Guidelines for uploading & downloading audiobooks in alt.binaries.mp3.audiobooks
Revised September 07 2007.
Please post your comments on these guidelines either here or in the group
and maybe you'll get them amended :)
The main aim of these guidlines is to reduce difficulties and frustrations of group
users and so encourage everyone to join in and help.
The short guidelines are:- Do's and Don'ts
(Scroll down for the details)
1. Do organise headers & filenames to contain
Author - Book title - part number
IN THAT ORDER and not much else.
2. Do use numbers properly
Never start a header or a filename with a number
Try not to use more than one set of numbers
Using leading zeros is essential
3. Do include an info file.
4. Do include PAR files.(Essential - Even the best servers lose stuff)
5. Do ask in the group for advice.
6. Do use a proper nickname. (not Yenc@Powerpost or noone@nowhere etc)
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1. Don't use numbers as filenames or headers.
2. Don't post non-mp3 files (eg MP4, M4a RAR etc).
3. Don't start headers with numbers or symbols like !"$%&*()
4. Don't post non-English books without saying which language they are in.
examples might be:-
WENN DAS BUCH NICHT AUF ENGLISCH IST, BITTE ANGEBEN, WELCHE SPRACHE IN DER ÜBERSCHRIFT danke soviel
INDIEN HET BOEK NIET IN HET ENGELS IS, ALSTUBLIEFT STAAT DIE TAAL IN DE RUBRIEK (KRANTEKOP)dankuwel
IF THE BOOK IS NOT IN ENGLISH, PLEASE STATE THE LANGUAGE IN THE HEADER. Thank you so much.
(apologies if these are not perfect translations)
That's 10 but they're not commandments, in fact if most folk did 1., and 2.... I can dream....
FAQ Section - This will fill up as the questions arise. Questions and answers are needed now,
please post some.
FAQ's at the bottom of this page.
The reasons for these guidelines are explained below in a lot more detail.
For Posters:-
Please DO the following.
1. Organise the filenames and headers of the books to contain the Author, Book
title and part no. in that order and not much else. And keep the same system
for ALL parts of the post.
eg Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue 01of20.mp3
Examining the filename and the reasons for this sort of format.....
a) Tom Sharpe or Sharpe, Tom: no real difference, no probs really, better than just
Sharpe or TS etc.
b) The separator (-): A dash is fairly widely used and is standard more or less.
c) The title: should be exact as on the cover of the paper book (ie include THE if
it is there)
d) Keep it short. Headers of more than 50 characters or so start to disappear beneath
other columns on a downloaders screen and the end of the header may never be read.
Be aware that if you put the filename and then $f in powerpost then you will repeat
the filename, so watch for unnecessary duplication.
e) Numbers, oh dear, the first source of real frustration:
Firstly try not to start headers or filenames with numbers. If this happens then
they will get intermingled with any and all other headers and filenames which happen
also start with numbers.
One set of numbers should be enough, ie just the part number
eg:- Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue 01of20.mp3
avoiding:- (phb01/30) <64/44/m> ts#2 Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue 01 of 20.mp3
In this latter case the files are numbered including the ancillary files like nfo,
jpg, par, sv, sfv etc, giving two sets of different numbers for each part.
Then the bitrate and sample rate and mono which should go in the info.
Then the position-in-series number which could be made plainer (ie Book #02)
and the presentation gets messy and sometimes confusing, and long. This is often
made worse when the downloading software adds [24/25] for the sub-part numbers
[with one missing in this case].
Please don't start the filename with incidentals like track numbers, like...
track 06 cd04 PHB
Because each track 01 will be ordered with the other track 01's and the post will be messy
eg
track 01 cd 01 PHB
track 01 cd 02 PHB
track 01 cd 03 PHB
.
.
.
track 02 cd 01 PHB
track 02 cd 02 PHB
etc etc.
So, author-title-number groups all the relevant parts together in the right order.
All the part NUMBERS in a post need be the same length, using leading zeros if necessary.
(This includes track NUMBERS, disc NUMBERS, ALL NUMBERS)
eg 1of8, for part numbers between 0 and 9
08of16, for part numbers up to 99
005of120, for part numbers up to 999
This is because different software packages interpret numbers differently.
eg for a post of 120 parts which the poster meant to read.....
1of120
2of120
3of120
.
.
9of120
10of120
.
.
etc
Some software will place 10 in front of 2, 20 before 3 and 120 before 13, whilst
keeping 5 before 6 and 15 before 16 etc. So the trailing 0's in 100 puts it after
1 and after 10 but before 2. Sometimes 2 is placed after the teens and 3 after the
twenties and so on!
So the list ends up a higgeldy piggeldy mess.
1 of 120
10 of 120
100 of 120
2 of 120
20 of 120
3 of 120
.
.
9 of 120
11 of 120
110 of 120
12 of 120
etc
This can be sorted but only by careful renaming or some similar painstaking procedure.
And if the sorter makes any error, the audiobook is then a disjointed hotchpotch,
especially if the parts are joined to compact the files.
As far as I know all software will place 001 before 010 and 100. So putting in leading
zeros is a must if frustration to the downloader is to be minimised.
f) It is fairly common to start the header with some qualifier: eg attn Jimbo, AS REQ,
or NMR, or NR etc
This seems OK if kept to essential information and kept short. Most folk need to know
if an audiobook is abridged and so including (abridged) in the header seems OK.
No need to say (Unabridged) - it will be assumed.
Not OK is:
!!!FOR ALL YOU GUYS AND GALS OUT THERE - MY NEW RIP - TOM SHARPE'S NEWEY - PORTERHOUSE BLUE - PART 1.MP3
This is difficult (maybe impossible) to read without changing page format or something,
CAPS ARE NEARLY ALWAYS IRRITATING and exclamation marks-see later.
g) Other formats are quite acceptable so long as they contain these elements in a
sensible order (numbers NOT first but including leading zeros).
2. Enough has probably been said already about NUMBERS.
The main point is that numbers are essential but SUBORDINATE to the Author and
book title.
Numeric file references, especially those near or at the front of a filename or
header, lead to much confusion. So keeping numbers towards the end of names will
ensure the audiobooks are presented as they were intended in a neat ordered list.
3. Do PLEASE include an info file.
(If posting over 2 days or more, supply the info on the FIRST day)
It is very helpful indeed to most downloaders to have an info file, so let them know
what you know about the book.
This should contain as much basic info as you can and suggested topics are:-
Book title
Author
Narrator(s)
What number in a series
Fiction or non-fiction
Mystery, Thriller, Love story, Maritime tale etc
Abridged or not
Number of files
Explanation of the filenaming method
Quality of the recording (bitrate etc)
Synopsis of the book
Reposting policy
Any other technical or helpful info available, like no. of CD's, how (who) ripped etc.
It is easy for posters to make an info file, merely copy one you like from the group
and edit it in Notepad or similar. Once copied you will need to save it somewhere safe
to use it again. Amazon.com and the producer of the audiobook (eg Booksontape, harperaudio
etc) are good sources of info if you want to make up an info file from scratch.
It is common for an info file to have a .nfo suffix
Some PC's treat .nfo files as system files. So if a .nfo file is double clicked you
might get an error message plus a screenprint of system information. If this is the
case, right click on the .nfo file, choose PROPERTIES and change the default "opens with"
to your text reader (ie notepad or similar) Renaming the .nfo file to a .txt file is
also effective.
It is important, polite and pleasing that some kind of info file is included.
A short note on Audio Quality.
A common MP3 quality in a.b.m.a. has a bitrate of 64Kb/s and a sample rate 44KHz.
Now, a bitrate of 32 Kb/s and sample rate of 22KHz gives a poorish audio quality
but results in a small file.
A rip of 128 Kb/s; 44KHz; & Stereo produces an unnecessarily large file.
Spoken-word quality is not much improved after 64Kb/s and stereo is usually wasted.
So a compromise between quality and size might be:-
48 or 64 kb/s bitrate; 44KHz sample rate; Mono
There is lots of software about which will convert bitrates downward to reduce
file size. Converting to higher bitrates DOESN'T WORK as the necessary information
is not there and no quality increase is obtained.
4. Do include PAR files
PAR files are used to repair incomplete or otherwise corrupt posts and PAR software
is available FREE from lots of googled places like http://www.quickpar.org.uk/
Even the best servers have hiccups and they necessarily deal with poorer servers who
have more hiccups. So parts of files get lost in the ether somewhere and the downloader
faces incomplete files. These incomplete files are next to useless usually, unless
accompanied by PAR files. PAR FILES ARE EASY TO DO (I promise you), after a bit of
practice - but this applies to everything. (95% of posters can do it, so you can too)
A tutorial can be found at http://www.quickpar.org.uk/Tutorials.htm.
So it is essential that PAR files are included with every post or folk will not download
because of incompleteness and a poster's work goes for nothing.
It has been suggested that one set of PAR files be done for the whole audiobook and not
several sets, one for each CD or tape, for example. This would make downloading easier.
5. Do practice posts in alt.binaries.test or similar until you get it right.
Even fairly simple software requires some practice until all of its foibles are known.
And Do ask in the group if you have problems. There are lots of experts (ie folk who
have overcome the probs you have) and many solutions.
6. Use a proper nickname.
No need to attach name address and phone number, but folk like to put a name to users.
Make it polite and unique.
Please DO NOT do the following:-
1. Do not use filenames and headers which are meaningless and/or confusing on their own.
ie 001a.mp3, tspb01.mp3, 01.01.258.mp3, CD15.mp3, tape1.mp3
Numbers are especially confusing more so if the header STARTS with a number and if two
posters use similar numbers on the same day or one poster uses the same numbers twice for
different books on the same day(or even the same week or month), then much confusion and
frustration ensues. Again these files can be sorted out but it means meticulous renaming,
not always possible at around midnight of a long day.
Numbering systems which even just overlap can lead to complete loss of an audiobook as
one of them is partially overwritten by the other at some stage. Most downloading software
will not overwrite but they may make matters worse by renaming with bracketted numbers like,
001.mp3 and 001(2).mp3 and 002.mp3 and 002(2).mp3 not to mention multi-server software which
can and does download both simultaneously and thus it depends which part of which is finished
first as to which gets the brackets. Miss out the leading zeros and ... well - delete the lot.
2. Please Do not post non-MP3 files
Everyone is getting more and more computer savvy as time passes, but still there are folk
who cannot convert from one format to another and lots of folk who can but don't feel that
they should be asked to. So don't post MP4, M4a files and the like in this MP3 group. If you
can't or won't convert to MP3 don't expect others to convert to MP3.A note posted in an mp3
group that an audiobook has been posted in IPOD format or similar in another newsgroup would
certainly be appreciated by most people and will annoy no-one.
I suppose this is a time-limited DON'T as software development is sure to produce readers
which will play all formats soon.
A common non-MP3 file format is RAR, which is a widely used compression (zip type) program.
There is no need to use RAR or Winrar on the mp3 files in a.b.m.a. because there is little
or no benefit and an extra conversion step to go wrong.
For video and DVD groups where there are hundreds of large files, RAR might be OK but not here.
3. Do not attempt to place your post at the top of the page by starting the header with
symbols like !"@#() etc
This behaviour is fairly common, slightly confusing and egotistical, therefore annoying to
some/most. Comments like (NMR)(Not My Rip) can go anywhere in the header, its not essential
info. It can go at the front without the brackets I suppose..... Better still stick incidental
info like that in the info file.
More informative is (NR) (new rip). Not always a newly released audiobook but indicates
something new.
Headers starting like !!!!! are usually accompanied by annoying (close to spam) screeds like
HERE IT IS AS PROMISED, GRAB IT WHILE YOU CAN etc......MP3
There's not much can be done about purposeful annoyers, billboarders & spammers. They will
always be around and abusive messages to them often doubles their pleasure. Worse yet, they
can post very good, long awaited audiobooks.
4. If the post is not in English, say so in the header.
WENN DAS BUCH NICHT AUF ENGLISCH IST, BITTE ANGEBEN, WELCHE SPRACHE IN DER ÜBERSCHRIFT danke soviel
INDIEN HET BOEK NIET IN HET ENGELS IS, ALSTUBLIEFT STAAT DIE TAAL IN DE RUBRIEK (KRANTEKOP)dankuwel
IF THE BOOK IS NOT IN ENGLISH, PLEASE STATE THE LANGUAGE IN THE HEADER thank you so much.
It is usually easy to see non-English posts, but sometimes it isn't. Robin Cook has
several books spoken in Dutch, for example, which sometimes use English looking titles.
Downloading an audiobook in a language you can't understand is obviously a complete waste
of time and thus annoying. 95% of audiobooks in a.b.m.a are in English so that is the
default language in use here.
A section on Downloaders.
1. Get good software, usually the latest freeware, shareware, otherware and update it.
So you can be self sufficient and sort problems out yourself (then give advice to others).
Software Needed:- Newsgroup reader, file manager, an MP3 file joiner/splitter/editor/renamer
A list of recommended software is in the FAQ below.
2. Requesting audiobooks
a) use a simple format such as
REQ Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue (no brackets around REQ)
b) try not to be picky or specific in details unless it is important.
like, read only by President Bush, or 196 KB/s bitrate for my Ipod
c) Ask but once a day or less. Multiple requests for the same book are usually ignored.
d) Post something yourself, posters are usually accomodated quickly.
When REQUESTING Please Don't put the REQuest in the Header of a book which you are posting,
it makes the header far too long and confusing.
e) Say thank you if your REQ is filled.
f) Do not be abusive about a post. The poster may well have been doing his/her best.
Point out the fault as you experience it (it may be your server) and ask for a repost or similar.
Useful Links
www.quickpar.org.uk/ PAR software and tutorial.
www.quickpar.org.uk/Tutorials.htm
www.powerpost.cjb.net/ Uploading software
www.amazon.com/ Sources of data for info files.
www.booksontape.com/
www.mp3-faq.org/tips/bookssubfaq.html Information about Binary Newsgroups and Usenet in general.
www.binaries4all.com/index.php
www.slyck.com/ng.php Slyck's Guide to The Newsgroups - Intro
Suggestions for amendments and additions are welcome. Just post them in the Group.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. When I try to post I get the following error message
<441>
2. What are all these abbreviations like NMR and NR
3. What software do you recommend for ripping and naming audiobooks
4. Powerpost does not seem to make PARS when I try to do so, and when I make
my own PARS it always posts them separately from the body of the book itself.
5. What are the SFV (and SV) files used for?
6. What Newsreaders are recommended ?
7. Is there a good newsreader for OSX?
8. What can I do with an M4b file (&M4a, MP4) ?
9. I'm thinking of posting a book over several days, what sort of things should i look out for ?
10. If the bit rate is low (24K say) can I increase the quality by increasing the bit rate (to 64K say)
11. Does an MP3 lose quality on constant playing, saving, downloading etc.
12. How do you cut down the size of an audio file, say from 128 Kbs to 64 Kbs?
13. What's crossposting and is it the same as duplicate or multi-posting. ?
14. What's all this whining about the way I post audiobooks ?. You should be grateful
that I post anything at all. If it doesn't suit you, ignore it.
15. What other sources are there for audiobooks ?
16. Why do you allow people to use such bad language and call other people names ?
17. Why do some posters say they don't do reposts ?
18. What is a premium server, are they better than my ISP server and what is the cost ?
ANSWERS
1. Your "from address" must have the form username@some.domain It does not have to be valid,
but it must have the correct form.
Example: mary@fake.com
2. NR = New Rip
NMR = Not My Rip
RP = Repost
(ab) = Abridged
(unab) = Unabridged
64-44-M = Recorded at 64kbps - 44Khz - Mono
3. A program for naming and tagging is mp3bookhelper.(free - google)
Tag&Rename is preferred by some.
Tag with MP3Ext say others.
Free progs for renaming and joining/splitting are BLJoin and 1-4Rename.exe
Another is MP3DirectCut.
Advanced MP3 Converter another
Easy CD-DA Extractor for ripping and converting and making music cds
Rip to wav with Exact Audio Copy and convert to mp3 with CDex.
dBpowerAMP is recommended by some.
For ripping" WinAmp Pro" seems to have supporters
4. Install QuickPar then in it's options make sure it's integrated into the
shell. Then all you have to do is use Windows Explorer, highlight the
files you want to create PARs from then right click and choose to creat
PARs from the QuickPar submenu. Or, start QuickPar up and from the
"Add new Files" button, choose the files you want to make pars of and after
setting the number you want, press the "create" button.
Add the PAR files with the original files into powerpost for uploading.
5. SFV (and SV) files are used to give a check on the completeness of the posted
files and their quality. This task has largely been taken over by the PAR files
and thus SFV and SV files are not used as much as they once were.
SFV definition - Simple file verification (SFV) is a file format for storing CRC32
(cyclic redundancy check)checksums of files in order to verify the integrity of files.
SV (Sound Verification Checksum) The Tags in MP3 files may be changed but SV files
check the sound portion of the file to check that it is still OK.
PAR (PAR2) files are "magic" repairers of incomplete files. I say "magic" because
a PAR file can fix an error in any part of the main file although the PAR file is
much smaller than the main files.
6. For simple downloading using one server Forte Agent has much to commend it and it has
a FREE (somewhat limited)version.
Newsreaders with more complex capabilities but take longer to get used to:-
Newsbin pro, Grabit, Newspro, Usenet Explorer, Newsrover, Newsleecher, Xnews etc (lots of them)
A free one is BNR3 but it is beta and is also unsupported, it freezes often - use something else.
7. One opinion is:- Unison. It's Awesome. Can use NZB files and auto
creates par2 archives on the fly when you upload.
http://www.panic.com. It's the best newsreader used on any
platform and has been used successfully on Mac, Windows and Linux.
8. M4b files are formatted for Ipod and can be converted to MP3 files using software.
iTunes and dbPoweramp are two such programs, but there are probably others on Google.
9. If you know over how many days you are posting....
a) Mark the headers day X of Y (eg day 1 of 3)
b) Put the whole upload into Powerpost including Pars and nfo files.
Ensure the info file goes in the FIRST days post
c) Mark subsequent days posts as "held" and post todays.
d) Next day, consign yesterdays post to history and take the "held" marker off today's post.
e) And so on, this ensures that the file names, numbers etc are consistent and continuous.
f) You can use other methods of course, but ensure you keep records of where you are up to.
g) If anything goes wrong just post a message saying what it was.
10. No !. The information needed to improve the quality of an MP3 recording was lost when it
was either ripped to 24Kb/s or when it was reduced to 24Kb/s. Increasing the bitrate, which can
easily be done, has NO effect on the quality, it merely bloats the file and gives the wrong
information about the quality of the mp3.
11. Playing and saving mp3 files should not affect any of their qualities, that's the beauty of
digital media. So they can be used as much as you like with no perceptible loss of quality.
Downloading and uploading likewise has no effect on the mp3. Editting them, however, can lead
to loss of quality.
12. Nearly every program which deals with MP3 editing will convert bitrates from one to
another, although it is useless and misleading to try to INCREASE the bitrate. Reducing the
bitrate can be useful but this results in a loss of quality which can never be recovered.
MusicMatch jukebox, dbPoweramp, Mp3DirectCut, iTunes, Easy CD-DA Extractor (MORE EXAMPLES NEEDED)
certainly will carry out this task. The task is simple enough but it takes a lot of processing
power so you may need to leave the PC to do it without too many other programs running.
13. Crossposting is a process of posting (uploading) files which then apparently appear in several
newsgroups. The files themselves are not actually stored in each newsgroup, only the headers are.
These headers point back to the one copy of the original file stored in the network. So crossposting
is used when you need to have your files displayed in more than one newsgroup. It is a system
which is much abused by spammers and over-use may well be considered to be spam by some.
However it is preferred to Duplicate or multi-posting, which is uploading a copy of your files
to multiple newsgroups one at a time. This means that it doubles (or trebles etc) your upload
time and also takes up space on the usenet servers and so is frowned upon as it costs time,
money & clogs up the servers unnecessarily.
So, in crossposting only the headers are duplicated whereas the whole file is duplicated in a
multi-post.
14. What you say is correct but not the whole story.
Sharing via newsgroups requires that the person receiving the shared gift can actually use it.
And a small step further, that he/she can use it fairly easily.
Each poster has different formats of files and many ways of naming them. Most can be understood
and used by almost everybody. But straying from the "usual" too far means that less and less
users can use the upload from you. So the whining you refer to is a plea by some users to make
your posting readily understood and usable.
If it were not understood and usable then what is the point of uploading it ?.
What it boils down to is, that the work put in to make your posting readily usable, is usually
far less arduous than the work which may be needed to convert a badly posted book into a usable
form later on. So taking pity on the other users, which always includes some less knowledgeable
folk, and posting in a fairly standard way ensures a successful share regime which encourages
them to share too and we all benefit.
Bearing in mind that you can't please all the people all of the time.
15. Other Sources : Ngaudiobook Hub of DC++, Bittorrent, WinMx, MiRC, Limewire,
other P2P share progs.
Generally speaking the the reliability and freedom from viruses diminishes
as you go down the list.
To join the Newsgroup Audiobook Hub you will need a good few audiobooks already,
about 25 GB of files. You will also be vetted so there is a procedure which
must be followed.
First download and install the DC++ software program.
http://www.dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/ is one source, but google will tell
you of others. DC++ is FREE !
Then navigate to "ngaudiobooks.homeip.net:414" (no quotes of course). This is
a waiting room where credentials are checked. If accepted you will get the
proper address of the audiobook hub.
You will be expected to allow folk to download from you as well as the other
way around.
There is a webpage which provides open source (ie not illegal) copies of
audiobooks. I think this is Project Gutenberg but I'll fix this on receipt
of better info.
Project Gutenberg, long famous for building a repository of free, public domain
ebooks, has been quietly building an audiobook library as well. With over 400
titles, it’s extensive enough to spend hours browsing. You’ll be hard-pressed
to find new works here, but most of the titles are literary classics—Dickens,
Twain,and Shakespeare—that resonate well in any era. Address - www.gutenberg.org/
Gutenberg carries a handful of human-read books, but most titles are read by
computers.(YUCK !)
You can purchase audiobooks at many web sites or from the many audiobook
producers, ask google.
16. This is a free newsgroup, that is no-one is in charge and almost no-one has the
power to stop anyone doing anything, in the normal run of things. There are
Ultimate Powers to stop posters doing anything REALLY illegal but these rely
on authorities like the ISP's and the police etc. Network abuse can be punished by
disconnection, but there are too many ways around this, e.g. changing identities.
There are a few things that individuals can do to minimise such behaviour.
First thing is never to respond to verbal abuse and don't complain to posters who use
bad language, they probably did it to get you to respond, so don't feed their egos.
Secondly, use the kill filter in your newsreader. Most newsreaders will have filters
that you can set to ignore specific posters or subjects etc, go explore yours. And,
of course, set the standard by being polite and trying to keep to the guidelines.
17. Reposts used to be very common, in the days of unreliable connections and in particular
in the days before PAR. Broadband connection has virtually eliminated poor communication
and PARs have eliminated the need for reposts altogether (if a poster provides them).
PAR files, produced by the program Quickpar, are repair and recovery files which will
repair any broken, corrupt or missing files from a post, up to a point. There is a limit
of course. It is common to provide 5% to 10% PAR files for each post, ie you can use the
PAR files to repair about 5 or 10% of the post. If your server is losing more than this
then you are in trouble. So, posters often say "No Reposts if the files are good on such
and such a server, use the PARs". They have, in fact, already provided a universal repost,
the PAR files. In some circumstances you may get posters to provide extra PARs, so ask
and ensure to ask for the number of blocks you are missing.
18. Premium Servers are PAY servers which are usually dedicated to providing users with top
class usenet, or newsgroup, access. Top class means a wider range of newsgroups to choose
from plus complete and undamaged posts with a retention on the server of several weeks if
not months and the option of being able to download at a high speed.
This means that a user can download multi-part posts (binaries of course) with confidence
knowing that they will be 99.9% complete and knowing that the files can be re-downloaded,
if needed, at any time up to the retention time.
As to costs, These are changeable and generally reducing as storage becomes less expensive.
So to find the current costs, ask Google. Costs vary according to the volume users download.
But a cost of $10 to $15 per month will provide a huge amount of files (25GB to unlimited)
with most premium servers like Giganews, SkinVideo, Easynews, Newshosting etc etc etc.
Other deals are available, tailored to your usage.
There are FREE newsservers, and right iffy bunch they are. You get what you pay for.
However these free servers can be used to top-up deficiencies in an ISP server.
There are 5 types of free server:
1. Lots of servers provide non-binary (ie text) access free.
2. There are quite a few servers that are dedicated to one topic, usually educational
or company based and not very useful for general downloading.
3. Some servers accidentally provide binary access by having poor security, very few
of these left, say none these days.
4. Top class servers sometimes run trial free access to test out their hardware, this
can be useful but for limited times like a week and at irregular intervals.
5. There are a very limited number of servers who offer free or nearly free access
usually to entice users into taking out a paid contract. Their speeds are usually
limited to around 15Kb/s but they often have good completion and good retention
which can be useful to fill in the blanks left by ISP servers.
Examples are freebin.readnews.com, http://www.yottanews.com:8080/freeaccount.php,
public.teranews.com and others to be found at www.newzbot.com and in the newsgroup
alt.free.newsservers
All of these require patience and involve much frustration, but no money.
Your ISP may provide newsgroup access, but this provision is usually a side issue with
them and also an expensive side issue for only a small number of their users. Mostly their
clients use the internet connection for emails and browsing and downloading via P2P
(bittorrent etc). So ISP's generally are reducing their capacity for newsgroup access,
which in effect, downgrades their service. This manifests itself in missing posts, first
just the odd part, then whole posts just plain absent. Their service may get so bad
that clients stop using it. So more and more folk use premium servers which reduces
the power of the remaining users to get things improved, c'est la vie.
I'll try to add FAQ's as I see them in the group.
lanky
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