yEnc Explained in Plain English
yEnc is a new, improved way of encoding files so that they can be posted to newsgroups.
Newsgroup articles can only contain text, so pictures, movies, sounds, and any other
files, must first be converted to text before they can be posted. yEnc is a more
efficient way of doing that, which is why it caught on so fast.
yEnc is not a file format. It is only a temporary format for when the file in
question is residing in a newsgroup. So, if somebody has a picture in JPEG format,
he may use yEnc to encode it so that he can post it to a newsgroup. When you
download it, you will want to convert it back to JPEG so that you can view it,
edit it, etc. Therefore, if you use a slide-show program like
WatchFast,
it does not need to support yEnc, only JPEG.
Why does Outlook Express or Windows Mail
show a bunch of symbols when I click
on a yEnc article?
Because Microsoft has refused to support yEnc since yEnc was invented in December 2001.
NewzToolz is a good program to use
instead of Outlook Express or Windows Mail if you frequent groups where there are a lot of yEnc posts. Writing
a yEnc decoder is not difficult. Microsoft simply does not care about making the best newsreader that they can.
I already downloaded a bunch of
yEnc-encoded files. Can I
decode them?
Yes you can! Just download our free NewzToolz
program.
My newsreader supports yEnc, but many of the
files come out bad.
What is the problem?
There are a lot of yEnc-posting programs in use that have bugs in them. Here are some:
- NNTP Power Post 2000 (Build 25b; yEnc)
- NNTP Power Post 2000 (Build 24c)
- yPost / 0.45
- MT Newswatcher 3.2
If you find somebody posting bad yEnc files, you should email them and tell them to
upgrade their posting software.
Where can I find technical information about yEnc?
On this web site: http://www.yenc.org/
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