From ???@??? Wed Jun 24 22:48:31 1998
Subject: Re: Help, please

While eating donuts you spit out something like:

: Now I know some of you are going to get ticked off because it has probably been
: answered before, but could someone enlighten me & tell me how I can view these
: posts. I never had a problem before, but now, it seems like every post opens w/
: me being only able to "download article" or "cancel" because the article is too
: big for AOL reader to open. I know it probably has something to do w/ AOL, but
: is there a way around it. Sometimes a post will open & it is only symbols. I
: have tried a couple of other ISP but the most postings they would keep would
: only go back 2 weeks, which AOL I can go back a few hundred days. I am on Win
: '95 and Internet Explorer...if more info is needed, please e-mail me. Again, I
: would appreciate any help.

Ok, here ya go, the standard follow up to a post like this. Mailed it as
well, just incase. 

Damn, it has been awhile since I have had to post this, guess that is a
good thing


Siren

   I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.  When you try to download
binary files from the Usenet newsgroups using the newsfeed from AOL,
chances are very good that you will not be able to get complete files.
When you try to dowload something, check to see whether the button you
push asks if you want to download a "FILE" or "TEXT".  What happens,
particularly with the big files like .avi's and .mpg's, is that pieces of
the file do not get propogated to your newsserver, in this case AOL.  This
is not the fault of the person posting the file.  I can assure you that
those of us that are getting a better quality newsfeed (mostly from
SuperZippo, but more on that later) are getting very nearly every file in
it's entirety.  The fault lies with your internet service provider (ISP).
 
Most ISP's allocate the bulk of their resources to the World Wide dWeeb
and email.  Some ISP's are better than others, but unfortunately yours is
one of the worst.  The quality of AOL's newsfeed is very near the bottom
of the barrel. You may have a hard time believing me that most of the
posts aren't complete on AOL (you have, after all, been able to download
some files) but a group like this is deceiving because most of the files
are in one part.  The ones that AOL misses are never noticed by you
because you never knew they where there.  Try going to a group like
alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica and see how many of the .avi files there
will download.  Nearly all will be missing parts.  For those of us with
better newsfeeds, nearly all are complete.
 
   How do you get a better newsfeed?  There are several ways.  A better
ISP is one option, but it's very tough to know before you sign up how good
their feed is.  The other option is using a third party news service.  The
one you'll hear the most about is SuperZippo.  What is SuperZippo?  It is
a news service that provides the best, most complete access to Usenet that
I've been able to find. If you are looking for files, whether it be
avi's, mpeg's, mp3's, or warez, SuperZippo is the news service of choice.
 
If you don't believe, try the service for the one-month trial.  It's
pretty cheap.  It usually only takes one time of comparing the level of
complete files between your ISP and SuperZippo to get you to sign up for a
year.
 
   How does it work?  You still connect to the internet the same way you
do now, you just use some different software for the newsgroups.  If you
have a Wintel machine, get Free Agent or Agent.  These are news reader
programs that make Usenet alot easier to negotiate.  Free Agent is
Freeware, Agent is Shareware. If you use a MacOS machine, get
YA-Newswatcher.  It's Freeware and you can pick it up at all the usual
places, shareware.com, etc.  The news reader program then goes looking for
news at a different location than you are currently using.  The newsreader
will have a place for you to put the address for your newsfeed, in the
case of SuperZippo, that would be snews.zippo.com.  You will then be asked
for your user id and password.  Most of the newsreaders will have an
option to store this information so you don't have to keep typing it.  You
then download the full group list and select the groups you want to take a
look at.
 
   For a more informative explanation of how to use third party news feeds
and news readers from AOL, download the FAQ's from the group
alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.  If you have any further questions
_AFTER_ having read the FAQ's, post your questions in
alt.binaries.multimedia.d.  The .d stands for discussion.  Posting
questions in the regular group is tolerated but not encouraged, and having
an AOL return address will already be one strike against you.  I realize
it's not your fault, but AOL has been the equivalent of a plague of
locusts for some of the various usegroups, particularly ABME.  If AOL is
going to provide such a lame newsfeed, they ought to just discontinue the
feed altogether.  Good luck!