newsbin_pro

This setup assumes you have signed up with Octanews.com for a block of downloads and have a valid username / password to access the servers. You need to sign up for an account and buy a block of downloads, 8Gb is enough to start with.

2. Open your My Documents Folder and create a new file called "newsbin" like this-
File > New > Folder then type "newsbin" and hit the Return Key.

3. Close down to desktop and double click the newsbin installer you downloaded. Just accept the defaults it wants to use and complete the install, when finished it will ask you to set up a news server. Click "Yes"

3. Next screen wants server and login details, fill it in as below with your username from Octanews and your Password.

6. Just click "Finish" on the next screen after which Newsbin will start up, click the Groups icon top right.

7. Next you will see the Groups screen. This looks complicated but its OK when you know what you are looking at. The groups in the bottom section are all the groups currently loaded in Newsbin. Binary group titles always begin "alt.binaries.xxxxx.xxxxx" and give you an idea what the group contains. The post count number to the right is the number of Headers in that group, we will get to "Headers" later. The higher the post count number the more stuff in that group to download, look for the most popular groups with the highest number.

To continue the setup check the "Filter Out Low Posts Groups(under 200) box then Click on the Update Groups from Server. You should see a blue bar like an IE load bar at the bottom of the screen, this means all is well and Newsbin is updating the group lists. If you get errors or it does nothing then you may have to enable Newsbin in any firewall you are using. Wait for Newbin to finish downloading the groups then click "Refresh List".

8. Now you have to find newsgroups to "subscribe" to. You can scroll down the list which is big, you can search the list by typing into the search box "West Wing" or whatever, if you find a group you like the look of click the box next to it and it will add to your subscribed newsgroups. As an example I will be using alt.binaries.multimedia.babylon5 type that into the search box and click on "search" then click the check box on the left of the top result (the one with the higher post count). click "OK" and the newsgroup will appear under "unsorted" on the left, if you cannot see it click the "groups" tab.

When looking through the groups a lot of them are adults only stuff, the good stuff is also in the lists you have to find it. "Multimedia" Groups contain Video and "Warez" Groups contain software, the rest is pretty obvious.

9. OK we have to do some settings now. Click on "Options" in the toolbar at the top. On the first screen click on the "Download Path" browse button (ignore the screenshot cursor position its the one above) and navigate to the "newsbin" folder you created in step 2, open it then click OK. This is where all the files from Newsbin will be downloaded to. Next set the "First Time Records" box to 1000000 as shown then click "Switches" on the left.

10. Click the "Switches" option on the left - click in the top check box as shown then click "Network" on the left side of the screen.

11. Set the Speed Limiter to 512000 and check the box. This prevents Newsbin using all your available internet bandwidth assuming you are on a 1meg connection speed, in other words set it to 50% of your total connection speed in bits (whatever it is x1000) then click OK - setup is done.