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What is the best windows newsreader for browsing newsgroup headers directly? I'm aware after spotting posts on binsearch that relying on an nzb index is not always the best option, plus some of the groups I'm interested in aren't indexed. I was using Unison for a while and browsing newsgroups within the client was easy, but after going to windows, I'm not sure which to use.
If downloading binary headers, the first requirement of any newsreader would be support for header compression, a feature which allows headers to be downloaded in a fraction of the time as fetching uncompressed headers. Very few news clients support header compression yet.
Usenet Explorer is far ahead of the pack, and the developer has been refining it's compressed header support extensively over the last several versions, to be optimized for all the various implementations of compression that news providers are currently developing. Usenet Explorer also has very efficient memory utilization and easily handles huge header numbers -- that would crash many other news readers.
(This applies to providers such as Astraweb and Highwinds, as well as providers that use Diablo newsserver software. Giganews uses (requires) it's own proprietary proxy client for header compression.)
So here are my picks for best header-fetching news client:
1. Usenet Explorer ( http://netwu.com/ue )
2. Newsbin Pro
3. ??? (any others that might support XZVER/XZHDR header compression?)