| What is...? Definitions of terms. The word "part" has multiple uses, and that can be confusing. Referring to fig. 1 below, you can see that the file "Homesite50.P01" is one file, having the extension .P01 The (*/5) shows that it consists of 5 parts or segments. Those segments exist as separate pieces on the news server, but the newsreader shows them combined to make it easier to read this listing (that is normally a user-controlled option which can be turned off.) The word part is also used to refer to each file as well as each segment of each file. That can be very confusing, so new-comers are warned to consider carefully the context in which the word "part" is used, since part is also used to refer to a single file in an archive set. Except when speaking about UseNet propagation and segmenting, 'part' generally means: less than the complete set of related files which constitute a complete post, and frequently refers to a single file. You must carefully consider the context in which the word is used, to determine if refers to a segment of a file, or to a file. "Multi-part binary" is a term you will see frequently. It means all the binary files that constitute an archive set. In Illus.1 below, the files from .rar to .r08 are all the parts of that multi-part binary, but the post also includes the parity files and might also include an NFO, an SFV, and any other related files which the poster included as being necessary, such as jpgs of the box or the CD, a manual in PDF format (PDF= "Portable Document Format"), or other supporting materials. Is a file a post? Yes, and no. A post could consist of a single file, but a post can also consist of many related files, even when posted over several days! "The post" refers to the entire set of related files that are to be taken as one entity. For example: Someone posts an application that has 10 RAR or ZIP files in it, but it's all just the one application, despite consisting of 10 files, so it's all one "post." As in the example below, an archive can consist of from one to many files. Each .rar-.rxx is a file, and part of both the archive, and the post. Selecting: fig. 1  | This is an example of a post with parity files included, but no NFO. There might be an NFO in the archive, or there might not. If the application requires some special information to install, such as a serial number, and there's nothing in the archive about that, you would have to contact the poster and hope he can help you. This poster did a good job, except for the lack of an NFO. Even one that merely said "Un-RAR and install, no serial # needed", would have been helpful. If you choose to download this post, first download without the PAR-PXX files. Only if there is a problem with the RARs would you need to get any parity files. <more info> | Note the entire set of files is referred to as a "post" because it's all one set of related files. The "0" file for this is the first one, of 1 line. The poster might have made that his NFO-equivalent, but in this case it was empty. He might have said "Serial.txt in the RAR files", or something to that effect. Before downloading the whole post, read the 0-file or the NFO if posted. They can contain valuable information about the post. Incomplete posts: If a post doesn't have all the parts, should you download what parts there are and try to complete it? Let's assume in the example shown above in fig.1 that .r01 was missing, but that there was an NFO that gave you all the information you would need to install it. Would it be ok to download? Since the poster has included sufficient parity files to restore a single missing file the answer is yes. Since you would need to download only the rars, the PAR file, and any one of the PXX files, such as P01. Then, using any of the PAR-handling programs you would be able to recreate the missing *.r01, and you would have the complete post. There are enough parity files to recreate only two of the missing files. If the post were to be missing three or more rars, then it would depend on your faith in the poster, as to whether or not he/she would post the parts you need. If there is a part missing, and there are no parity files, should you download the post? Like the situation above where three or more rars would have been missing, it is a judgment call that depends on many factors, some of which are personal. For example: Does your news server have long retention? If so, you might want to wait a few days to see if the poster fills the missing part on his own. Or if anyone else requests fills from that poster, how does he/she handle those requests? In other words, "Is this a responsible, reliable poster with a good history of completing his posts?" If you can answer yes to that, then by all means download the parts that are there, and wait a bit to see if the poster completes the fills on his own. If not, then go ahead and make a request for the fill(s) you need. If it was a "Here's What I Have" post, ignore it. The poster doesn't have the fills, and they are almost never posted in response to that type of post, mainly because it irritates almost everyone. Then that poster ends up in the killfiles of dozens of people who might have helped him, had he acted responsibly. Broken downloads: A "broken" download occurs when something happens to cause a download which is in progress to stop. This can be a temporary interruption in your internet connection, your NSP may have a temporary problem, or it could be any network-related issue. Regardless of the reason, your download is incomplete-- what can you do to minimize the lost time and bytes? (Important if you are on a byte-limited provider, pay by the byte, or on a dial-up connection.) Use a news-reader program which treats all segments of a file individually, and which will resume where it left off--with the next segment following the last complete segment it had downloaded. One such news-reader is NewsBin Pro. You can accomplish the same thing with Forté Agent manually-- if, before beginning the download of a large file or files, you highlight them and select Message/Split sections. Then, if the download is interrupted, you merely resume at the next section. Once all segments have been retrieved, you can then join_sections of the files. This is particularly important when the parts of the post can reach 50 megabytes per rar, in some cases. Fixing Incomplete posts: In the case where PAR2 is used to support the post you may wish to download the incomplete file or files to use for reconstruction. If the missing segment or segments don't include the first segment Agent will save the joined sections as a file with the proper filename. If the first segment is missing, however, then Agent will not attempt to save the file, but will only display it as text. This is not the problem you might think it is; simply highlight the selection; then in the "File" menu drop-down select "Save Messages As..." and navigate to where the rest of the files are, give it the proper name- i.e. "DoesItAll.part14.rar" and save it there.
When you have all the files you can get (complete or otherwise) downloaded in this way, try to repair the post using the PAR2-handling program of your choice, such as QuickPAR. If it doesn't work, if you still need more blocks, or if QuickPAR can't accept the incomplete files for use in it's attempt to repair/complete the post, delete or move the incompletes (for another try, just in case...) and REQ fills or more PAR files.
This procedure will usually work, however, and QuickPAR will rename the bad files, adding a ".1" extension. Once you have repaired the post you may delete the ".1" files, or you may configure QuickPAR to delete them itself, automatically. You can download any number of sections, with gaps or with either end-section missing- telling Agent to join them. Make sure the segments are in the correct order as the PAR2 program will make the best use of them that way. Even though the file is incomplete, with gaps and not enough bytes, PAR2 can make use of what you can get of the files and parity files to help restore the post. |
