The UnPoster - The Non-Stop Binary Newsgroup Downloader

The Starting Point

Posts are stored on news servers with ID numbers, and the ID numbers are not changed when old posts are removed. So a newsgroup may have, for example, 5000 posts numbered 100,001 to 105,000. The unPoster analyzes posts from the beginning to the end, that is, from the oldest to the newest. So, the unPoster would start on post number 100,001 and then go forward until it did post 105,000. When the unPoster reaches the end of a group, it will wait for new posts to arrive on the server and then begin analyzing them.

If you want the unPoster to start over at the beginning of a group, set the Starting Point to zero. If you want it only to analyze new posts, set it to the last post number. If you want it to start somewhere in the middle, set the Starting Point to something in between the first and last post. You can only know the first and last post numbers by logging onto the server and looking at the newsgroup. Since new posts are constantly arriving, and old ones are constantly being expired, the first and last numbers change frequently.

To find out how many posts are in the group, and peek at them, you must be logged onto the server.

Keep in mind that there can be large gaps where posts have been removed. So, if the message IDs range from 100,001 to 105,000, there may only be 2,000 posts actually there. Posts are removed if they are found to be spam, because of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint, or because they were cancelled by the poster.

If you are trying to zero-in on the beggining of a set of posts, keep in mind that they are not always in order and that there can be many posts interspersed. Just because you found the first post of the set doesn't mean that you should set the Starting Point there. It's usually a good idea to set it back a bit, or make a note of where you set it so that you can back it up if you didn't get the whole set.

The unPoster will show you the poster, date, and subject of posts as you move back and forth through the group once you are logged on. However, if you know where you want to start, you don't need to log on. You can just type the number and click the Save button.

From time-to-time, you will be forced to set the Starting Point back to zero for some or all of your newsgroups because your ISP has re-arranged the news server. Please see this page for more info.

When changing the Starting Point, always set it to one less than where you want the unPoster to start. The unPoster always starts analyzing on the next post.