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mishabawa · Oct 12, 2006, 08:16 PM

hiya folks,

sorry to bring up this topic again. i did a search and went through some of the posts regarding newsgroups/usenet clients. And the reason i bring it up again is because i haven't found anything fully to my liking. I am just gonna make a list of what i am looking for and then go through the clients i have gone through and why i rejected them. I have to say, this is one area where so far in my limited experience, PC apps are much better than mac ones. on my PC i use news leecher and its great. but i'd really rather have a great usenet app on my powerbook because of the portability.

Here's what i am looking for: has NZB file support, supports multiple servers and downloads in a smart way (i'll explain what i mean by smart way in just a second) and runs natively on PPC Tiger.

i started with the most obvious choice: Unison, one of my friends uses it. great app but doesn't support multiple servers at the same time.

Then i found iGrabNews, supports multiple servers at the same time but the app is a beta, and if one of the connections on a server isn't working, it'll just skip the file altogether instead of downloading it from another server and i think it downloads one file at a time from one connection rather than using multiple connections on the same file like so many great PC apps. so if i am downloading from multiple servers, i'll have to run the nzb file again with just one server to finish up because it skips files.

i've taken a look at hogwash, thott... i don't think they support NZB files.

i read great things about hellanzb one of those unix ports which is complicated to install, haven't even confirmed if it supports multiple servers.

another ported app, Pan. looks really solid. multiple server/connection and NZB support. but again. u gotta install X11 and a **** load of libraries to get it to work. i am fairly adequate at using well designed apps. but these programs that u have to jump through hoops to install, have never been my cup of tea.

one other option is Supernzb. but its not free anymore and i can't find it on torrents, newsgroups, limewire, acquisition. anywhere. and its pretty expensive at $50, but its on sale right now for $25. now the 25 bucks won't break my back, but i'd really rather not for similar features that are avaiable for free on windows. i like donating instead. already have to many apps that i do use. plus this app has been ported over from windows, installation is simple but its hella ugly and doesn't follow all the lil OS X rules.

so the two options i have right now, are buying supernzb or putting together pan somehow. neither of which i am very excited about. that's where u guys come in, if anyone out there knows of an app (or knows of a fix for iGrabnews to work properly with multiple servers), i would really appreciate any help or guidance. again, apologies for bringing up an old topic. but i really haven't found a solution to this issue yet. OSX has great answers and apps for everything u wanna do, usenet should be included in that list.

zro · Oct 13, 2006, 01:28 AM

The best usenet client for Mac is MT-NewsWatcher. Easy.

I doubt it's an NZB client, though.

Gavin · Oct 13, 2006, 11:34 AM

Remember you are running a Unix box. Anything for KDE or Gnome is fair game too. Since you are looking for some specific technical needs expanding the pool may help. The Xwindows stuff may not pass your hella ugly test though.

Anyway, I second MT-NewsWatcher.

ghporter · Oct 13, 2006, 02:41 PM

What's an "NZB" file?

mishabawa · Oct 13, 2006, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

What's an "NZB" file?

for the uninitiated: Slick's Guide to Newsgroups

if there's any one out there who has experience setting up Pan on the mac. please let me know. i'd appreciate the guidance.

mishabawa · Oct 13, 2006, 07:04 PM

MT-NewsWatcher doesn't support NZBs. and tha'ts kinda a must for me. thx though.

Peter · Oct 13, 2006, 07:07 PM

unison?

ghporter · Oct 14, 2006, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by mishabawa

for the uninitiated: Slick's Guide to Newsgroups

if there's any one out there who has experience setting up Pan on the mac. please let me know. i'd appreciate the guidance.

Interesting. I gave up on newsgroups a long time ago-spam killed them for me long before it started being a problem with my email. Thanks for the update.

Curiosity · Oct 14, 2006, 02:17 PM

I use Thunderbird for reading newsgroups. It is universal, so should work with PPC. It shows only the list of subjects, senders, dates, until you click on the message to read.

Bumboclott · Oct 21, 2006, 11:25 AM

I'm glad I found this thread because I'm looking for a good usenet client as well. Last night I tried Unison, iGrabNews, NewzHog, and SuperNZB. I didn't like any of them!

All I need is NZB file support and a client that automatically downloads each nzb file to it's own folder. I found that none of the programs I tried were able to do that. Was I doing something wrong in the preferences?

marhai@mac.com · Oct 26, 2006, 09:18 AM

Hi Bumboclott,
I had the same problem, but after searching and searching I finally figured out that UNISON does work with NZB files. You just have to get the file and click on top of the name and chose to open with UNISON. Since I found this all is working wonders withou the need of a PC.