Hey Derek,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Derek Trotter <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:expat.arizonan@gmail.com" target="_blank">expat.arizonan@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">These usenet index posts and the files they point to are something
new. Any I've seen only go back a few weeks. Normally a usenet
post would have a subject that gave some clue as to what is in that
post.</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Well, they do or must have such - a post can't exist without it.</div><div><br></div><div>Excerpt:</div><div><br></div><h2 style="background-image:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 0.6em;overflow:hidden;padding-top:0.5em;padding-bottom:0.17em;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(170,170,170);font-size:19px;font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px">
<span class="mw-headline" id="Types_of_newsgroups">Types of newsgroups</span> <span class="mw-editsection" style="font-size:small;margin-left:1em;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1em;display:inline-block">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usenet_newsgroup&action=edit§ion=1" title="Edit section: Types of newsgroups" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">edit</a>]</span></h2>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Newsgroups generally come in either of two types, binary or text. There is no technical difference between the two, but the naming differentiation allows users and servers with limited facilities to minimize network bandwidth usage. Generally, Usenet conventions and rules are enacted with the primary intention of minimizing the overall amount of network traffic and resource usage. Typically, the newsgroup is focused on a particular topic of interest. Some newsgroups allow the posting of messages on a wide variety of themes, regarding anything a member chooses to discuss as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-topic" title="On-topic" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">on-topic</a>, while others keep more strictly to their particular subject, frowning on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-topic" title="Off-topic" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">off-topic</a> postings. The news admin (the administrator of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_server" title="News server" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">news server</a>) decides how long articles are kept on his server before being expired (deleted). Different servers will have different retention times for the same newsgroup; some may keep articles for as little as one or two weeks, others may hold them for many months. Some admins keep articles in local or technical newsgroups around longer than articles in other newsgroups.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Back when the early community was the pioneering computer society, the common habit seen with many articles was a notice at the end disclosed if the author was free of, or had a conflict of interest, or had any financial motive, or axe to grind, in posting about any product or issue. This is seen much less now, and the reader must read skeptically, just like in society, besides all the privacy or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing" title="Phishing" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">phishing</a> issues.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">There are currently well over 110,000 Usenet newsgroups, but only 20,000 or so of those are active.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap">[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (June 2010)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> Newsgroups vary in popularity, with some newsgroups only getting a few posts a month while others get several hundred (and in a few cases a couple of thousand) messages a day.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Non-Usenet newsgroups are possible and do occur, as private individuals or organizations set up their own NNTP servers. Examples include the newsgroups<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">Microsoft</a> runs to allow peer-to-peer support of their products and those at <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="news://news.grc.com" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-image:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAe0lEQVR4Xo2QQQqAIBBFPbDXCKJTGCTRIqJN7qL2gp5BcOEpJmZgAlEp4eHiP/8Min7o4A8kfpxclFJmpJRAKVWIGNQoRHzNcBtSF6/7pDuEwDQbWaw20ijnPGGtffHOU0bitq9gzAExRmwqwGxeNAgAEJMeWx9Ne6PzAI3dPZAGO1zBAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC);padding-right:13px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">news://news.grc.com</a>.</p>
<h3 style="background-image:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin:0px 0px 0.3em;overflow:hidden;padding-top:0.5em;padding-bottom:0.17em;border-bottom-style:none;font-size:17px;font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px">
<span class="mw-headline" id="Binary_newsgroups">Binary newsgroups</span> <span class="mw-editsection" style="font-size:small;font-weight:normal;margin-left:1em;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:1em;display:inline-block">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usenet_newsgroup&action=edit§ion=2" title="Edit section: Binary newsgroups" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">edit</a>]</span></h3>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">While newsgroups were not created with the intention of distributing binary files, they have proven to be quite effective for this. Because of the way they work, a file uploaded once will be spread and can then be downloaded by an unlimited number of users. More useful is that every user is drawing on the bandwidth of his or her own news server. This means that unlike <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer" title="Peer-to-peer" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">P2P</a> technology, the user's download speed is under his or her own control, as opposed to under the willingness of other people to share files. In fact, this is another benefit of newsgroups: it is usually not expected that users share. If every user makes uploads then the servers would be flooded; thus it is acceptable and often encouraged for users to just <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_(computing)" title="Leech (computing)" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">leech</a>.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">There were originally a number of obstacles to the transmission of binary files over Usenet. First, Usenet was designed with the transmission of text in mind. Consequently, for a long period of time, it was impossible to send binary data as it was. So, a workaround, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uuencode" title="Uuencode" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">Uuencode</a> (and later on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64" title="Base64" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">Base64</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YEnc" title="YEnc" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">yEnc</a>), was developed which mapped the binary data from the files to be transmitted (e.g. sound or video files) to text characters which would survive transmission over Usenet. At the receiver's end, the data needed to be decoded by the user's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_client" title="News client" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">news client</a>. Additionally, there was a limit on the size of individual posts such that large files could not be sent as single posts. To get around this, Newsreaders were developed which were able to split long files into several posts. Intelligent newsreaders at the other end could then automatically group such split files into single files, allowing the user to easily retrieve the file. These advances have meant that Usenet is used to send and receive many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terabytes" title="Terabytes" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">terabytes</a> of files per day.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">There are two main issues that pose problems for transmitting binary files over newsgroups. The first is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Completion_rate" title="Completion rate" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">completion rates</a> and the other is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retention_rate" title="Retention rate" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">retention rates</a>. The business of premium <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_server" title="News server" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">news servers</a> is generated primarily on their ability to offer superior completion and retention rates, as well as their ability to offer very fast connections to users. Completion rates are significant when users wish to download large files that are split into pieces; if any one piece is missing, it is impossible to successfully download and reassemble the desired file. To work around the problem, a redundancy scheme known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive" title="Parchive" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">PAR</a> is commonly used.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">A number of websites exist for the purpose of keeping an index of the files posted to binary newsgroups.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Major NSPs have a retention time of more than 1700 days.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style="line-height:1em"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;white-space:nowrap;background-repeat:initial initial">[1]</a></sup> This results in more than 9 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petabyte" title="Petabyte" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">petabytes</a> (9000 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terabyte" title="Terabyte" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;background-repeat:initial initial">terabytes</a>) of storage.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height:1em"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;white-space:nowrap;background-repeat:initial initial">[2]</a></sup></p>
<div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">In part because of such long retention times, as well as growing Internet</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uploading_and_downloading" title="Uploading and downloading" class="mw-redirect" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">upload</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">speeds, Usenet is also used by individual users to store</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup" title="Backup" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">backup</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">data in a practice called</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><i style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">Usenet backup</i><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">, or uBackup.</span><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1em"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none;white-space:nowrap;background-repeat:initial initial">[3]</a></sup><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">While commercial providers offer more</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_use" title="Ease of use" class="mw-redirect" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">easy to use</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_backup_services" title="List of online backup services" class="mw-redirect" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">online backup services</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">, storing data on Usenet is free of charge (although access to Usenet itself may not be). The method requires the user to</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup#Data_repository_models" title="Backup" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">manually select, prepare and upload the data</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">. Because anyone can potentially download the backup files, the data is typically</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption" title="Encryption" style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">encrypted</a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.1875px">. After the files are uploaded, the uploader does not have any control over them; the files are automatically copied to all Usenet providers, so there will be multiple copies of it spread over different geographical locations around the world.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>Are you sure these are not just backup files? </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div><div class="h5">
<br>
<br>
<div>On 06/30/2013 10:15 AM, Lisa Kachold
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>Hello Derek,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup</a><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 11:41 PM, Derek
Trotter <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:expat.arizonan@gmail.com" target="_blank">expat.arizonan@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">Tonight I'm messing
with a usenet reader and found something I've never seen
before. There are posts each with a subject like this.
Usenet Index Post 1372363474_2 These are text files.
Open one and you'll see something like this:<br>
<br>Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815 - Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815.par2 yEnc
(1/1)%122935*Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815 -Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815.part001.rar yEnc(1/622)%217941490*Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815 -Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815.part002.rar yEnc(1/622)%217922437*Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815 -Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815.part003.rar yEnc(1/622)%217938677*Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815 - <br>
<br>The poster is always, as far as I can tell NzbIndexder@followed by the name of the group they're posted in. Forexample: <a href="mailto:NzbIndexer@alt.binaries.teevee" target="_blank">NzbIndexer@alt.binaries.teevee</a><br>
<br>Then I'll find posts with names like this:Vv0smCatI4I08qoLd815.part170.rar<br>
<br>I've seen people here give me tips on usenet harvesting so
I'll ask if any of you how I can use these usenet indexposts? I've read that some usenet indexing sites havebeen forced to shut down. I'm guessing these files are anattempt to get around the people who are trying to shutdown the usenet indexing sites. The names of the rar
files give no clue as to what's in them. If you don't
know ahead of time what's in these files the only way to
find out is to download one, which may be several GB in
size.<br>
<br>Does anyone know how to use these files?<br>
<br>Thanks<span><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>Derek<br>
<pre cols="72">--
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Patrick Moore</pre>
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