Alt Binaries

News Rover

Usenet Search, Automated Download, & Newsgroup Browsing

News Rover is a very powerful, feature filled, usenet reader. We provide News Rover to our clients for free, regardless of account size. Although it can be daunting to those just getting started, it is a very powerful program, and well worth the learning curve.

News Rover is provided for free, but any news reader may be used.

If you have not already, Download News Rover now.

During installation, you should be prompted for your username and password. This is all of the configuration you will need to get started with News Rover. If you did not see this prompt, just open News Rover and click 'Configure' (at the top left) to set the username and password to those you received when you subscribed to Alt Binaries.

You can get a visual of that screen below:


That's it. Now you are set up.

News Rover consists of 3 main functions, Usenet Search, Autoscan (automatic downloading), and manual newsgroup browsing (a traditional news reader). We will cover each of these features now.

Usenet Search

Usenet Search allows you to search for all types of multimedia on Usenet. Consisting of three separate usenet search functions for multimedia newsgroups, MP3 newsgroups, and text newsgroups. We will focus on the multimedia search function here, but all function in the same manner. This makes searching Alt Binaries newsgroups a fast and user friendly task.

The fastest way to get started is to click on "File Search", under the "File Attachment Locator", as shown:

Now type in a subject that you like. Can't think of anything? Try "Supermodel". Hit Enter.

Notice the small box that lets you select the type of file you would like to search. Play with this, try "All types of picture files". Do your search again. You will get too many results to go through, but even this list is only that small because the search will only show a few hundred results.

Now try "Multimedia and Movie Files" and type in a type of video you would like to see. If you are not sure what type, go with "Supermodel" again. Hit Enter.

You can stop here and experiment or start downloading, just click "Properties" and set your download location first, so you know where your Usenet downloads are.

You can see this screen below:

If you stop here to explore, be sure to come back and keep going. We have two more major functions to go through, which will make your time on usenet vastly more productive.

Autoscan Automatic Downloading

Newsgroup Autoscan is used to automatically pull all of the messages from a newsgroup, or all of the files of a specific type. This makes it most attuned to downloading from picture newsgroups. It is truly a set and forget system. It will run at your command or on a predefined schedule.

This is AutoScan:

Now, click AutoScan, and you will be guided through the configuration.
Make only the changes referenced by the arrows below:

Set these three changes to ignore text and download only pictures.

Type in what type of pictures you would like to download. One word, like "Supermodel".

Choose a newsgroup, or multiple, that describe what you would like. When you are done, click Next and then Finish. Now we just need to tell it where to save the pictures.

Click "Interests", and then "Modify Interest", as shown below:

Click the "Attached Files" tab, and make the 4 modifications shown below:

This will set the location to save the downloaded files, set this to be done automatically, keep it from being deleted when the message is (un-check this 3rd setting), and to use the message subject as the file name. Click Ok.

On the main screen, click the third button at the upper left.
It is shown below, and looks like a speed gauge:

Click Run. Go ahead and got to the directory you selected for saving the files, you should see pictures appearing almost immediately.

Some newsgroups may run for minutes, others will run for hours and download thousands of pictures in one run. New files come up all the time, so run it every day, and see what is downloaded.

If you stop here to explore, be sure to come back and keep going. We still have one major function left. Naturally, it is the most powerful.

Newsgroup Browsing

Newsgroup browsing is the oldest method of access but is still the most common method, even among the largest newsgroups on Usenet. The other methods let you search for binary files or automatically download from newsgroups. Browsing the newsgroups manually gives you much greater control and a much higher degree of access to what is available.

At the bottom of the left side of the screen, right-click on east.iUsenet.com and click "Subscribe/Unsubscribe", as shown below:

Type a subject and, much like in AutoScan, you will start to see a matching list of newsgroups.

Select the newsgroups you like and click Subscribe. This puts it in your list of newsgroups to view.

When you are done, click Finished.
Use the "All Messages Filter".

At the left side of the screen, you should see the newsgroups you selected (if not, go back and do it again, being sure to press Subscribe).

Click on one of the newsgroups now listed. This will show a screen that lets you choose how many newsgroup headers (or messages) to list, as shown below.

This will get a listing of what is available in that newsgroup.

You should be aware that some newsgroups can be quite large, such as over 10 Million headers! We strongly recommend downloading in 100,000 header segments.

There is just one last important thing, be sure to set a download location for where it should save any files. To do this, right-click over the newsgroup and click Properties, as shown:

Select the Attached Files tab, and make the modifications shown below.

Set the location to save the files, and for this to be done automatically.
Keep it from being deleted when the newsgroup message is deleted (un-check this 3rd setting).
Set to use the message subject as the file name. Click Ok.

You will need to do this with every newsgroup, but only the first time you add the newsgroup.

Alt Binaries Support

Contact Alt Binaries Support should you have any difficulties using News Rover.