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Fast Usenet Search and Auto Download

May 9, 2013 by

It’s been an interesting time for Usenet the last few months.  With large NZB sites like Newzbin and NZBMatrix calling it quits last December.  Prompting an influx of new sites to help fill the void.  Even so there had to be a way to find Usenet content fast and download it automatically.  You can’t be there all the time.  A few leading Usenet clients stepped up and are starting to address the need with auto-search and download features.

What do we mean by fast?  We’re not talking about the performance of a website like Binsearch.  They are very fast at returning search results but you still have to go there are query the search engine.  We’re talking about auto-search features.  Configure your newsreader to watch for the latest episode of your favorite podcast and automatically download it.  Set it and forget it.  Let the client do the work while you enjoy other activities.

In the last few weeks we’ve seen updates from three of our favorite newsreaders.  All addressing the same need.  Helping users automatically find and download content soon after its posted to Usenet.  Newshosting, Newsbin and Newsleecher all released new features.  They are also working on more enhancements.  We suggest you try all three clients and see which new search feature best meets your needs.

Newshosting Client Auto-Search

Newshosting Automatic Search

We’ll start with the new auto-search feature in the Newshosting client.  You’ll need to be a member of Newshosting to use their newsreader.  We use them and would highly recommend the service.  They are currently offering unlimited Usenet for just $9.99 a month or $99 a year.  The service includes free access to the client and search engine.  With the new auto-search feature and access to all future software updates.

With the new automatic search feature, Newshosting members can set up queries to run on a regular basis.  As you can see we configured an auto-search to look for the latest Ubuntu packages.  Rather than get just anything related to Ubuntu we wanted to look for the latest distros of the operating system.  To help we set a size limitation of between 800 MB and 1000 MB.  The same logic could apply to any search query.

Once you’ve set up your automatic search queries and perferences the client will do the rest of the work.  We set our search to only show results.  We could have just as easily set it to automatically download the content.  The Newshosting client would go out and check for the latest matches on a regular basis.  Then it would grab anything that matched our search query.  Without the normal delay of finding content manually.

Newsbin Watch Feature

Newsbin Watch Feature

If you’re going to pay for a premium newsreader then Newsbin is an excellent choice.  Their team is constantly adding new features and responds quickly to support requests.  New users can download a free trial of the newsgroup browser.  After that the client costs $30 a year with their popular Usenet search engine built-in.  You’ll still need a reliable Usenet provider to download content. See our awards post for recommendations.

The newly released Newsbin Pro watch feature will help you find and download content faster.  The first version is meant to help you automatically filter out results while downloading headers.  Which in turn will help you find the matching results much faster than manually reviewing headers.  Dealing with headers is time consuming.  We like where Newsbin is headed as they work to incorporate the watch feature into the search engine.

NewsLeecher SuperLeech

NewsLeecher SuperLeech

The latest addition to the premium clients came from NewsLeecher.  They have a popular search feature called SuperSearch.  They are now adding more functionality with SuperLeech.  The only downside is the price.  You’ll pay $3.99 a month for access to the reader and search function.  You’ll still need a reliable Usenet provider to download the content.  You can use their service or view our awards post for suggestions.

The new SuperLeech feature is currently in alpha testing so you might expect to run into some issues.  That’s the case with the new features in all three clients.  They are kindly rolling them out to help users but there will likely be some growing pains.  The new SuperLeech feature will help find and automatically download content through their SuperSearch engine.  They are asking for feedback and suggestions for future updates.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newshosting Client, Newsleecher, Newsreaders

Newsbin Adds a Watch Feature

April 26, 2013 by

The Newsbin Pro team is at it again.  Releasing a new beta version of the newsreader.  Newsbin 6.50 Beta 5 rolled out on April 24th and is available for download from their beta page.  If you already have a license the new version is free as always.  Otherwise the client is well worth $20 or $30 with a year of standard search access.  Want to automatically grab content soon after it’s posted?  If so check out the new watch feature.

Newsbin Watch Feature

Here’s a full list of features and changes in Newsbin 6.50 vs. 6.42:

  • New Watch feature. Configure Newsbin to pull out items of interest during header downloads.
  • Ability to launch post unrar processing scripts.
  • Provides the ability to download parts of a post to one drive and have them assembled to another. Useful if you want to minimize I/O bottlenecks by downloading to a fast internal drive then save the assembled files on larger external media like a NAS.
  • Optimizations for downloading to SSD drives
  • Uses new hashing code. Seems to solve the rare problem where Newsbin and quickpar don’t agree on the hash value
  • If you have two unique Regular Expressions with a space between them, it’ll AND the results.
  • Intermediate NB2 files are no longer used.
  • New logic to verify all downloaded files even without pars so it won’t download dup files ever.
  • Startup checking is much faster, like if you exit with large sets in the download list.
  • Compacts more posting styles
  • The “Small File Filter” is now disabled by default (Show PAR/NFO)
  • Unnecessary files in the data folder gets purged on startup now.
  • Now supports SMTP authentication for email notifications.

Newsbin customers can download version 6.50 Beta 5 from their beta page. All full releases and betas are free of charge for users with a software license.  New users can download a 10 day free trial to test the client.

Visit Newsgroup Reviews to compare Usenet clients and providers.  Join us on Twitter @NewsgroupRevs.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders

Newsbin and NBRemote Updates

March 24, 2013 by

Today we’d like to share some news from our friends over at Newsbin.  Along with a new release of NBRemote for remotely controlling Newsbin Pro from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.  The latest version of NBRemote adds support iPhone 5 screens.  If you already own the app go ahead and update it.  Otherwise visit iTunes and download NBRemote for $2.99.  You can also test out the NBRemote Lite version for free.

NBRemote

You can read our NBRemote review to learn more about the app.  We think it’s great.  It’s well worth the $2.99 price to be able to remotely control Newsbin Pro.  Think how nice it will be to sit back on your couch and search for content and queue up downloads.  You can also try out the Lite version and move up after testing the app.

On the Newsbin Pro front, Quade is hard at work on a cool new feature for the upcoming v6.50 beta release.  Newsbin fans will be excited to hear that they are adding a new watch feature to the next beta.  Here’s what Quade had to say about the upcoming feature in a related forum post:

Working on a new feature for the soon to be beta 6.50.

You can setup simple filters to filter out all header downloads and send the matching ones to a custom listing and/or send them to the download list. You’ll be able to load the listing as if you’re loading a group. It’ll only show the matching files.

Say you want to keep track of a series called “Big pussy” and you want to get the files before they vanish from the server. You’d setup a filter called “Big pussy”. In the filters you’d set the min and max size, what groups you want to keep track of and/or you can spec what poster you want the files from. The search string might look like:

“Big pussy 720p|1080P”
Min Size: 500 M
Max Size: 5G
Poster: pussy@home.com
Groups: <Some groups parent>.

Then you can spec where they download and if you want them to download automatically. You could set Newsbin to automatically download headers, pick these files out of the downloaded headers and then hand them off to the download list. In that way, you’d never be more than 15 minutes from getting the files and it could be totally automated.

Eventually it’ll integrate with search too so, you can set this up and not bother downloading headers, just hit search every 15 minutes for matching files. When I say eventually, I means as soon as I write the code.

Dex is playing with it right now, he’s pretty excited about it. You can do this now with the filter profiles and automode but, it’s too complicated and not that easy to manage. In this way you can add the watches like groups, load them like groups and delete them when you don’t want to watch for them any more.

Cheers to both Newsbin and Bergdahl (developers of NBRemote) for continuing to put out great products.  We look forward to testing out the new watch feature in the upcoming beta 6.50 release of Newsbin.

Filed Under: NBRemote, Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders

Can Your ISP Track Usenet?

March 4, 2013 by

Are you concerned that your ISP is tracking Usenet?  If so you’re not alone.  We’re not advocating copyright infringement but we’d like to set the record straight.   Tracking by your ISP or anyone else is a massive invasion of privacy.  One that you can help avoid.  First of all if you don’t want your ISP tracking then don’t use any Usenet service provided by them.  You can also enable SSL in your newsreader to help ensure your Usenet privacy.

As long as you enable SSL for each server in your newsreader your Usenet downloads will be encrypted.  The reason is that by turning on SSL you are encrypting the data transfer between your system and the Usenet provider’s news servers.  By relying on the same technology used by financial institutions you can help ensure your privacy.  The process is simple.  We’ll show you how to enable SSL in several newsreaders.

Newshosting Client SSL Setup & Port

Newshosting SSL

Newshosting offers their members a free Usenet client.  You can use it to search for content and download directly from their news servers privately.  To enable SSL you’ll want to open the newsreader, click on Options – Settings.  Now come down the left hand side of the Settings window and click on the Connection tab.  From there check the box next to “Prefer SSL connections if available“.  You can also change the SSL port.  We prefer port 443.  The same SSL port used by HTTPS connections. This will also help you avoid ISP throttling.

Newsbin Pro SSL Setup & Port

Newsbin Pro SSL

Newsbin Pro is easy to configure.  To enable SSL simply fire up the client and click on Options – Servers.  Choose the server you’d like to enable SSL on.  You may have more than one server account listed if you use multiple Usenet providers or connect to more than one server location.  If so just make sure to turn on SSL for each server individually.  The process is the same each time.  Once you’ve selected a server check the box next to “Use SSL – Encrypted Connections“.  Once again you can specify a custom port.

NewsLeecher SSL Setup & Port

NewsLeecher SSL

NewsLeecher can by configured to encrypt your connections and allows for alternate ports.  Bring up the client and click on the Manager tab.  From there select the servers you’d like to setup SSL on.  Just like Newsbin you’ll want to do this multiple times if you connect to more than one provider or server location.  Once you have the Usenet server setup page open check the “Use Encrypted Server Connections (SSL)” box.  You can check “Show Advanced Settings” if you’d like to change the default port number (563).

That’s all there is to it.  You don’t need a VPN or proxy to help ensure your Usenet privacy.  Enabling SSL is enough.  For web browsing and other applications we highly recommend a good VPN service.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newshosting Client, Newsleecher, Newsreaders

Best Usenet Clients

January 17, 2013 by

For those new to Usenet the task of finding the right newsreader can be challenging.  Especially if you’re not sure where to look and what features are the most important.  Today we’re going to honor our 2013 Editors Choice Award winners and recommend some excellent Usenet browsers.  Some are free to download and use while others offer free trials.  We’ll make it clear whether the clients are free or premium.  Along with highlighting some of the key features that helped each newsreader, web client or mobile Usenet app make our list.

2013 NGR Editors Choice : Best Usenet Clients

Similar to our Best Usenet Provider awards we recognize more than one winner.  As there are way too many great newsgroup services and Usenet clients on the market.  In the case of newsreaders we could easily list ten or more clients.  For the purpose of our awards we have chosen six winners.  Along with a top 10 list.

Without further delay we’d like to congratulate each of our 2013 NGR Editor’s Choice winners.  The list includes the Newshosting Client, Easynews Web Interface, Newsbin Pro,  SABnzbd, NewsLeecher and Binreader.  Round out our list of the Top 10 Usenet clients were GrabIt, Unison, News Rover and EZ Global Search.

Let’s take a closer look at our 2013 NGR Editor’s Choice winners for “Best Usenet Clients“:

Newshosting Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Newshosting

Newshosting continues to innovate their popular Usenet client.  With all the features you’d expect from a leading newsreader and then some.  The client is free for Newshosting members and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  With a Usenet search engine, video previews, auto-repair and auto-unRAR functions the client takes care of everything.  All you do is choose what to download and let the Newshosting client do the rest.

Newshosting offers 2,100+ days of binary retention along with 1,400 days of text posts.  Subscribers enjoy unlimited Usenet access, Newshosting Usenet client, 256-bit SSL, uncapped speed and 24/7 support.  Take advantage of the Newshosting $9.99/mo. and $99.99/yr. unlimited Usenet specials.

Easynews Web Interface : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Who says you need a software client to access newsgroups?  Most people assume that to be the case but it isn’t as Easynews offers an excellent web Usenet interface.  With the ability to search for content, preview files, stream content and download from Usenet.  The Easynews web interface is free to members.  In fact you can try Easynews free for 14 days.  There are also some really cool iPhone, iPad and Android apps.

Newsbin Pro Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Newsbin Pro

Newsbin Pro has been an NGR editor favorite for years now and they continue to innovate and make the popular Usenet client even better.  Newsbin offers an excellent user interface with support for compressed header downloads and NZB files.  Newsbin will even help you organize downloads.  The client costs $30 and includes a year of search.  With an optional Usenet search feature.  New users can download a 10 day free trial.

SABnzbd Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

SABnzbd hardly needs an introduction for Usenet fans.  The free, open-source Usenet browser has been downloaded over 5 million times (Windows, Mac and Linux).  SABnzbd+ turns your web browser into a Usenet client.  It lacks features for those who want to download headers or enjoy text groups.  Yet for binary seekers SABnzbd is very cool.  Drop in an NZB file and SABnzbd will download, verify, repair and extract the contents.

NewsLeecher Usenet Client – 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

NewsLeecher is another premium client that we’ve enjoyed using over the years.  Especially their SuperSearch feature which is great for easily finding Usenet content.  The user interface is clean and the client presents some nice advanced features.  With lots of bells and whistles to configure for enhancing your Usenet experience.  The client costs $3.99 a month for NewsLeecher + SuperSearch.

Binreader Usenet Client – 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

We enjoy Binreader for a number of reasons.  First of all its free and available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  Secondly they offer a portable version that you can run from a thumb drive.  With Binreader you can search for content through Binsearch.info and let the client do the rest.  From downloading to PAR2 repair and RAR extraction.  You can download the latest version directly from the Binreader site free of charge.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 2013 Editor’s Choice Awards for the best Usenet clients.  Please help us recognize and congratulate the winners for their efforts.  You might also want to check out our Editor’s Choice Awards for “Best Usenet Providers“, “Best Usenet Deals” and “Best Free Usenet Trials” as each is updated frequently.

Filed Under: Binreader, Easynews Webreader, Newsbin Pro, Newshosting Client, Newsleecher, Newsreaders, SABnzbd Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy 15th Birthday to Newsbin

October 24, 2012 by

Cheers to the Newsbin team as they celebrate the 15th anniversary of launching Newsbin.com today.  While Newsbin Pro was available on shareware sites in 1994, their website launched on October 24, 1997.  The guys at Newsbin are constantly working on new features including the release of version 6.40 earlier this month.  New users can download a ten day free trial while customers can download the latest version for free.  In addition users can join in the celebration as Newsbin is offering free Usenet searches all day.

Here are some interesting facts about Newsbin:

  • Newsbin website went live on October 24, 1997
  • Newsbin was available as shareware on Indiana State University shareware site  papa.indstate.edu back in 1995.  It frequently hit the top 10 most downloaded list and required a winsock dll installed under Windows 3.1 to work.  Once windows 95 came out with a built in TCP/IP stack, it made things easier.
  • Agent is the only other newsreader still under development that was available in 1995.
  • Newsbin was the first automated Usenet download tool.  The others were either text readers or provided rudimentary support for binary content.
  • First newsreader to provide a native 64 bit version.
  • Early adopter of the yEnc encoding scheme now popular on Usenet.
  • Early adopter of the NZB format created by newzbin.com (no affiliation)
  • Contributed to the design of the XFeatures NNTP extended command to support compressed headers.  Early adopter of that standard.
  • First newsreader to support article numbers increasing over the signed 32 bit barrier (> 2.1 billion) and the unsigned 32 bit barrier (> 4.2 billion).
  • Early adopter of PAR and PAR2
  • One of the first to integrate RAR and PAR processing into the reader.
  • Newsbin forums have been active for over 10 years, started in May, 2001
  • Started offering an integrated Usenet search service in June, 2007.  Search engine covers full retention of the longest retention news servers available.
  • Included a remote interface for use with mobile devices in 2011.  Currently an iOS app for iPhone and iPad called NBRemote is available in free and pay versions.
  • Newsbin was written by (and continues to be developed by) a single developer known as Quade in the Newsbin forums.
  • The backend systems and customer support are handled by Dexter.  There are no other full time staff involved.

For those considering Newsbin Pro we especially enjoy the easy to use interface, Internet (Usenet) search feature and excellent support for header downloads offered by Newsbin.  Our favorite feature is the lifetime license.  While most other premium clients charge for upgrades, Newsbin offers a lifetime license.  Allowing customers to download new versions along with regular beta releases free of charge.

We tip our cup to Dexter and Quade as they celebrate the 15th birthday of Newsbin Pro and wish them the best for years to come.  Visit Newsbin.com to learn more about the client and download the latest 6.40 release.

Visit Newsgroup Reviews to learn more about Usenet.  Follow us @NewsgroupRevs for news and deals.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders Tagged With: , ,

Newsbin Pro 6.40 Release Candidate 2

September 6, 2012 by

Shortly before the holiday weekend our friends over at DJI pushed the latest version of their popular Usenet client.  Customers can download Newsbin Pro 6.40 Release Candidate 2 directly from their beta page.  We’re excited that the final 6.40 version will be coming along soon.  With features like the NZB Watch Folders and Performance Options.  New users can download a 10 day free trial or purchase a lifetime key for just $20.

Newsbin 6.40 includes a number of new features including:

  • New pathing mechanism to allow you to insert different elements to create custom download paths.
  • New NZB Watch Folder feature. You can create a folder for sending NZB files for processing and specify different download and unrar paths to apply to the contents of the NZBs in each watch folder if you like. The feature is configured under Options/NZB Options.
  • AutoPAR tweaks so it will work better with a wider variety of RAR set posting styles.
  • utoPAR state data is all stored in memory now. AutoPAR2.db3 only saves data between runs now. This increases reliability by reducing the chance of corrupting the database file and provides some performance optimizations.
  • Performing an empty search in Internet Search is now a wildcard search. Returns the the most recent items added to the Search database. If you specify a group or group folder, it will return all posts for the current day for the specified groups. Clicking the “Load Older Posts” will then go back a day at a time into the past.
  • New “Performance” section in the Options menu that allows you to easily tweak options to work best on high end machines or low end machines.
  • Now prompts on exit. This can be turned off under Options/Confirmation Windows. Defaults to on so people can see the new feature exists.

Newsbin customers can download version 6.4 RC 2 from their beta page since all full releases and betas are free of charge for users with a software license.  New users can download a 10 day free trial to test the client.

Visit Newsgroup Reviews to compare Usenet clients and providers.  Join us on Twitter @NewsgroupRevs.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders Tagged With: ,

Newsbin Pro Performance Options

August 5, 2012 by

The Newsbin team has been rolling out lots of cool new features over the last few months as they prepare a 6.40 version of the popular Usenet client.  As a Newsbin fan we always enjoy checking out the latest features in the beta releases and sharing them with you.  Today we’d like to share a new set of performance options that are part of the Newsbin 6.40 beta.  You can now optimize Newsbin to run on high or low end systems.

To access the new features download the latest Newsbin 6.40 beta release.  Once you open the newsreader simply click on  Options – Options – and then come down and click on the performance tab in the bottom left section of the screen.  You’ll be presented with the list of performance options shown above.

Newsbin is set to run on high end systems by default.  If your computer is slower then you can either click the “Low Powered PC” button at the top to toggle on all the performance options or choose them individually.  For maximum control Newsbin allows you to enable or disable the following options:

  • Pause download during unRAR/repair
  • Write downloaded files with no memory buffering
  • Reduce the amount of CPU that PAR repair and unRAR can use
  • Limit repair so it leaves one CPU available

Test out the new performance tweaks and see what combination works best for your system.  As always members can visit the Newsbin beta page to learn more about the new features and download the latest release.  Visit Newsgroup Reviews to learn more about newsreaders along with the latest Usenet deals.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders Tagged With: ,

Newsbin Remote $0.99 Summer Sale

July 15, 2012 by

Late last year Newsbin Pro announced a new remote control app called NBRemote.  We enjoyed testing it out on an iPhone 4.  Being able to remotely control your newsreader has some nice advantages.  You can read our NBRemote review to learn more about the app.  The regular price of NBRemote is now $3.99.  A good value for the useful app.  This month NBRemote is on sale for $0.99.  If you’ve been considering NBRemote or already use Newsbin and have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch then check it out.  The summer sale ends July 31st.

This is the perfect time for iOS users to pick up NBRemote.  We enjoy the app and think you will too.  Given the price of $0.99 you really have nothing to lose.  Remember to upgrade Newsbin to at least version 6.30.  Then you can use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to remotely control Newsbin, access your Dropbox account and browse NZB sites.  Make sure to download NBRemote by July 31st to save $2 off during their Summer sale.

I’m sure some are thinking “that’s great but what about Android users?”.  That’s a fair question.  An Android version of NBRemote is definitely in the works. The Newsbin team is currently working hard on Newsbin Pro 6.4 which includes some cool updates like custom paths.  According to their July 9th “Message of the Day”, the Android version of NBRemote will be the focus of development after Newsbin 6.4 is released.

Visit Newsgroup Reviews to compare Usenet clients and providers.  Follow @NewsgroupRevs for more deals.

Filed Under: NBRemote, Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders Tagged With: ,

Newsbin Pro 6.4 NZB Watch Folders Feature

June 19, 2012 by

We always enjoy checking out the Newsbin Pro beta releases.  Their latest (Newsbin 6.4 beta 3) includes a new feature that gives users even more control over their downloads.  Allowing you to setup NZB watch folders with different preferences for each.  You can control the folder structure for each NZB folder.  Including the watch folder itself along with download and UnRAR paths.  Visit the Newsbin beta page to learn more.

The customizable NZB watch folders are far more flexible than setting paths with checkboxes.  Now you can use preset symbols like $(GROUP), $(MONTH), $(NZBFILE) and several others to set the folder paths to your liking.  As shown in the screenshot above you can specify the details and order for each download and UnRAR path.

Newsbin 6.40 includes a number of new features including:

  • NZB Watch Folder feature. You can create a folder for sending NZB files for processing and specify different download and unrar pathsto apply to the contents of the NZBs in each watch folder if you like.
  • AutoPAR tweaks so it will work better with a wider variety of RAR set posting styles.
  • AutoPAR state data is all stored in memory now. AutoPAR2.db3 only saves data between runs now. This increases reliability by reducing the chance of corrupting the database file and provides some performance optimizations.
  • Peforming an empty search in Internet Search is now a wildcard search. Returns the last 2000 items added to the Search database.
  • New “Performance” section in the Options menu that allows you to easily tweak options to work best on high end machines or low end machines.

Newsbin customers can download version 6.4 beta 3 from their site.  As all full releases and betas are free of charge for users with a software license.  New users can download a 10 day free trial to test the Usenet client.

Visit Newsgroup Reviews to compare Usenet clients and providers.  Join us on Twitter @NewsgroupRevs.

Filed Under: Newsbin Pro, Newsreaders Tagged With: , ,
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