Downloading the Newsgroup List

Now that we have our new server configured, you can click the OK button to return to the servers list screen. You are new ready to attempt to make a connection to this server to download the master newsgroup list so that you can begin using this server. The new server you just created should be selected. If not, then highlight it. Now, click on the Connect button and BNR will attempt to make the connection. A large green panel should appear on the status bar showing the server name and its progress. After connecting successfully, BNR should begin to automatically download the newsgroup list. When this happens, the status in the status bar will show this server as “Receiving (new) newsgroups….” This process can take a long while for servers that keep a large number of groups or have a slow connect. You just have to be patient and wait until the status for the server changes to "Ready." Do not attempt to switch to the Newsgroups tab while the list is still being downloaded, or BNR will likely become very sluggish in responding to user input as it is busy constantly refreshing the list being displayed and you may find yourself stuck there for a while. When BNR finally finishes getting the list of groups, you will be almost ready to start subscribing to the groups you are interested in, but first there is one more step recommended to reduce the amount of group configuration needed.

Configuring Default Group Settings

Before you start subscribing to groups, it is a good idea to set up your default group options so that each group you subscribe to will inherit those settings. If you don't do this, then you may find yourself making the same change to the configuration of multiple news groups.
First, click on the Groups tab to change to the Subscribed Groups page, not to be confused with the Newsgroups tab, which lists all of the groups available on the server(s) that have successfully downloaded their groups lists.



To get to the default settings for news groups, highlight the Newsgroups folder in the groups list. When you do this, the Configure… button will become enabled. Click on this button to get the Configure Window.

Newsgroup Properties | Settings Tab



(option) The default behavior in BNR is to only refresh headers when you manually click the "Refresh" button in the Groups list page. If you want to automatically refresh headers every time BNR is launched or on a periodic basis, then you can check the "Automatic header refresh once every" option and then choose how often to refresh. The options allowable are a bit restricted. You can choose to refresh every BNR startup, every day, every 12 hours, every 6 hours, every 3 hours, every hour, or every 30 minutes.
(option) If you choose to set the "Automatically run FileCheck when opening group" option, then BNR will automatically check the messages in each group when you open the group. This check attempts to detect and color code files that you may have already download so that you won't waste your time downloading them again.
The "Mark all articles as read when closing article list" field allows you to choose how BNR should mark the remaining articles when you close the group. The options are to always mark the remaining articles as read, never mark the remaining articles as read, or display a message box asking for permission to mark all articles as read each time you close a group.
(optional) If you are using servers with long retention and are viewing groups with a large number of articles, you may want to use the "Download at most ___ newest headers" command to limit the number of messages that any server is allowed to retrieve from this group.

Newsgroup Properties | Decoding Tab



The Decoding Directory field is where you tell BNR the default location to use for all of the binary files that it downloads.
(option) BNR can append the group name or abbreviation to the default decoding directory to keep files downloaded from different groups organized.
(option) BNR can record each downloaded file into any of three different log files: BNR.log, descript.ion, and BNR.csv. If you choose to log files to a BNR.log or descript.ion file, they will be created in the directory where files are downloaded. If you redirect the default download directory to different paths for different sets of files, then they will be logged to log files in those directories together with the files. If you choose to log files to a BNR.csv file, it will be created in the BNR directory.
Click the OK button to save the default newsgroup options.

Subscribing to Groups

Now that we have the default group options defined, you are ready to start subscribing to the binary news groups that interest you. To get to the list of available news groups, click on the Newsgroups tab. The first column of the list shows the names of the group. Following this first column is a column for each server entered into BNR showing the number of messages available on each group at the time the newsgroup list was downloaded.



Browsing the Available Newsgroups List

You can browse through the whole list to find groups that you are interested it. If the list is too large, you can filter the list by entering a partial or full group name into search box located just above the list and the list will automatically be reduced to show only those groups that match the string you entered.
After you have subscribed to a few newsgroups, you can use the "Subscribed" button to filter the list to show only the groups to which you are subscribed so that you can see statistics on how many messages are available on each of your servers for each subscribed group.

Subscribing to Groups

Once you have found a group that you are interest in, you need to subscribe to the group, to add it to the group list back on the Groups page. To subscribe to a group, first highlight the group name in the newsgroup list and then click the Subscribe button.

Viewing Group Messages

Now that you have subscribed to some groups, you are ready to download and view headers for groups and start downloading files.

Opening the Message List Page



Once the headers have all been downloaded, you can click the Open button to open a new page for the selected group. The tab for the new page appears on the end of the main tabs with an abbreviation of the group's name on the tab to help differentiate between multiple groups open simultaneously.
You can increase or decrease the font size used in the message list using the AA & AA buttons beside the FltCfg button. The X button closes the page.

Download a Single File

To download a single file, either double-click the message or right-click the file and select the Mark for Download command on the popup menu. If the file has not been previously downloaded, then either pressing the Enter key or choosing the Execute command on the popup menu will also mark the file for download. What a file it marked for download, it is added to the download queue to be downloaded from the first available server.
Once the file is downloaded, double-clicking the file again or choosing Execute from the popup menu will launch the appropriate viewer for the type of file downloaded and pass it the file so that you can read, view and/or listen to the file you have just downloaded within BNR.

Download a Group of Files

You can download a group of adjacent files by first clicking on the first or last file in the group, then shift-clicking the file at the other end of the group and finally right-clicking on the selection and choosing the Mark for Download command on the popup menu.
You can also click and hold the left mouse button on one end of the group and then drag the cursor to the other end before letting go of the mouse button to select the group and then right-click and choose the Mark for Download command. Also, if the files have not been previously downloaded, you can either press the Enter key or choose the Execute command to mark the files for download.