Forums / Support / so how does it actually work?

so how does it actually work?

by ttmh99 @
hi (& happy new year to you all)

newbie here - I am considering using BB instead of scumware-full kazaa in order to try and find many missing songs i'm after. I have tried it before, after a fashion, but is seems that hardly any mp3 newsgroups submit full songs. Is this normal? or is it just that it's the holidays?

Is it worth downloading just parts of songs ? - how does one get the rest of the parts?
Is there a trick to doing this? I don't fancy leaving the pc connected & searching all day long, but is this what i have to do?

alternatively, should i just post a list of requests and offer swaps?
(i have hundreds of my own cds ripped at 192 or 224 usually, but generally delete the tracks i don't like, so can't offer "full albums")

suggestions gratefully received.

tim
 

BinaryBoy's reply to ttmh99 #437 @

Your server might not have a good feed or you might be looking in inactive newsgroups. Another possibility is that one of the Binary Boy settings is blocking a lot of stuff.

I searched the last 10,000 articles in 3 groups and found the following totals of complete mp3s:

311 in alt.binaries.sounds.1970s.mp3
16 in alt.binaries.sounds.1980s.mp3
493 in alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1980s

Downloading incomplete files is most useful for previews (which you send to File | Dr. Binaryt) and also for downloading from multiple servers.

A major difference between a program like Kazaa and newsgroups is that in newsgroups you have to choose from what's been posted recently. You generally can't find a specific song right away.
 

ttmh99's reply to ttmh99 #439 @

I think i must be misunderstanding what a 'complete' mp3 is, it's true that BB scrolls through thousands of entries, but as i have checked the box 'complete files only' it only "finds" 40-60 per group, and half of those are for 'requests'

there is no earthly point in downloading a few parts of a song (is there?) so to date i have found nothing, despite selecting every binary mp3 group and using * as my search. should i download parts and just keep them? My server is btconnect.com, surey that should be good enough?

as you know, i am using the pro version, and i thought i'd be able to contact some of the other posters to excahnge mp3s, but how do i do this?

also, as i have a list of downloads i want, is there a clever way of combining them all into a single search string, or do i just have to type a long list in the search box?

tia

tim
 

BinaryBoy's reply to ttmh99 #440 @

By, "complete mp3", I mean all the parts are available (1/20, 2/20...20/20 for example), it was at least several hundred KB and it had .mp3 in the subject. If you contact me by email at support at binaryboy dot com, I'll be happy to set up a temporary server account so you can logon and verify that you're seeing the same number of files I'm seeing.

In my other message I mentioned why you'd download partial files. If you're using multiple servers, the parts from one can match up with the parts of another to complete the file. It's also handy for previewing mpgs. You can decode incomplete files with the File | Dr. Binary command.

Binary Boy is for downloading only, although there have been enough requests that posting ability is planned. If you want to post requests, you'll need to use Outlook Express.

There's no built-in way to convert a list to a search string, but Binary Boy will automatically assume an OR when two words are separated by space. It will also accept a comma between search strings to combine multiple search strings on a single line.
 

Stoner's reply to ttmh99 #441 @

I'm finding over 200 mp3 newsgroups (list attached). If you're not finding that many, you may want to consider a different newsgroup provider, like Binary Boy or Giganews.

You can also try searching for newsgroups with ".music" in the name, or the artist's name or genre. There definitely appears to be a lot out there. How complete they are is an unknown until you do some searches.
 

ttmh99's reply to ttmh99 #450 @

thanks, there are definitely more groups out there than btconnect has, but bt does have most of the 'normal' ones.

when i get some time this weekend, i'll see if i can liaise with you to check whats available.
thanks
tim