The ABC's Of NZB's
NewsAdmin Staff Writer

What is this NZB that everyone is talking about? Is it painful? Can it be treated with a topical cream? Inquiring minds wanted to know, so we equipped our NewsAdmin staff with hazmat suits, a few cans of Lysol, and sent them on their way in hopes that one of them would unravel the NZB mystery.

As it turns out, NZB is not contagious... addictive maybe... but contagious, no. NZB is a text based file that can be used with NNTP newsreaders to retrieve individual posts from a news server without downloading the entire contents of a newsgroup. Specific posts within a NZB file are identified by their unique Message-ID, a detail that can be acquired through any number of newsgroup search or indexing sites.

Let's say you couldn't go another day without listening to ABBA on your laptop. You might search for "Fernando" in your favorite newsgroup indexing site, and find that the audio file has been posted to a humungous MP3 newsgroup. Rather than download all 20 million headers within the group, you simply add the post's Message-ID to your NZB file, run the NZB through your NNTP newsreader, retrieve the file and satisfy your ABBA fix without wasting another minute of your day.

If you like your good news before your bad, there are two benefits that may entice you to take a closer look at NZB. All of the leg work is essentially done outside of the newsgroups, allowing you to quickly locate & retrieve content without having to weed through an entire list of posts within a group. With Usenet content doubling in size every 6 months, NZB may be a more efficient way to grab your favorite multimedia content. Think of it as a way to grab the transferable tattoo prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box without having to wade through the sticky peanut & popcorn nugats.

Most newsgroup service providers (NSP's) offer metered accounts that provide a set amount of daily or monthly download capacity. When retrieving a list of posts (headers) within a newsgroup, some providers will count that data against your download capacity. Are you prepared to waste valuable bits & bytes downloading Air Supply & REO Speedwagon headers while trying to find your favorite ABBA clip? With NZB you only retrieve the newsgroup data that you need, allowing you to get more mileage out of your account's download capacity.

Unfortunately there is a downside to NZB. To start, not all newsreaders and newsgroup services support the retrieval of posts via Message-ID. If you find yourself with a newsreader or service that falls into this category, NZB will not be an option.

News servers retain content for different periods of time, which contributes to NZB files having a short shelf life. Specific newsgroup posts may have been present at the time a NZB was created, but by the time you get your hands on that NZB and attempt to use it, the posts may have already expired. Similarly, its not uncommon to find corrupt or virus laden NZB files, with the latter posing an obvious problem for your computer's well being. Extra care needs to be taken when working with NZB files, and for some, this may be more trouble than it's worth.

There are a few newsgroup providers that offer a content search feature within their service, with the option of downloading selected posts through their search function, or creating a NZB file for use with your favorite NNTP reader. When exploring the world of NZB you may want to consider a service provider that offers all the essentials in one place... newsgroups, newsgroup search & NZB creation.. rather than take chances with a 3rd party NZB site.

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