january 31 2002 (updated May 26 2002)
You are a mp3 downloader. You download mp3's from a binary newsgroup, like alt.binaries.sounds.music.classical, and they appear on your hard disc as mp3 files. Perfect: good quality, small files, flexibility, fine.
So, why the hell are people just now changing to a new type of music, called "yEnc" or "yEncoding"? Good question. The answer is: they are nót. Mp3 stays mp3. What then is yEnc?? yEnc is an efficient way of transmitting any type of binary file over newsnet, whether it is mp3, mpg, exe, wav or whatever. Mp3 stays mp3, but with yEnc it's transmitted 40% faster!
If this puzzles or amazes you, this might help: Probably you are not aware that you are downloading UUE files instead of mp3 files.Your favourite newsreader automatically decodes the UUE file, actually a text file, into a mp3 binary. With yEnc, it's exactly the same. You are unaware of the fact that you are downloading yEnc files but who cares, your favourite newsreader translates it automatically into mp3!
The difference between UUE and yEnc? To put it simple: UUE uses only 7 bits in a Byte for the encoding, and yEnc uses 8 bits. Brilliant, but why are we so stupid late with this good idea? That's because the old "internet-wiring" transmitted only 7 of the 8 bits in a Byte as information. Recently the "internet-wiring" has been upgraded to 8-bit information compatibility.
A few more words to make you comfortable: there is no copyright for the yEncoding - it is completely released into public domain. No Microsoft torpedo. Credits go to Jürgen Helbing: he does a great job in creating yEnc and making it available to everyone and on every platform.
Files that are encoded with yEnc instead of UUE can be downloaded with any binary newsreader. The problem is that these newsreaders are not able to decode yEnc into the final binary output form, i.e. mp3. To be able to decode yEnc, these newsreaders must be updated with a little module that will decode yEnc into binary, just as there is a little module that decodes UUE into binary. Lucky for us, many newsreaders have been updated recently to handle yEnc. Among these is the popular and free XNews newsreader, but many others as well.
Is your newsreader updated? Check at http://www.yenc.org/yenc/tools.htm. They maintain a list of links to updated newsreaders. You should fetch the new patch and install it over your old copy.
If your newsreader is updated, you are a lucky guy, because from now on things go automatically. You won't even see the difference between yEnc-encoded files and UUE-encoded files. At this moment, most posters will add "yEnc" somewhere in the message header. But in a year time, when yEnc is accepted, this custom will most likely disappear.
A more up to date list can be found here: http://www.yenc.org/yenc/tools.htm.
Yes, the newest version (1.91) does. You can download it here: <http://www.forteinc.com/agent/download.php>.
Some popular newsreaders, like Agent, have not yet been updated and are not able to decode yEnc automatically. No problem, you can still download the yEnc files, save them as text files, and decode them manually. There is a small decoding utility, called "yDec". This program is for windows. Utilities also exist for other platforms. Again, check http://www.yenc.org/yenc/index.htm, since new programs appear almost daily at the moment.
Of course, it is not appealing to start doing things manually that were done automatically before. Stop! It's far easier than you think. Below I'll take you step by step to this procedure. And don't forget: downloading the same mp3 file becomes 40% faster!
Recently, a new front end for decoding and encoding has been released, Yenc32. I didn't try it yet. You can find it here: http://www.yenc32.com/download.php.
So you need yDec. This is how:
yEnc is still evolving. This might cause problems. For instance, files that are posted with the newest version of XNews (version 5.x) use yEnc v1.3. These files are not correctly handled by the older version of XNews (version 4.12.x). If you have problems downloading yEnc encoded files, download the latest software. Check the XNews site.
yDec is a utility to manually decode yEnc files. You need this utility if your newsreader does not automatically decode yEnc files.
First step is to retrieve the messages with your newsreader and save them to your hard disc. The saving of messages can be done in ONE BIG textfile (thanks to MOL). Joint or split segments? that does not matter. The split segments can be in any order; yDec will sort them. In fact, you may save all (and I mean *all*) yenc messages together in one big file, and decode it to get all the mp3s, regardless whether they are for the same work, from the same poster, or whatever, as long as they are complete. Step by step ...
Your newsreader did not decode the messages. You only saved the unencoded yEnc file. This file you saved with the "ync" extension. Now, it's time to use yDec for decoding the saved file. Here is a straightforward way to use yDec. This is described it at www.yenc.org. However, there is a smarter way to use yDec, and this will be described later (8).
Yes, yDec can also be used with 'Drag and Drop' on Windows: You can simply click ONE stored message file and drag it to the yEnc.exe. You can also create a shortcut for yDec on your desktop and drag a message file to that icon. The decoded binaries will still be stored at the location where the message file comes from! Dont try to drag multiple messages to yDec. It does not work.
Yes there is, and I will describe it now. Initially, this requires some extra work. Eventually, it makes life very very easy.
The first step is to create a "file type association" (with thanks to BillyBob). This has to be done only once!
The second step is to retrieve and save the messages. This is already described in (6) above.
The third step is to decode the messages.
Close the DOS box by clicking on the dialog box opened by ydec.exe being opened
Yes of course. No little chickens without the rooster. You will need a newsreader/newsposter that is updated to handle yEnc. Check out http://www.yenc.org/yenc/index.htm to see whether your newsposter supports yEnc.
A very popular binary news poster is PowerPost. Unfortunately this excellent and free program has not yet been updated ;(. The guy who created PowerPost has been so kind to make the source available. A few patches have been posted around since. One of these patches, one that proved to be stable up till now, can be downloaded from this site, but I'm not responsible for it!
Download the PowerPost Yenc patch here: PostMost. Unzip it in the working directory. It will automatically encode your binaries into yEnc. Post with maximum 3000-4000 lines per segment, since some servers seem to have problems with larger yEnc segments.
WARNING: this version of PowerPost automatically inserts the word "yEnc" in the subject line. The position of the word "yEnc", after the filename "$F", causes much displeasure with Agent users: it deters Agent from automatically joining segment headers into one file header. Therefore, you must change the Subject Header Template and move the word "yEnc" before the filename "$F":
| Wrong: | Rossini - La gazza ladra [$1/$2] - "$F" [yEnc] |
| Right: | Rossini - La gazza ladra [yEnc] [$1/$2] - "$F" |
Suggestion: if you post a .nfo file - a good idea btw - then this file will also be encoded with yEnc. As a kind of a service to downloaders who have to decode the yEnc manually, copy the contents of the .nfo file in the 0/n part of the first file of the post.
Newsreaders usually automatically join all the segments belonging to one binary. In Agent, you will see this message:
40165 Rossini - La gazza ladra [yEnc] [05/63] 1_05 - Là seduto l'amato Giannetto.mp3 (*/8)
which means: a binary file consisting of 8 segments, totalling 40165 lines of code. However, if you are unlucky and a poster puts some text behind the filename, Agent will show the individual segments (note that the difference between the text below and the text above is the position of the text "[yEnc]"):
5075 Rossini - La gazza ladra [05/63] 1_05 - Là
seduto l'amato Giannetto.mp3 [yEnc] (1/8)
5075 Rossini - La gazza ladra [05/63] 1_05 - Là seduto
l'amato Giannetto.mp3 [yEnc] (2/8)
...............................
...............................
4639 Rossini - La gazza ladra [05/63] 1_05 - Là seduto
l'amato Giannetto.mp3 [yEnc] (8/8)
You can in fact ignore this: whether you download joint or split segments, decoding them is the same (see questions 6 - 8 above). Also, this bahavior is NOT a consequence of using yEnc, it's the behavior of Agent when there are characters or spaces after the filename.
If this behavior of Agent annoys you, what can you do to avoid it?
[Attachment]
RequireFilenameWithTag=0
More info on the use of the yDec utility can be found here: http://www.easynews.com/yenc/ydec.htm. And of course, for more information on yEnc, go to http://www.yenc.org/yenc/index.htm. Here you will find a lot more practical things for using yEnc. This page is updated frequently.