yEnc FAQ

Disclaimer:
This is NOT my FAQ. I edited it for easier reading because I found a lot of grammar and spelling errors. A thank you goes out to the author for compiling such an extensive yEnc FAQ. Some (in fact most) of the views expressed here about IE and OE and yEnc are not my opinions. I edited this FAQ just to assist those who keep asking me about the darn thing.

Peterbilt
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This FAQ deals with the whats, whys and hows of the yEnc decoder. In it, we hope to teach people what yEnc is, why it is being used, discuss the advantiges and disadvantiges of yEnc and list the software which supports and doesn't support it. Additions and/or corrections, are MORE than welcome. Let's all learn something! For more info, visit the main yEnc page at http://www.yenc.org/ and http://www.winews.net/yenc/index.htm.

Part I:

Boring technical mumbo-jumbo about Usenet encoding systems.
What is encoding anyway?
What the heck IS yEnc?
yEnc really screws up my display, why?
How can I deal with this messed up screen?

Part II:

Decoding and viewing Ok, so how do I view yENC-encoded files?

Part III:

Ignoring yEnc coded posts

Part IV

Using external decoders

Part V:

D/ling yEnc posts using a yEnc supported news-reader

Part VI:

Using Netscape as your news-reader

Part VII:

Why you shouldn�t use Outlook and Outlook Express

Part VIII:

Posting in yENC format

Question: How should I post yENC encoded files?

Question: Why is it important I label yENC files?

Part IX:

Useful Links

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Part I - Boring technical mumbo-jumbo

The Usenet wasn't designed for binaries. In fact, Usenet was designed for simple 7 bit text messages. Things change though, and encoding schemes were created to allow binary attachments to be sent through text-only interfaces. The current system is called UUE and is the standard for PCs while Mac still clings to Bin Hex encoding. Encoding takes a binary file such as a JPG, MP3 or EXE file and turns it into text. This text can then be sent through email or Usenet and once it's received it can be decoded back into the original binary file.

What does yEnc have to do with anything?
yEnc is an encoding method just like UUE and Bin Hex only it reduces the size of the resulting encoded file by a significant amount. Its brilliance lies in its simplicity, because it still does nothing more than turn a binary file into text and back into the original file just like everything else, it just does it more efficiently. Files encoded in yEnc get a reduction in the size as much as 25% to 40%, and in turn the time to download a yEnc file is shortened also.

So what's the' problem?
Well, the problem is that yEnc is currently not part of the MIME standards so it's not incorporated into many news and mail readers. Essentially it became popular "before it's time". Typically new technologies do not hit the mainstream until RFCs are published and it's accepted as a standard by developers and other "gods that be". With so many dial-up users trying to keep up with so many broadband users it became popular due purely to the demand for such a thing. The "gods that be" are arguing the use of yEnc now and it's implementation as a standards. The possibility exists that it will be rejected and replaced by something else that accomplishes the same task. However, because of it's popularity some software makers are already incorporating it into their news and mail readers.

Question: yENC really screws up my display, why?
Answer: yENC uses some characters in it's encoding that can do really nasty things to non US ASCII displays if your News client does not support it.

Question: How can I deal with this messed up screen?
Answer: Your best option are to a) get a News client that supports it or b) save the message to disk without opening it.

Part II - Decoding and Viewing

Question: Ok, so how do I view yENC-encoded files?
Answer: Actually, you DON'T! Just like you do not "view" UUE files. Let�s look at each option in turn:

PART III - IGNORING YENC POSTS

Hmmm, you want to do that and miss all the wonderful files? Oh, well, what can I do? It's YOUR choice after all!

PART IV - USE EXTERNAL DECODER

You can get a program that automatically processes yENC into jpeg, gif, mpeg etc files while you are downloading them, go to www.brawnylads.com and open up their software window and download *Yproxy 1.1*. It changes yEnc files to jpeg, gif, mpeg etc. as it downloads them from your newsgroups to your computer. It is very easy to use and FREE. So far this method works with Free Agent and Netscape from version 3 till 6, OE (old and new).

You can try using an "external decoder". I've got a program that Galen (I think) posted a while back called "yDec" (Y decoder) and it works just fine. You simply select the gibberish-filled post, select "file" and save as" and save it as plain text by adding a .txt extension to it. Then simply drag and drop the text file onto the program, and it'll spit out the properly decoded file. You can basically only decode things one file at a time this way, so it'd probably be way easier to get a bunch of stuff if it's zipped together.

If the files are big (like big zips) then I'm pretty sure (I haven't tried it yet) you simply "combine and decode" the stuff like you regularly do, and you'll get all the gibberish in one place, so you can save it into a single text file.

PART V - DOWNLOADING YENC CODED POSTS USING YENC SUPPORTED NEWS-READER

A lot of good news-readers now support the yEnc format. Here's a list and URLs of the most popular ones:

For Windows Computers:
  1. Forte Agent version 1.91(the paid one) does a marvelous job of support.
  2. Giganews Binary Newsreader:
  3. Gravity (Build 2034 or 2036): (freeware)
  4. Super Gravity 2.6: Free, very powerful and decodes yEnc!
  5. News Shark ver 1.1.2. $27.50. Easy powerful, News Shark can be set up in five minutes. Excellent software.
  6. NewsBin Version V4.0B22:
  7. XNews: Free, easy to use.
  8. NovusNews:
  9. Nographer:
  10. NewsRover:
  11. NewsPro:
  12. MyNews: (freeware)
  13. BNR Binary News Reader:
  14. Binary Boy:
For LINUX:

  1. BNR2:
  2. Pan: (*BSD (including Mac OS X))
For Apple Computers:

  1. MT News Watcher (OS=X):
  2. Thoth = newsreader:
  3. Rosetta = decoder:
The external de/encoder 'uudeview', that can run on most platforms currently in use, also supports it. And there are also lots of platform=specific programs already available, so if you don't want to use a newsreader that supports yEnc, just save the articles and use an external decoder on them.

Question: OK so my News Client is not on the list, now what do I do?
Answer: Change your news-reader. I know its painful, but that's what I had to do to. After all, you want all those movies and music, right?

PART VI - USING NETSCAPE AS YOUR NEWS-READER:

Here's a rundown for Netscape 4.73 newsreader:
Open your mail reader and open the menu:
'Edit' and select 'preferences' in the tree �Mail & Newsgroups� is an item called 'newsgroup servers', select that and then click 'add' the button next to the listing of your news servers.
In the next dialog that pops up now you type in 'Localhost' (literally) as servername , and specify the port you set in yproxy(proxyport) , click 'Ok' and you are set (I assume you already filled in a newsgroup servername in yproxy and set the remote port to 119 )

PART VII - Why you shouldn't use Outlook express:

Outlook Express will decode any single part UU encoded messages automatically, but you have to tell it to "combine and decode" when you have multipart messages.
No auto/easy combining of multipart binaries.
It's bloated
It's virus prone: having the capability to run script code within Usenet articles is a dumb thing to have, but the silly twit of a program seems to inherit its security settings from Internet Explorer. IE was set to a relaxed security setting for the corporate intranet at work, so the program said "be my guest and run" to a Virus(B)script inside a Usenet article found on the company's news server and only McAfee prevented my PC at work from being hosed by that virus. :(
And Explorer 6 will even run Script from inside Cookies! (Supposedly corrected in the Critical Updates package.)

Part VIII - POSING FILES IN YENC FORMAT

Question 7: How should I post yENC encoded files?
Answer: yENC files should be clearly labeled as [yENC] in the beginning of the subject. eg.
Subject: [yENC] Ranma-chan in swimsuit ranma22.jpg

Question 8: Why is it important I label yENC files?
Answer: yEnc uses some characters that do a real number on international user's screens that don't have client's that directly support it.

Part IX - Useful Links: The main URL for yEnc is of course http://www.yenc.org/

See the news.nntp.software for a lively discussion on the evolution of yEnc.

The technical yenc argument can be found at:
http://www.faerber.muc.de/temp/20020304-yenc-harmful.html

easy-to-use and free stand alone decoders at http://www.yenc32.com/

All you ever need to know about usenet, MIME and related standards:
http://quimby.gnus.org/notes/notes.html

http://www.winews.net/yenc/index.htm

End of FAQ. Comments, corrections, additions, flames, hate mail are more than welcome. But this is MY FAQ, and since I don�t see YOU doing one, ONLY serious discussion will be taken under consideration. Youcan reach me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]
yEnc FAQ ver 0.0.5 -
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