12/31/2002 7:00 PM EST
DCForumsent out a bug fix notice today. The cookie that remembers you each timeyou log in expired on December 31, 2002. I've pushed the date out soeverything is working as it should again.
12/31/2002 9:00 AM EST
Ok,I think it is fixed now. Send email to tech_support@newsbin.comif you have problems posting or logging on to the forum. You may have tohit refresh in your browser before you log in. I have an upgrade of thesoftware but I'm afraid to install it. You know, if it isn't broke don'tfix it? Well maybe it is broke so I'll raise the priority. Sorry forany inconvenience.
12/31/2002 8:30 AM EST
Weupdated some software on our server that appears to have broken the forumsoftware. You can read posts as guest but you can't log in or post. We're working on it.
Asyou have probably figured out by now, the next 4.1 beta did not getreleased. Quade up and left on vacation and hasn't done a thingsince. Good for him, he deserves a break. We should get a newrelease out by the end of this week.
12/20/2002 4:30 PM EST
Ourforum users just found a new type of attack that 4.1B1 does not handle. We're working on putting in more smarts to address this as well. Shouldhave a new release tomorrow.
12/20/2002 11:30 AM EST
Abeta version of 4.1 is now available for download. This version shouldcorrectly combine mulitipart posts after the sabotage attempts on somenewsgroups. Read more about it and download here.
12/19/2002 1:00 PM EST
Wehave received word that a new type of attack on the binary groups is messingwith NewsBin's logic to automatically combine parts of multi-part posts. Someone is posting a bogus part after a multipart post has been posted that ourcountermeasures do not catch. We're working on a solution now.
12/15/2002 7:30 PM EST
Asrequested from one of our forum threads, http://www.djii.com/dcforum/DCForumID5/1062.html#,we have issued a new poll asking how many servers users use on average to helpus decide how much we should focus on NewsBin's multiple server functionality. Click here toparticipate in the poll.
12/14/2002 11:50 PM EST
Edwardfrom The Netherlands has been kind enough to write a Dutch help page. Weare hosting it on our site at http://www.newsbin.com/nb4/Dutch/and have a link off our regular help page as well. Thanks Edward!
Thenew version 5.0 is now functional and undergoing internal testing. We hopeto have a public beta release early next year.
12/8/2002 11:00 PM EST
Wehave released version 4.06. It is basically version 4.06B3 but rebuilt inrelease mode. It may feel a little snappier than the betas so it is worthupgrading. Read more and download the new release here.
11/26/2002 10:00 PM EST
We'vehad reports from people running VIA motherboards that files they download aregetting corrupted. We have made a modification to Version 4.06B3 thatshould fix this problem (software to fix the hardware). Hopefully, it willnot affect non-VIA motherboards that do not have this problem. Read about thefixes and download the beta here.
Thereare some new polls to respond to. Go ahead and vote!
11/14/2002 11:45 PM EST
Version4.06B2 has special logic to filter out bogus posts meant to throw awrench in automatic downloaders such as NewsBin. It also has acouple of fixes. This release is has a significant logic change so it isonly recommended for more seasoned users or users who have been affected by thetainted posts in the mp3 and vcd groups (among others). Read about thefixes and download the beta here.
11/14/2002 12:10 PM EST
Tocounter recent attacks to the newsgroups, we are making modifications in version4.06B2 to filter out bogus posts meant to throw awrench in automatic downloaders such as NewsBin. We plan to make therelease tonight (EST).
11/8/2002 11:50PM EST
NewsBinPublic Service Announcement:
Ifyou have a Linksys BEFSR11, 31, or 41 router, you could be vulnerable to adenial of service attack if your firmware rev is below 1.42.7. Officialword: http://www.linksys.com/splash/security.asp
11/5/2002 10:00AM EST
NewsBinPublic Service Announcement:
Ifyou have a Linksys BEFSR11, 31, or 41 router, you could be vulnerable to adenial of service attack if your firmware rev is below 1.42.7. Read aboutit here.
10/29/2002 11:15PM EST
Wehave just released version 4.06B1 for testing. Several known issues havebeen resolved including the every popular "please let it count over 4GB forthe download list queue" request. Read about the changes and downloadhere.
10/27/2002 12:15PM EST
Weare finally cleaning up some of those pesky KnownIssues in 4.0 and are soon to release version 4.06B1. In addition tocleanup, it also has new logic to filter small files that have already beendownloaded. Currently, our duplicate detection system works on fileslarger than 24K. The beta should be out any day now.
10/18/2002 10:40AM EST
Wehave received more and more inquiries about a linux version of NewsBin. Wehave reset the poll to help us determine the priority of its development. Please vote here.
10/16/2002 10:30PM EST
Dueto an oversight, we left a popular option off our poll asking what you downloadfrom usenet. we have rewritten and reset the poll so please go voteagain and we'll see how much it changes. We've also reset the pollabout which OS you run to see how things have shifted.
10/15/2002 2:00PM EST
Wereset our poll for your favorite usenet providers to see if anything has changedover the past few weeks. We've also added two new polls, a fun one, and aquery about a feature in NewsBin. As we get more and more requests for alinux version of NewsBin, we are looking deeper into doing it. The onlysticky point is the User Interface, the engine already works under linux. The problem is that some cross-platform UI libraries do not include all thefeatures we need. In particular, we can't support the ability to click anddrag the different bars (i.e. filter bar, thumbnail bar, groups bar) around yourscreen. Please answer our Poll togive us an idea about how much use this feature gets.
Thelatest release, version 4.05, has proven to be very stable and we have had nocritical bug reports against it. If you haven't already, we recommendupgrading. It is a free upgrade for users who registered 3.0 or above andmaintains your current configuration when upgrading from 4.0x. Download ithere.
10/6/2002 9:15AM EST
Wehave just released version 4.05. It fixes a problem when using multipleservers where NewsBin would not look on other servers if a post was purged offanother server higher in the list. Read more and download the release here.
9/24/2002 10:30PM EST
Pollingsystem is back online. I went ahead and upgraded while I was at it. Now allows polls where you can make multiple selections. There are acouple of new polls up now at http://poll.newsbin.com/ includingone that Usenetserver asked us to run for them.
We'll be moving our web server over to the newmachine at some point, but it will just be a switchover, no physical machineswaps, so we shouldn't have any downtime (famous last words).
TheNewsBin discount for signing up with Usenetserver is still going. Theyhave added capacity and already have over a month of retention for the picturegroups. The large multimedia groups will grow to have a retention of 14days or more. Sign up here anduse the word "NewsBin" for the coupon code to get a discounted rate of$14.45 for unlimited downloads..
9/23/2002 4:00PM EST
Ofcourse, visiting our co-located servers never goes smoothly. Our webserver accidentally lost power so our site was down for about 10 minutestoday. The polling system is not quite online, we're still working onit. But the important thing is we can still take orders! No, really,the site is back and the MOTD is displaying and the forum works. Sorry forany inconvenience this may have caused.
9/23/2002 11:00AM EST
Thepolling system will be down for as much as an hour today between 2:00 and 3:00pmEST. We are installing a new server (a sweet dual 2GHz XEON Dell 2Urackmount machine) which will eventually be our new web server. Thisshould solve the corrupted download problems that are reported when we make newreleases. This outage should not affect the order form, registrationsystem, or the MOTD unless we accidentally turn off the wrong machine orsomething (it has been known to happen).
9/20/2002 11:30PM EST
We'vereleased a beta of NewsBin 4.05 that solves the problem with purged itemscausing a download failure among other things. We think we've improvedheader processing speeds and improved memory management a bit. Read moreabout it and download here.
Usenetserversays they have 3 load balanced servers up with another coming online on Monday. They currently have 14TB of storage on their Sun boxes and are doubling it thisweekend. That will improve their retention tremendously. At700GB/day coming in for a raw newsfeed, that storage gets used up fast! Ifyou haven't signed up for Usenetserver yet, enter "newsbin" for theCoupon Code on this order form to get a reduced rate of $14.45 per month for "all you can eat".
9/16/2002 11:30PM EST
Weforgot a few popular servers when we started the poll so, to be fair, we resetit. Go and vote again for your favorite news server here.
We'retesting NewsBin 4.05 right now, solves the problem some of you have found withposts getting purged incorrectly.
Pssst,sign up for Usenetserver and enter "newsbin" for the Coupon Code onthis order form to get areduced rate of $14.45 per month for 20GB per day (virtually unlimited).
9/16/2002 2:30PM EST
Usenetserversays to go back to using news.usenetserver.com instead of the IP now. Theyhave it set up for load balancing so you will now be directed to the server withthe lighter load by using news.usenetserver.com.
Nowthat we are on the topic of news services, we've released a new poll to see whatyou all think. Vote for your favorite news server here. If we missed a popular one, let us know at tech_support@newsbin.comand we'll add it to the list. If your favorite is Usenetserver, enter"newsbin" for the Coupon Code on this orderform and you will receive a reduced rate of $14.45 per month for 20GB perday. Some people have cancelled their account and then signed up again toget this deal. Sick of this shameless plug yet?
9/14/2002 11:40PM EST
Usenetserverhas a new server online to help handle the onslaught of new business brought onby their new pricing. The server is not officially available but, forNewsBin users, they've given us the IP of the server so you can access itdirectly. It is 64.154.60.181. Usenetserver says this is temporaryaccess and the IP may change in the future but this will get you around theheavily loaded main machine for now.
Ifyou haven't signed up yet get our reduced rate, enter "newsbin"for the Coupon Code on this order formand you will be charged $14.45 per month for 20GB per day.
9/13/2002 3:40PM EST
BetweenUsenetserver offering a new, inexpensive, unlimited download plan and NewsBinusers flocking to Usenetserver, their servers have become overwhelmed. They say they have new hardware coming online and they admit to having otherproblems yesterday that have been resolved. Things seem to be running oknow.
Ifyou haven't signed up yet get our reduced rate, enter "newsbin"for the Coupon Code on this order formand you will be charged $14.45 per month for 20GB per day.
9/11/2002 11:30PM EST
Ashas been mentioned in our forums, UsenetServer has changed it's pricing schemeand now offers 20GB per day (bandwidth limited to 2Mbps) for $14.95 per month. We think this is an awesome deal and UsenetServer has consistently been amongout 2 top news server recommendations for several years.
Butwait, there's more! We have negotiated an additional 3% off the monthlyrate for NewsBin users! Yes it is a small reduction but they areoffering a very low price as it is. To get this reduced rate, enter "newsbin"for the Coupon Code on this order formand you will be charged $14.45 per month for 20GB per day of quality usenetaccess. Happy downloading!
9/4/2002 2:00PM EST
Wefrequently receive mail from users asking if we offer other products. While NewsBin is our focus, we have prototypes of several other internet relatedprograms but have never offered them as a product. We have set up a pollfor a few of our product ideas to determine if there would be enough interest tocomplete their development. If you have ideas for a product or know of anexisting product that you think we could do better, let us know at tech_support@newsbin.com.
Pleaseclick here to participate in our new product poll.
9/1/2002 4:00PM EST
Theresults of our poll indicatethat 4.04 is ready for official release. This is the same as 4.04B1 so ifyou have already installed it, you don't have to re-download 4.04. If youhave been afraid to try 4.04 (22% of you) then it is now safe for you to do so. Read the release notesand download from there.
8/29/2002 11:30AM EST
Ithas been awhile since we put out a new poll. Our polling admin system wasdown after our last PHP upgrade. Anyway, we have received good news frompeople brave enough to try 4.04B1 and have a new poll to measure its success. Click here toparticipate in the poll.
8/28/2002 12:45AM EST
Thisone has been tested by more people and all have said it is an improvement and isstable. We are calling this one a beta to keep the faint of heartaway. If you are a heavy user with a postid.dat file larger than 50MB,then you will benefit from running this. Others may see a smaller memoryfootprint over 4.01. You can read about and download 4.04B1 here.
8/25/2002 1:45PM EST
Whilethis probably does not affect 90% of our users, version 4.03 still causes verylong load times at startup. Please stick with Version4.01 until we have consensus that 4.04 (to come soon) is stable.
8/24/2002 9:0 AM EST
Version4.03 fixes the problems introduced with 4.02. The most significant werethe long load times for the duplicate detection database and a bug that messedup initial installations, upgrades were fine. We are also maintaining azip file now for users who want to upgrade without running the installeragain. The zip file can be downloaded from the downloadpage put first, please read the releasenotes.
8/19/2002 1:10 AM EST
Wemessed 4.02 up for new installs. Anyone who finds they cannot downloadneed to set a path in the "Advanced Tab" spool folder. Then they needto create a "spool" folder under this path. Best bet is todownload and install 4.01 and stick with that until we get a fix out for theother 4.02 issues. Version 4.01 is still available for download from http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/nb401.exe
Shouldhave 4.03 out within a couple of days.
8/18/2002 4:30 PM EST
Weare receiving two performance related reports when NewsBin 4.02 starts up. One occurs if you have a relatively large signature.dat file (like >20MB). The other occurs during the automatic conversion of largepostid.dat files to postid.bin (like > 100MB). If you are resuming asession, or are in auto startup mode, then the display freezes until theconversion is complete. We are looking into solutions for both of theseproblems. Once NewsBin gets started up, everything appears to run fine,and the memory footprint is smaller.
8/16/2002 10:15 PM EST
Wehave just released Version 4.02. Read about the changes here. Power users will notice a reduction in memory usage on startup due to the newcompressed binary postid file. If 4.01 is running fine for you, this isnot a required upgrade.
8/8/2002 10:30 PM EST
Weare testing 4.02 which has a much reduced postid.dat file (actually postid.binnow). We should be making the release in a few days.
Forall of you who complained about our toolbar, one of our talented users andmember of our forums, Sakamoto (www.msx.org),has contributed a very nice toolbar substitution. Download toolbar.bmpand put it in the folder where NewsBin is installed. When you startNewsBin, it will paint this toolbar in place over the default toolbar. Anyof you artistic types are welcome to come up with your own. If you'd liketo share, please send your creation to tech_support@newsbin.comand we'll put it on our site.
8/3/2002 4:30 PM EST
We'restill alive. Maybe we should call this Message of the Week now that 4.0has been released. We're actually working on 4.1 now, implementing some ofthe great ideas from our users that were too risky to put into 4.0. I'vealso fixed the 7/21 MOTD with my misuse of the word "effect" when Ishould have said "affect". Out of all us native Englishspeakers, it took an alert European user, whose native tongue is not English, topoint this out. Thanks Irma.
Wehave found a potential problem that has presented itself due to a fix in 4.01. The postid.dat file, which keeps track of all the posts you have downloaded toprevent duplicates, grows very fast now. We may be putting out a 4.02 thatstores the postid data in a compressed format. If NewsBin starts using aton of RAM on startup, check the size of your postid.dat file and either trim itmanually with a text editor or delete it if you don't mind seeing previouslydownloaded posts pop up again in your post list.
7/21/2002 2:30 PM EST
We'vefixed a few minor bugs and decided to put 4.01 out before we get too carriedaway with the next major release. This would not be considered a criticalupdate so read the releasenotes to determine if the bugs fixed will even effect you. Windows 2Kand XP users should see better memory management with this release as we havetaken advantage of a 2K/XP specific mode to help speed things up.
7/15/2002 1:00 AM EST
Version4 has just been released! Amazing but true! It is basically the sameas Pre-Release 6 with a few minor bug fixes. Download it from http://www.newsbin.com/downloads.htm.
Anew and improved help filehas also been released. Feel free to send comments or requests foradditional content to tech_support@newsbin.com
Thankyou for patiently bearing with us through this 10 month Beta process. Wehave already started on the next version, which will be free to registeredusers, and plan to start beta testing in a couple of months. Feedback fromour users is what keeps us going with new ideas so don't be shy, you guys helpus make NewsBin better and better...
7/03/2002 11:00 PM EST
Version4 is not going out tonight. We are close, any day now. We had arequest to release it on 7/04/02 at 04:04:04am (get it - version 4?) but thatjust isn't going to happen, I hope to be asleep at that time.
7/02/2002 1:45 PM EST
Weare now receiving all mail. If you sent mail in the last two days and havenot heard back from us, or your message bounced, please try again. Weapologize for any inconvenience.
Thepoll indicatesthat we should go ahead and release 4.0. We are packaging up the releasenow and it should be out tomorrow night (7/3/02). If you have violentobjections to this, feel free to emailus (but please leave out the violent part).
7/01/2002 9:55 AM EST
Weare having spotty email problems. We can receive mail from Hotmail and afew other mail services but mail from shaw and we don't know how many others arebouncing because mail is getting routed to a non-functional backup mailserver. We are still able to receive registration orders and our websiteincluding our user forum is still accessible. If you need technicalsupport and do not have a Hotmail account, use our forum at http://www.djii.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
Weare bringing up a new backup server today which should kick in as soon as thenew DNS records propagate - within 24 hours.
7/01/2002 12:05 AM EST
We'vehad a couple of reports that email to newsbin.com and djii.com arebouncing. We're looking into it right now. If you have any technicalsupport issues, our Forum seems to be accessible. The URL is http://www.djii.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi Of course if DNS is really messed up, you won't even see this message, but it isworth a try.
6/26/2002 7:00 PM EST
Veryfew issues have been reported with pre-release 5 so we are close. Thebiggest complaint was that resume was doing a "Force Download" onqueued files which would bypass filters and duplicate detection. Now,resume is an option and when it does resume, posts are entered as a normalpriority into the download list. Read the ReleaseNotes and download Pre-release 6, Build 3785 then let us know what you thinkvia this poll so can decide if this is the final 4.0 release.
6/13/2002 12:00 AM EST
Ourusers reported a couple of show-stoppers for pre-release 4 which now have beenfixed. The most serious was the hang/crash that occurred when clearing thedownloaded files list. Read the ReleaseNotes and download Pre-release 5, Build 3768. We have reset the pollagain so please vote again and let us know if we can get away with makingthis the final 4.0 release. We already have a list of improvements for 4.1which will be a free upgrade to all 3.x and 4.x registered users.
6/11/2002 12:00 AM EST
Wejust released the 4th pre-release This will become the final Version 4release unless someone finds a show-stopper. The poll has been reset yetagain to get your opinion. First read the ReleaseNotes to see all the things we fixed and then download the latest and let usknow what you think using the ReleasePoll.
6/5/2002 1:30 PM EST
InVersion 4.0 Pre-release #3
1)Max Retries set to 0 now means 0 retries instead of infinite. This is amistake and will be corrected in the next release.
2)SigGen4 won't work if you don't have 3.32 installed and registered. SigGen4 is a tool for registered users but we forgot to modify it to recognize4.0 keys. If you have 3.32 installed and registered, it will work fine.
3)We had two reports that the Sophos anti-virus program falsely detects the troj/momma-Bvirus in our distribution. We have been in touch with Sophos and they havereleased new IDE files that do not falsely detect this virus. It wasdirectly related to our use of the Nullsoft installer. Thanks to Frank andBernd for pointing this out to us.
6/242002 10:30 AM EST
Shortlist of known issues:
1)Downloaded Files List clears itself after downloading 4000 files in one session
2)Read Post Body text is jumbled, lost newline characters.
3)Three reports of hang/crash when entering registration key. Of course wecan't re-create it, if anyone else has this problem, please let us know so wecan search for a pattern.
4)A few reports that the installer becomes corrupted on download and will notexecute. If this happens, clearing your browser cache and re-downloadingusually works. If you still have problems, email us at tech_support@newsbin.comand we'll give you an alternative link.
Reminder:Version 4.0 uses different registration keys than 3.x. If you are aregistered user running 4.0 for the first time, your new key will automaticallybe generated and you should take note of it. If you install 4.0 on amachine that did not previously have a registered 3.x version on it, contactus for your 4.0 key.
6/2/2002 2:40 AM EST
Wehave released Version 4.0 Pre-release #3. Some key fixes are Socksfirewall support, black and white jpg rendering for thumbnails, and a host ofother fixes listed in the releasenotes. After you download and give this a try, please let us know whatyou think by responding to our poll. If you find any major issues, please send mail to tech_support@newsbin.com.
6/1/2002 12:20 PM EST
Isit June already? We have a 4.0 pre-release 3 that is just about ready togo. Hopefully it will be up tonight (EST).
Wewant to release the final 4.0 as much as you do, we just want to avoid followingit up with a 4.01 a week later to fix some stupid bug we missed. Thanksfor your patience.
5/15/2002 12:45 AM EST
Wedid some more cleanup to the 4.0 Pre-release and have a 2nd Pre-releaseavailable. If we get widespread acceptance of this release, it will becomethe new 4.0. Downloadit and give it a try before voting on whether it is ready or not here.
Majorchanges include a fix for dialup users where lost connections are handled betterand numerous minor bug fixes. Details are in the releasenotes.
Documentationfor version 4 .0 is coming along and is now included with download. Younow get to it from the Windows Start Menu under "NewsBin". It isalso considered beta so if you have comments or see major holes, please let usknow at tech_support@newsbin.com.
Oneof our users has put together a nice tutorial for newbies that you can view here. Hopefully we'll see more of this great work from him.
Wethink we are entering the home stretch for a final 4.0 release, we hope you feelthe same. Please get out and voteonce you form your own opinion.
5/5/2002 2:00 PM EST
Somepeople may think we took a step backwards here but the latest issues only affectabout 2% of our users. Here are the most common technical support messageswe have been receiving:
1)Unexpected bandwidth limiting. The new nag screen also throttles yourbandwidth down. This was done to counter-act a nag screen bypass programthat is being distributed by the Crackers. After you register, you need tomanually disable the bandwidth limiter to see your full datarate again.
2)Continued registration problems. Our registration mechanism fails withcertain firewalls. Still trying to track down exactly what the issueis. If your registration doesn't work, first temporarily disable yourfirewall and try again. If it still doesn't work, let us know and we'lltry to work something out. Also, the keys have changed for 4.0. Manypeople are trying to use their 3.x keys to register 4.0. If you have aregistered copy of 3.32 on your system, 4.0 will automagically get a new key foryou. If you had removed 3.32, you will have to request a 4.0 key forus. Our automated lost key request form does not handle 4.0 keys yet,we're working on it.
3)Automode confusion. Since Automatic Download Mode is no longer selectablefrom the main screen (replaced with "Show Filenames"), you now need toeither go under "Option/Switches" or "Utilities/AutomaticDownload" to toggle Automatic Download Mode.
4)Upgrade problems: the new installer uses a new folder by default. So ifyou don't manually change the folder to your current installation, you will geta new installation. Also, if you do change the install folder, a \nb4 willbe appended to the path and you must manually backspace over that to get it intothe folder you selected. A related problem is that some users were makingthis mistake, uninstalling NewsBin 4, then re-installing only to find that theirregistration information got wiped out. The new uninstaller gives you theoption to clear your registry info so look for the option if you want to keepyour registration info. Maybe we should make that the default.
Otherthan that, most users report that 4.0 functionality is fine, just have to cleanup the rough edges.
Thanksfor your support.
4/30/2002 10:45 AM EST
Hasit been a month since our last release already? Ok then, here is the 4.0Pre-Release! There are over 20 documented fixes and enhancementsin this version. Please read the ReleaseNotes for details. This version comes with a new installer so it issafe to install over your existing 4.0 beta or 3.32 installation. This isnot the official release yet but our beta testers have given this version highmarks and we are very close. Report any problems or suggestions with theinstaller or with the release to tech_support@newsbin.com.
4/26/2002 10:45 PM EST
Sorry,no new release, so we decided to distract you with a new poll. We're working out some issues with multi-server support and some stuff thatfollows under the "Not yet, there's still a couple of bugs I'd like to seefixed" response to the "Is4.0 Ready for Release" poll. We're shooting for some sort ofpre-release this weekend but, as a user pointed out to me last week, "Which'this weekend'"? Fortunately 4.0B28 is working well enough for themajority of you that this isn't a terrible hardship waiting for the finalrelease and we do appreciate your patience.
4/22/2002 9:45 PM EST
Wemade another pre-release to a few hard core beta testers and are waiting to hearthe results. We will have one more pre release with full installer beforethe final 4.0 goes out. Looking at putting the pre-release out in the nextcouple of days if everything goes well. Judging from the polls, even B28is working well enough for release and the pre-release is even better.
Onanother note, looks like we pissed someone off. We've been mail-bombed forthe last 3-4 days with viruses. We don't run Outlook and we have filtersin our mail server so we are immune. Whoever is doing it is spoofing ouraddresses so they look like they are coming from us. If any of you getunexpected email from us with attachments, please delete it and let usknow.
4/18/2002 1:30PM EST
4.0is looking very stable. Those of you running B28, please respond to thenew "Is 4.0 Ready?" poll, I reset it to get a new tally. It is here. A couple of changes between B28 and the 4.0 release involve making theregistration screen tolerant of extra spaces or incorrect case. Many minorbug fixes are in in there as well as a surprise feature that has been requestedfrequently (we just can't keep our hands off this, so much for the featurefreeze). The installer is in beta testing and the help file is comingalong. We are hoping to release it this weekend.
Thanksfor your patience.
4/4/2002 12:30PM EST
Weare still here, just cleaning up some remaining issues with 4.0, working on theinstaller, and trying to pull a 4.0 help file together.
Commonsupport issues for this week:
1)Your 3.x key does not work in 4.0. The automatic upgrade will generate anew key for you unless you were not running a registered version of 3.x on thatmachine. If the upgrade fails and you need a 4.0 key, send mail to sales@newsbin.comand request a 4.0 key. Please include your 3.x key in your email to saveus the time of looking you up.
2)Earthlink users need to use "Force Authentication" to work withearthlink news servers
3)If your registration fails, make sure your firewall allows port 80 traffic fromNewsbin and that you temporarily disable any ad blocking software or virusscanners that do internet scanning.
4)Another common problem with registrations is that people are including trailingspaces for elements of the key when they copy and paste. Make sure thatonly the key info is being copied or you will get a failure.
Thankyou for using Newsbin!
3/22/2002 10:30PM EST
We'vejust released version B28 with some changes to help NewsBin exit faster afterlong runs. More details and link for download B28 are here.
3/16/2002 12:30AM EST
We'vejust released version B27 with more minor changes. We fixed a problemintroduced by fixing the problem handlingfunky characters in the subject of some posts. More details and link for downloadB27 are here.
Wereally want to get 4.0 out the door so we can work on 4.1. Please respondto this pollto log your opinion about the state of the 4.0 beta series.
3/14/2002 3:00PM EST
We'vejust released version B26 with minor changes. We fixed a problem handlingfunky characters in the subject of some posts and when you have embedded spacesin the alias for your news server. Also, the version number has beenupdated internally so ZoneAlarm or other on-machine firewalls will inform you ofa new version instead of blocking NewsBin because it thinks there is somethingwrong with it. No installer yet but we are currently testing it. More details and link for download B26 are here.
Ifyou have problems registering, make sure you aren't being blocked by a firewalland any ad-blocking software is temporarily disabled.
3/10/2002 2:00PM EST
Hmm,Ok it isn't "tonight" anymore, but I wanted to get a little more testtime in. This one has all the fixes of B24 plus a fixed odometer. B25 is available for download here.
3/09/2002 9:00AM EST
Ok,B24 can be registered now. It was a mixup in communications between B24and the key server. But users have reported that the odometer is countingup way to fast in B24. If the odometer is important to you, don't downloadB24. You can re-download B23 here.
B25will be out tonight.
3/09/2002 9:00AM EST
Ohman, B24 is not register-able. Something got messed up when we weretweaking the registration stuff. Please hang in there, we're working onit. For now, we have pulled B24 from the site. You can re-downloadB23 here.
Sorryabout that.
3/09/2002 12:30 AM EST
Wehave just released Version4.0B24. We are in feature freeze and doing cleanup work at thispoint. It appears that a vast majority of you brave users survived the keyupgrade that came with 4.0. People purchasing a key will now receive keysfor 3.32 and 4.0, as they now employ different registration schemes. Currently registered users will see an automatic key upgrade take place thefirst time they start 4.0B24. This release is still in zip file format,the next should have a complete installer.
Thankyou for your many suggestions for the polls. A new poll has just been setup here. Feel free to send suggestions to webmaster@newsbin.com.
3/05/2002 11:45 PM EST
Ofthe people having problems with the 4.0 registration upgrade, most were due toZoneAlarm, AdSubtract, NortonAV, or McAfee blocking the registration key frombeing received by NewsBin. Another problem was fixed in our Build3209. There is still one strange problem where NewsBin shuts down if theupgrade fails and we are still trying to debug that one. At any rate, the10 day free trial is re-enabled with B23 so please be patient and allow us timeto get this straightened out. We saved the new registration mechanism forlast so this means the final 4.0 is very close to release, we feel confident itwill be sometime in March.
Ineed some ideas for next week's polling question. I'll be putting a newone up on Friday. Feel free to send suggestions to webmaster@newsbin.com. You can check out the current polls here.
3/05/2002 12:45 AM EST
Wejust released a new build of 4.0B23, Build 3209. We had reports thatNewsBin 4.0B23 did not run on W95 which we attribute to our switching to thelatest Microsoft VC++ compiler. Microsoft has officially announced that itno longer supports W95 and it looks like we just got bit by it. So were-built B23 with the previous version of the compiler. We also fixed abug reported by some users where the upgrade process failed forthem. If you could not register your version of 4.0B23, orcouldn't even run it, then download 4.0B23 here. If you have already downloaded and successfully upgraded 4.0B23, do notre-download this file! It will be a waste of your time and ourbandwidth.
3/03/2002 11:59 PM EST
Version4.0B23 has just been released. Please read the releasenotes as there are many many bug fixes. The most noticeable thing isthe new registration system. All unregistered users will receive a new 10day free trial because one of the bugs in B22 was that it started nagging fromday one. The new registration system takes registered users through anautomatic key upgrade process. The release notes explains this more. If you encounter problems, let us know and be patient. We've got 10 daysto fix the problem if you can't get registered again for some reason.
3/4/20021:18 AM UPDATE: We need to clarify the key information. Version 4.0uses a new key but it is not for sale yet. Version 3.32 is the official releaseand we are only sending keys for 3.32. If you want to register 4.0, youneed to enter your key in 3.32 and then start 4.0. If you were using acrack and decided to buy a key, you will need to uninstall 3.32 and re-installit, then enter your new 3.32 key. Then start 4.0. If you need help contactus.
3/02/2002 10:30 PM EST
Wewill be releasing the next beta version, 4.0B23, soon. Barring majorproblems, it will be out this weekend. In the mean time, we have installedpolling software so wecan have some fun (other than downloading cool stuff from usenet). We'veseeded the polls with a few questions to start, feel free to send usenet,internet, or NewsBin related questions for future polls to webmaster@newsbin.com.
Anew help file is under development for the 4.0 series and we appreciate thesuggestions from our users on how the help should be presented. Thisversion is taking a more practical approach, guiding you through typical usagebut will also have useful information for those of you who want to dig in anduse more advanced features.
Thankyou for using NewsBin, time to hitthe polls!
2/24/2002 12:45 PM EST
Inversion 4.0 (still in beta), if you see that the "Find in Subject"field is grayed out (disabled), it is because the "Show FilteredPosts" checkbox is selected. We did this to stress that these aremutually exclusive features. The "Show Filtered Posts" featurebypasses ALL filters, including the "Find in Subject" filter.
Wehave gone through 4 closed iterations of the next beta release, 4.0B23. Weshould be making a public release this week and we believe we are very close tothe final 4.0 release.
1/27/2002 1:15 AM EST
Version4.0B22 has just been released. It provides more robust support for yEncencoded posts, allows you to save thumbnails of images downloaded, and otherminor fixes and cosmetic changes. Read more about the release and downloadit here.
1/20/2002 1:20 PM EST
Wehave finally released the SigGen utility for 4.0. This utility updates thesignature.dat file which tells NewsBin about all your currently saved files soit knows not to download them again. You only need to run this utility ifyou have recently upgraded from 3.x to 4.0 or if you have files acquired fromother sources that you want NewsBin to know about.
DownloadSigGen4 here.
1/14/2002 1:00 AM EST
Yes,it has been awhile but we are still working diligently on getting version 4.0out of beta. We have tested this one hard to try to break the "badodd release" jinx. We are officially putting a "FeatureFreeze" on 4.0 and will only fix cosmetic things and bugs until the final4.0 release. Any new suggestions or feature not already in place will goon the 4.1 list. We did slip yEnc support into this release as well as afew bug fixes and cosmetic changes.
Readabout and download Version 4.0 B21 release here.
1/3/2002 10:32 AM EST
Asyou may have noticed, our server was down from 1:00pm EST Jan 2 through thismorning due to a vicious crash. Our backup server is serving the forum andweb pages now and our registration processing has just come back online withinthe last few hours. There will be a few minutes of downtime in the weehours of the morning (EST) on Saturday as we install our new, rebuiltmachine. We apologize for any inconvenience, it was not fun for us,either.
Wehave also had an onslaught of messages from Earthlink customers saying theycannot access their news server with NewsBin. Earthlink apparently madesome changes in their server configuration. Our users have found thatusing "Force Authentication" on the server configuration screen willget everything working again.
OurBeta 20 release is doing ok although we are having reports of the filters doingstrange things on XP machines. We are trying to re-create the problem now.
1/2/2002 2:15 AM EST
Wehave just released version 4.0 Beta 20. This much anticipated "evennumbered release" fixes the year 2002 date problem, crash problems under Windows XP,and possible crash problems when increasing or decreasing the number ofconnections. We have had a week-long private beta test with good resultsbut have been forced to release it a bit early due to the Y2K2 problem. Read more about it and download the release here.
1/1/2002 11:15 PM EST
Withthe new year comes a new bug. All 4.0 beta releases are now broken. We are feverishly working on a new release and we will not sleep until werelease a fix.
