From: MacFAQ@aol.com Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 19:29:03 -0500 To: macgifts@mac.archive.umich.edu Subject: AOL Usenet Downlading FAQ This FAQ answers frequently asked questions (FAQs) about downloading uuencoded and binhexed files from Usenet newsgroups using the America Online software. Not affiliated with or sponsored by America Online, Leslie Jones ----cut here--- America Online Usenet Downloading FAQ by Leslie Jones macfaq@aol.com March 12, 1995 For use in a word processor, display in 9 point Monaco or 10 point Courier with rulers set to 6 inches. ----------------- Table of Contents ----------------- General Purpose Posting frequency and availability America Online FAQ for Macintosh America Online FAQ for non-Members Contacting the author Copyright Notice and Restrictions General Binaries Information Finding binaries newsgroups Etiquette on binaries newsgroups Why are files binhexed or uuencoded? Recognizing BinHex and uuencoded files Instructions General Instructions Macintosh debinhexing instructions Macintosh uudecoding instructions Windows uudecoding instructions File conversion software How do I open GIF and JPEG pictures? How do I open MPEG movies? How do I open GL Movies? How do I open MOD sounds? How do I open WAV sounds? How do I decompress .zip files? How do I decompress .arc files? How do I decompress .sit files? How do I decompress .gz and .z files? How do I decompress .Z files? ------- General ------- ------- Purpose ------- This FAQ answers frequently asked questions (FAQs) about downloading uuencoded and binhexed files from Usenet newsgroups using the America Online software. ---------------------------------- Posting frequency and availability ---------------------------------- The FAQ is posted monthly to aol.newsgroups.help.binaries. By default, this local newsgroup is part of every AOL members' newsgroups list. Feel free to (politely, if possible) refer AOL members to that newsgroup and to the AOL Usenet Downloading FAQ for help. The FAQ is also posted monthly to the following binaries discussion groups: alt.binaries.multimedia.d alt.binaries.pictures.d alt.binaries.pictures.erotica alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d alt.binaries.pictures.utilities alt.binaries.sounds.d comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d The FAQ will soon be available on news.answers, alt.answers, comp.answers, and via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu. The FAQ is currently available via FTP from usit.net in the directory pub/lesjones . To find the FAQ on AOL, use keyword "file search" and search for "usenet downloading faq". -------------------------------- America Online FAQ for Macintosh -------------------------------- The AOL FAQ for Macintosh is a comprehensive, 200-page guide to AOL which many people prefer to the Official America Online Tour Guide. The FAQ is a standalone DOCMaker application with rich text, color graphics, and a hypertext table of contents. It covers all of AOL's services, including the Internet services. Because it's a large binary, the AOL FAQ for Macintosh is not available via Usenet. To find it on AOL, use keyword "file search" and search for "aol faq". The FAQ is also available via FTP from usit.net in the directory pub/lesjones (URL: ftp://usit.net/pub/lesjones/ ). The latest versions of this and other FAQs are also stored there. I'm a Mac person at heart, but I'm trying to get up to speed with Windows. It's still too early to predict a release date for the Windows version. ---------------------------------- America Online FAQ for non-Members ---------------------------------- The AOL FAQ for non-Members answers questions often asked by non-AOL members. It is posted monthly to alt.online-service.america-online, comp.sys.mac.comm, and comp.os.ms-windows.apps.comm. The FAQ will soon be available on news.answers, alt.answers, comp.answers, and via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu. The non-Members FAQ is also available via FTP from usit.net in the directory pub/lesjones . --------------------- Contacting the author --------------------- Due to limitations of AOL's newsreader, I post the FAQ from my address at U.S. Internet, but my preferred address is macfaq@aol.com. Please use that address for corrections and suggestions. --------------------------------- Copyright Notice and Restrictions --------------------------------- This publication is copyright 1995 by Leslie Jones of Softwords. All rights reserved. Not affiliated with America Online, Inc. Unmodified copies of this publication may be distributed electronically, and may be uploaded to nonprofit BBSes, to FTP sites that allow anonymous login, and to commercial online services that charge no more than a normal connect fee for downloading files. Distribution on physical media, including but not limited to paper, floppy disk, and CD-ROM, is prohibited without written permission from the author, Leslie Jones. This restriction does not prohibit individuals from making single copies for friends or for personal use, and is not intended to discourage electronic dissemination. Permission is granted to nonprofit user groups to distribute unmodified copies of this publication with their shareware collections. Permission is also granted to the moderators and archivists of the sumex-aim archives at Stanford University to include unmodified copies of this publication on the Info-Mac CD-ROM. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate information, but Leslie Jones, Softwords, America Online, and the contributors accept no responsibility for actions resulting from the use of this information. The person using this information assumes all liability, including but not limited to damage to equipment, lost data, lost work time, repair costs, long distance charges, and charges incurred on America Online. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. ---------------------------- General Binaries Information ---------------------------- --------------------------- Finding binaries newsgroups --------------------------- To find newsgroups which carry binaries, use keyword "newsgroups", click Search All Newsgroups, and search for "binaries". I found 65 groups this way. To subscribe to adult newsgroups, use keyword "newsgroups", click Expert Add, and type in the exact name of the newsgroup. -------------------------------- Etiquette on binaries newsgroups -------------------------------- ****Don't post "me too" messages - Inevitably, someone says they've got a list of "interesting" FTP sites, so someone posts a message that they would like a copy. Then 100 eager newbies say "me too." Don't embarrass yourself by posting a "me too" message. If you think the person has a list of FTP sites, ask for it by email. ****Don't use binaries groups for discussions - Discussion should take place in discussion groups. For example, alt.binaries.pictures is for binary files. alt.binaries.pictures.d is for discussion of those binary files. ****Don't ask for help with the AOL software on binaries newsgroups. People on Netcom and Delphi have no idea how the AOL software works. Instead, post a message to aol.help.newsgroups.binaries. ------------------------------------ Why are files binhexed or uuencoded? ------------------------------------ It didn't take long for someone to figure out a way to distribute software via Usenet. The only challenge is that all software programs and most data files are 8 bit binaries. Usenet only carries 7 bit text. There are a number of solutions to this problem, but the two most popular are BinHex and uuencoding. BinHex and uuencoding do basically the same thing. Both convert 8-bit binary files into 7-bit text files. The main difference is that BinHex is Mac-savvy, and can preserve the two part structure (resource fork and data fork) of Macintosh programs (applications, DAs, control panels, etc.). BinHex is used to convert Mac-specific programs. uuencode is used to convert files that aren't Mac specific, such as GIF and JPEG pictures. -------------------------------------- Recognizing BinHex and uuencoded files -------------------------------------- You can recognize uuencoded files because the first message begins with the line "begin 644" (or some other three-digit number), and other lines begin with a capital M. To uudecode files on a Macintosh, use UULite. To uudecode files on a Windows machine, use WinCode. You can recognize binhexed files because the first message begins with the line "(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)". To decode BinHex files, use StuffIt Lite or StuffIt Expander. There is a program called BinHex 4.0, but it has some bugs that should discourage you from using it. BinHex 5.0 is a different program, not an updated version of 4.0. I find that BinHex and Compact Pro generally do not work well with binaries downloaded from AOL, so I always use StuffIt products. The files are generally split into separate messages to accommodate the size limits of some newsreaders. When you open the newsgroup, you'll typically see messages like "Jupiter GIF Part 0/3", "Jupiter GIF Part 1/3", etc. Part 0, if present, is usually a file description, not part of the file itself. The file description often contains useful information about the file's format and contents. ------------ Instructions ------------ -------------------- General Instructions -------------------- 1. Open the first message (part 1 of the file). You'll see a dialog box that says "Article exceeds the capacity of this window or contains uuencoded data. Displaying the first 1k. Download this article?" Click OK to download the message. Windows users should download the message to WinCode's Files directory. 2. If the file is spread across several messages, open the next message, click OK, and download that message. Repeat until you have downloaded all parts of the file. 3. Sign off of AOL. 4. For BinHex files, use the debinhexing instructions below. For uuencoded files, use the uudecoding instructions below. ---------------------------------- Macintosh debinhexing instructions ---------------------------------- 1. If the file consists of one message, go to step 3. Otherwise, launch BBEdit Lite, shareware by Rich Siegel (bbedit@world.std.com). 2. Choose Concatenate Files from BBEdit's Extensions menu. In the dialog box, add all of the messages that belong to that file to the window on the right. Then click Done. Finally, save the merged file. 3. Use StuffIt Expander or StuffIt Lite to debinhex the merged file. Some other programs, such as BinHex 4.0 and Compact Pro, don't work as well. --------------------------------- Macintosh uudecoding instructions --------------------------------- 1. Launch UULite, shareware by Jeff Strobel (jstrobel@std.world.com). 2. If the file consists of one message, choose Decode - Smart from UULite's File menu, and select the file. UULite will uudecode the file. 3. If the file consists of several messages, choose File Merge from UULite's File menu. In the dialog box, add all of the messages that belong to that file to the window on the right. Then click Done. UULite will merge the files, then uudecode the merged file. If you get "end of file" messages when using GIFConverter to open GIFs and JPEGs, use GraphicConverter instead. ------------------------------- Windows uudecoding instructions ------------------------------- 1. Launch WinCode, shareware by George Silva (george.silva@wadsworth.org). 2. Choose Decode from the File menu. 3. If the file consists a single message, select it and click the OK button. If the file consists of several messages, hold down the shift key and select all of the messages. Then click OK. If WinCode reports that it can't find the next file, click the ? button and manually select the next file. 4. You can find the decoded file in WinCode's decode directory. ------------------------- File conversion software ------------------------- Because of my limited experience with Windows, there are probably some errors in this section. If you find any mistakes, please notify me so I can make corrections. For a more complete discussion of file formats, see the alt.binaries.pictures FAQ by Him Howard (deej@cadence.com), posted to alt.binaries.pictures and available via FTP at rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/ . All of the programs mentioned in this section are shareware or freeware, and are available on AOL. Use keyword "file search" to search for the files by name. ------------------------------------ How do I open GIF and JPEG pictures? ------------------------------------ You'll need some kind of image viewing application. For Macintosh, use GraphicConverter, JPEGview, or GIFConverter. If you get "end of file" messages when using GIFConverter to open GIFs and JPEGs, use GraphicConverter instead. Note for Macintosh users: doubleclicking the picture file may not work. You may need to launch the viewer, then choose Open from its File menu to open the file. You can also use drag and drop file opening, if you're familiar with that. For Windows, use PrintVue or Paint Shop Pro. For DOS, use CompuShow. -------------------------- How do I open MPEG movies? -------------------------- Macintosh: Sparkle Windows: VTMotion, MPEGXing ------------------------ How do I open GL Movies? ------------------------ Macintosh: GLViewer DOS: GRASPRT ------------------------- How do I open MOD sounds? ------------------------- Macintosh: SoundTracker, Sound-Trecker, Player Pro Windows: MOD4WIN, ULTIMOD DOS: SOX, Music Master, WAVVIEW ------------------------- How do I open WAV sounds? ------------------------- Macintosh: SoundBuilder, Brian's Sound Tool Windows: WAVMSTR, WAVTEST DOS: SOX, many others ------------------------------- How do I decompress .zip files? ------------------------------- Macintosh: ZipIt, StuffIt Expander with DropStuff w/Expander Enhancer Windows: WinZip, many others DOS: PKZip, many others ---------------------------- How do I decompress .arc files? ---------------------------- Macintosh: StuffIt Expander with DropStuff w/Expander Enhancer, ArcMac Windows: WinZip ------------------------------- How do I decompress .sit files? ------------------------------- Macintosh: StuffIt Lite, StuffIt Expander, AOL 2.1+ DOS: unsitins.exe ------------------------------ How do I decompress .gz and .z files? ------------------------------ Macintosh: StuffIt Expander with DropStuff w/Expander Enhancer Windows: WinZip, GZIP ----------------------------- How do I decompress .Z files? ----------------------------- Macintosh: StuffIt Expander with DropStuff w/Expander Enhancer, MacCompress Windows: Compress, WinZip GZIP