I just downloaded Giganews from download.com. It has a setup wizard and asks for the news service provider IP address or name. I'm at an internet cafe. Where do I find the IP address?
Also, I thought I had to pay for Giganews. I just clicked "OK" when it asked for registration and then the wizard came up.
Can someone straighten me out here?
Thanks!
You do have to pay for access to Giganews mate.
I have no idea what you downloaded, though I am guessing it is probably the Giganews newsreader.
To have access to the newsgroups hosted by Giganews you have to pay them over at www.giganews.com
When you do that you will receive an e-mail that gives you your account name/password/host news service name etc.
All you have actually downloaded (probably) is a newsgroup reader - something that will allow you to actually read the various newsgroup posts etc.
Yep, you're right. Thanks.
While I'm at it, I've tried the Usenext trial and it was great... in my case, that means dead easy. Other than Usenext, which client is similarly easy?
Poster
Both Grabit and Alt.Binz is free and very easy to use.Originally Posted by shokan
They repair and extract downloads automatically.
Grabit is best if you want to download headers but Alt.Binz is (at least on my Server 2003) a bit faster and uses less resources.
Glad to see your getting there shokan
The choice between binary newsreaders is a pretty hot topic from what I have seen and it really does come down to user preference and personal opinon.
BUT having said that I do not think Multiforce's reply was the answer to what you were asking (my apologies to both parties if I have read this wrong).
I am fairly new to all this myself but I believe UseNeXT is actually a Usenet provider as opposed to a newsreader, but they do also include a newsreader package with their packages.
I'll be honest and blunt here and say that a lot of the rest of this advice is reliant on WHAT you will be using Usenet for, what your monthly download expectations are, and if you are interested in SSL servers.
At a basic level UseNeXT is definitely not cheap. I also believe they only offer capped packages (max last time I looked was 75GB/month) and 120 days retention for $30.87
Now over at Giganews you can get a full SSL, unlimited download with 200 days retention for $29.99
But that would be looking at things in term of MAX usage and I have no idea what you would be accessing Usenet for.
I personally recommend Giganews over and above any other Usenet provider out there and I have done a fair bit of searching (read weeks) before I got into all of this and had a catastrophic first experience with Newdemon despite all said research.
Again, I can only speak from personal experience and I have never tested UseNeXT but from a pricing/retention viewpoint they offer nothing over Giganews.
What you MAY have liked is the UseNeXT Newsreader Client, but that is nothing more than the interface you are using to grab your files from their server farms.
If you intend on sticking with Usenet the MOST important factor is your provider and like I said above Giganews has far surpassed any provider I have trialled.
Once you have a good provider, with good retentions and of course good COMPLETION ratios your pretty much sorted.
AltBinz is a simply awesome binary newsreader if your going down any route, but since you seem to be pretty new to all of this (as am I) you might be better just sticking to NZB's while you find your feet.
Another great and also FREE newsreader is Grabit as Multiforce pointed out above. The only downside is it does not currently support SSL.
Giganews + AltBinz + FileSharingTalk = A Great Introduction to Usenet.
I'll leave it at that for the moment and maybe you could come back with some more information on what and how you will be using Usenet for and I'll be happy to share my experience/limited knowledge with you.
Last edited by DepthCharge; 02-21-2008 at 08:52 PM.
I was downloading old 3D graphics apps with Usenext. Though I now have what I need for the most part, there may be more I need sometime in the future. For example I will be needing more video tutorials. I have pretty much exhausted the torrent and e2dk route and, besides, it's soooo slow compared to the times I have used Usenext.... no comparison. It took 8 hrs yesterday to download a series of videos called Detailing Characters in ZBrush using Bittorrent, which was about 2.5 G's.
So, all in all, I would guess I will download about 5G's/month, and that is probably a very generous guess.
BTW, I didn't understand some of the terms you used, such as 'headers' and 'NZB's, for example. I will look those up.
I appreciate very much your explanations. Based on the above, what route would you think will serve me well? I should mention, too, that I would like to download feature movies and documentaries, but I haven't tried that yet.
No problem shokan and I totally understand your uncertainty and lack of clarification within regards to Usenet - pretty much the same here mate.
It sounds like you are primarily seeking some pretty specialist topics, and of course digital tools such as Zbrush have a hefty niche on the Newsgroup scene.
I'd seriously take a day or two and step back from the "I want to get this...." question we all inherently have and take some time aside from your topic of interest to look at some Usenet guides before you take the plunge.
A really good starting point over a beer and some quiet time would be :
http://www.slyck.com/ngnew.php
Once you have taken all that in you might be in a better position to detail more specific queries on these boards.
It seems like a lot of reading, and it might seem a tad against the "grrrr I want it ALL NOW" syndrome but trust me if you are posting about uncertainties over NZB's then you would be very well placed to take a few minutes out to do some research.
As much as I could sit here and type an "answer to question 1" I do not think it would help you much.
Hit slyck and do a bit of reading based on their links and I honestly think you'll thank them for it. It will give you a good start, and answer a lot of simple questions that fund the basis of Usenet and will put you in a good position to prompt specific queries more experienced folks here can help with.
You've made the first step, and you are clearly interested in academic queries so I am sure a night reading up on the basics will serve you well.
Simply put, I see what you want but I think we could spend post after post getting nowhere without you spending a very small amount of time getting to realistically understand Usenet protocols - at the very simplest find out what an NZB file is and you are here forever mate.
Not immediately useful but I think it is words well spent on all Usenet newcomers.
If I sound like a condescending git then I have no intention of being one, I am just trying to help in the longterm.
Last edited by DepthCharge; 02-21-2008 at 10:18 PM.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll research it. The slyck site is a good start.
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