Joanne Guest FAQ   >   Appendix 3

 

Appendix 3:

Having trouble decoding the postings in the newsgroup?


 

How can I view these .r00, .r01, .rar files?

Those files are actually multi-volume RAR archives. Each part of the archive has a separate extension, with .rar being the first. So, for example, a 5-part archive called clip would consist of: clip.rar, clip.r00, clip.r01, clip.r02 and clip.r03

RAR is an archiving program similar in concept to PKZIP, so the archives could (in theory) contain pretty much anything. On a.b.p.j-g, they're almost certain to contain an AVI (or MPEG) video clip.

Now to the nitty-gritty.

Mac users should get "Macunrar" - a beta version is available from http://www.inforoute.cgs.fr/dufay/ - and follow the instructions that come with the program.

PC users should get the "WinRAR" program from http://www.rarlabs.com/

Next, make sure you've got all the parts of the archive, saved as separate files in the same folder. For a 5-part archive you should have .rar, .r00, .r01, .r02 and .r03. If any are missing, ask for a repost.

To unpack the archive, feed the .rar file to WinRAR. This will automatically process the other parts, resulting in a decoded AVI (or MPEG) file.

One final piece of information you may need when unpacking some RAR archives, is that Jo's vital statistics are: 34B-24-34

 


 

I'm not seeing any pictures, just a jumble of letters and numbers!

(or: How to decode multi-part postings)

 

Some newsreaders don't automatically decode file attachments (especially if the picture is posted in several parts); others occasionally fail to notice that an attachment is present. (Netscape users beware!)

What happens is that you get a load of stuff looking like this:

M%A(8?1HE)B(H*2HT-38W.#DZ0T1%1D=(24I35%565UA96F-D969G:?EJ(W1U
M=G=X)7J#A(6?AXB)BI*3E)66EYB9FJ*CI*6FIZBIJK*SM+6VM[BYNL+#Q,7?
MQ\C)RM+3U-76U]C9VN'BX^3EYN?HZ)KQ\O/T]?;W^/GZ_\0`'P$``P$!`0$!
M`0$!`0````````$'`P0%!@(('0H+_\0`M1$``@$'!`0#!`(%!`0``0)W``$'

Note that all of the lines are the same length, and are relatively short (61 characters in this case). If the lines are a lot longer than this (e.g. 128 characters), it may be a yEnc file, which requires special processing (see below).

 

The first thing to try is to see if your newsreader can combine and decode the various parts of the message. For example:

The above method might work with other newsreaders, or there may be an option setting you have to change. Check the manual (or help file) for your newsreader.

If your newsreader can't combine and decode, or if there was only one part (and your newsreader didn't recognise it as an encoded file), proceed as follows:

  1. Save the message(s), even part 1, as text files. Do not "save attachment" on part 1: it won't work properly!
  2. Get your hands on a UUdecoder program such as "Wincode", "WinZip" or "UUDeview" - see the Resources section below for details of how to get one.
  3. Feed the file(s) you saved to the UUdecoder program. Depending on which program you are using, you may have to ensure the filenames indicate the order of the parts (e.g. 001.txt, 002.txt etc.) or you may have to merge them into one big file beforehand. Check the instructions that came with your UUdecoder program.

For example, if you've got an older version of Free Agent, you could either upgrade to the latest version <grin>, or you could:

  1. Select (highlight) all the parts of the file.
  2. Choose File / Save Messages As...
  3. Save as <filename>.uue
  4. Feed the file to your UUdecoder (if you've installed WinZip, you can double-click on the .uue file).

 

Netscape 4.7 users:

This older version of Netscape cannot combine and decode multi-part binary files, so you have to do it the hard way. Here's how:

  1. Select the newsgroup messages you wish to combine. To do this, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on each part in turn. Make sure you really have highlighted all the parts of the file.
  2. Click File on the Navigation toolbar. This will display the hierarchy of your mail folders and allow you to choose which folder the selected messages will be downloaded to.
  3. Click the folder to begin receiving the messages.
  4. When the downloading is complete, open the mail folder.
  5. Once again, hold Ctrl and select all parts of the multipart file.
  6. Select File and then Save As.
  7. Save as "filename.uue" - all parts will be combined into a single file.
  8. Feed the file to your UUdecoder (if you've installed WinZip, you can double-click on the .uue file).

Haven't got a UUdecoder program? See the Resources section below for details of how to get one.

 


 

What's all the fuss about these yEnc files?

Another day, another file format...

"yEnc" is a format that is becoming increasingly common on Usenet. It is a bit of a pain, because some of the most widely-used newsreaders don't handle it yet, and some news-servers have an annoying habit of mangling the posts.

At first sight, a yEnc message can look rather like a UUencoded message. There are two clues that it's a yEnc message:

  1. The subject line should contain the magic word yEnc
  2. The first line of the message itself will look something like this:
    =ybegin line=128 size=52961 name=00022010.jpg
    Note that the line starts with =ybegin rather than begin.

 

So, how do you decode a yEnc-encoded file?

Essentially, you have three choices:

  1. Use a "proxy" decoder, such as YProxy (for Windows), from http://www.brawnylads.com/software/
    or
  2. Use another newsreader, such as Forte Agent <http://www.forteinc.com/>, Gravity <http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/> or Xnews <http://xnews.newsguy.com/>
    or
  3. Save the message as a (text) file, then use an external decoder to unpack the file. For example:

Remember, possesion of a decoder does NOT guarantee that you'll be able to unpack a given file. Some news-servers can damage the encoded files: if you find you get errors when unpacking yEnc-encoded files, you may have to change to a different news-server.

 

Advice for people planning to post to a.b.p.j-g using yEnc

Don't.

 


 

Why are the multi-part postings ALWAYS missing parts?

The amount of traffic on Usenet these days is phenomenal, and some news-servers simply can't handle the load. This can mean that some parts of a multi-part posting are lost.

Remember there can be a delay of several hours before all the various parts of a message arrive at a news-server (and, like everything else, news-servers do have bad days). But if the problem persists for several weeks it's probably there to stay.

Another problem is to do with article retention. Some news-servers only keep "binary" newsgroup postings for a few hours (compared to the days or weeks that are the norm for other newsgroups). This one is fairly easy to spot: if you only log-on once a week and all you ever see in a.b.p.j-g are today's postings, your news-server has a very short retention period.

If you're just missing a few parts, ask for a repost of those parts. If you're missing a lot of parts, you may need to switch to another news-server: see part 3 of the FAQ for some suggested news-servers.

 


  

Using Web-based newsreading services

Many Web-based newsreading services won't allow you to download attachments at all: Google falls into this category. However there are some services that allow you to retrieve binary attachments: I've used mailandnews.com as an example below.

 

Downloading binary attachments from mailandnews.com

http://www.mailandnews.com/ is a free Web-based newsreading service that allows you to retrieve binary attachments.

To gain access to the service you do have to register, which involves supplying an E-Mail address and answering some questions (like: "Telephone?" - answer: "Yes, ISDN"). The interface is decidedly clunky, but it is bearable for the occasional (say once per week) use.

The problem is, www.mailandnews.com doesn't decode the postings; you have to do that yourself. It's a lot of work, but it can be done. Here's how:

Call up the FIRST part of the file (e.g. "party.mpg (01/23)") in your browser window. You'll see something that looks like this:

     begin 644 party.mpg
     M_]C_X``02D9)1@`!`@$`2P!+``#_[0$T4_AO=_]S:_]P(#,N,``X0DE-`^T`
     M`````!``2P````$``@!+`````0`'.$))30/S```````(```````````X0DE-
     M)Q````````H``0`````````'.$))30/U``````!(`']F9@`!`_QF9@`_````
     M```!`']F9@`!`*_9F@`_```````!`#(````!`%H````_```````!`#4````!

and so on for roughly 5000 lines.

Still in your browser, select the text, starting at the "begin 644" line, and including ALL of the lines beginning with "M" below it (there will be something like 5000 lines). You don't want ANYTHING before the "begin" line, and you don't want ANYTHING after the last line beginning with "M". Now copy the text to your clipboard. Next open up a text editor such as Word or Wordpad (Don't use Notepad - the file will be far too big!) and paste the text into a blank document.

Back to your browser, and call up the next part of the file (e.g. "party.mpg (02/23)"). This time you select just the block of lines beginning with the letter "M" (again, about 5000 lines). Copy these to the clipboard, and then go to your text editor and paste them ONTO A NEW LINE AT THE END OF THE DOCUMENT.

Now you process part 3 in the same way, and parts 4, 5, 6... until you reach the last part.

For the last part, there's something special you need to do. In addition to all the lines beginning with "M", there's a few extra lines at the end that you'll need to copy as well. It'll look something like this:

     MRW9GI/Y)^;[FSDGO]3M-*C1^$K-!'-;JE'.(ET9H(E(G_=:LWVLJJ_W,_P'Y
     M_P!DW\4AS-*S_D]Z]V(;#S?H)I0VTH%[*MM1+,'X2S\;AA]BO'DWI.O+]ZOV
     0LD.$'^+?JQ)E(;UMZJ?_V3?H
     `
     end

You'll want to copy all of the "M" lines as before and keep on going until you reach the "end" line shown above. This means you'll be copying an extra 3 lines - yes you must copy the "end" line as well.

If you've connected to the Internet by a dial-up line, now would be a good time to disconnect.

Right, you've now pasted the last part into your text editor. Having done that, go back to the top of the document and look at the text. In all probability every line will have some leading spaces which will need to be removed. Do a "Search and Replace", search for '     ' (the number of leading spaces) and replace them all with '' (i.e. nothing).

Having deleted all the leading spaces from every line, you need to save the file AS PLAIN TEXT (e.g. from Word, use "MS-DOS Text with linebreaks"). Give the file the extension ".uue" (e.g. "party.uue").

Now feed this file to a UUdecoder. For Windows, use WinZip or WinCode (see the Resources section below). Similar programs are available for the Apple/Acorn/Amiga etc. machines, while UNIX/LINUX users already have a UUdecoder supplied as standard.

Well, there you have it. It's a lot of work, and you would certainly find it a easier to pay for a newsfeed instead.

 


 

Resources (some useful programs)

 


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