binsearch.info

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

What is Binsearch?

BinSearch is a binary newsgroup search engine. Our system crawls the most popular Usenet newsgroups and makes the information found available for users to search. Unlike other search engines that merely index text discussions, we store information about binary files that are posted in newsgroups.

What is Usenet?

Usenet is a global bulletin board system that allows its users to hold discussions about a wide variety of topics. It features forums called "newsgroups" that cover a particular subject. e.g. the newsgroup "alt.politics" is meant to discuss politics.
In addition to providing a place where users can post text-only messages, it can also be used to share files. Groups that are meant to share files are called "binary newsgroups" and usually have a name that reflects that (e.g. alt.binaries.misc).

Can I download files using this site?

We merely index the content found on Usenet, and do NOT offer any files to download. You need a newsreader and server to download posts.

What news server do I use?

A news server is usually provided by the Internet Service Provider you use to connect to the Internet.
However since millions of people post messages to the newsgroups, it is impossible for the news servers to keep all messages. Therefore servers delete older posts to make room for newer ones. The time a post is kept before it is removed, is called retention.
Servers that have more storage space at their disposal have longer retention times, than others. In addition to using your ISP's server which usually has very limited storage space, several companies sell premium access offering a higher retention time for a modest subscription fee.

Premium Usenet providers:

Provider	Price range	Binary retention	Notes

What newsreader do I use?

There are a dozen newsreaders you could use, however the following stand out:

• Grabit (Windows)
  
  
• Unzbin (Windows)

Searching

How do I use Binsearch?

There are two ways to use BinSearch. If you know what you are looking for, you can use the Search function. Alternatively you can browse individual newsgroups to see what they have to offer.

What search options do I have?

You can search for the subject, the filename of a post, or the contents of a .nfo file. In addition you can limit your search to a certain newsgroup or timeframe.

I have found what I was looking for. Now what?

When the search is complete a page displaying the results is shown. You can select the files (or collections of files) you are interested in, by clicking the checkbox on the left. After you have selected the files you can click the "create NZB" button to download a .nzb file

What are .nzb files?

NZB is an open file format originally designed by Newzbin. A .nzb file contains information about one or multiple files, like the name of the Usenet group and the message-ids uniquely identifying the posts that make up the file. You can pass the nzb file to a capable newsreader, which will then begin to download the files referenced, if they are available on your news server.

What are .nfo files?

When people post a binary file to Usenet, they usually post a .nfo file along with the file itself. A .nfo is a text file describing what they are posting. That way people know more about the post, without having to download the entire set of files first.

Misc questions

How long are posts kept in the database?

To maintain a decent performance we purge older posts regulary. Since this is a process which takes several hours, this is only done once every few weeks. Therefore retention may vary a bit. See group statistics for current status.

Why do you not index group x?

New groups are added once in a while provided that they are supported by the newsgroup providers we use. Make sure your group has a proper charter.

What kind of queries does the search engine support?

At the moment the search engine only performs AND queries. We use a technology called stemming to include word variations, e.g. a search for the word "dog" will return results containing the word "dogs" as well. No modifiers, wildcards or other fancy features are supported. To maintain a decent performance it is not possible to searching for words that occur very often in our database (so called "stop words"). The maximum number of search results returned is 1000.

I posted a file to a newsgroup, however it does not appear to be indexed by BinSearch!

Note that it might take a while before a newsgroup post is propagated to all the different newsservers in the world. However, if you post a file to a newsgroup supported by BinSearch and it does not appear in the index after several hours, something might be wrong.

The most common problem is that people post files using non-standard subject lines.
The yEnc specification strongly recommends that you use the following format:

[Comment1] "filename" yEnc (partnum/numparts) [size] [Comment2]

If you do not include quotation marks around the filename, BinSearch will not be able to distinguish between the Comment1 and filename part. Since BinSearch uses the filename to group individual files into collections, this might result in your posts being indexed incorrectly.

Valid subjects:

My home video - "movie1.mpg" yEnc (1/120)
My home video - "movie1.mpg" yEnc (1/120) 50000000 bytes
[1/10] My home video - "movie1.mpg" yEnc (1/120) - file 1 of 10

INvalid subjects:

My home video - movie1.mpg yEnc (1/120)

Why is this wrong?

Binsearch will not be able to determinate the filename.

Is it "My home video - movie1.mpg" ?
..or "home video - movie1.mpg" ?
..or "movie - movie1.mpg" ?
..or "movie1.mpg" ?

My home video (1/10) - "movie1.mpg" (1/120)

Why is this wrong?

Does the file has 120 parts and belongs to a series of 10 files?
Or does the file has 10 parts and belongs to a series of 120 files?

Use the square brackets [ and ] if a file is part of a series of files.

Mike the great poster posts My home video - "movie1.mpg" (1/120)

Why is this wrong?

Please put your name in the "from" header field instead of the subject. Although Binsearch will index this fine, long subjects are just plain annoying.

My repost does not appear to be indexed by Binsearch!

If you repost files to the same newsgroup, Binsearch will assume that you are doing so because your previous post was incomplete, and add the files to your original post instead of listing it seperately. Search for your original post and click on the "collection" link to see if this is the case.

About us

Why did you create this site?

This search engine was initially created for our own private use. Since we thought others might benefit from tools to make Usenet more accessible as well, we created this public site. And yes, we have too much free time :)

How can I contact you guys?

The easiest way to send your hate and fan mail is by e-mail, the following address should work: info _AT_ binsearch.net

For intellectual property issues, please fill in our standarized notice-and-takedown form. You can scan and e-mail the form back to us at legal _AT_ binsearch.info

I like your site. Can I send a donation?

No, you cannot. We already generate income from advertising, which covers the basic costs of operating this site, like renting a server and bandwidth. If you insist on sending a donation nevertheless, the following organizations can use it better than us:

• Amnesty International

• Unicef

I would like to advertise

We currently do not offer space to new advertisers, but that may change in the near future.