.RAR & .PAR2 files, & the best Newsgroup Reader (by far)

[Big Mac]

Re: rar files

Title: .RAR & .PAR2 files, & the best Newsgroup Reader

a rar file is a compression format used to reduce the file in size for quicker downloading.
You will have to decompress the file before you can play it.
do a search for "winrar" on google and use that.
all the best........

I did not catch the beginning of this thread, but here is my 2 cents
worth:
As a new broadband user (Comcast cable) vs my old Earthlink dial-up, I
was lost when I started accessing several of the multimedia
newsgroups, which I had avoided before because of the download time it
would take at dial up speeds.

For anyone who doesn't know yet:
..RAR files (the file name end it .rar ) are kind of like .zip
files. But RAR is superior for putting a lot of separate attached
files onto usenet, like movie files. A movie is too long to post the
whole thing in one file, so RAR allows you to break it up into smaller
manageable pieces (files). Then after you download all of the pieces
(attached files), you use an un-RAR program, and it puts all of the
pieces together into one big movie file.

And then you see .PAR2 files. These are used for recovery - because
there are so many RAR files involved in like a movie, a wise poster of
the RAR files will include PAR2 files with the uploads. You need
these PAR2 files only if there are parts of the RAR files missing or
damaged. PAR2 recovery files take up quite a bit of space all by
themselves. PAR2 files can also be used with like mp3 music files, or
any files I guess, but you don't see that very often.

So, if you are going to start downloading multimedia from Usenet here,
you need a program that can de-archive RAR files. And also you need a
program that can handle PAR2 files. The PAR2 program is free. I
don't know where I got it from. I think it is called QuickPar. And
the RAR program I have is shareware and is called WinRAR. You have to
pay like $25 or so after a 30 or 40 day trial period. It works nicely
and can handle ZIP files as well. But there are supposed to be free
RAR programs out there.

Now, this is important - if you have not already registered a
newsgroup reader, or even if you have and do not like all of this RAR
and PAR2 stuff you have to go through, I strongly suggest you look at
a newsgroup reader called "News Rover".

I just registered the newsgroup reader "Agent" 3 months ago, but I am
going to chuck it and register "News Rover." (Well I will probably
keep Agent for just text based newsgroups like this one).

News Rover in it's 30 day evaluation mode is not crippled.like Agent's
free form "Free Agent" is. I am telling you this because both the RAR
and PAR and PAR2 functions are built into News Rover. It works just
great. All of the stuff is done from within and you don't have to
screw around saving this and that to disk and going into Windows and
going to this folder and un-RAR-ing this and PAR2ing that.

And News Rover tells you online if parts of the group of the RAR files
are missing - or if any parts of any single attached file are missing
too, like mp3 music files - you know parts of these files are missing
or in the RAR case you know # 39 of 70 is missing or damaged before
you waste time downloading. (that's where PAR2 files come in - if
there are PAR2 files along with the RAR files posted, you can recover
the missing RAR attachment or damaged attachment using the PAR2
files).

Yep. I am sold after two days of using Rover vs what I have to go
through in Agent with multimedia program. No need to get a RAR
program or a PAR program if you get News Rover. And it is so easy to
unRAR from within.

And the News Rover filters are great too (vs Agent) - for example, you
can only have those messages in a whatever newsgroup display only if
they have multimedia files attached, or in a music newsgroup it will
only display messages with mp3 files attached - there is lots of other
easily configurable filters you can do too, like only showing those
messages with any attached files, or only showing messages with JPG
picture files attached...

Or one click and the message headers are sorted by author. Not
satisfied? - another click and they are instantly sorted my date - not
satisfied - another click and they are sorted my titles.. In Agent
these were also configurable but you had to go through a few clicks
and open up this and that. In News Rover it's right there in the
window border. One click. Boom.

No, I sure don't work for News Rover. And I certainly don't work for
Forte (Agent). Like I said, since I already bought Agent, it's Agent
for text newsgroups and News Rover for everything else.

Big Mac

 

[Sharon F]

but I am
going to chuck it and register "News Rover." (Well I will probably
keep Agent for just text based newsgroups like this one).

I often see this comment when folks are talking about News Rover. Why? Is
News Rover not handy or practical with text groups? (I will take a look at
it to find out but wouldn't mind hearing another user's take on it.)

Also ante'd up for Agent 2.0. Nice improvements over 1.9x but find that I
still prefer 40tude's Dialog for text groups.

 

[Big Mac]

going to chuck it and register "News Rover." (Well I will probably

I often see this comment when folks are talking about News Rover. Why? Is
News Rover not handy or practical with text groups? (I will take a look at
it to find out but wouldn't mind hearing another user's take on it.)

Also ante'd up for Agent 2.0. Nice improvements over 1.9x but find that I
still prefer 40tude's Dialog for text groups.

For text based newsgroups. with Agent, I like being able to view all
of the headers in a full screen window. In News Rover you cannot view
headers in one big window, you are stuck with the 3 Windows format,
though you can enlarge the headers window. (with News Rover you can
view messages in a big or full screen window though) And I like the
way Agent marks (colors) headers you already read vs unread headers.

But for multimedia, News Rover completely kicks Agent's butt to the
moon.. For movies, one click- one darned click, and News Rover tells
you if all of the headers with attachments needed are there, then it
marks them all for download, then it unRARs them (unzipping kind of if
you don't know), then the PAR2 files kicks in (check to see if missing
or damaged parts and repairs them if needed), then it puts all of the
attachments back together into one movie file the way it was meant to
be before the sender broke it up for upload. Then I can view the
movie right there from inside News Rover,

If I were using Agent, I'd have to first find all of the pieces by
looking at the titles of each one (1/20, 2/20, 3/20 etc), and that
ain't easy, because the message titles display are usually cut off and
you have to press "F" to see the full title in a reply window, then
I'd have to mark each one for download, then once downloaded I have to
use 3rd party software to unRAR them in Windows, then another program
to PAR2 check them, etc.

And Agent won't tell you beforehand like News Rover does if the
attachment is incomplete or is one whole attachment is missing in the
series.

If you planned on purchasing WinRAR for use when using Agent, you
might as well buy News Rover because you were going to pay for WinRAR
anyway.

News Rover's headers viewing filters are far superior too. In music
newsgroups, you can only display headers with mp3 attachments if that
is your choice. Or in movie newsgroups you can tell it to only show
headers with multimedia attachments. Or you can tell it to only show
headers with any attachments (good for JPG picture newsgroups). And
showing the headers by author or titles or dates is right there.
(Nice to display all messages together in this way for multimedia).
All of this is accessible with one click from the main screen. Or you
want to subscribe to newsgroups - just enter in a search field - like
the word "mp3", and it will display all and only those newsgroups that
have mp3 in the title somewhere, and you can then easily subscribe.
Oh yea, of course it handles yEnc too, like Agent does (Free Agent
does not).

All of this in less than a week of use. Free 30 day evaluation.
Nothing crippled. Sold.

Big Mac

 

[Sharon F]

For text based newsgroups. with Agent, I like being able to view all
of the headers in a full screen window.

Ah, I see. Work flow where text is concerned is handled better in Agent
(zoom pane is in Dialog too). Flip the coin to multi-part attachments,
you'll want to use NewsRover (or similar).

Thanks! Appreciate the rundown and the description of how NewsRover handles
those things too.