UPLOADING AND DOWNLOADING BINARY FILES TO USENET NEWSGROUPS
by Elf Qrin (http://www.ElfQrin.com)
v1.0 r18Mar2000
First Release: r18Mar2000
The latest version of this document can be found at http://www.ElfQrin.com/docs/ngload.html 


IMPORTANT: I made this document available on the Web. If you find this document posted in a newsgroup by someone else, it doesn't mean in any way I'm connected
with that newsgroup. 

NOTE: At the end of this article you'll find a list of all the programs I'll talk about, with the URLs to download them. 


HOW TO UPLOAD 

The purpose of this article is to explain how to upload and download binary files to a newsgroup, with a particular attention to large files sent in multiple posts.
Since most newservers limit the size of binary files attached to the messages, you may split a large file into smaller chunks and attack them to several messages. As a
general rule, if the file you want to send is larger than 1Mb you'll have to split it into smaller files. 

The most popular tool to split large files into chunks in the Windows environment is Mastersplitter, which purpose is "to split large files in order to move them via floppies or
for transmission via E-mail." It also can Join chunks or Compare them to verify they are the same of the original file.
All you have to do is to launch Mastersplitter, enter the name of the large file you want to split, enter the size (for example, 700Kb). 

Anyway, splitting files is not so hard, and you can easily write by yourself a file splitter in C or in QBasic. 

It's better not to create too many small chunks because some of them could be lost passing from newsserver to newsserver, and you'll have to repost them, in order to
satisfy all the audience. A size of about 700Kb should be good, considering that binaries attachment are encoded, and grows of 1/4 of their original size, and the
addictional bytes required for the header and the rest of the body of the message, so that the total size of the message will be lower than 1Mb. 

Once you have splitted the file, you can post it to the newsgroup. Make sure the newsserver to which you'll send your messages accepts posting (i.e. it's not a read-only
newsserver), and accepts binary attachments. Here you can find a list of free NNTP servers: http://www.ElfQrin.com/mine/nntpserv.html 

Since attaching every chunk to a message and then send it it's a long and boring duty, you can use an automatic tool such as Autopost.
With Autopost you can put all the files (single files or chunks of a larger file) you want to post in a directory, for example C:\TEMP, then you can launch the program and
click on the "Settings" button to enter the option window in which you can enter the NNTP server you want to use (Host), login info (username and password) in case you
are not useing a free server, the Header information (Name, Reply-To, Organization), and a prefix to the Subject (the Subject of every post will be made by your Prefix,
followed by the file name and [1/1] that means the message has 1 binary attachment. Sadly autopost doesn't add the size of the attachment which is an useful information,
especially if who downloads it has a slow connection), the directory containing the files you want to send, and the destination newsgroup.
When you are finished with the options, you can click on OK, and then you can start posting by pressing the "Post" button. 

If you are doing it for the first time, you can try to post something to alt.test or even better, since they are binary files, to alt.binaries.test : it's not a Good Thing to send
binary files to non-binary newsgroups, even if the server allows you to do that. Also when you'll make your actual post, make sure that it's "on topic" with the newsgroup
you choose. You'd better lurk in a newsgroup for at least one/two weeks before to make your first post. 

A last note about netiquette: make sure you are not using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS not only in the body of your message, but also in your name and subject. 


HOW TO D