Ensisoft releases Newsflash Plus 3.3.1

[ensisoft]

zot,

yeah you might be right. But how many times do you actually stop the download and not download all files? Everything else being equal you spend the same time and bandwidth on downloading complete sets regardless if you're using multiple connections per file or single connection per file?

Anyway there's no easy way to change the current design to something else so I guess Newsflash will continue to stand out from the pack in this regards for better or for worse.

[zot]

But how many times do you actually stop the download and not download all files?

If there is more than one copy of something available (and with 3 years retention, there usually is) I sometimes preview several releases before deciding on which is the better version, and therefore worth downloading in full.

Since I don't have a fast connection, I always try to preview a big file before committing to a multi-hour download. Sadly, a very high percentage of popular material is either fake or passworded. Also, it seems like the smaller video file sizes, like 700MB(x1) --which is what I prefer to download -- are much more likely to be fake or contain .exe's inside. The 700 MB sizes are also more likely to be poorly encoded (such as with massive pixelation) and many are barely watchable.

Fortunately there are now search engine sites like Mysterbin (and now Binsearch) that started looking inside rar collections, so it's much easier now to spot many bad files and avoid them entirely. (Newznab tends to index only the better quality releases, but since it misses a lot, it's not much help for finding rare material compared to a true search engine.)

I guess Newsflash will continue to stand out from the pack in this regards for better or for worse.

Only stand out from the newer software. In contrast, most of the older software, (if I recall correctly) also downloaded multiple files simultaneously when they started supporting multiple connections (which was typically limited to only 4 or 8 connections maximum back then)

There are always workarounds to every problem. The 1st-generation binary newsreaders like Grabit also used the "one connection per file" method as Newsflash does. For me, the easy solution would be to use only one server connection until the first rar completes, then after checking and verifying the file, add additional connections before downloading the rest.

Of course, the people with hyper-fast 50/100Mb connections could probably finish downloading an entire collection in less than the time it would take a slowpoke like me to finish only the first rar. So for them, the "one connection per file" limitation might not be a major issue.

There's also probably another psychological factor at work here: as a block account user, every wasted gigabyte costs me money.

[ensisoft]

Hello guys!

Anyone out there still interested in this client? There's a new version out there 3.4.0b3. You can get it from the usual location: http://www.ensisoft.com/download.php

So whats new? Briefly:
- file decoding IO has been optimized so that decoded data chunks are written out to disk straight away whenever possible. (if the correct slot is know)
This reduces the memory footprint a lot.
- Compressed headers, XZVER zlib inflate. Compressed headers are as dodgy as they can be, servers all seem to have slightly different opinions about how to do it. Appears to work against UNS, Astra and xsusenet. Would be glad to get reports about this if it works or not.
- tray extension, tray notifications, hotkey to minimize/restore to/from tray
- nzb command file args

And a bunch of smaller changes.

There's a known issue that if you enable compressed headers, download headers, disable compressed headers and then download headers again it wont work unless you kill the connections in between. This is a bug. Also compressed headers are disabled by default cause they are not 100% reliable (see comments about different servers above), so you'll have to go Server Properties -> Advanced and enable there.

There's been some quiet streches (almost hiatus) with this project but eventually I always seem to come back to it. I have only one goal in mind, to build this the best usenet client for Windows, Linux and eventually MacOS desktop. And it will get there eventually.


As before, thanks for your feedback. And if you like it make a donation. Its only 3€ to and gets you rid of that advertisment

Thanks,

-ensi

edit:

- and no, there's no proper installer yet, or .deb package. Sorry, I rather work on features at this point. If you want to delete the application (and cannot read the readme.txt file) in order to delete the app just go to your installation folder and delete the whole folder. And go to your Documents and Settings\username and delete .newsflash folder (contains your settings).
- and it still uses single connection per download and yes, par2 files do not get special treatment.

[zot]

A subject that has come up recently is that NNTP servers do not always report missing articles accurately or consistently. Will NewsFlash re-check the server at a later time for any missing articles? Also, what about the possibility of a <pre-download> article completion checking function? (like 'NZB Download Checker' -- or Newsbin's latest built-in implementation)

- Compressed headers, XZVER zlib inflate. Compressed headers are as dodgy as they can be, servers all seem to have slightly different opinions about how to do it. Appears to work against UNS, Astra and xsusenet. Would be glad to get reports about this if it works or not.

Maybe newsreader software developers should all get together and compare notes on this topic, since for some reason every NNTP server seems to handle compressed headers differently. Even a *single* company like Highwinds uses a different -and incompatible- front-end for Easynews, UNS, and Newshosting. It seemed that Usenet Explorer, Newsbin Pro, and Newsleecher all needed a lot of code tweaking to make all the different servers work properly. It seems like it would ave been so much easier if everyone had just worked together on the issue of header compression, instead of everyone trying to one-up each other. But then that's how commercial businesses have usually worked.


Just to mention two features that have become popular lately:

1. checking for passworded files
2. streaming video

But since Newsflash is committed to a "one connection per rar file" method, that essentially rules out the possibility of these features.

[ensisoft]

Just to mention two features that have become popular lately:

1. checking for passworded files
2. streaming video

But since Newsflash is committed to a "one connection per rar file" method, that essentially rules out the possibility of these features.

Umh, why would you say that? That design doesn't rule out these features by any means.

[zot]

Just to mention two features that have become popular lately:

1. checking for passworded files
2. streaming video

But since Newsflash is committed to a "one connection per rar file" method, that essentially rules out the possibility of these features.

Umh, why would you say that? That design doesn't rule out these features by any means.

I said "essentially rules out" because although having a "one connection per file" rule would not completely prevent password-checking or video streaming, but why would anyone choose Newsflash for this purpose when there are other newsreaders and NZB downloaders (many which are free) that because they download files sequentially rather than simultaneously as Newsflash does, can perform these functions so much more efficiently?


OK, how about this for a hypothetical situation:

a 10GB BD-rip, consisting of 100 split rar files @ 100MB each, downloading using 50 connections.

In that setup, 50% of the entire download would need to complete before it could be checked for passworded files, or for the video to begin being streamed using Newsflash.

But using any other streaming-capable newsreaders (which will complete the first rar file before starting on the second) only 10% of the file would need to be downloaded.

Of course, if the user downloaded using only one connection, there would be no disadvantage to using Newsflash. But how many people would be able to stream video using only one connection?


Just like I used to do with Grabit, the following setup is probably about the only way that I could see myself using Newsflash:

I would download the first rar file using only one connection, then check it for password and video quality. If it passed the test, I would then download the rest using the maximum required connections.

Otherwise, I'd be wasting a lot of time and bandwidth every time I got a bad/fake release.

[ensisoft]

Umh, why would you say that? That design doesn't rule out these features by any means.

I said "essentially rules out" because although having a "one connection per file" rule would not completely prevent password-checking or video streaming, but why would anyone choose Newsflash for this purpose when there are other newsreaders and NZB downloaders (many which are free) that because they download files sequentially rather than simultaneously as Newsflash does, can perform these functions so much more efficiently?


OK, how about this for a hypothetical situation:

a 10GB BD-rip, consisting of 100 split rar files @ 100MB each, downloading using 50 connections.

In that setup, 50% of the entire download would need to complete before it could be checked for passworded files, or for the video to begin being streamed using Newsflash.

But using any other streaming-capable newsreaders (which will complete the first rar file before starting on the second) only 10% of the file would need to be downloaded.

Of course, if the user downloaded using only one connection, there would be no disadvantage to using Newsflash. But how many people would be able to stream video using only one connection?


Just like I used to do with Grabit, the following setup is probably about the only way that I could see myself using Newsflash:

I would download the first rar file using only one connection, then check it for password and video quality. If it passed the test, I would then download the rest using the maximum required connections.

Otherwise, I'd be wasting a lot of time and bandwidth every time I got a bad/fake release.

uh.. you know you could just download a single .rar (using one connection yes) check it and then resume the entire batch using multiple connections. Obviously would be nice to have it automated but can't have everything right now.

[zot]

and what about streaming video? How could this potentially be done?

As I see it, the Newsflash user would have basically two choices:

1. Use a single connection and suffer with a slow stream rate.
--OR--
2. Use multiple connections and wait until a large percentage of the file is downloaded before streaming can begin.

It's obvious that neither choice is an optimal solution. I think that Newsflash's "one connection per file" setup will seriously hurt the viability of any future video-streaming feature.

[ensisoft]

and what about streaming video? How could this potentially be done?

As I see it, the Newsflash user would have basically two choices:

1. Use a single connection and suffer with a slow stream rate.
--OR--
2. Use multiple connections and wait until a large percentage of the file is downloaded before streaming can begin.

It's obvious that neither choice is an optimal solution. I think that Newsflash's "one connection per file" setup will seriously hurt the viability of any future video-streaming feature.

-- OR --

3. Use multiple connections to download multiple files simultaneusly. Streaming can begin when first file has been downloaded. Only if single connection can donwload a file slower than video is being played back would there be a potential problem.

[Stabber]

I remember finding it hard to uninstall it , i don't recall finding a uninstaller . Not sure what was the problem back then , maybe it was on my end the problem