november 20, 2001
Binary files posted onto a news server are broken into many small parts called segments. The file was split into these sements by posting software and was sent to the poster's news server as a series of separate messages. Each of these messages was then forwarded on to your news server. It is now the job of your news reader program to find all of the segments of the file in the messages on your server and reassemble them. This last processes is commonly called "decoding" or "downloading" the file. Most news readers can do this, but some are better than others and require less work on your part. Decoding is usually an easy task for the news reader as long as all of these sequential segments got through to your server. Sometimes one or more of these segments gets lost. There are many technical reasons why this happens; it is a just a frustrating, but normal part of usenet.
Most news reader programs will show you what segments actually arrived at your server in one of two ways:
Either way you will generally see one (or more) headers or subject lines in your news reader that may look something like this:
Mozart - Symphonies - CD5 - 01 - Symphony
No. 25 in Gm - K 183 - Allegro (xx/15)
^^^^^^^
This
is the important part ------>
The "important part" tells you that the file was split into 15 TOTAL segment messages each containing a part of the original file. For this example, the xx's will range from 01 to 15, and they tell you the order of the parts of the file. Some news readers may show (*/15) or (yy/15) instead (where yy is the number of parts that are present out of the 15 total). In this case, the entire set of 15 segments will be displayed as one single line. Usually news readers also show an icon (or graphical symbol) indicating whether the message(s) are really parts of a file, and whether the parts are all there or not.
Your news reader is responsible for taking all the related messages, combining the segments they contain into the original file, and saving it. You will need to determine how to do that. Usually you will find a "Decode", "Combine and Decode", "Save Attachments" or "Download and Save Files" menu option. You may also have to select or highlight all of the messages that make up the entire file first before it will work.
You can read more about downloading mp3 files at http://www.mp3-faq.org/faq5.html.
You can't reassemble the file properly until they are all there. Otherwise the file you save will have holes or gaps and will be incomplete. Some news readers will generate either an error or an incomplete file if you try. So you have to figure out what segments are missing and get them onto your server before you can complete the download and reassemble the original file.
Most times you will have all but a very few segments that make it to your server. So it is very inefficent to have to repost the entire file again if you are just missing a small piece and takes far more time for the poster to do. Plus it is possible that the REPOSTED file will also be missing segments. This can set up a never-ending cycle of posts and reposts to finally get you a complete file.
Also, when a poster has to repost an entire file just to get you that one missing piece it adds to the total usenet message volume, increases the number of headers or new messages everyone has to look at and ultimaely reduces the retention times for messages on YOUR server because of the increased posting volume. So it is in everyone's best interests to be as efficient as possible with reposts!
That will depend on the news reader you use. The following sections decribes the process for some of the commonly used news reader programs:
| Microsoft Outlook Express (OE) | OE lists every segment or message individually. Look at the end of each message line displayed for the (xx/15) part. Then determine which one(s) are not there (best to sort by subject line in this case) |
| Forte Agent, FreeAgent |
Click on the message line. Display the message body. You will see something like:
This tells you the file had 15 segments (or "parts") and that No. 7 is missing. |
| Netscape | Impossible. Get a better news reader ;) |
| Gravity | Pretty much the same as Microsoft Outlook Express. Look for missing messages in the sequence of messages. You may have to expand the message line to show individual messages depending on how you sort your "header" or message list. |
| XNews | Same as Gravity. |
This is the really easy part. Once you know which ones you need, use your news reader to send a message to the attention of the original poster indicating which file's segment(s) you need. Generally it is better to put the information in the BODY of your message rather than trying to put all of the information in the subject line of the message. It is also better to start a new thread (or message) than to REPLY to one of the original messages. So an example (continuing from the section above) would be:
Subject:
ATTN: BachToTheFuture - Segment Repost Needed
Body:
Please repost: Mozart Symphonies CD5 - [5of9] - 01 - Symphony No. 25 in Gm - K 183 - Allegro, Segment 7
or even more simply:
Body:
Please repost segment 7 of Track 01, CD5 Mozart Symphonies
That's it! You have given the poster the information about the original file and the missing segment that you need. They can take it from there.
Well, if all goes right, the original poster sees your request and reposts just the segment(s) you need WITHOUT CHANGING ANYTHING IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Sometimes the poster will also reply to your request, telling you that they have filled it. Then this newly-posted message makes its way to your server where it eventually shows up. Sometimes, and depending on your news reader, this new segment may be "out of order" in the original message sequence. This commonly happens if your messages are sorted by time and date rather than by subject or poster name. Some news readers are smart enough to see new segments regardless of when they were posted or how you sort and will immediately know that the file is now complete. That is why it is SO important for the poster not to change the subject line. Once the subject line changes, smart news readers will not always know that this newly received segment belongs with the others.
Once you have all the segments, just use the same procedure you use to decode and save any file. In a few cases, you might have to manually order the segments. Usually only Outlook Express is guilty of this but it also may be necessary if the original subject line was changed when the segments are reposted.
It is generally NOT necessary to THANK the poster for this repost, although you certainly can. They will assume you got the part you needed unless you say something else. The thank you is just one more header to download for everyone else, but of course, is appreciated.
OK, this scheme is *not* always perfect. A few bad things can still happen:
You can be sure though that if any of these problems occur, the poster is very likely to understand and will appreciate the fact that you asked for segments first, even if it turned out badly!