Pipex newsgroup access down...
We've received reports from Pipex customers who are unable to download from the Pipex news server. According to Pipex Support, newsgroup access is temporarily down. If you can't wait for them to come back up or are constrained by their 10GB/month download cap, consider one of our Recommended News Services.
We are still making progress on version 5.40 and hope to have a new beta available today or tomorrow.
Version 5.40 Beta 8 Available...
This version fixes the intermittent crash problems reported in the last Beta. If you are already running a 5.40 Beta version, you should find this one to be much more stable. If you have not tried 5.40, be prepared for a database conversion process on upgrade from version 5.35 or earlier.
More information about this and prior beta releases, as well as the download link, are in the Release Notes. Please report any issues in our Forums or by using our Technical Support Form.
Version 5.40 Beta Available...
We haven't made a public announcement about our 5.40 Beta because it's a drastic change from 5.35 in terms of how data is stored. We've switched to using a database so NewsBin can more reliably handle the larger number of posts that are now available in the long retention news servers like Giganews (200 days).
If you want to try it, be prepared to allow NewsBin some time to convert all your stored header files to the new database format. The download list is also maintained in a database to address reliability issues when people have more than 100GB of posts queued for download.
In 5.40, AutoRAR is much more reliable now. It uses information in PAR files but does not automatically correct damaged or missing files yet. Automatic Download Mode is also not hooked up. If you can live with these things, feel free to try 5.40 Beta 7 by first reading the Release Notes. Please report any issues in our Forums or by using our Technical Support Form.
Back to Business...
We hope you took advantage of your day of free use of NewsBin Internet Search yesterday. If you got hooked on it's usefulness, you can sign up from the NewsBin Control Panel. If you don't have your username and password, you can use your key information to log in.
We are making progress with version 5.40, which is still in beta testing. The focus this week has been to make AutoRAR more robust and get ready for automatic correction using PAR files when needed.
NewsBin 10 Year Anniversary!
Yes, 10 years ago today, we sold the first key to NewsBin over the internet. NewsBin was available for a couple of years before this from a couple of shareware sites but, we mark this day as our public opening on the Internet.
To celebrate, we are giving all registered users a Free Day of NewsBin Internet Search. As long as you are running the latest version, 5.35, you do not need a subscription to run searches from the Search tab for today only. The normal subscription price is $5 per month with a minimum 3 month subscription.
We are also offering a $10 discount off the price of a key for new users today. If you have friends who haven't registered yet, be sure to let them know!
NewsBin Internet Search Retention Increase
The NewsBin Internet Search servers have been upgraded to handle up to 200 days of retention to keep up with Giganews. Retention is currently at 120 days and will grow day by day until it reaches 200 by mid-December.
If your news server does not support 200 days worth of posts, you can either sign up for Giganews or set your Age filter to restrict the age of the search results returned, otherwise you will have errors from your server when you try to download older posts.
Workaround for the Max Post Age limit...
As Giganews approaches 200 days of retention (they are at 160 days now), more people are asking about our 120 day hard limit to the Max Post Age (MPA).
The purpose of the MPA is to limit the number of days of stored headers to load into the post list on daily use. If you are keeping up with a newsgroup, there aren't many reasons for having a Max Post Age greater than 7 days or so. This will drastically reduce NewsBin's memory use over forcing an extremely high Max Post Age. A quick workaround is to use "Show All Posts" to bypass the MPA setting entirely.
If you require an MPA larger than 120 days, you can manually edit your NewsBin configuration file. Details are in the Advanced Topics section of the help page. We will be lifting this limit in the next version.
Reliability and Performance Improvement for Vista...
Microsoft has released an update for Vista that is claimed to improve reliability and performance for either 32 bit or 64 bit versions of Vista. In our own testing, some file operations went from 30 seconds to 2 seconds so you may notice significant improvements.
We are currently working on major changes to NewsBin which will allow it to better handle the longer retention some servers are now achieving as well as built in PAR2 processing. We hope to have an alpha release for the guys hanging out on our IRC channel by the end of the week.
64 Bit Version of NewsBin Released ...
Due to many user requests, we have built a 64 bit version of NewsBin based on the Production 5.35 release. We have reports that there are noticable speed improvements running the 32 bit and 64 bit side by side on a 64 bit OS. This is a free upgrade for registered users of the full version of NewsBin.
Vista issue when running an external firewall...
If you are running Vista and are having problems getting NewsBin to download as fast as it did on XP or, can't get it to work at all, it could be due to an issue with Vista. Apparently it only effects non-HTTP network activity which means Usenet access can be impacted.
Version 5.35 Released!
Even though it's been just over a month since 5.34 was released, there were enough stability issues that we decided to focus on cleaning them up instead of implementing a bunch of new features. If you had issues running 5.34, we believe 5.35 is much more stable.
Details about the bug fixes and small enhancements for Version 5.35 can be found in the release notes that are displayed after you download and install Version 5.35.
Be sure to try our new Internet Search capability. It is a new optional service available in versions after 5.34. Everyone gets 10 free searches before you decide if you want to subscribe. Internet Search is integrated on the Search tab. To search only your stored headers as in previous versions, set the drop-box to "Local" on the search tab.
Giganews Accelerator Upgrade Available...
Giganews has just released Version 1.0.99.1 of their Accelerator. This one addresses issues with connection errors and has fixed a bug with posting.
This software only works with Giganews and provides a dramatic speed improvement when downloading headers as well as encryption of nntp commands whether you use SSL or not.
Version 5.35 Release Candidate...
We have spent the last several weeks fixing stability issues from 5.34. While 5.34 worked fine for most people some had significant problems. Version 5.35 no longer requires additional Microsoft DLL's and we also found and fixed potential crash problems.
If you had or continue to have problems with 5.34, we encourage you to download and install 5.35 and let us know if it works better.
You can read more details about the changes and download Version 5.35 here.
May 16, 2007, 4:45 p.m.
New Installer for 5.34 Available...
We are receiving scattered reports of strange issues running version 5.34, especially under Vista. We believe it is due to how the installer handles some Microsoft DLL's required for NewsBin to run. We have made changes to the installer to more closely follow Microsoft's guidelines. If you are having any intermittent crash problems or other strange unexplained symptoms running NewsBin, download and install the release again. Allow the installer to perform an upgrade to retain your current settings.
NewsBin 5.34 Released...
Main new features over 5.33 are:
- Security Features: You can now password protect NewsBin starting up, and also password protect various configuration areas.
- Internet Search: In the Search tab, you can now search Usenet over the Internet using our new search service. Everyone gets a few free searches per day until we are ready to charge for the service.
- AutoRAR automatic decode: It isn't 100% but, it works most of the time. As long as the PAR2 file is downloaded first and you don't restart NewsBin while downloading a RAR set, AutoRAR will automatically decode a RAR set and place it in the Files list.
There are many other features and bug fixes that are detailed in the Release Notes. You'll find a download link there, too.
NewsBin 5.34 Release Candidate Available...
We believe we now have a stable version ready for production release. The last week has been focused on the installation process. Main new features over 5.33 are:
- Internet Search: In the Search tab, you can now search Usenet over the Internet using our new search service. Everyone gets a few free searches per day until we are ready to charge for the service.
- AutoRAR automatic decode: It isn't 100% but, it works most of the time. As long as the PAR2 file is downloaded first and you don't restart NewsBin while downloading a RAR set, AutoRAR will automatically decode a RAR set and place it in the Files list.
There are many other features and bug fixes that are detailed in the Release Notes. You'll find a download link there, too.
Don't forget to try the new Giganews Accelerator to get up to 10 time faster header downloads and increased security.
Giganews Accelerator Software...
Giganews has developed a program that runs with NewsBin to help you obtain better download speeds. Running the Giganews Accelerator with NewsBin can increase your effective datarate up to 10 times more during header downloads using compression. It also provides encryption of usenet commands and content (if you have SSL enabled on your Giganews account) and may help if your Internet provider is limiting your download speed to Usenet.
The software is in Beta status but is running well for us. You can read more about it and download it from the Giganews Accelerator Beta page. You must have a Giganews account to use this software.
Broken posting client making a mess ...
There is a new non-standard yEnc posting client being used by people posting to Usenet. It posts non-compliant yEnc files which may not show correctly in NewsBin's Compact View. People are also reporting that it results in more files showing as incomplete.
If you are seeing anything strange, use Read Post Body to look at the post headers. If the posting client is this:
X-Newsposter: YENC-POWER-POST-GB&L8 - 52 Thread w/ Progress! (Modified POWER-POST www.CosmicWolf.com)
That would explain it.
We are close to making a final release candidate for version 5.34 availble. The currently available version is 5.34 Beta 11.
Yet Another Giganews Retention Increase...
Need something that was posted 4 months ago? If you have Giganews, you can go back 120 days, even in the high traffic binary groups. We use almost a dozen different news services in our testing of NewsBin and Giganews has been the most reliable. Having the most retention as well is just icing on the cake.
We know loading 120 days of headers can be a pain so we're working on 2 ways to help deal with the volume.
1) We are currently testing our new Internet Search feature in Version 5.34 Beta. We'll be charging for it eventually but registered users have 10 free searches per day right now.
2) After 5.34 is released, we plan to implement new method of displaying post headers in the post list without loading up to 120 days into memory.
We are getting closer to releasing the final 5.34. There are a few minor things that still need to be worked out. Hoping for next week.
Version 5.34 Beta 8 for Registered Users...
We think we are close to final release of 5.34. We have resolved the crash issues reported in B7 and have. There are many other enhancements and bug fixes, some highlights are:
You can read more details about this version and find the download link in the Release Notes. The beta is still restricted to registered users.
Status...
We continue to make progress with 5.34 Beta. We hope to have a new one available for registered users to try in a few days. We believe we solved the crash on startup problem and have snuck in a couple of new features. Stay tuned...
Security Advisory for older versions of NewsBin...
For some reason people recently started focusing on finding vulnerabilities in newsreaders. There is a report of a vulnerability in Version 4.32 (and probably all the 4.x versions) where downloading an intentionally crafted malicious post will crash NewsBin. This Security Advisory claims that this exploit can compromise your machine but we haven't seen a successful one yet. To avoid this possiblity, you should upgrade to the NewsBin Version 5 series. It is immune to any 4.x exploits that may be attempted and it is a free upgrade for all registered users of Version 4.
New Beta Available for Registered Users...
We are ready for a wider beta test of Version 5.34. We are up to Beta 6 through our internal test iterations and it seems to be solid with a few relatively minor issues. There are a couple of noteworthy things that may entice you to try it:
1) Header load times are up to 10 times faster now. It takes one iteration for NewsBin to index the spool files and large multipart groups see the most benefit. Single-part groups are the same speed.
2) Header search times are up to 3 times faster. Again, doesn't kick in until after all spool files are processed the first time so the index files can be created.
3) Experimental Internet Search capability. Allows you to search headers without first downloading them.
4) New Security Options capability allows you to password protect restore from system tray and configuration options.
This version also includes many bug fixes that existed in 5.33. All the details are in the Release Notes as well as the download link for the beta. Remember, this is a beta release so you should back up your existing configuration and expect a few problems. The known issues are listed in the release notes.
Any comments or bug reports can be made in the NewsBin Beta Support Forum or via our Technical Support Form.
Have fun, be careful out there.
NewsBin Vulnerability Reported ...
No need for alarm. This report is true but it is very unlikely that anyone would be bit by it. You would have to intentionally start NewsBin with a malicious configuration file for this to be an issue. A solution is to never use someone else's configuration file. We are currently testing a beta version that fixes this vulnerability.
We are very close to having a new version that is stable enough for wider use among registered users. Hopefully it will be made available in the next few days.
Giganews does it again...
Giganews is increasing their retention from 90 days to 100 days across all binaries groups. Their text groups have around 3 years of retention and growing with no plans for capping it.
Due to Giganews raising the bar and other services trying to keep up, we are working on significant changes in NewsBin to allow you to take advantage of this huge retention without sacrificing your system resources. We hope to be entering beta testing this month.
Giganews Expands SSL Support...
Giganews now supports both the standard NNTPS port 563 and now, HTTPS port 443 for SSL. This gives you another option to try to bypass your ISP's bandwidth filtering. NewsBin 5.33 allows you to set the SSL port in the Server Options screen.
We plan to start beta testing version 5.40 soon, hopefully this month. There are several major changes in the works, including a much requested feature that we've enjoyed testing internally.
Oh, and Happy New Year! (a little late)
