NewzScape

The Binary Newsgroup Downloader

Newsgroup Settings

The Newsgroup Settings window can be opened by clicking the Edit Group button on the Downloader window.

Once you have added a newsgroup to your Downloader, you can access the newsgroup’s settings.

Nickname – In this box you can enter anything you like. The purpose is so that people looking over your shoulder when you have a Downloader open won’t be able to tell what newsgroups you are really using.

Name – This must be the exact name of the newsgroup, such as: alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.

Parts Folder – This is where NewzScape will store the parts of multi-part files before it assembles them. If you leave this box blank, NewzScape will store the files in the Parts folder inside the same folder where you have the program. When you are using groups with large files, such as all.binaries.dvd, you should create a special parts folder for it. Your computer's operating system may restrict the number of files you can put in a single folder, and if NewzScape hits that limit, it won’t be able to continue downloading.

Downloads Folder – This is where NewzScape will put files when it is done downloading, assembling, and decoding them.

See the Download Folders window if you want to change many folders at once.

The Starting Point button will open the Starting Point window. Every newsgroup has a starting point. When setting up a new group, you don’t have to adjust the starting point if you want NewzScape to start downloading at the beginning of the group.

The Use DupeNuker setting tells NewzScape to automatically delete duplicate files. Since spammers change the names of the files they keep posting, it is not possible to detect duplicate files without actually downloading them. So, when NewzScape is done downloading a file, it will calculate a small "fingerprint" that uniquely identifies the file using the CRC32 algorithm. It will then look in the database specified on the Settings window. If the fingerprint is not there, then NewzScape will add it to the database and leave the file in your downloads folder. If the fingerprint is there, then that means the file has been downloaded at least once before, and NewzScape will delete it from your downloads folder.

This method saves you the trouble of sorting through a lot of files using WatchFast, or manually eliminating dupes with DupeNuker.

If you already have a large collection of files, you can load them into the database with DupeNuker.