Red wrote in :

I am using Fort'e Agent for a news reader, is that ok to get those
magazine files?

Thanks,
Red




Forte's products are better at text than binaries.

Go download Xnews free from xnews.newsguy.com and get the help files to
help you learn to use it. Leave everything default after you put in your
nntp server address (username and password if you need it, too). Xnews
will download that server's whole list, then you can go down through the
list and press the = key to "subscribe" that newsgroup you want, text
like this one or binary. That makes Xnews put that group at the top of
the list and automates the newsgroup's update data.

Open the alt.binaries.e-book.technical newsgroup and Xnews will open a
window asking you how many of these 48,832,445 messages you want to list.
DON'T try to list them all! Move the START slider control over so the
download count window says about 200,000 messages. Click OK and let it
load the last 200K message headers.

The list defaults sorted by Subject header. Don't touch it until Xnews
has completely downloaded, SORTED and THREADED them all, automatically.

Now, as you go down the list, you'll see each pdf, chm, etc.,
book/magazine/manual file is only ONE line of the list, not 46 separate
messages. It will tell you 46/46, which means we have 46 of 46 messages
that make up this split-up binary pdf file. A light blue Rubix cube
along the left side of this line tells you all the parts are on the
server and no parts are missing. A dark blue partial Rubix cube tells
you parts are missing, either because Usenet bombed it or it is missing
from the partial list you downloaded of the 48,832,445 messages
available. Only download completed files for now. Later you can play
with PAR files, which have the uncanny ability to correct errors and even
replace missing whole parts of binary files.

To the right of the SUBJECT field on the message window, you'll see a
column marked Q, which stands for Que. When you click on this line's Q
box, a number shows up in the Q column at this line, which is the
location in the download que of this magazine. You may click as many
binary files as you like, each one getting a higher and higher number as
you continue. If you make a mistake, click it again and it will unque
the line. You may also click and drag down the Q column to que and
number a whole line of binaries to download in line. If the line is
longer than your screen, you may get it to mark and scroll down (or up)
by moving the mouse pointer around in a tiny circle that MUST stay inside
the bottom Q box.

After you've marked a few hundred files, look at the bottom line of the
message window and you'll find a blue Rubix Cube button. That's the
DOWNLOAD/DECODE/STORE button. Click it and a standard Windoze folder
selection window will pop up so you can OPEN (not just point to) the
folder you want Xnews to put its decoded, compiled, ready-to-read binary
files into. Once the downloading begins, at how ever fast your broadband
connection can stand, you are free to go back up the list and click even
more files to get, even while it's downloading. Every time it gets a
message piece of the current file Q = 1, all the numbers in the Q column
will decrement by one. As each file is completed, it goes on to the next
in the que to get it. Once you've marked as many as you want, just walk
away and let Xnews automatically get them all, one after the other,
storing them where you told it to.

Once Xnews has completed today's massive binary download, all neatly
stored to disk, click the Check Mark button to the left of the Rubix Cube
button along the bottom control panel of the message window. This sets
the START pointer in this newsgroup to the last message so when we open
it again, tomorrow, it will list only new files uploaded since we last
downloaded....a smaller number, to be sure.

I'm using Xnews to write this message. There are two other newsgroups
open, limited only by how many ports your news server lets you have open
simultaneously, while I'm typing on this port. (I get 10 on
Usenetserver.) Ebooks and movies are downloading continuously, today.
Xnews will simultaneously download as many groups as you have ports for,
but, of course, more than one open splits your available bandwidth
between them all, slowing down the downloading.

Once you learn how to use Xnews' complex system to handle NNTP usenet,
you'll dump the Agent kiddie cruiser for the simple minded. I can't
believe he gives Xnews away for free.

Keep a sharp eye out for huge hard drives and fast DVD burners at bargain
prices. You're gonna need them when you become an addict. There's
1.9TB, 1900 GB of hard drives on my system. I spent last night
offloading to DVD+Rs a few hundred GB so I'd have space for today...(c;

If your crappy internet service refuses to let you have unlimited
downloading from Usenet, and most do, go to http://www.usenetserver.com/
and buy Usenetserver's truly unlimited service for $15/month, no
contract. 3 months is $40, a discount. Retention after the last massive
upgrade is now over 45 days and completeness hovers around 99.5% so you
don't miss any parts....unless the guy who uploaded it screws up.

Buy a big, tall DVD storage rack that doesn't depend on the DVDs being in
cases. It keeps your friends from walking on the latest 45000 MP3 files
you downloaded since Sunday...(c; My collection is over 21,000,000 songs
from Edison's first commercial recorded cylinder to the latest hip hop
songs that makes my girlfriend horny.

I also recommend the Gateway 21" LCD monitor that rotates to vertical
document mode. The included software driver listens to the USB data from
this beautiful monitor so that when you simply rotate the display to
vertical or horizontal, the driver automatically switches Windows over.
Magazines in Adobe Acrobat, clicked to FULL SCREEN mode, displays a
single page as big as the screen in beautiful colors more vivid than the
paper magazine it was printed to. The picture is bigger than the
original page and very easy on the eyes. Roll it back over to horizontal
for those widescreen movies from alt.binary.movies.divx that won't come
out in the theatres until next month...(c; Compiling huge movie files
requires you to buy WinRAR from www.rarlabs.com. Movies are split up
into 40-60 pieces, then the pieces are sent as 30-200 messages Xnews
decodes into the .rar set. After you download the rar binaries to your
hard drive, you run WinRAR to recombine all the compressed rar data into
the 700 to 1400 MB DivX or Xvid movie to play with VLC from
www.videolan.com, which is the finest free, open-source player on the
planet. It will play anything. But, that's another story....(c;

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.