We have released version 6.55 as the official production version. The most significant change is a fix to a potential crash problem that can occur while processing headers.
You can download it from the Newsbin Download Page. Just run the installer, it will automatically perform
the upgrade and will retain your registration status and all settings as long as you are upgrading from 6.42 or higher.
Version 6.60 will be entering beta testing soon. The next big feature will be SickBeard integration.
Any questions, feel free to Contact Us
We've had a report that Avast Premier 2015 blocks the Newsbin installer from launching. You can temporarily disable "Active protection" in Avast in
order to run the installer.
We have also put up a new Release Candidate of Newsbin 6.55. This one addresses a crash issue some people have been reporting that can occur
while Newsbin is processing headers in the background. You can download it from the Beta Download Page
Any questions, feel free to Contact Us
We failed to mention that 6.54 was promoted to be the production release a couple of weeks ago. Look in the Title Bar at the top of the Newsbin screen
and if it doesn't say 6.54 Build 3326 you should upgrade. As always, upgrades are free.
We have received increased reports of Newsbin crashing on startup recently. We believe one of the database files is getting corrupted
if Newsbin is closed unexpectedly. Version 6.54 has some safeguards against this and we are considering another quick-turn release,
Version 6.55, to address a potential crash issue processing header files. Version 6.60 is currently in alpha testing and will have these
and more safeguards against crashes due to database corruption.
Any questions, feel free to Contact Us
TweakNews is performing maintenance on November 5 starting at 9:00GMT. That's 4:00am on the US East Coast. If you download headers from TweakNews, you will need to reset Newsbin's article number reference. The steps to do this are:
At this point Newsbin will download X days headers for all selected groups. Once the header downloads complete,
Newsbin will only download new headers that have arrived since the last time you checked.
This ONLY impacts TweakNews users, and only users who download headers. If you don't use TweakNews then you can disregard this.
If you use TweakNews in addition to other news services, then you may want to temporarily disable the other servers when you do
this to avoid downloading more headers than you have to.
Any questions, feel free to Contact Us
A few minor issues cropped up in version 6.53 that we decided was worth a new release. The main fixes are:
If you've been hit by any of the above issues, it would be worthwhile to go ahead and upgrade (this is a free upgrade).
Barring any more critical issues, this will become the production release.
You can download the Version 6.54 Release Candidate from the
Newsbin Beta Page. Running the installer will upgrade Newsbin without impacting your current settings.
Version 6.53 has no new features but does have improved reliability and now handles certain AutoPAR cases properly now.
If you have a reliable server and don't use any of Newsbin's advanced options then you probably are having
no problems with 6.52. Still, we recommend you run the latest production release. As always, it is a free upgrade.
You can download Version 6.53 from the
Newsbin Download Page. Running the installer will upgrade Newsbin without impacting your current settings.
We'd like to thank our users who pointed out the issues in 6.52 and also thank our beta testers who ensured the issues
were fixed and also identified things we broke along the way... You can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, right?
One of the most common technical support issues we receive after each update of Newsbin is that
Newsbin "stops working". Usually it is due to a firewall blocking Newsbin. If you click the Logging
tab within Newsbin and see 10060 or 10061 error codes, that is most likely the case. The reason is that
each upgrade may look like a differnet program to firewall and Internet Security software so somtimes
you have to tell your firewall give Newsbin access to the Internet again.
In the case of Webroot, we have just learned that Webroot users will be blocked by default until Webroot learns of the
new release and adds Newsbin to their whitelist. To determine if Webroot is blocking Newsbin, you can follow
this procedure as outlined on the
Webroot SecureAnywhere Help Page.
Several of our alert users have identified some fairly critical issues in the 6.52 release regarding RAR file processing. We
have addressed those issues and are close to releasing 6.53. You can download the installer for the 6.53 Release Candidate from the
Newsbin Beta Page and it will automatically upgrade, preserving your settings.
We have also improved the quality of the search results for our Internet Search service. We now programmatically obtain
better file information for subjects containining obscured filenames when it is available. We then append the results to the subject
within parenthesis. These results are also added to the index so they will come up in a search. If you are not a subscriber, you can
perform searches for free from the Search tab when in "Internet" mode. Queuing these search results for download requires a subscription.
More information is available on our Newsbin Internet Search Page.
Two big changes and lots of smaller improvements in this version. Remember, free upgrades for life, just download
and run the installer and it will automatically upgrade, preserving your settings.
Internet Search Improvements: Search results now have icons marking encrypted posts (password protect RAR files) and potential
spam posts. All posts since the beginning of the year are tagged this way. You can filter them out if you don't want to see them under Options/Spam
Filter Settings. The Internet Search facility is an optional service. Sign up through the Newsbin Control Panel
or click here for more information.
Better Spam Detection: All files you download go through our improved spam detection algorithm
(the same one used on the Search server). You can configure Newsbin to fail them right away under Options/Spam Filter Settings.
In addition to the above, the AutoPAR functionality is improved, you can now hit ctrl-r to pull up information on obscured posts, and many
more features are listed on the download page.
We've been working pretty much non-stop the last few weeks on improving the Search database. We are now in a private
beta test with the improved system and are planning for a migration to production soon.
Newsbin Version 6.52 will display
different icons for encrypted and obvious spam posts. You can hide these posts from your results list using settings
under Options/Spam Filters. We also attempt to decode some of the obscured subjects and display that information as well.
Initally the database will have enhanced information for all posts since the beginning of the year. After the initial
release, we will work to backfill the database with enhanced data. If testing goes well, we should go live by the end of the week.
The Internet Search facility is available to all registered Newsbin users. Subscriptions start at $2.50 per month and you can
sign up through the Newsbin Control Panel. More information about the
Newsbin Internet Search Service is available here.
If you are not aware, Newsbin has an integrated Usenet Search service that allows you to perform searches
across all the popular binaries groups on Usenet. This saves you from having to trudge through millions of
headers or search on a third party nzb site.
We've had a number of users reporting that their search subscription is not being recognized by Newsbin.
The subscription is tied to your Newsbin key so if Newsbin is not registered, or it is registered with a
different key, your subscription will not be recognized. This has turned out to be the primary cause of
the problems people have been reporting.
If you find yourself in this situation but can't figure it out, please use our contact form
and we'll help you resolve the issue.
The Internet Search facility is available to all registered Newsbin users. Subscriptions start at $2.50 per month and you can
sign up through the Newsbin Control Panel. More information about the
Newsbin Internet Search Service is available here.
It may not look like there is much going on but we've got several irons in the fire right now, making progress in the background on each.
Here's what we are up to:
If you ever have any comments or suggestions, we are always available through our contact form.
We're jumping on the bandwagon to reassure everyone that we have Heartbleed under control on our servers. We are actually running a version of OpenSSL
that was released prior to the Heartbleed vulnerability so we were not at risk. Just because we aren't running the latest version of available server
software doesn't mean we aren't secure and in good working order. Our focus is Newsbin and the goal of the servers hosting the website and the Search servers
is to keep them running reliably and securely. If it's not broke don't fix it, right?
In other news, we have started beta testing 6.52 that includes some more minor tweaks to 6.51. You can read about it on the Beta Release Page, click on the "Changes in this version" tab.
Also, the Android Newsbin Alpha test is still ongoing, we will be doing another alpha release in the next few days. If you want to get in on it, check out the
Newsbin for Android page and contact us if you are interested in giving it a try. It is early Alpha so it is functional but
not full featured. If you are expecting a more finished product, you should probably wait for Beta at least.
We have released Newsbin Version 6.51! It has some bug fixes, performance improvements, and reliability improvements over 6.50. It also has more
robust handling of those annoying passworded RAR files.
This is a free upgrade for all registered users. Download and run the 6.51 installer,
it will retain your current configuration settings. The first time you update groups (if you are a header downloader) there may be a delay while the group databases
get reindexed.
Quade is already working on Version 6.60 which shares its code base with the Android version of Newsbin. We hope to have the Android version available for Alpha testing next week.
As always, if you have any questions or issues, feel free to contact us.
If you have an account with Easynews, they have just reset all their article numbers which will cause Newsbin to throw errors when you update your headers.
The procedure to reset Newsbin to handle the new article numbers is disussed here.
If you have any questions or issues, feel free to contact us.
We are now up to Version 6.51 Beta 5 and feel we are close to final release. We did discover a small issue in prior versions:
If you have the option "Folder Dup Bypass" selected under Options/Advanced, the Spam Filter settings are not applied when downloading from NZB files.
We'll have a fix for this in the next release.
You can download the latest beta release, 6.51 Beta 5, from the
beta download page. If you have any questions or issues,
feel free to contact us.
Starting in Version 6.50, the method of assigning passwords to extract encrypted RAR archives has changed. Instead of
assigning passwords to each download, you simply add them to a password list and Newsbin figures out what passwords to use.
You manage the list of possible passwords under Options/RAR Passwords. Be sure you click "Add New" for each password you enter and
you should add the password before you queue the file for download.
You can also manage the password list manually if you like, it is stored in a text file called "RarPasswords.txt" in the Newsbin
Data Folder. Newsbin will try every password in the list until it succeeds or runs out of passwords to try.
If you notice Newsbin failing to extract an archive and you know you have a good password, please
send us an example so we can make
sure we support it. Also, if you see posters or NZB sites following a consistent pattern of providing passwords, like in the filename
or NZB, contact us and provide an example so we can look into supporting it automatically.
This version addresses a number of bugs that were not discovered until after the final 6.50 release last month. Details
and the download link are on the Newsbin Beta Download Page.
If you find any other problems or have questions about this release, check the Newsbin Forums to see
if someone else has already reported the problem or asked the question. If not, you can either post your own question there or contact us through our
Technical Support Form.
Also, thank you to all our new Twitter followers. We easily surpassed our goal of 1000 followers and intend to continue sending useful tweets.
