doing so made all the difference.

Running Mimo in full screen mode gave us access to the Mimo Taskbar.  Similar to the Windows taskbar it gives you access to important features and stats.  You can easily bring up Downloads, Group List or New Conversation (post to a text group).  Then on the right side you can see the current download speed along with recognition that SSL encryption and Giganews Accelerator are enabled.

2. Get to know the Usenet search filters

When you first open Mimo the “Search” tab is blank for the most part.  You can choose whether to search via Golden Frog, NZBIndex.nl or Find a Newsgroup.  However, you can’t set any search filters yet.

First do a simple search.  In our case we searched for “Ubuntu” which brought back lots of results along with filtering options to help narrow things down.  First you have the option to hide messages, images or files from the result pane.  You can also set a filter on the min/max file size in MB or GB and the max age in days.  All of which can be very helpful in narrowing the search results.

3. Get to know the Download screen

This isn’t a how-to-use Mimo tutorial so we’re not going step by step through using Mimo.  We’ll leave that Golden Frog or Giganews.  Rather we thought the download screen features were worth sharing and also had a couple comments to share for enhancing this area of Mimo.

The download screen is accessible via the Mimo taskbar at the bottom or the View menu or by pressing Ctrl + D.  Here you will see anything in your queue along with other files that have downloaded and any failures.  To clean out completed downloads simply right click and choose “Clear inactive downloads“.  If you want to open the files right click and choose “Show in Folder“.  A nice feature.  Remember Mimo automatically takes care of the RAR assembly and PAR recovery process (assuming PAR files were available).

If you queue up several downloads you’ll notice they all run at once.  It would be great to have the option to prioritize downloads.  In the meantime though you can pause and restart downloads.  We found the word “restart” confusing at first.  After downloading 50% the last thing we wanted to do was start over.  In this case though ‘restart” actually meant “start where the download was paused”.  We would have preferred the word “Resume download” but the outcome is the same.

4. Configuring Mimo server settings

There are a number of configurable settings in Mimo.  First of which are the server settings.  You can access them by clicking Tools – Server Settings or pressing Ctlr + Alt + S.

The first thing you will see on the server settings page are port settings.  All traffic through Mimo is SSL encrypted.  By default the browser uses port 563.  If your ISP happens to throttle that port you can change it to port 443.

The next option is maximum connections.  The default is set to 10.  As a Diamond member you can use up to 50 simultaneous connections.  For the best performance choose the minimum number of connections required to max your Internet connection or achieve your desired speed.  It can take a few tries to find the sweet spot but it’s worth it as running too many connections will tie up your system resources.

On the opposite end of maxing your speed through increasing connections you have the option to throttle bandwidth.  This can come in handy.  Especially if you share your Internet connection with others who would appreciate some bandwidth while you download.  Remember Giganews network is very fast so if you don’t want it maxing your line then configure this option.

5. Configuring Mimo download settings

There are also a few configurable settings for how Mimo treats your downloads.  You can access them by clicking Tools – Download Settings or pressing Ctlr + Alt + D.

The Target Directory and Spool Directory are set by default but you can change them to any folder you desire.  When files are downloaded Mimo will create subfolders based on the newsgroups.  We’re use to this approach and find it helpful in organizing downloads.

Next you have some options for automating Rar, Par and file clean up.  First is “Recover the files after download if possible“.  Set by default Mimo will use any Par files to repair damaged archives as necessary.  The second options is “Automatically unpackage RAR files“.  No more need for WinRAR or another third party utility to unRAR your downloads.  The last option is “Delete individual RAR archive parts after successful assembly“.  We chose to let Mimo take care of this as well.  Nice to keep downloads organized and more free disk space.

Now we’d like to share our Mimo shortcuts cheat sheet with you.  All the shortcuts are visible in the Mimo menu’s but we find it easier to have a sheet for reference since keystrokes are always faster than multiple clicks.  Feel free to use the list below or download a PDF of the Mimo Shortcuts cheat sheet from NGR.

Keyboard shortcuts for Mimo Usenet Browser

File Shortcuts:

Ctrl+T – New Search Tab
Ctrl+O – Open NZB File
Ctrl+Q – Exit Mimo

View Shortcuts:

Ctrl+L – Group List
Ctrl+D – Downloads
Ctrl+Shift+J – Status Console
Ctrl+W – Close Current Tab
Ctrl++ – Increase Font Size
Ctrl+- – Decrease Font Size
Ctrl+0 – Reset Font Size

Tools Shortcuts:

Crtl+N – New Usenet Message
Ctrl+Alt+S – Server Settings
Ctrl+Alt+D – Download Settings
Ctrl+Alt+I – Identity Settings
Ctrl+Alt+B – Block List Settings
Ctrl+Shift+Del – Clear Download List

That’s a wrap.  We hope you’ve enjoyed our Mimo Usenet Guide series and will become a regular visitor to NewsgroupReviews.com where we cover the entire Usenet industry including reviews, tutorials, free trials and special offers.  If you’re not already a Giganews Diamond member sign up now and receive a 14 day free trial and 50% off your first month!