You know, it never ceases to amaze me how one thing leads to another on the web. I started the journey in the search for BNR, and ended up with the perfect Freeware program for my needs. Don't ask me how I got there, just started following a bunch of links, and before you know it, there I was.

The program is called Alt.Binz 0.25.0, totally free, and has just about any feature one could think of. Unlimited connections, multi-server support, auto-unrar, a search engine that uses about 8 different sites, NZB import and export, ongoing development, support forum, and let me tell you, it's FAST! Maxed out my speed limit right away.

For anyone wanting to check it out, it's available at http://www.altbinz.com/

Thanks much!! I'm off to give it a tryout..........

BNR (Binary News Reaper - 1 2 or 3) was looking promising, but I seem to remember it being stalled.

http://www.bnr2.org/ - Last BNR(2) version there is 0.14.7 Beta (Aug. 30th, 2005)

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bnr1/ - Yahoo group, help & resources for it, seems the last version may be BNR2 or BNR3.

What I currently have is an account with http://www.newsrazor.net, which provides me with the best news service I've ever had in terms of speed, reliability, and cost per month. At just $10.95 per month, 10 concurrent connections which give me a full 9.8Mbps ( yes, that's almost 10 true Meg per second download rate), 60 days retention, and unlimited download amounts per month, it's a deal I find hard to beat. No, it doesn't have the web interface you mention, but that's not a biggie for me. I'm used to accessing other avenues of indexing, such as a really great freeware program called NZBLeecher.

My requirements for a NNTP downloader is to be able to handle NZB files, and to be able to handle 10 connections at once.

Thanks for the input, and also for the sympathies! hehe I'll keep looking, there has to be a good freeware binary downloader out there somewhere. I've tried Free Agent, but that was sorely lacking for my purposes.

Well to start with - I have used a subscriber website http://www.easynews.com for at least 10 years as my USENET provider. The reason is despite the fact there is a small monthly subscription fee involved - the completion rates of the usenet groups is extremely good and retention rates have always been at least a month (currently about 2 months). They have an excellent (I feel one of the best) web interfaces over the newsgroups. All of the header downloading, filtering and processing that is handled by traditional news readers - is all done server side, so less time and downloading required). They have a near instantaneous search engine across all groups, thumbnail support for all graphic files and videos and a facility to watch for keywords and daily email notification when your watch gets "a hit". Basically it rocks. There have since been other sites that go some of the way to emulate the functionality Easynews provides - but since starting out with Easynews, I've never been disappointed with their service - and I feel that is worth something.

Because the newsgroups are treated as indexed webpages - basically any standard file downloader will do the job.

In terms of free downloaders - in the past I used to swear by Flashget. Since the developers decided to "enhance" flashget, adding a lot of features I never wanted - such as bittorrent support - the product took a pretty steep dive in my opinion (lots of other people feel the same way). You can still download "Flashget Classic" - from their website which is essentially "Flashget - before it was ruined". That is still a very stable program and has everything most people would need in a downloader.

The relatively "new kid on the block", which has covered a lot of ground since it was first released is OrbitDownloader. This program can do something lots of other downloaders can't - and that is capture and download streaming media (videos and music) from websites like those listed on their webpage. It also handles the standard "file downloads" with resuming and split/multi-source downloads. It is still under development and updates are released fairly regularly - it works great but is definitely a work in progress & evolving.

So my favorites are

• Orbit Downloader
• Flashget Classic

For some comparisons of many different download managers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_download_managers

If you are stuck with just a "Old Style" news service - and need a NNTP downloader/decoder/previewer for managing your binaries, you have my deepest sympathies ;)

I would very much like to hear the opinions from you all on what you think the best freeware binary newsgroup downloading program is. I'm not so much interested in reading groups, as I am on downloading binaries. Legal binaries, of course! Wallpapers, Artwork, things of that nature.

Anyways, all pointers will be appreciated!