ezGroups - Binary Newsgroup Downloading Made Simple

The Main Window

When using ezGroups, keep in mind that the files you see on this window are posted by average people acting on their own. There are no editors or paid contributors. While your ISP provides you with a news server, they do not contribute any files. The newsgroups are a gigantic, world-wide bulliten board where anybody can post files.

You don't have to wait until ezGroups is done searching the whole group before you can download files. You can stop the search whenever you want. You can double-click on a file in the list to start downloading it, or click it once and then click the Download button. While ezGroups is searching you cannot begin a download, but you can begin a download and then resume the search to do both at once.

The Group Menu - There are many thousands more groups available. To add more groups to this menu, go onto the Setup menu and then to Groups.

The From Column - This column shows the person who posted the file. People will usually use fake email addresses here to prevent spammers from getting them.

The MB Column - This column shows the size of the file in megabytes.

The % Column - This column shows the percentage of parts that ezGroups has found for the file.

The Status Column - When ezGroups searches, it will put the word "New" in this column as it adds newly-found files. If you stop the search, and then re-start it, ezGroups will first change all the files to "Ready". When the search is done, you can click the column header to sort the list by status and easily see which new files ezGroups found in the last search. At first, files will be marked as incomplete until ezGroups finds all of their parts. Sometimes you will see files that remain incomplete, which means that your ISP has poor "completion." If that is the case, then you should consider a premium service such as ours.

The Clear Files Button - As you look through files you can use this button to remove the ones that you don't want. The files will, of course, remain on your news server. If you later change your mind, you can bring the files back by using the Reset This Group command, (see below) and then having ezGroups re-search the group. You can also clear files by pressing the Delete key if you are using Windows.

The Find Button - If you search some groups all the way to the end, you will have thousands of files in your list. Use this button to quickly search for files based on the text in the Subject column. (This feature was added in version 2.0.)

The ezGroups Menu

The commands on this menu are only available when ezGroups is the top window. If the commands are greyed-out, click on the main ezGroups window to bring it to the top, and then go back onto the menu.

ezGroups - This command opens the main ezGroups window.

Settings - This command opens the ezGroups settings window.

Picture Viewer On - As you move to different lines in the list of files, the program will automatically download and display small picture files. Check this item to turn off that feature. (This feature was added in version 2.0)

Change File Status to Ready - This command simply changes the status of the selected files.

Change File Status to Downloaded - You may want to use this command to mark a file as downloaded, perhaps instead of clearing it from the list if you are un-decided about downloading it.

Clear All Files in This Group - This button will remove all files from the list. The next time you click the Start Search button, ezGroups will resume the search by looking for files newer than the ones previously listed, and if the prior search did not finish, it will find files older than the oldest of the previous files. In other words, when you clear files, ezGroups remembers where the last search left off and will continue from there.

Reset This Group - Use this command if you want ezGroups to re-search the group as if it were searching it for the first time. All files will be removed, and when you click Start Search, ezGroups will start over from the beginning. Note: this will also affect ezRAR as both programs share the same database. In other words, resetting a group will reset it for both programs.

Accept Updates From ezRAR - When ezGroups searches, it saves all the files it finds - including the RAR and PAR files that it does not display. ezRAR does the same thing. In other words, both ezRAR and ezGroups will find the same files and store them in the database. If you set ezGroups and ezRAR to the same server and group, this option will become available. If you turn it on, and then start ezRAR searching, ezGroups will display the files that ezRAR finds. You will need to select this menu command again to turn off the feature. While it is on, ezGroups will act like it is searching and not allow you to do most things. The files listed will be the exact same files that ezGroups would find if it were doing the search. This feature just allows you to see all files as soon as possible.