What exactly is news group?

What the heck is a binaries news group, and how is it different from any other

• Hi researchers, I'm enjoying the discovery of newsgroups/usenet and I see that there are binaries, eg; alt.binaries.* What is a binary? What is a binaries NG, and are they different from any other NG? If so, how? If they are in some kind of code, what do you need to decipher them? Any other information not asked would be appreciated and tipped!

• Answer:

  Greetings meego! In short, binary newsgroups are used to trade non-text files: images, music, pc applications, etc. When Usenet was first started, it only contained text messages. People eventually figured out a way to post non-text messages (i.e. files). What they did is converted (or encoded) the files to ASCII (text) and then a user elsewhere could download that text and decode the ASCII, turning it back into its original file format. So, for example, someone could use this method to post an image (a JPG or GIF), a music file (a MP3), or any type of binary (non-text) file. I recommend reading this good summary: "What are the Binary Newsgroups?" http://www.tifny.com/binaryfaq.html Here is a little further information on encoding: "Transport of messages by News and Mail was restricted to US-ASCII characters when the protocols were written (20 years ago). These services have been created to transport only plain US-text. Special characters (control-characters, symbols, non- US-characters) were forbidden - and used for special purposes. But because people wanted to send also binary attachments by News and Mail some 'tricks' were implemented: The binary was changed to "allowed US-ASCII-characters" before transmission (encoding) - and back to a binary after transmission (decoding). above text from "What is an encoding - and why is it used?" http://www.yenc.org/whatis.htm Converting a file from its original binary format into ASCII file usually creates a really big file. This is one reason why a binary file will be posted as many segments. If you check out a binary newsgeroup, you might see the subject line of a message mention something like "Part 3 of 40." To properly decode to file, you need to grab all the sections. If any section is missing, the file will be incomplete. The process for grabbing all the binary parts and decoding them depends on what operating system and software you are using. The newsgroup reader you are currently using may already offer the ability to view or download files in binary newsgroups. Here is a listing of some Windows-based newsgroup readers, most offering binary support: "Newsreaders/Usenet" http://www.webattack.com/Shareware/network/swusenet.shtml And here's a list of newsreaders for other operating systems as well, just select your OS to view the ones for it: "DMOZ 'Software: Internet: Clients: Usenet' page": http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Usenet/ Some specific examples of newsreaders designed for binary files: "Turbo TIFNY 3.8": http://www.tifny.com/ "Binary Boy": http://www.binaryboy.com/ In addition to the standard encoding method, a newer one has recently been developed, called yEnc. You may see yEnc-encoded messages on some newsgroups but you won't be able to decode those files unless you are using software that supports this newer yEnc format. To read a little more about yEnc and which newsreaders support it, I recommend checking out their site: "yEncoder/yDecoder for Usenet": http://www.yenc.org/ Since postings to binary groups can be very very large, many news servers do not carry all binary newsgroups. Additionally, as stated by someone below, some people use binary newsgroups to trade copyrighted items (music, pc games, etc.) and so some news servers may not carry certain binary newsgroups that are typically used for such purposes. Also, it's not uncommon for news servers to not carry all or many of the porn-related binary newsgroups. As stated, binary newsgroups can take up a lot of bandwidth. Lastly, binary newsgroups are just for that: binaries. You usually won't find discussions in a binary newsgroup, although you will sometimes see requests for certain files. I hope this information has been useful. And I hope you find some interesting files. If you would like for me to clarify any portion of my answer, please let me know before issuing a rating. Thanks! leep-ga