ABPA-L.FAQ...Info on posting and netiquette for the Art Picture groups.

---> THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL POLICY OF ANY OF THE NEWSGROUPS LISTED!!!


ALT.BINARIES.PICTURES.ART.* LURKERS
Frequently Asked Questions
Version 1.052
Last Revised February 13, 2005
This FAQ is now available online at:
http://home.att.net/~kopfj/LurkerFAQ.html (Who's computer is this?)



CONTENTS

Introduction
1. Usenet Basics
1.a. How It Works
1.b. Netiquette in binaries newsgroups.
1.c. Spams and Scams
1.d. The myth of anonymity
2. ABOUT ABPA*
3. DOWNLOADING
3.a. The Posts Explained
3.b. News Servers and Known Problems
3.b.1. Internet Service Providers
3.b.2. Supplemental Newsfeeds (Subscription):
3.b.3. Supplemental Newsfeeds (Free):
3.b.4. NNTP-Based:
3.c. Newsreaders
3.c.1. Windows:
3.c.2. Macintosh:
3.c.3. Other
3.c.4. What You Have Now:
3.c.5. Automatic Downloading
4. Viewing Your Downloads.
4.a. File Types and Viewers:
4.b. Screen Savers
4.c. Other Tools
5. Posting (Uploading)
5.A. Posting Questions, Answers, Comments, Requests:
5.B. Posting Binaries in ABPA*
5.B.1 Thumbnails/Contact Sheets/Index Tips
5.C. Automated Posting Software:
5.D. Thumbnail Index-Making Software:
6. Scanning
6.A. Scanning Resources:
6.B. Graphics Applications [software]:
6.C. Graphics Related FAQs:
7. Storage
Acknowledgements:




INTRODUCTION

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS FAQ

ABPA* is the collection of usenet newsgroups devoted to various aspects of the graphic arts (rather than photographs); they are used to share images. The list of such newsgroups includes (but is not limited to):

Abbr.address
ABPFAnews:alt.binaries.pictures.fine-artPaintings
ABPAPnews:alt.binaries.pictures.artpicsOther art
ABPCAnews:alt.binaries.pictures.clip-artArt + other
ABPFSFnews:alt.binaries.pictures.fantasy-sci-fiFantasy/SF
ABPEAPnews:alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.art.pin-upABANDONED!
ABMPAnews:alt.binaries.moderated.pinup-artReported Closed <==== ?
ABPAPnews:alt.binaries.pictures.art.pin-uplike ABPEAP without the
spam.
ABDnews:alt.binaries.dragonzFantasy

1. This FAQ is meant to help visitors and regulars, posters and lurkers, new and old, to better use and serve the newsgroups ABPA*. It is designed to answer questions that would otherwise require a lengthy message reply. Also, it is designed to define spam and state that it is not tolerated here. ISP's will respect this document as our "law" regarding spam take action against their spamming users accordingly.
It also attempts to identify and locate a variety of "tools" that will
help make the Newsgroups easier to use.

2. There is a lot to know about the Usenet newsgroups and picture posting and downloading. This FAQ attempts to cover all the basics.

3. Feedback is more than welcome. If you have something to contribute to the FAQ, please post your comments in one of the News Groups where it is posted.

4. Unless a specific download site is indicated, the software recommended in this FAQ can be obtained from the major software sites, such as:
http://www.shareware.com (Who's computer is this?)
http://download.cnet.com (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.virtualfreesites.com/sites.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.shareware.dabsol.co.uk/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.pcwin.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://boole.stanford.edu/nerdsheaven.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.softwareshak.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.galttech.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.tucows.com (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.skuz.net/madhat/agent/util.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.winfiles.com (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.download.com, (Who's computer is this?) or
http://www.MacOrchard.com (Who's computer is this?) (Mac exclusively).
You can also do your own software hunting at these sites and let us know what good new Usenet-related software you find.

5. Have fun in the group.

Rather than repeat these URLs ("Universal Resource Locators") throughout, they will be referred to as "software sites." With rare exceptions, DO NOT ask for or post software in ABPA*. This is a picture newsgroup, not a software newsgroup. Feel free to contact myself or other posters via e-mail with questions regarding obtaining, installing, using, or registering software, or any questions not covered in this FAQ.

Feel free to write to us with any questions you may have.





1. USENET BASICS

For an overview, visit: http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/usenet/guide.htm. (Who's computer is this?)

1.A. How it works.
Usenet is the correct name for what many of us call the "newsgroups." Each part of the Internet was designed to carry certain types of data; that is, they use different "transfer protocols." For instance:

* The Worldwide Web is HTTP, short for hypertext Transfer Protocol. (Hypertext refers to the links you see in web pages and help files.) Web pages can contain text, videos, music, Java scripts - just about anything.

* FTP is File Transfer Protocol. Any type of file can be accepted by FTP servers.

* E-mail servers use SMTP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, limited to ASCII text. But you CAN e-mail binary attachments...... Email is sent to the destination server (appearing only briefly on intermediate servers) and then is stored there until it's delivered.

* Usenet articles are sent from one news server to another much like e-mail, via NNTP, or Network News Transfer Protocol. The articles I post to my server are forwarded to my server's "mailing list" of other news servers, which then send the articles to their list of servers, and so on. Usenet articles ripple out from the originating site, taking varying amounts of time and various routes to travel to get to you on your news server. A COPY OF EACH ARTICLES IS STORED ON EACH SERVER! Since pictures in articles tend to be large, the owners of the servers tend to put tight restrictions on pictures and picture newsgroups; individual articles are typically saved for a MUCH shorter time than articles on other newsgroups. A limit may also be set on the MAXIMUM amount of storage assigned to a newsgroup; excessive posting (a "flood") may cause other articles to be "flushed" from the server in order to make room available within these limits. These are all polocies of the individual ISP (Internet Service Providers) who own the servers.

* Usenet articles can be cross-posted - a single article can be sent to multiple newsgroups at one time. The advantage is that each articles will be stores once on each news server, no matter how many newsgroups it's posted to. The disadvantage is that excessive crossposting is used by spammers to deliver their spam to as many viewers as possible, and so excessive cross-posting is discouraged. See further under netiquette.

Since posted articles are treated like e-mail, Usenet was never meant to handle binary material (such as pictures); just ASCII text. To work around this, early Net gods devised ways of converting (encoding) binaries into text for posting to "bulletin boards" (BBS, the ancestors of Usenet), and then back to their original binary form (decoding) after downloading. Many encoding schemes (e.g., Mime's base64, Yenc) are available, but UUencode/Uudecode is the accepted Usenet standard. A good newsreader can detect binaries and perform all of the encoding/decoding automatically for you.


1.B. Netiquette in binaries newsgroups.

See here also... http://www.dur.ac.uk/its/services/usenet/guidelines/ (Who's computer is this?)

Recurring themes across all binaries newsgroups:

1. LOOK FOR A FAQ before you post anything, even comments.

2. LURK AND LEECH for at least a few weeks before posting anything, including questions. Find out what's welcome or taboo first. Observing for a while will also help you avoid the mistake of duplicating very recent or worn-out posts by rushing to contribute without knowing the group's history.

3. Learn how to use YOUR computer, YOUR chosen software and basic Internet tools like search engines and shareware sites. While others are willing to help out, don't expect to be spoon-fed. Even if you're not a newbie, you can get up to speed on any area of the Net that is new ground to you with these free resources:
http://www.netlingo.com (Who's computer is this?)

4. Read your Internet Service Provider's and/or news server's FAQ's.

5. DON'T SHOUT unless you mean it. In posts and e-mail, THIS IS SHOUTING. Turn off that caps lock. It is considered rude and bad newsgroup netiquette. If you over-use your caps-lock, you will most likely be filtered by others in the group.

6. CONSERVE BANDWIDTH, loosely defined as the amount of information that can flow through a channel. All Usenet resources are limited. The ever-increasing demands on news servers have led to tons of lost posts - which causes shorter retention times. Wasting bandwidth is the Usenet equivalent of littering - it hurts the whole community, especially in terms of allocating resources. It causes the pictures you want to stay on your news server for a shorter length of time.

Bandwidth wasters are:
- Posting large multimedia files (avi, mpg) to a picture newsgroup.

- Reposting files that are still on the servers because they were just posted.

- Posting software that is available via the Web or FTP.

- Posting off-topic posts, such as recipies.

- Posting questions when the answers are already right in front of you.

- Multiple, simultaneous posts of the same request.

- Cross-posting. If you cross-post to more than four groups at once, news server and/or ISP are likely to dub you a spammer and cancel or block your posts. Really, no cross-posting at all to these group are recommended. Cross-posting could lead to complaints to your ISP or news service. The list of groups is also "harvested" by spammers to find new
places to inflict their activities, so avoid attracting the spammers.

- Flame wars. Be aware that what you write will be seen worldwide on thousands of servers by thousands of people. Use e-mail whenever possible.

- Trolling, which leads to flame wars. These usually start with an inflammatory or controversial remark intended to lure responses and create arguments.

- HTML, VRML, XML, Java Script, Mouseover Event, and other signature attachments. - Spamming (see below).


7. Be polite. If you have a problem with a poster, reply in a respectful manner. There is no need to be rude in ABPA* and asking nicely is much more likely to get you what you want.

8. These are general rules. If a specific newsgroup has it's own FAQ, that FAQ's requirements override these.


1.C. Spams and Scams
There are two types of Internet Spams:

1.) Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (AKA UCE)

2.) Usenet Spam -- which is defined loosely as excessively cross-posted articles, excessively posted articles, advertisements or "announcements" of for-profit pay sites, hyperlinks or irrelevant material to a particular group.

Generally speaking, unsolicited messages posted to sell something for profit - usually an adult pay site - and messages that have no value to the group members - are spam. Folks who post a message with no picture attachment, but a link to a Web site, are spammers. Folks who post pictures plastered with the URL to their site (billboards) are spammers. Folks who put their URL in their headers are spammers. Folks who modify their e-mail address regularly to defy our kill filters are spammers.

Billboard - A picture turned into a spam ad. Many spammers will destroy a quality image by marking it with their URL. This is nothing more than a billboard and wastes a huge amount of bandwidth, storage, downloading, and deleting time. In most cases these images were downloaded from the very same groups from which they are reposted as billboard trash.

In regards to pictures w/ URL's on them, it's considered spam when the URL's size or placement degrades the quality of the image. If a small url is put on the picture by the copyright-holding web site, this will not be considered spam. If the url is placed by a web site onto someone else's copyrighted material, however, this will be considered spam. Altering of someone else's pictures or scans is not acceptable in this group.

Usenet was never meant as a venue of free advertising. No legitimate business utilizes spam to gain market recognition. You will find that the best quality adult Web sites do NOT advertise or "announce" in our newsgroup at all.

Spammers, as defined above, will not be tolerated in ABPA*. Every attempt will be made by individuals working, for the good of the group, to have spammers' messages removed from the servers and the policies of their own ISP's enforced. Attempts at deceiving our group members and disrupting the group will be met with attempts to have your ISP take actions against you.

There is a new, easy way to fight spam. It is called SpamCop and is found at http://www.spamcop.net. (Who's computer is this?) All you have to do is copy and paste a spam message (including full message header) into their window and press a button. SpamCop will AUTOMATICALLY determine who to complain to and draft a complaint, addressed to the spammer's ISP and from you. It is too easy. We all need to be doing it. Spamcop's complaint-creating and sending services are free. You just have to register a valid e-mail address with them (Hotmail, etc, is OK). SpamCop offers other services for a fee. Both Email and Usenet messages can be processed.

For more info on spam and spam-fighting, check out:
news:news.admin.net-abuse.misc
news:news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
news:news.admin.net-abuse.email
news:news.admin.net-abuse.sightings


1.D. The myth of anonymity

There is most-likely enough information in the headers of your posts for the authorities to identify you, even if you use a fake name and email address.

To the wise guys: You'd be amazed at how cooperative your Internet Service Provider can be about closing an account and sharing information with law enforcement agencies. They'd rather lose your small fee than harbor a criminal or troublemaker. In Usenet, behave like you're in a public place and under scrutiny, because you are.

To the good guys: Since the "information superhighway" is public, you may encounter the same type of population mix you'd meet on any busy cosmopolitan thoroughfare, including con artists, thieves and psychopaths. You'd be wise to keep your real identity out of Usenet. Use a free Internet-based e-mail account. No need to make it easy for them.





2. ABOUT ABPA*

The ABPA* newsgroups are several things:

1. They are a place providing free pictures of art to lovers of art worldwide.

2. The posters of ABPA* are not associated with commercial web sites. They volunteer their own time, money and effort to give you the files you download for free. The point is that they don't owe you anything since it's all free to you. You must get the hardware, software, and other resources necessary to acquire the free pictures. Download what you like and pass up what you don't like or can't view. Feel free to add senders you do not like to your filters or excludes lists in your newsreader.

3. Since the posts are free and voluntary, you the downloader, have an obligation to fulfill your part of the transaction. If your current news server is inadequate, you need to subscribe to a better one or be satisfied with what you get - partial posts or short time on the server. It also means acquiring the skills and software you need to view the material the way it is offered, "as is". Requesting re-posts a few days after the original post because your news server sucks is the wrong answer. Requesting pictures be e-mailed to you by posters is the wrong answer, also. If you want to be a picture collector, you need to get or pay for the resources you need to be one. Consider your ISP and news server as important as your hardware, which most likely was NOT free. As a picture collector, your news server and ISP are just as important as any piece of hardware.

4. ABPA* is for people who like art. By entering the group under most ISP's policies you are accepting these terms and accept full responsibility for anything you upload, download, or save on your computer. We, the posters, are liable for what we, as individuals, post. Pornography (including child pornography - pictures of children) is not acceptable in art picture newsgroups

5. Some frequently-asked questions:
Q:Are the ABPA* newsgroups moderated?
A:No, and it's not practical or ultimately desirable to make it so. ABPA* is RETRO-moderated, by a few caring individuals, solely for the purpose of canceling Spam and reporting spammers to their ISP's.

Q:Then who runs the newsgroup?
A:Technically, no one, although there's a good-sized group of contributors and readers who safeguard it through both individual and united efforts. That doesn't mean we agree on everything. ABPA* is a free public forum with thousands of participants worldwide.

Q:Well, then, what's with all the rules?
A:They are merely time-tested practices for keeping the newsgroups healthy, pleasant and available. It might help to think of the posters as our hosts who are spending their own time, money and effort to provide us with free entertainment.
If they ask us to do things a certain way, let's at least give them that courtesy.





3. Downloading


3.A. The Posts Explained
Q.Instead of pictures, I see lines of text (letters, numbers, and punctuation - whats wrong?
AIt means that your news reader doesnt have the capability to interpret the particular form of encoding used.
Binary pictures are formed of 8-bit quantities (Bytes); unfortunately, the Internet was originally designed to transmit text, and supports 7-bit transfers (with 7 bits - 128 possible codes - you can transmit all of the alphabet - upper and lower case - digits, and a lot of punctuation marks - including spaces, tabs, etc.; since some of these have special meaning to news readers, only 6 bits of printable, graphic characters are available).
Thus, in order to get 8-bit bytes through the internet, you have to chop them into 6-bit pieces in some fashion. The way this is done is called the encoding; common encoding schemes are UUENCODE, MIME, and Yenc. Each one has different rules (e.g., UUENCODE has each line start with the letter M, and all lines are the same length).
You dont need to know the details of the encoding (if you insist, do a Google search); you just need to know that if you get a lot of text instead of a picture, your reader doesnt support the form of encoding used.


Q:What do those fractions in the subject header mean?
A:Large binaries need to be split up into multiple, linked parts for posting. The fractions indicate the part number. For instance 5/32 is part 5 of a 32-part file. You need all 32 parts available on your server to successfully download the file. You might see multimedia files posted this way. Now and then, you might even see a picture posted in this manner, although it is undesirable. Picture binary files are NORMALLY single-part, thus they all should say (1/1). Note: Many automatic picture-downloading newsreaders need this (1/1) in each message header in order for them to recognize it as a picture post and download it. They will not download a multi-part file.


3.B. News Servers and Known Problems

If your server is missing posts, consider getting a different ISP or subscribing to a supplemental newsfeed. Excellent newsfeed means getting everything that is posted within 24 hours of its posting. Good retention is at least a week, often longer. Yes, there really are such servers! A good ISP's news server will have good retention.

Here's what we know about some ISPs. If you're using a large provider you think is great, but it's not listed, we'd be happy to pass along that information and add it to the list, especially for ISPs outside the U.S. Please post "Attention: FAQ."

A list of news-only services follow the ISPs.


3.B.1. Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

A note on ISPs. Access may vary from location to location. Busy signals, dropped connections due to timeouts, and server congestion vary from place to place. So shop around and take advantage of free trial offers.

* America Online (http://www.aol.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- [This is admittedly a long rant, but there are 11 million people on AOL who need to know there's a solution to their problems. AOL is NOT an Internet Service Provider at all, but an "online service" which operates very differently from an ISP. Usenet is NOT a priority for AOL, so you have two big problems. First, AOL's news feed is terrible! Second, AOL's newsreader program just plain stinks. It lacks most of the basic features standard newsreaders have that make downloading so easy. You're going to be amazed at what everybody else can do that you cannot. Furthermore, AOL's server is not the standard NNTP type, so you can't even change your software unless you get a different news server to connect to. Keep AOL if you must, but ADD another news service and then use a great freeware/shareware newsreader to connect to it.

Note: It is AOL's STATED POLICY that they DO NOT WANT MEMBERS TO POST. Since you CAN'T CONTRIBUTE pictures, that puts you in an awkward position to ask for any concessions from ABPA* posters. Please - get a real ISP, a real news server and software and join the mainstream out on the REAL Internet. Life around Usenet is much easier out here.

* Microsoft Network (http://www.msn.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- An online service, similar to AOL in quirkiness, newsfeed and desirability, but at least you can use a third-party newsreader. If you have MSN, you probably realize you need a supplemental newsfeed.

* MindSpring (http://www.mindspring.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- Their news server had long retention of binaries, but is reported to now have only 3 day retention. *Note: spammers are canceled without hesitation and offer the Spaminator spam filtering service to filter out Unsolicited Commercial e-mail.

When I called and complained to a tech support person about many missing posts every day, I was told that Earthlink's primary concern was email. Further, that newsgroups were low priority if a concern at all. It's as if they want to push people to buy newsgroup support from a third party. Perhaps because of the high volume of traffic supported by broadband.

In any event, Mindspring, aka Earthlink newsgroup support is much less than desireable.
{Jim Smith}

* Erol's (http://www.erols.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- Excellent newsfeed, retention, and customer service. Also excellent ISP for newsgroups, but not available nation-wide.

* Prodigy Internet (http://www.prodigy.com (Who's computer is this?) ) (NOT Prodigy Classic Online Service) -- Excellent newsfeed and good retention.

* ATT WorldNet (http://www.att.net (Who's computer is this?) ) -- Good newsfeed, some problems lately with retention, but have a good reputation for having complete postings and a fair connection rate, with little down time.


3.B.2. Supplemental Newsfeeds (Subscription):
Don't be fooled by services boasting high numbers of newsgroups carried, since thousands of groups out there are not even used. They are empty or just full of spam.

* NewsGuy (http://www.newsguy.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- Only $39.95 per year, the best buy in the list, and most of the Spam is filtered out by the SpamHippo. Definitely worth a try for the price. You will get all of the posts you have been missing and messages stay up on their server much longer than on others, almost 30 days retention in picture groups. Regular NewsGuy has a 100 MB per day download limit.

* Extra Newsguy (link to it from the NewsGuy page or go to http://extra.newsguy.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- $69.95 a year or $9.95 per month. The same great newsfeed as regular Newsguy, but more groups, a bit longer retention, Usenet image and sound archives, Web space (min. 6 month subscription) and extra email accounts.

* Supernews (http://www.supernews.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- $119.95 a year or $13.95 per month. Free trial available. Excellent newsfeed and retention. Will not accept or support binary posting except to groups with "binaries" in the name.

* Newscene (http://www.newscene.com (Who's computer is this?) ) -- $120 a year or $12 per month. So far reports are mixed.

* PictureView (www.pictureview.com) -- not a news server, exactly, but a very useful fee-based newsgroup picture archives. It is browseable with thumbnailed images and files can be downloaded one at a time or as zip files.

* Giganews(http://www.giganews.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) -- Giganews has prevailed for me as providing the best service consistently throughout that period and at this time as well. Giga has any group you can imagine, almost never misses a post, has the postings within minutes of uploads, and retains for 10 or more days. I feel their rates are probably a couple dollars more per month, but they actually provide real service you can count on. {Justus}


* One more alternate (both free and payable) newsfeed -- http://www.nailnews.com (Who's computer is this?) allows free unlimited access to the last 3-7 days of 37 a.b.p.* groups (full index on their front page), and access to 415 binary newsgroups is available for $9.95 per month. I've found them very useful as they thumbnail each picture post -- in the default view I can see and judge which ones to download. With paid membership - Thanks to Beth Winter for suggesting this entry.

* Newz Groups (http://www.newzgroups.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) - REPORTED CLOSED!!!. JK

* Easynews (http://google-easynews.easynews.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) - This dedicated news service has excellent retention (about 30 days), propogation, and allows 5 similtaneous connections. It's $9.95/month. {casper}

* A great for-pay newsgroups server for binaries is news.astraweb.com ( http://www.news.astraweb.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ). They charge $10 a month for their
unlimited account and $15 a month for their unlimited DSL account. I'm
using the $10 account on 512 kbps DSL and it's more than adequate.
Downloads are unlimited, speeds are fast, retention is 15 days on all
the binary groups I subscribe to and completion is excellent. I'd
definitely recommend it.
{Holden McGroin}

* http://www.octanews.net (Who's computer is this?) -- The person who runs the free *.readfreenews.net servers, now also has a commercial server in operation. I haven't used it yet myself, but with all the support he has shown for the free servers, its a good bet the support for his commercial server is superb. High completion. {Smoovious}


There are other pay news servers, but we do not have the experiences to recommend them. Please give input if you have it. Here are some:

Airnewshttp://www.airnews.net/ (Who's computer is this?)
Deja NewsREPORTED DEFUNCT!
Netnewshttp://www.news-services.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
Usenetserverhttp://www.usenetserver.com (Who's computer is this?)


3.B.3. Supplemental Newsfeeds (Free):

* Web-Based: REMARQ (www.remarq.com) ===> NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!!

* OpenBeta (HTTP://openbeta.news.uk.uu.net) (identified by "Noorman")

This is a small news server. Connections are limited, so if you are
refused access, don't give up, just try again. Once you get through
the connection is stable, but you can only download one (or two items)
at a time so you can't initiate an unattended download... you'll only
get those files.

It doesn't miss much, but with the small retention it pays to visit right away if you're looking for something your news server didn't grab. Sometime you'll get access first time, but mostly it may take 10-15 attempts. That takes maybe 60 seconds real time so it isn't a big deal. ===> APPARENTLY CLOSED!

* TestNews (HTTP://testnews.execpc.com) (It's a bit slow and access take more time) (identified by "Noorman")

This one is a terrific source. Holds the post for 6 to 7 days. Always current and up-to-date, and it don't seem to miss a thing. This one seems to have no restrictions on connections or downloads. You can also post to this news server as well. The only restriction seems to be a limited inlog connection. After one week(?) you can't connect, but after a few days without trying it works fine again. ===> APPARENTLY CLOSED!

* ETIN (http://www.etin.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - ETIN maintains text messages as well as binaries. Binaries retention is about 2 weeks, and should be improved as they add more servers. Text messages are retained indefinitely. One may browse as well as search over the whole USENET message stream.
===> This site has suspended operations.

* Newz Groups (http://www.newzgroups.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) REPORTED CLOSED!!!

* Teranews seems worth noticing. http://www.teranews.com (Who's computer is this?)
need credit card to register, small initial fee, no monthly fees. 50 MB daily download limit. has occasional problems. unmetered posting, but reportedly posts often don't propagate that well.

* http://www.usenet-replayer.com/ (Who's computer is this?) {ClothesHorse}

*NEW* * also, news://biggulp.readfreenews.net. totally free, no registration. run as a test server, no download limit but severely limited download speed (fine for dialup users). takes a retry-capable newsreader, as sometimes hundreds of tries required to log on to this very busy server. no posting. excellent completion. best used for fills only. simultaneous connections limited to 3. {Netcat)

*NEW** http://www.readfreenews.net (Who's computer is this?) -- Totally free, no posting, no registration, anonymous access, no download limits, NNTP accessible on any port. These servers are run as test servers, but have been up for several years, with no plans to shut them down anytime soon. They can be reached at:

* news://allnews.readfreenews.net -- 4 threads, shorter retention, no Spam filtering, binary groups have text only.

* news://news.readfreenews.net -- 4 threads, longer retention, some Spam filtering, binary groups have text only.

* news://biggulp.readfreenews.net -- 3 threads, a few days retention, some Spam filtering, high binary group completion.

A retry-capable newsreader, such as NewsBin Pro or Xnews is necessary, as BigGulp is extremely busy, and will most likely take many retries to get through. Limited download speed. Best used for fills. Use all three in order, the text servers will filter out all of those pesky non-binary posts, so you don't waste bandwidth downloading text messages from your binary servers.

{Smoovious}


3.B.4. NNTP-Based:

Be aware that free, public, news servers are quite likely to either not allow posting, not allow posting of binaries, or delete all binaries after you post them.

To search a database of free news servers sorted by speed, group count, message count, domain, or longevity, go to:
* http://www.jammed.com/~newzbot/ (Who's computer is this?)
* http://www.angelfire.com/tx/calame/free.html (Who's computer is this?) ===> APPARENTLY CLOSED!

There are a few software applications designed to locate free news servers. They are fairly complicated to use, but may be worth the effort if you have the time.
* NewsPro - (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Ridge/7787/ (Who's computer is this?) ===> APPARENTLY CLOSED!
* News Hunter - (http://www.slip.net/~rain/nh/ (Who's computer is this?) ) ===> APPARENTLY CLOSED!


3.C. Newsreaders

Bad tools make extra work. Good tools make extra leisure. Downloading pictures from these newsgroups is supposed to be fun, so get the best tools for it and stop missing out on what your present software can't handle.

Here's what we know about some newsreaders to help you choose. All of these applications will automatically download and decode picture files and most are available for FREE download from the usual software sites. Most have some limits that will be removed when registered (paid for).

A newsgroup devoted to News Readers is: news:news.software.readers - ask there if you're having a problem and can't find the solution. (It's a good idea to preface the subject with the name of the reader, e.g. Netscape, Dialog, Xnews, etc.)


3.C.1. Windows:

* Free Agent and Agent (http://www.forteinc.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Probably the best GENERAL newsreader out there, but not picture-dedicated, and therefore maybe not best for downloading images. Free Agent is capable of a lot more general newsreading tasks than the "picture suckers," but has serious limitations when it comes to downloading pictures. Free Agent will not decode all binaries. Base64-encoded files are not supported with Free agent. Registered (paid-for) Agent will decode all pictures. But neither Free Agent nor Agent will handle hands-off, unattended "picture sucking" like the apps listed below. If you spend time in the newsgroups doing things other than downloading pictures, such as downloading multimedia files (avi, mpg, etc.), or other newsreading, you will want to use Agent. Having BOTH a picture-sucker and Agent would be a good choice of software.

* Agent Addons (http://www.skuz.net/madhat/agent/util.html (Who's computer is this?) ) - Seen recommended, but no information about it)

* PictureAgent (http://www.pictureagent.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Automatically downloads and decodes binaries from newsgroups, unattended. History file prevents downloading of duplicate files and messages. Sender and subject exclude filters. You can remove unwanted posts from a group's Pending Files list before downloading.

* NewsRover (http://www.newsrover.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Automatically or manually download and decode binaries from newsgroups. Blocks duplicate files and messages. Sender and Subject filters. Handles multi-part multimedia files well and indicates when all parts are present on server. Has full e-mail and anonymous server capabilities. A good choice for one do-it-all newsgroup app.

* BinaryBoy (http://www.binaryboy.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Automatically downloads and decodes pictures from newsgroups, unattended. Blocking of duplicate files and messages. Sender and subject filters. Excellent FREEWARE, supported by banner ads at top of dialog. Can register to lose ads, but functions the same.

* Microplanet Gravity (http://www.microplanet.com/gravity (Who's computer is this?) ) - One of the best general newsreaders out there. New software with a great reputation. Has a few good picture downloading-specific functions, but is not a "picture-sucker" like the three programs listed above.

* Nomad News - it is certainly image oriented. It's very customizable and automatically decodes multipart binaries... images, exe's, zips, mp3's, rar's, yEnc... whatever. There is an internal viewer with the program or you can configure your own to open image files. You can also view files as they are downloaded, however, at this time, only JPG files are displayed. The author slowly improves the program over time and the display of GIF and PNG image files should be part of the next version.
There is no limit to the number of servers you can configure or the number of newsgroups from which you can download. The only limitation is the number of connections the individual newsserver allows and of course the speed of those connections... and, if they are "open" servers whether or not you can connect unattended. This particular news reader defaults to a maximum of 8 connections at a time, though many news servers do not allow this number. You have to configure each individual news server to it's own limitations. Always configure one less image than the maximum number of connections so you can read text messages at the same time as files are downloading.
The down side to the program for a lot of people will be the fact that it is not free. It's shareware, but well worth the price of $24.95. There is a trial version that is fully customizable but with a limitation of 25 downloads per session. {Casper}
Nomad News 2.10 is available from:
http://geocities.com/abandoned_software/nomadnews/ (Who's computer is this?)
The legal status of the program is dubious, at best, though the page above claims that NN was released to the public domain. The author definitely has abandoned it and moved on to other things. {Jeff Burchell}

* Xnews freeware.
http://xnews.newsguy.com/ (Who's computer is this?) Another very nice freeware newsreader with good posting facilities.

* I am using XNews, which is a very good free newsreader. It's only disadvantage for people might be the fact that it is an on-line reader, and cannot store more about messages than headers. Otherwise it is good, it is free, it is GNKSA 2.0, it knows about all binary message formats, it is able to show pictures after downloading [allthough these should be 1/1 messages], it can download en decode multiple message binaries [but only show the first one, so only a part of the picture is shown]. Information about XNews can be found at NewsGuy: http://xnews.newsguy.com/ (Who's computer is this?) . {Greyked}


Extra newsreaders for the list, all are Yenc compatible and
have (Gravity and Xnews excellent) posting facilities.

The yEnc format itself is a excellent alternative to UUencode
and Base64. yEncoded messages are up to 40% smaller than
UUencoded/Base64 equivalents, and include built-in error
checking and multipart file support.

If you have any questions about yEnc this site will answer them
http://www.geocities.com/zenwebpage/yEncFAQ.htm#posting (Who's computer is this?) {Sundance}

* Micro Planet Gravity freeware 2.60 and all other builds at
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/start1.html (Who's computer is this?) An excellent freeware newsreader with ditto post facility is Microplanet Gravity it's fully Yenc compatible but can only post in UU encode. Download and install 2.3 first and than install 2.6 and you're fully up to date.

* Powerpost freeware
http://www.cosmicwolf.com/ (Who's computer is this?) - non-yEnc version.
http://abmefaq.net/link3.html (Who's computer is this?) An outstanding freeware posting program in UUencode and yEnc. Several different Yenc versions available:
http://www.ifrance.com/abmdf/pp/YencPowerPostAssert5.rar (Who's computer is this?) - yEnc and UUencode upload speed toggle
http://www.usenetopia.com/YencPowerPostBuild3.zip/ (Who's computer is this?) - PPK2 version by JW version C yEnc and UUencode
http://www.geocities.com/zenwebpage/YencPost2002v102.zip (Who's computer is this?) - Can switch yEnc/UUencode. Auto-adds "yenc" in the header.
http://powerpostbuild3.szm.com/YencPowerPostBuild3.zip (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.geocities.com/zenwebpage/Yenc-PowerPostBuild3.zip (Who's computer is this?) Posts in yEnc only
http://imnsho.com/ftp/PPP06b.zip (Who's computer is this?) Peck's Power Post PPP06b

* Powergrab 2002 version 2.4 freeware binary-newsreader.
http://www.cosmicwolf.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

* ExecPC - Freeware Win V yEnce compatible extremely easy to use reader interesting for Outlook users. At: http://my.execpc.com/~mspankus/ (Who's computer is this?)

* Very good Shareware newsreader, binariesreader and posting utility in yEnc and UUencode http://www.ozinsight.com/client/ (Who's computer is this?)

* Freeware http://newsplex.webstylists.com/download/ (Who's computer is this?) NewsPlex is a news-server multiplexer. It allows any news-reader to access several news-servers simultaneously, by merging their content transparently into one single news-server.


* For Outlook: yProxy is a very good solution for Outlook Express users; it's a freeware program.

The following is a good and concise (*6* steps) set of
instructions for installing yProxy which operates unseen in
the background. I would just add that basically you are
telling yproxy your news server address and giving OE the
classic loopback address which is a number that causes your
machine to attempt to communicate with itself. OE reads thru
yproxy which interprets yenc files. It probably wouldn't hurt
to print this off before installing so that you can read it
during installation.

---->Begin quoted text

Download the program
http://www.brawnylads.com/software/ (Who's computer is this?)

Installing
1) Down load the program.

2) Install the program, When you get to the set up screen,
push the (next) button, then (I agree) button and then the
push next two (next) buttons. You will then get a screen
with some options, uncheck the first two options, and put
a check in the last option, by doing this, it will ensure
that you will be able to view yEnc posts after you reboot
you machine.

3) Now finish installing the program by clicking on the
(next) buttons

Configuring
1) Here is where you must pay attention. In Outlook Express
click on Tools, then Accounts, find the tab labeled "News",
find you news server, push the third button on the right labled
"Servers". Another window will open, there you will find a
box titled "Server Name". Write this down , once you have,
remove what's there and in its place put these numbers
127.0.0.1 By doing this you are now calling the yProxy
program to view your downloads.

2) Close out of the account section and start up yProxy. In the
news server box of yProxy put in the info you wrote down for your
news server.
Hit Start and go into Outlook Express and start viewing your yEnc
downloads.


3) Thats it, have fun, and don't forget to press start on yProxy
before you start Oulook Express to view your Newsgroups

---->End quoted text

I would also add that yProxy can be added to the start up
folder by creating a shortcut to the exe and placing it in
the start up folder. This fires it up on each reboot, doing
away with the need to remember to start it for yEnc downloads.

(originally posted by PhoneR@nger. Thanks, PR.)



3.C.2. Macintosh:

Hogwasher - Handles automatic picture downloading, as well as batch picture uploading to the newsgroups for the Mac.

MT-Newswatcher - Does an extremely reliable job of downloading and
displaying graphics, individually or in batches. I've uploaded files
with it, but not a big batch, so I can't tell you how it works in that
regard. It's available free from http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/. (Who's computer is this?) (Dave Moorman)

A couple of "yEnc" News Readers for Macs:

"MT-Newswatcher 3.2"
http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/#Download_MT_NewsWatcher (Who's computer is this?)

"Thoth"
http://www.thothsw.com/thoth/ (Who's computer is this?)
{Sundance}


3.C.3. Other:

For other Operating Systems such as Solaris, Linuxes, BeOS and other more obscure OSes, a freeware GNU news and web browser named Mozilla exists. Mozilla has been ported to many many different OSes, and the source code is available for free at http://mozilla.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

Mozilla under windows and BeOS 5.1.1 is stable and does an adequate job of both posting and viewing binary images.
---------------------------{Bill Benobo}

Take a look at the following site it has a host of yEnc programs for all sort of systems, windows, linux, apple etc. http://www.yenc.org/ (Who's computer is this?) {Sundance}

An excellent newsreader for binaries is Pan (http://pan.rebelbase.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ). It works on Linux, Mac, Windows and others.
It even comes with most versions of Linux. I've been using this for a
long time and it's extremely usable and reliable on Linux. On Windows,
the interface feels a bit more clunky.
{Holden McGroin}


3.c.4. What You Have Now:
Netscape News, MS Internet News, and MS Outlook Express - The newsreaders that came with your computer, operating system, or Web browser have improved greatly in the past couple of years, but still fall far short of the applications listed above for downloading pictures. Get a real, picture-dedicated newsreader client. Even the freeware apps outperform any of these. If you think one of these is good, you will be blown away by the performance of any of the newsreaders listed in the section above. These apps are still good for general use and posting chat, so keep one of these or Agent or Gravity in addition to your picture-dedicated newsreader.

Q:When I try to download a binary, my newsreader tells me there's no attachment, but I know there is!
A:Then it's probably MIME base 64 encoded, and you are probably using FreeAgent or another newsreader that won't decode it. When you learn to recognize mime posts before downloading, your best bet would be to have an alternate free newsreader to use for downloading those. Don't try to use an off-line decoder.

Q:I have WebTV What about me?
A:At this time. You do not have an option as far as newsreaders or services. Microsoft has it in the works to offer IE5 and Outlook Express in a bundled package with Windows CE that they may make the operating system for WebTV sometime in the future. This would allow you to use real software. But for now, if you want to be a picture collector, get a real computer.

SPECIAL NOTE TO WEBTVERS:
As requested in the answer above, do not request that posters e-mail files to you. If you want to be a real picture collector, get a real computer and the necessary software. Otherwise, live within the limitations of your chosen hardware and software. A possible solution - e-mail (forward) the pictures to YOURSELF from the newsgroup!

Q:Can I use another newsreader with AOL?
A:No and yes. You CANNOT use it to access AOL's news server, but you CAN subscribe to a supplemental news service (or get a real ISP) and connect to that.

Q:Can I use another newsreader with MSN?
A:Yes, but MSN requires the use of a proprietary encrypted password authentication method to access their news servers. Some newsreaders support this and some do not.

Q:Can I get a virus by downloading from the newsgroups?
A:Sure, but not from pictures.

NO LONGER TRUE!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Microsoft, you now can!
Here's a link to more info:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1665764,00.asp (Who's computer is this?)

Q:How can I avoid viruses?
A:Don't download any executables from the picture newsgroups (.exe, .com, .dll, .inf, or .bat files, or zip archives containing them). First of all, they don't belong there, so assume the poster is either ignorant or a wise guy. You don't want to entrust your computer to either type! At the beginning of this FAQ are URLs for reliable download sites for all the recommended software. Invariably, the safest places to download from are the author's Web or ftp site, or major software sites. Second best are other reputable host sites. The LEAST desirable are Usenet newsgroups.
An additonal list of file suffices with potential viruses include
.VBX .VBS .VBA .XLS .XLA .XLT .DOT .BAS .FRM .CLS .WLL and .OCX .
(THanks to Frank Mabrey for this additonal list.)

Q: How do people get viruses from zip files?
A:By flying blind. A zip archive cannot give you a virus, itself. It can, however, contain filetypes (listed above) which can. Get a good zip extraction utility such as WinZip, and learn to use it conservatively. Do not let it automatically open files after unzipping. Perform a virus check on executables before opening them. If a virus is present, the only way you could activate it is by executing the file.

AOLers: Click on Members | Preferences | Download and remove the checkmarks from "Automatically decompress files at signoff" and "Delete zip files after decompression." Stay in control of your own computer, otherwise you may lose track of whatever executables you've extracted, as well as where they came from and what they are.

For more information about viruses, read news:alt.comp.virus. Their FAQs are also at:
http://www.webworlds.co.uk/dharley/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.macvirus.com/reference/ (Who's computer is this?)



3.C.5Automatic Downloading

Someone serious about collecting images might want to obtain a copy of
"sbnews news robot" (http://www.newsrobot.com (Who's computer is this?) ) or picture agent
(http://www.pictureagent.com (Who's computer is this?) ). Both of these programs will automatically download every jpg, gif or post with "whatever you want" or "whoever you want" from any or many newsgroups. this saves hours of downloading one at a time. Picture agent's "pending" feature let's you look ahead and delete any pics that you don't want or need.

Now to sort all of these pics you need ACDSee32,
http://www.acdsystems.com/products/acdsee/acdsee300.htm. (Who's computer is this?) this allows you to see all of the images in a directory in thumbnail form. you can rip through want you downloaded; sorting, deleting, renaming, etc. check it out. it is also a must have for the serious collector.
{"Watty Wattel"}

Q:I use Netscape - can I download multi-part files?
A:Downloading a Multi-part File Using Netscape:
Not directly. If all else fails:
Go to http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/index.html (Who's computer is this?) and pick
your system and download and install Alladin Expander. When it
asks for configuration information, make sure that you enable
UUE.
In Netscape, highlight all the parts of the file (click on the
FIRST line, shift-click on the LAST line to highlight all lines
between First and Last, inclusive; it will start downloading the
first part immediately upon clicking on it, but you can cancel
that by clicking on STOP - it will remain selected). Select the
"File" menu and select "save message as". It will show an
arbitrary name, such as "untitled.txt"; re-name it something, but
with a UUE extension (e.g., "untitled.uue").
Note - the individual articles MUST be in order, and cant
contain unrelated articles. If theyve arrived out-of-order,
click on the "subject" column of the browser to alphabetize the
headers.
Once its fully loaded, just double-click on it to wake up the
program. It will be unzipped & decoded w/ the filename the poster
gave it. So it doesn't really matter what name you gave it, but
use a UUE extension. A little extra work than Outlook Express,
but it CAN be done in Netscape.
NOTE: The same technique will work to download a series of
pictures, provided that they are encoded using UUE
compression (mime-64 encoding won't work because of a
defect in Expander). This allows you to go off and do
something else while downloading (eating, running errands,
etc all come to mind).
NOTE: Expander Version 6.0 is reported to have some problem
unzipping files generated in this way. Older version
don't, so - if necessary - you can go to:ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/pub/_old/ (Who's computer is this?) and pick your system
(pc, mac, etc.), then Expander, and then download an older
version (such as V5)
Another alternative is to download UUDeview (either from
http://www.miken.com/uud(USA (Who's computer is this?) ) or http://www.fpx.de/fp/(Germany (Who's computer is this?) ) )
and use it just as described above. UUDeview has the advantage
that it can decode not only multi-part messages, but also mime-64
and yEnc encoded messages, both single and multi-part. Unfortunately, it does have the defect that all file names are converted to lower-case.

Q:I use outlook express; how about me?
A:since you are using outlook express, you can combine the split
files as following:
click on the first message
then ctrl-click on the last message (or shift-click if there are
more than 2 messages)
all messages should be highlighted
right click on the highlighted messages
from pop-up menu, choose Combine and Decode
messages will be listed in another popup window
confirm that the messages are in the right order (1,2, 3...)
if any replies are intermingled, just move them to the bottom
click OK
combined image will be displayed in another window
you can save it from there

hope this helps {ClothesHorse}







4. VIEWING YOUR DOWNLOADS.


4.A. File Types and Viewers:

The most common file type found in the picture newsgroups will be .JPG and on an occasion .GIF. But others, such as the older .JPEG type are still found. And newer files might be PROGRESSIVE JPG's. These newer files are not viewable on older software, so make sure you have the most recent versions of your newsreading and picture-viewing software.

Q. What are .CSV files? I can't find a viewer.
A. They are Comma Separated Value files and contain information on the posted series. They are used by collectors to ensure that the scans are recieved as posted and not corrupted. Using a program like PicChecker (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/vhorch/piccheck.htm (Who's computer is this?) ) You can see what part of a series you have and don't have. The file can be opened in a text editor like notepad.

Q. How does yEnc works?
A. yEnc is simply a method to encode the binaries when posting to a newsgroup - it was poorly implemented and released to the usenet community before it was ready, but we are stuck with it nonetheless, it's use is more widespread every day. I have not seen any posts in artpics encoded with yEnc so far, so I do wonder why you chose to ask your question in that group. Most posts are UUencoded, and your software would have no trouble at all with those ones.

You are using Outlook Express to read the newsgroup - that particular software does not decode yEnc, so you will have to acquire a decoder and learn how to do it yourself. You can find a free decoder, along with instructions on how to use it with Outlook Express, at the following webpage: http://www.yenc32.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

The other choice you have is to change the software you are using to access the newsgroups, there are many programs that will decode yEnc on their own, Microsoft OE just isn't one of them. If you would like to investigate this option further, here is a place to see which newsreaders support yEnc: http://www.geocities.com/altbinariessoundsmusicclassical/yenc.html#ch3 (Who's computer is this?)
{Lodewijk Otto}

Here's what we know about some picture-viewers to help you choose:


4.A.1. Windows:

* IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a fast FREEWARE image viewer/converter for Windows.
Supported file formats: JPG/JPEG, GIF, BMP, DIB, RLE, PCX, DCX, PNG, TIFF, TGA, RAS/SUN, ICO, CUR, ANI, AVI, WAV, MID, RMI, WMF, EMF, PBM, PGM, PPM, IFF/LBM, PSD, CPT, EPS, CLP, CAM, MPG/MPEG, MOV, LWF, AIF, G3 and Photo-CD.

Some features of IrfanView: Thumbnail option, preview option, drag & drop support, slideshow, fast directory view (fast moving through directory), batch conversion, audio CD player, print option, change color depth, scan support, cut/crop, effects (sharpen, blur, photoshop filter factory etc.), capturing, many hotkeys ...

* ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Full-featured image file browser/viewer. Browse images on drives as thumbnailed pages or view images full-screen. Explorer-like interface, capable of similar file management for organizing files, with click and drag capabilities. Can show images as a slide show. Can make thumbnail index files and Web pages. Latest version includes an outstanding (the best available) duplicate picture file finder.

* CompuPic (http://www.compupic.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - Full-featured image file browser/viewer. Browse images on drives as thumbnailed pages or view images full-screen. Explorer-like interface, capable of similar file management for organizing files, with click and drag capabilities. Can show images as a slide show.

* FireHand Ember (http://www.firehand.com/Ember (Who's computer is this?) ) - Full-featured image file browser/viewer. Browse images on drives as thumbnailed pages or view images full-screen. Explorer-like interface, capable of similar file management for organizing files, with click and drag capabilities. Can show images as a slide show. Very fast and simple thumbnail index-maker.


4.A.2. Macintosh
* ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - see above.
* CompuPic (http://www.compupic.com (Who's computer is this?) ) - see above.

* Graphic Converter (http://www.lemkesoft.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is shareware; try it for free, then decide if you want to pay. Costs something like US $40.00. It displays and thumbnails images and allows you to manipulate values such as color, contrast, saturation and a host of other qualities that I don't understand. For the money it's hard to beat. (Dave Moorman)



4.A.3. Multiple platforms:
* XnView (http://www.xnview.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a utility for viewing and converting graphic files. Versions available for: MS-Dos, Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP, Atari, BeOS x86, OS/2, Linux x86, FreeBSD x86, Irix mips, Solaris , Solaris x86, HP-UX, AIX

It has the features:
o Import about 360 graphic file formats
o Export about 40 graphic file formats
o Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO
support
o Resize
o Copy/Cut/Crop
o Adjust brigthness, contrast...
o Modify number of colors
o Apply filters (blur, average, emboss, ...)
o Apply effects (lens, wave, ...)
o Fullscreen mode
o Slide show
o Picture browser
o Batch convert
o Thumbnail create
o Screen capture
o Contact Sheet create
o Multi-page file create (TIFF, DCX, LDF)
o TWAIN support (Windows only)
o Print support (Windows only)
o Drag & Drop support (Windows only)
o 36 languages support (Windows only)
o And many may other things...
XnView is provided as FREEWARE for private non-commercial or educational use (including non-profit organization)


4.B. Screen Savers

In theory, a screen saver preserves your monitor screen by changing the image periodically while the computer is unused, so that an image is not "burned" into the screen. The screen savers of interest here are those that are capable of displaying pictures.


4.B.1 Windows:

gPhotoShow (http://www.bottin.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is free. It features: Runs in Windows; Several transition effects; Image formats: BMP, JPG, GIF (only non interlaced GIFs); Works on both 256 color and True Color displays; Configurable delay between images; Automatically resizes your images


4.B.2. Macintosh:

dcor (at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4193/utilit.html (Who's computer is this?) ) - displays pictures from a directory when the computer is idle, leaves the last picture behind as a desktop picture when done.


4.C. Other Tools

4.C.1. Windows:

* d'peg (http://www.somewareonthe.net/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is shareware; you can download/
distribute the free version, or pay $19.95 to register for additional
capabilities. "d'peg! will allow you to scour any number of harddrives
and folders, even removable media drives like CDRom and Zip drives with
disk swap prompting, snarfing out duplicate graphics files using
traditional methods of Name, Size, Checksum, & CRC, fuzzy modes of
Color Content, and intelligent modes of Tolerant Pattern Matching with
Dynamic AutoCropping - to catch duplicates that have been color
adjusted, resized, resaved in any of 29 graphic file formats - even
bordered, Spam text'd, and flipped or rotated!"

* Unique Filer (http://sohosoft.com/uniquefiler/download.htm (Who's computer is this?) ) is an alternative to d'peg; seem to be much faster from my first trial!

* DeDuper (mailto:deduper@bigfoot.com) finds all the .JPG files within a selected directory or drive (and it's sub-directories).
It then does a binary comparison of all the JPG's it finds which have exactly the same file size.
If it finds two identical images, they are displayed side by side, together with their file name, location and image size. You then have the option of deleting either the left-hand image or the right-hand image or ignoring the match and allowing the program to continue - or aborting the comparison routine.

* ImageDupeless (http://www.imagedupeless.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is another.


* I successfully use the free program Rname-it to rename files--- very easy to use -- found out about it from a message posted by scanner Bright Spark. you can find Rname-it program here: http://fileutil.tripod.com/ (Who's computer is this?) {ClothesHorse}

* Shareware program (costs a few $) Magic File Renamer can be found here: http://mfr.queryweb.com/ (Who's computer is this?) {ClothesHorse}

* The Magic file Renamer can be found at http://doodu.tripod.com (Who's computer is this?) {Sundance}

* Another program worthwhile is a freeware indexmaker, it's called Dpic, it has some small bugs but nothing worthwhile mentioning and can be found at http://www.cd2html.de/index.de.html (Who's computer is this?) {Sundance}



5. POSTING (UPLOADING)


5.A. Posting Questions, Answers, Comments, Requests:

Q:Help! Why can't I get these files to work?
A:I dunno, maybe you should call the Psychic Network! Please, when you ask for help, at least provide enough information so someone CAN help you. At a minimum give your operating system (Win95, Win 3.1, Mac, Etc.), your software (newsreader and image viewer), a description of your problem (Uploading, downloading, viewing), and the specific file you are having trouble with. The more information you give, the better the chances someone can provide you with an answer.

Q:Why is it that some people who ask questions get helped, some get flamed and others are just ignored?
A:Polite questions in the proper groups get responses, unless the answer is already staring them right in the face. In that case, the poster might be ignored or get a little reminder to read the FAQ before posting.

Q:Is it okay to post chat in ABPA*?
A:Yes, if it is related to posting or downloading and of use to the group as a whole.

Q:Hey, dude, can you e-mail me some pictures?
A:No. It's obvious you're only about 15 years old and on WebTV1. If you were an adult with a computer and a credit card, you'd be able to subscribe to a great ISP and news server. Besides, even if your mailbox could accommodate large files, anyone with anything to share would be throwing their time away uploading for just one person. Posting makes the files available to millions of people, world-wide, all at once. Then, many of the people who download them like to "give back" by posting what they have. See how nice that works out? Lots of posts, everyone benefits.


5.B. Posting Binaries in ABPA*

Q:How do I post?
A:You should have an automated posting program, like AutoPost. Write to a poster and we can send or suggest one and help with any questions you may have. It's quite simple to post large batches of pictures with the right software.

Q:Is there any subject matter that is taboo in the newsgroups?
A:Child pornography, kiddie porn, KP. Almost all of us are governed by laws requiring models to be at least 18 years of age. We ask that international participants respect those constraints and our cultural sensibilities. Or else!

Q:Is it okay to repost files I've downloaded from ABPA* ?
A:Yes, absolutely, but PLEASE make sure you are not repeating very recent or tired posts; it's also considered good form to credit the original scanner (and get his/her permission to repost) as well. If you only visit occasionally or if you're very new around here, you're probably not aware of what has been posted recently. Also, if you are not a steady reader, it would be very much appreciated if you stick around for a week or two after posting and answer any questions about your posts.

Q:Is okay to post pictures I've downloaded from web sites?
A:Generally, no. First of all, many such pictures are modified versions of pictures that originally appeared in one of the ABPA* groups. Second, it is a waste of bandwidth - instead of posting the picture, post the URL where the picture can be found...that way anyone who wants it can get it without cluttering up the servers.

Q: I have a bunch of pictures that I'd like to post in one big zip file, OK?
A:Nooooooooooo! Keep them separate, please! Why should anyone be asked to download the whole collection? Most steady readers would probably already have at least some of the pictures. Also, tastes vary. Let everyone pick and choose from individual posts. And many newsreaders will only download pictures posted one-at-a-time. Ideally, post a thumbnail index with your pictures, as well.

Q:I rename all my pictures so I can remember who they are of and keep the files together and organized on my hard drive. Is it okay to post them renamed?
A:NO. You'll be flamed into oblivion by anyone who wastes the download time only to find out they already have these pictures. Blanket re-naming is a mistake often made by newbies, to their later regret. They find themselves downloading dupes, too, because they can't tell they already have the file. It's better to keep track of content by sorting image files into descriptively named folders, such as by
Artist, Title, model name or subject.

Example: You have three series' of Ert and all three are named img001-050. The conflicting filenames might cause a mess when downloaded, mixing up the three series' with each other. If you re-name them by adding a couple of numbers or letters, but retaining the original numbers at the end, it will help more than hurt. Situations, however, where this sort of re-naming is necessary, are pretty rare. Use common sense and think of your fellow collectors if you embark on re-naming.

NOTE: Some re-naming is sometimes helpful. Not for yourself so much as for everyone's benefit, conservative re-naming of some files might be helpful - if you have more than one series of the same artist/painting and the series' have the exact same filenames.

Note: Re-naming files creates MORE dupes, NOT less. Every time you re-name a file, you just created another dupe for the group as a whole to have to deal with - another dupe to have to delete after we download it. Dupes are a problem created by collectors who re-name and then post. It is a poster's responsibility to the group, for the good of other collectors, NOT to unnecessarily CREATE new dupes by posting re-named files. Re-naming (except in special case mentioned above) might "clean up" YOUR hard drive (for now), but it clutters up OUR newsgroups with duplicate files. When you re-name a file, you just ended all chances of actually finding FILLS for that series. How can you fill a hole in a series when you have re-named it to where there are no holes? Rather than re-name these sets you should post them, incomplete and with original filenames - and ask for fills. This is the fun challenge of collecting pictures - to find those fills and fill those holes. Re-naming, cropping, and re-sizing of scanner's files is not acceptable in the picture newsgroups.

Q:Uh-oh, so now what can I do about finding out the original filenames for my re-named pictures?
A:Re-download the files next time they are posted. Or request that someone who has the files repost them for you with their original filenames.

Q:Can I name my pictures anything I want?
A:yes, within reason. A name like "JOHN-001.JPG" is less useful than "Erte-001.jpg". (in the bad old (DOS) days, file names were limitedto 8 characters of name, a period ("."), and 3 characters of extension (.JPG"); thus you'd see names like these. Now days, there is less restriction on file names, so you'll see names like "Ert - At the Theatre- Trapeze.jpg", which combine the name of the artist and the artist's title. Don't go overboard on these - some people still have a limit of 32 or 64 characters in the file name, and most CD-ROM burners are unhappy if the name is more than 64 characters long. If you MUST number your pictures, make sure that you use enough digits in the numebr to allow for future expansion of the series - computers like to sort files names, and 'a1, a2, ..., a9, a10, ..., a100 ...' will get sorted as 'a1 a10 a100 a2 ... a9 ...', which most people find annoying.

Q:What should I put in my subject header?
A:Essential information is:
Name of artist, title, filename AND extension. Full filename is necessary for many newsreaders to download a picture file. (1/1) Part description is necessary for many newsreaders to download pictures also. When reposting a scanner's work it is a good idea to give them credit.
EXAMPLE HEADER:
Ert - for Joe (Thanks, Itieu) - c-ert001.jpg (1/1)

Additional information, such as the dates of the artist or of the painting, or the place where the painting resides, are also welcome, either in the subject or body of the message.

Try to insure that when you post an image you use a unique file name. Files with similar content may sometimes be given the same name ie. dog.gif. This can cause your filename to be overwritten on other peoples systems and often forces them to rename them. We want to avoid this in order to give credit where credit is due. A good method for keeping track of who posted an image for your filing system is to add an initial if not already there, ie. <initial>_picture.jpg, picture_<initial>.jpg, etc. The underscore can help you keep track of your edits to the original file name. An underscore-hyphen-underscore _-_ separates your additions even better.

All this effort would be wasted without the scanners who post the pictures in the first place. Most scanners use some sort of ID code (either at the beginning or end of the file name) to identify their work. You can find a list of the IDs already in use, at: http://www.home.ch/~spaw3964/usbl.html (Who's computer is this?) - check these out and make sure you don't use one that someone else is alteady using!

If you're reposting pictures you've posted before, it's considered
common curtesy to identify the reposts so anyone who downloaded the
picture the last time at least can verify that they've already got a
copy. The common way to identify this is to preface the Subject-line
with either "<R> " or "<RBR> ".

Do not put message count in your headers, in any form [example: (1/25) or 1 of 25] News servers use high numbers in this sort of header to blacklist and block you as a spammer. Also, it will confuse some newsreaders (FreeAgent) into thinking that your picture is a part of a multi-part post and won't download it.

Q:Is it okay to download and upload at the same time?
A:Yes, it sure is, but expect one or the other - maybe both - to progress much slower, which increases the risk of timing out.

Q:I made a BIG mistake. How do I cancel the post?
A:You can do that with your newsreader. Stop the upload if it's still in progress. Retrieve headers, and find the post you want to cancel. Check your newsreader's command menus for "Cancel Usenet Post." Newsguy users go to their Web site to cancel your posts there. Or send an e-mail to your news server requesting they cancel your messages with a certain header.

Q:How much can I post in one day?
A:Limiting yourself to no more than 25 pictures (or 5 MB) a day is best. This gives people time to download what they want (not just your posts) and keep current. If you regularly exceed that benchmark, you'll find yourself flooded with repost requests anyway. Keep an eye on the newsgroup and judge by what you see. When there's a lot of activity, slow up a bit. During a lull, you can post a little more. Be courteous to other downloaders who may not have as fast a connection as you or the free time to spend all day every day downloading and sorting your pictures.

Q:Should I cross-post ?
A:Generally, NO! Be aware that cross-posting is one of the criteria used in by news servers to determine whether a post is legitimate or spam. As a general rule, DO NOT cross-post to more than four newsgroups at one time. Make sure, also, that your posts are relevant to all newsgroups to which they are cross-posted. Off-topic posts will be dubbed spam and deleted by news servers. Best policy - do not cross-post at all ever. Please do not cross-post to ABPA*. It does cause problems as far as the serious collectors in this group and others. They tend to have regular groups they subscribe to. So please don't contribute to the problem. A much better solution is to post to a single group, and then post a simple message to the other groups telling anyone interested there where to find your posting. (If you preface the name of the group with "news:", it makes the reference clickable and convenient for all users. Example:
I've just posted a series on Ert on news:alt.binaries.pictures.artpics.

A note: Many news servers do not retain newsgroups that are only CROSS-posted to. They look to see if a group has posts aimed directly at it and keep only those.

Warning: Excessive cross-posting (spamming) could result in the termination of your ISP account or suspension of posting privileges.

Q:I've noticed that someone is asking for a certain series to be reposted and it looks like the original poster didn't see the request. Is it okay if I repost it?
A:Sure... UNLESS the request was has already been posted a couple of times recently. In this case, you can probably figure out why the request is being ignored by the original poster.

Q:Your picture did not upload correctly - you forgot some pictures. Please repost it.
A:NOOOOOO. The regular posters in this group do know how to post correctly. It is simply not their fault if you can't download their pictures. If you are having trouble downloading, decoding, or viewing files posted to this group, first look at yourself. What might be your problem that is causing the trouble? Most likely it is your news server or your newsreading software. Reposts are a waste of time and bandwidth. If the files are not on your server, you either need to get a better news server or be satisfied with missing files. We have seen several problems lately with newsreaders (your software). We know that FreeAgent cannot decode all picture binaries and cannot handle certain headers. So don't use these to download pictures. We know now that Netscape's Newsreader cannot handle all file types. So don't use Netscape to download pictures. Also, no matter what newsreader you are using, if it is not the most current version, it is out of date may have problems - upgrade it. Otherwise, you may not be able to handle all picture filetypes

Q.Should I encode my postings with yEnc?
A.Thats up to you, but consider the following:

Pro: yEnc files are smaller; thus they can up- and down-load faster. Being smaller, they take up less space on the servers, and thus are likely to be retained longer. For people who pay for connections by the minute or by the volume of data transferred, these are important considerations. For these reasons, yEnc is popular in Europe.

Con: yEnc is still not supported on many of the popular news readers/browsers; most people (particularly Americans) dont want to be bothered with installing and learning a new program just to be able to get yEnc files. Furthermore, many will argue that: "yEnc is a poor encoding mechanism for Usenet, and its use is variously regarded as foolish, rude and/or abusive."

Thus, if you use yEnc, your audience will be smaller than if you use one of the standard Usenet mechanisms, such as UUEncode.

(Here are the words of one of the people who was involved in creating yEnc as he explains why it's bad for Usenet:

http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/yenc.html (Who's computer is this?) {Rich Kulawiec} )





5.B.1 Thumbnails/Contact Sheets/Index Tips
While indexes are not mandatory, they are recommended for multiple posts [i.e. 6 or more pics]. Indexes work best if file names are contained in post headers. Indexes are preferred because:
a.They save online time as people can see whether they want to d/l
a whole series, just a few pics, or none.
b.They save money as many people pay by the minute to connect to
the ng and d/l posts.
c.People can see whether some of your posts have not arrived on
their server.
There are several types of software that can be used to make indexes. Try and keep indexes small in kb. Make the thumbnails large enough to see clearly.
Zip or other compression formats are discouraged. Subscribers cannot see what images they want.



5.C. Automated Posting Software:

All of the following are capable of automated bulk uploading of binaries to the Usenet.


5.C.1. Windows:

* Autopost (http://www.qualityimage.com/everything/10093.html (Who's computer is this?) ) search for Autopost - this is a shareware version. (WARNING-converts all file names to lower-case!) REPORTED TO BE NO LONGER AVAILABLE!

* News on Rocketfuel (http://www.eucalypt.com (Who's computer is this?) )

* AtomicPost (http://www.ugsome.com (Who's computer is this?) )

* NewsPost (http://www.teleport.com/~pdana/NewsPost (Who's computer is this?) )

* Power-Post 2000 (http://www.cosmicwolf.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) - recommended by several people; free.

* Shark-Post is a 32-bit windows application that allows
you to upload files to a Usenet News server. "Shark-Post solutions enable users to quickly provide netcitizens with consistent, accurate, and organized postings. With Shark-Post; you can now queue,
and post in seconds not minutes.
You don't have to repost the entire file. You can just requeue the file and check which segments to post in the Message Properties.
You can restart an interrupted post where you left off even if it was in the middle of a file.
The latest stable build of SharkPost can be found at http://sharkpost.isgreat.tv/ (Who's computer is this?)
{Sundance}


5.C.2. Macintosh:

* Hogwasher (http://www.asar.com/hogwasher.html (Who's computer is this?) )

The best available for the Mac OS, but has limitations. Good news - Hogwasher is now beta testing a new version.



5.D. Thumbnail Index-Making Software:

5.D.1. For the PC:

* The ThumbNailer (http://www.smalleranimals.com/thumb.htm (Who's computer is this?) )

* ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com (Who's computer is this?) )

* CompuPic (http://www.compupic.com (Who's computer is this?) )

* FirehandEmber (http://www.firehand.com/Ember/index.html (Who's computer is this?) )

* (DPIC) Digital Picture Index Creator freeware (very good)
http://www.cd2html.de/index.de.html (Who's computer is this?) or at
http://www.algonet.se/~hubbabub/freeware/graphic2.html (Who's computer is this?)


5.D.2. For the Mac:

* ThumbsPlus Macintosh Beta (http://www.cerious.com (Who's computer is this?) )

* CompuPic (http://www.compupic.com (Who's computer is this?) )






6. SCANNING

Start with a visit to news:comp.periphs.scanners - This is the place to find out about scanners and which to buy/avoid.

Then go to http://www.scantips.com/ (Who's computer is this?) - this is an on-line guide to using the scanner.


Q. Can I Jazz-up my scans?

A. It depends on what you mean by "Jazz-up". Certainly, repairing defects in the original image (e.g., tears, folds) is desirable, as is adjusting the brightness and contrast where necessary.

The people who will be collecting your scans will either sort them by scanner, or by artist - most sort by artist. The focus of these collectors is on the faithful reproduction of the artists work. Here is a list of various thing you might be tempted to try:

Restorations: restoring the image to something close to what the artist originally intended. Frequently used to restore images that appeared on a magazines cover; the removal of text, borders, labels, etc. can all be accomplished. An example might be to remove the Saturday Evening Post logo from a Norman Rockwell cover.

Framing: applying a pretty frame or border to the image to "dress it up". While a common activity, many collectors will immediately restore the image by trimming off the non-artist border. On the other hand, creating a frame personalizes your work without damaging the image.

"Signing your scan": some scanners put their name or an icon identifying their work on everything they scan. While this practice used to be common, it is falling into disfavor. If you must, constrain it to fit on your border. (In particular, any text you add to the image itself - especially the URL of a web site - is often considered to be a "Billboard Advertisement" and may generate complaints to your ISP for spaming the newsgroup!

"Fakes": the joining of several different elements from different images to crate a new image. While a popular activity for scanners (there are even newsgroups devoted entirely to publishing fakes), they are relatively rare in the art newsgroups; expect to encounter a flame-war if you post these regularly. Example: replacing the head of the Mona Lisa with the head of one of Norman Rockwells truckdrivers!

Wallpaper: Reformatting the image to fit exactly into one of the standard screen sizes: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024, 1600 x 1200 (currently, 1024x768 appears to be the most popular, but I have seen (ancient) instances of the smaller sizes still posted even though obsolete). Again, there are newsgroups specifically for publishing wallpaper images. The basic problem here is that the shape used is 4 wide by 3 high; artists almost never painted to that ratio; thus the art must either be cropped to fit, or filled in to change to that format. Its not what the artist painted (sometimes the shape was chosen to give a particular effect; changing the shape loses the artists intent). You probably wont get flamed for posting wallpaper, but youll have less people collecting your scans. And, if you clip out part of the art and paste it into your own background, it begins verging on being a fake.

I would strongly recommend that those who do fakes & wallpaper post them to the NewsGroups specifically designated for them.


Q: There used to be a web site you could visit to set your monitor. If anyone has
the info, lemmee know.

A: try http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/bars.html (Who's computer is this?) .
Even better is http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/index.htm (Who's computer is this?) .


6.A. Scanning Resources:

Real World Scanning & Halftones [best book]http://www.rwsh.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
Scanning 101/201http://www.scantips.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
Scanning FAQ - Tipshttp://www.infomedia.net/scan/ (Who's computer is this?)
Scanning for Beginnershttp://home.att.net/~cthames/index.htm (Who's computer is this?)
Sullivans Onlinehttp://www.hsdesign.com/scanning/ (Who's computer is this?)


(Don't bother with "Photoshop for Windows for Dummies" - it's so photo-oriented that I found very little of use for scanning pictures.


6.B. Graphics Applications [software]:

Once you've scanned your image, you'll need to process it. Here are some useful applications:

ACDSeehttp://www.acdsystems.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
Adobe Photoshophttp://www.adobe.com (Who's computer is this?)
CompuPIChttp://www.photodex.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
Corel Photo-Painthttp://www.corel.com (Who's computer is this?)
Paint Shop Prohttp://www.jasc.com/index.html (Who's computer is this?)
Thumbs Plushttp://www.cerious.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

JD Singleton reports:
"You might also list GIMP. A clone of PhotoShop 3, it's free. Although
originally a Linux application, there is a Windows port which runs
under 32-bit versions of Windows. The GIMP home page is
http://www.gimp.org (Who's computer is this?) and the Windows port is at
http://www.gimp.org/win32/ (Who's computer is this?) "

"Image Optimizer" and "JPEG Optimizer" from http://www.xat.com/ (Who's computer is this?) are GREAT tools! Each permits you to take any .jpg image and play around with the "quality" attribute, viewing both the original and modified image side by side! Since the Quality setting and file size are related, being able to lower the quality and thus the size, without noticeable impairment of the image, makes the files much easier to download and store!

You can download for a 30-day trial; then buy it if you feel it's worth it (JPEG Optimizer-$29; Image Optimizer- $39 [include JPEG Optimizer] or $99 [professional version]). JPEG Optimizer is also available for Linux, BSD and Solaris.

There are also other tools here you may find useful - WORTH A VISIT! {John O. Kopf}


6.C. Graphics Related FAQs:

You might also want to learn more about graphics:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pictures-faq/part1/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pictures-faq/part2/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pictures-faq/part3/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/preamble.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/png.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://home.earthlink.net/~ritter/tiff/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ora.com/centers/gff/gff-faq/gff-faq1.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ora.com/centers/gff/gff-faq/gff-faq2.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ora.com/centers/gff/gff-faq/gff-faq3.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ora.com/centers/gff/gff-faq/gff-faq4.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/notes/colour_and_gamma/ColorFAQ.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/notes/colour_and_gamma/GammaFAQ.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.colourware.co.uk/cpfaq.htm (Who's computer is this?)







7. STORAGE

Sooner or later we all run out of storage for the pictures we've downloaded. Three are several options available, such as:

a. add more hard drive(s) - BIG hard drives are currently running $1-3 / Gigabyte.

b. Zip drive - tend to be relatively expensive, relatively small volume.

c. CD-ROM - the "wave of the future"? Drives used to write CD-ROMs are coming down in price (I've seen them for $50 with rebates), and a CD-ROM will hold 650 Megabytes. The subject is too complex to discuss here; see the FAQ at http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ (Who's computer is this?) .
(Drivers capable of operation in "Packet Mode" will allow you to treat a CD as another drive, allowing "drag and drop" movement of files and folders; but packet CDs can't be read by normal drivers.)

d. DVD-ROM - Will hold much more than a CD-ROM, but the prices are still very high.





Acknowledgements:

Much of the material in this FAQ has been shamelessly stolen from other FAQs.

Thanks to all of the ABPA* postmen who helped make this a group-specific document. It has truly been a group effort, with contributions by:
mailto:kopfj@worldnet.att.net
kcgreek
Raymond
rmug
sniper02
wilph
JD Singleton
Beth Winter
sjoerdje
Dave Moorman
Frank Mabrey
Charles Perrien
Q
Casper
Justus
ClothesHorse
Jim Smith
ClothesHorse
Sundance
Bill Benobo
Lodewijk Otto
greyked
Sundance
netcat
Rich Kulawiec
Jeff Burchell
Holden McGroin
Smoovious

Thanks for reading. Hope this has helped make your newsgroup experience a good one.


This article is provided as is without any expressed or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, maintainer and contributors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.