Best free Newsreader

[boss™]

Hello friends
I been using newsrover for many years am happy with it but its come to that time in the year when they are asking for my renewal. So before i put my hand in my pocket i am wondering if anyone can recomend a free newsreader.
I use giganews and mainly download movies and tv shows but have been known to view the odd Pic.

So i ask my fellow Talkers any advice

thanks

[heiska]

Sabnzbd.

[nntpjunkie]

Thunderbird - LOL :D

[juo100]

http://sabnzbd.org/ gets my vote as well :happy:

[boss™]

Thanks will check it out

[mjmacky]

Nobody else using Alt.binz? Any reason I should switch from Alt.binz to sabnzbd?

[industrialpunk]

Nobody else using Alt.binz? Any reason I should switch from Alt.binz to sabnzbd?

Its completely free - no mandatory donations for the latest version. SABnzbd also is actively maintained and has many cool features. Check it out yourself and see if you like it: http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/features

[zot]

There are quite a few decent free NZB downloaders - Sabnzbd and alt.binz(0.25) as mentioned above, and also NiouzeFire, Newsflash, NNTPgrab, Binreader, Grabit, HelloNZB, Ninan, and many more I can't think of right now. It all boils down to the features and characteristics that are important to YOU.

I'd rank Sabnzbd as probably the best free opensource NZB downloader.

These are not proper newsreaders though, as NZB downloaders don't do headers and even the few binary grabbers in the list that fetch headers won't view pictures. But practically ANY free newsreader does those tasks quite well.

[boss™]

it looks like im going to have to Pay for newsrover again as i like to download headers and look at pictures. I have tested Sabnzbd and its great. easy to use and perfect for downloading films but i need it to do more so guess im having to shell out $24

[zot]

Boss, I think you're making a big mistake if you're planning to pay $24 for News Rover just to view pictures.

There are literally hundreds of different newsreaders -many of them free- ones that were designed the old-fashioned way; with functions such as fetching headers and viewing pictures.

Here's a partial list of some of them, the ones marked "traditional newsreader" or "combination" are the type you want:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_Usenet_newsreaders&oldid=245416923

In case anyone might be wondering why I'm posting a link to a three year old Wikipedia page, it's because the Wikidiots that control Wikipedia have deleted most of the list in the current version of the page. Note all the titles in red - all had their own Wikipedia pages at one time, before these newsreaders got declared "not notable" and deleted. (and it seems that once a topic gets its wiki page deleted, it will be deleted from all "list" and "categories" pages as well) Some pages, like Newsleecher, have been deleted and later re-created probably several times over. In time, the Wikidiots will almost certainly delete this page also, as it's considered "unreferenced" - and there's practically zero chance any Wikidiots would actually install the software and see for themselves if it does what the article says it does. Ok, enough of my ranting, it's more than obvious I'm not happy with what wikipedia has turned into.

[boss™]

Thanks Zot
I dont just use the newsreader for pics i do use it for films and tv show mostly and sometimes music. But i have had a look through the nzb files for software and found a cracked version of newsleecher so Who ever posted it many thanks im going to have a party on the $24 now :)

[duarte]

I'm on Newsdemon and get Newsrover for free.. Tried other Free and Trial software and I still prefer Newsrover

[zot]

Thanks Zot
I dont just use the newsreader for pics i do use it for films and tv show mostly and sometimes music.

I might not have said so explicitly, but I was trying to suggest using a traditional newsreader for text and pictures, and a separate NZB client for downloading movies and other big files.

That way, you get the best of both worlds. There's no law that says you can only have one usenet news client installed on your computer. :D

[mjmacky]

I just completed my setup of sabnzbd and I'm a bit annoyed...

[Disme]

I just completed my setup of sabnzbd and I'm a bit annoyed...

Annoyed with what exactly? Maybe someone here can help you if you state your reason ....

[mjmacky]

I just completed my setup of sabnzbd and I'm a bit annoyed...

Annoyed with what exactly? Maybe someone here can help you if you state your reason ....

Sorting... the TV shows are being extracted to a subfolder based on the filename, that will be created regardless of any intervention I have tried to introduce. With Alt.binz I would have it auto extract to D:\Media but sabnzbd will extract to D:\Media\Series Name\ even though I set up the sort to be D:\Media only.

[mfalaura]

I use Grabit i think it's the most famous no ?

[zot]

I use Grabit i think it's the most famous no ?
Grabit was probably the most well-known client about 8 or 10 years ago, being the first (and for a long time, the only) free binary-centric client

[mjmacky]

After going back and forth, the winner is BY FAR Alt.binz, leaving sabnzbd defeated. Maybe sabnzbd has the benefit of integration with nzbmatrix (that I don't use), but for general use nzb grabbing, Alt.binz is a much better program. You have more control over what happens to the downloads, you can actually see what parts are incomplete if any. Sabnzbd would be doing too much in the background while Altbinz lets you monitor every step. There was a comparison download where sabnzbd made 2 attempts to repair a file that Altbinz reported nothing wrong (par2 check), downloaded within 3 minutes of each other. So it wasn't much fun while it lasted, but bye bye Sabnzbd.

[Ternar]

I like altbinz. Though, I am using NewsLeecher v3.9F because I like it better.

[zot]

After going back and forth, the winner is BY FAR Alt.binz, leaving sabnzbd defeated. Maybe sabnzbd has the benefit of integration with nzbmatrix (that I don't use), but for general use nzb grabbing, Alt.binz is a much better program. You have more control over what happens to the downloads, you can actually see what parts are incomplete if any. Sabnzbd would be doing too much in the background while Altbinz lets you monitor every step. There was a comparison download where sabnzbd made 2 attempts to repair a file that Altbinz reported nothing wrong (par2 check), downloaded within 3 minutes of each other. So it wasn't much fun while it lasted, but bye bye Sabnzbd.


In the older versions of SABnzbd (by the original developer, not the SABnzbdPLUS developers) you could switch on "verbosity" and get more file segment details - a feature that seems to be missing in the current SABnzbd+

To me, the original SABnzbd (v.2.5) was far superior to the current (+) generation, which by comparison is bloated, resource hungry, buggy, and IMO often confusing and clunky to use. (I hate being forced to use "wizards" and C:\Documents and settings\<user>\ directories)

After a long dry spell, I tried out the new Sabnzbd+ release, and immediately my sickly old laptop processor was maxing out, and I got massive corruption/incompletes on a 1-day old file. (I shut it down since I could see there was no use continuing) I then tried the original (non-plus) version of SABnzbd and got perfect completion on the same file.

I agree that Alt.Binz (old versions included) has an excellent user interface, with all relevant file information readily available. It's not perfect, though. One complaint I have with most clients including Altbinz (I've not tried the new versions - maybe this has changed?) is that if a downloaded file has too many missing segments and the rars cannot be re-assembled, then after a secondary fill-server is added, the entire file (or entire rars) must be re-downloaded all over again, wasting much bandwidth. With Usenet Explorer, by comparison, a fill-server can be added after a failed download and the fillserver will only download the missing segments.

[Hypatia]

alt binz is not very proficient at downloading+unpacking at high speeds(100mbit+) and not overloading ones system compared to newsbin\ usenet explorer... especially newsbin6 with its RAM\cache tricks one can set up in INI

When i tried it, it was thrashing my disks severely , interface became very slowm unresponsive, speed dropped heavily, it used lots of resources...well, in my case, that is

+ i really hate when software has to connect to an authentication server every time i start it.. and headers are not supported( thus i dont think its Ok to name all those like sabnzbd\altbinz a newsreader)

[zot]

That's what turned me off Newsleecher years ago. I think it was during the trial period (fortunately) I discovered that when the program is launched, if NL could not connect to the authentication server for any reason, it would seize the PC. (apparently even some registered users preferred to use cracked versions for this reason)

Then recently Newsleecher's auth server was down for an extended period, and the developer was nowhere to be found, so paid users were getting mighty annoyed being constantly locked out.

One thing that would help with disk-thrashing (as well as NZB simplification) is if NNTP posting standards allowed for big article sizes -- like about 150K lines. (so a 15MB rar could be posted as a single article) It seems that Astraweb has always been among the most miserly on this lines/article posting limit. The limits currently in place might have been appropriate years ago, but I don't see much reason for such restrictive limits in an age of 100mbit internet.

[heiska]

..

One thing that would help with disk-thrashing (as well as NZB simplification) is if NNTP posting standards allowed for big article sizes -- like about 150K lines. (so a 15MB rar could be posted as a single article) It seems that Astraweb has always been among the most miserly on this lines/article posting limit. The limits currently in place might have been appropriate years ago, but I don't see much reason for such restrictive limits in an age of 100mbit internet.

I've never run a Usenet server, but it would make sense, both IO-wise and for the simple fact that every HDD fails some day, to store each article on a different HDD - that could be the reason why the article size is so restricted. I'm pretty everyone has noticed how some releases mystically miss just a few articles...

I meant of course that each article of a single post on different HDD. Every HDD would of course contain tens of thousands of articles from different posts.

[mjmacky]

I agree that Alt.Binz (old versions included) has an excellent user interface, with all relevant file information readily available. It's not perfect, though. One complaint I have with most clients including Altbinz (I've not tried the new versions - maybe this has changed?) is that if a downloaded file has too many missing segments and the rars cannot be re-assembled, then after a secondary fill-server is added, the entire file (or entire rars) must be re-downloaded all over again, wasting much bandwidth

For me, the success rate of auto-repairing missing parts on Alt.binz would be 50/50. However, I also have QuickPar installed, and what I appreciate about Alt.binz is that I manually select how many repair files I want, download them into the same folder, and use QuickPar to repair. I've never had to redownload the same articles. The auto-repair on Sabnabd+ failed much more in my short time of using it than Alt.binz.


alt binz is not very proficient at downloading+unpacking at high speeds(100mbit+) and not overloading ones system compared to newsbin\ usenet explorer... especially newsbin6 with its RAM\cache tricks one can set up in INI

It maxes my download speed of 40 Mbps, therefore I can't speak on how it handles 100 Mbps, but up to 40 it works great.

I haven't tried newsbin (wouldn't shell out the money) nor Usenet Explorer (never researched it). But so far I haven't heard an overwhelming reason to try either. I was more inclined to try sabnzbd but found myself disappointed, as I described earlier. Maybe sometime later I'll look into UE.

[mfalaura]

What do you think about grabit newsreader ? i don't have made my choice for the moment...

[zot]

I use Grabit i think it's the most famous no ?


What do you think about grabit newsreader ? i don't have made my choice for the moment...

Somehow I sense a contradiction here. :lol:

Since you run a website for profit, maybe you should recommend Newsbin - I believe they pay commissions just like all those usenet providers you run ads for. (You won't make any money recommending Grabit!)

Grabit is somewhat buggy, but would probably be OK if you disable auto-par/auto-rar and do it manually. As I said before, Grabit was once the best free client, but has since fallen behind, and is now long overdue for an update.

[mfalaura]

I'm using a free newsreader but i'm looking for something more powerful (and free!!)so what the best free newsreader ?

[anon]

I'm using a free newsreader but i'm looking for something more powerful (and free!!)so what the best free newsreader ?

And I'd advice you to read the thread before you ask stuff. Not that it matters much since already have the 5 posts for the invite section.