I put together this Newsgroup tutorial for those of you that want to get Xbox Iso's. Yes there are other ways of getting these ISO's like FTP, HTTP, Kazza, Mirc etc, but if you have a high speed connection and a little patience this is for you. I couldn't think of using anything else but newsgroups for any type of app, games etc.

This tutorial was done rather quick and I am sure I have made some mistakes so please correct me if you see anything wrong. The basics are here to get you started but if anyone has any questions I will help out. I will be editing this post if I find something new or if something has changed.






Section I (Choosing a Usenet Provider):

The first thing you will need is a news server. You may already have one that is included with you ISP. (Contact them to find out.) The news server will look something like this: nntp.we.mediaone.net or gsra-woodland.tampabay.rr.com.

If your ISP doesn't have a reliable news server then you will need to subscribe to one. EasyNews (http://www.easynews.com/) is a good news server.



Section II (Download a Newsreader)

Everyone has there preference when it comes to newsreader but I personally like Forte Agent (http://www.forteinc.com/). Other good ones are Xnews (http://xnews.3dnews.net/), Grabit (http://www.shemes.com/grabit/) or Newsbin (http://www.newsbin.com/). If you want to start out with a real simple newsreader with not as many features as the ones above, try Newsshark (http://www.wmhsoft.com/NewsShark/).


Section III (Setting Up You Newsreader)

I will be using Forte Agent as an example here.

Step by step on starting Agent for the first time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This may seem a little intimidating at first but after awhile you will be able to download with ease.

After installing Agent many details must be set up for optimal
operation.
This is a guide on how to do this, in a screen by screen format.
It will make sense only if you follow along in Agent screen by
screen.

------------------------------------
The opening screen
When installing Agent for the first time
(if already installed go down to "TOP MENU BAR")

NNTP Your Internet service provider has this info
SMTP...Your ISP has this info
The info below is publicly displayed, Enter fake information,
cleverness counts.
Your correct mail address gets entered later so it remains private
between you and your ISP.
E-mail Use a Nym (phony) Use the format xxxxx@xxxxxxx.com
Name Use a phony, protect your (e-mail) account name
A hacker could take over your account with the name,
passwords are sometimes easy to test.

NNTP (same as above)
this is the news server,
it is a number or a name
ex 206.112.193.112=News.geocities.com

SMTP is the mail server, it is a number or a name
Mail.geocities.com =(206.112.193.114

E-mail as long as it fits the format xxxxx@zzxxxx.com
Name use a phony


---------------------------------------------------
Getting Agent on line
Log on normally through your dial-up networking,
Then start Agent, it will go online as needed.


------------------------------------------
"TOP MENU BAR"
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
USER AND SYSTEMS PROFILE
USER
Email address - A phony one
Full Name - Fake
Organization - Anything, do not leave blank,
if blank your sever will fill it in
Reply to - Fake address or remote mail address

News sever log in
mark - Log in with a username and....
Username: Your real username, may be your e-mail name
Check - Remember Password - enter your real password

Check no log in is required.?/? why do all that then turn it off?
You may or may not need to log to the newserver, but
either way You have it set up and ready,
Switch it if you get the error that says
" the server requires a login"


-----------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
USER and SYSTEMS PROFILE
SYSTEM
News server box "news.geocities.com" or whatever it is
Check Server creates messages out of order
Mark Send e-mail with SMPT
E-mail server box "mail.geocities.com". or whatever it is

The above is the simplest email retrieval set up, it checks for your
mail on log in only


--------------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
USER and SYSTEMS PROFILE
ONLINE

button Use Online defaults
Times to retry fill in a 10
pause between retry .. 5
un-check Unload winsock.....
check Go off line automat. 360 sec=1 hour
check Send keep alive mess..60
check All The rest on page

Viewing un retrieved.....
Mark Go online ......

------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
USER and SYSTEMS PROFILE
DIAL-UP tells Agent how to log on,

Check Open dial up.....
check Prompt before.....
Check If another connect
Connection Use the arrow to see the list, select one
User name fill in true log on user name
Password fill in true password
Un check Close dial up connect.....


---------------------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
GENERAL PREFERENCES
NAVIGATION
Navigation un check the whole mess

select Only when message pane is...


--------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
GENERAL PREFERENCES
MESSAGE LIST

Threading Check the first three
Sorting Check date sorts


-----------------------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
OPTIONS
INBOUND E-MAIL
SYSTEM
check on bottom - Receive e-mail with SMTP


*****************-----------------------------------
Finished with Options
Go To Group
****************------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
GROUP
DEFAULT PROPERTIES
DIRECTORY
Only seen from the browser screen, close the mail and outbox if you
don't see GROUP on the TOP MENU BAR
DIRECTORY (very important)
Select the Dir to save files into
Select a temp directory


-------------------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
GROUP
DEFAULT PROPERTIES
RECIEVE FILES
Check Save attachments auto.......
Check After saving an .........
Check Detect uu-encode...
Check Join multi part
Check Join Multi part.....
Check When launching....
Check Double click saves
Check Burst digests
Select arrow Retain original File Name


-------------------------------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
GROUP
DEFAULT PROPERTIES
POST
check Prevent usenet.....
check Observe no .......


---------------------------------
next screen
"TOP MENU BAR"
GROUP
DEFAULT PROPERTIES
RECEIVE
Un Check Retrieve bodies.......
Check Limit number of headers
Fill in 1500
Check Do not keep unavailable


-----------------------------------------
The rest of it is important, but it will be OK for now
If you have not gone online to load the Newsgroups do it now.
This only needs to be done once in a great while, and may take up to 5
minutes, There are 76,000 newsgroups. So far the main newsgroup for Xbox isos is alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox.




--------------------------------------------
"TOP MENU BAR"
ONLINE
Select Get new headers in subscribed groups this will take a while
the first time


---------------------------
DOWNLOADING
Found the Xbox files you were looking for?
Select files with [CTRL] with a single mouse click will bring the files to your default directory.



Section VI (Unrar Your Xbox Files)

You will need to use Winrar (http://www.rarsoft.com/) once you have downloaded your Xbox files. This will unrar them into one ISO image. Select all Xbox files for a particular game you have downloaded . [CTRL] Then Extract them somewhere to you computer. (Folder, Desktop.)



Section V (Download Nero)

Now you will need to download a burning program called Nero (http://www.nero.com/) to burn the ISO.


Section VI (Keep Updated With What Xbox game have been posted.)

Click Here (http://www.happyholiday.nl/binnewz) to see what games are available!!!!!

Again, Xbox files are being posted to alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox

Nice job. I went ahead and added this to the FAQ as well.

http://www.cdrom-guide.com/forums/imgs/jams.gif

Gonna Give It A Wiz Now Cheers Mate

Thanx Alot Your Work Is Much Appreciated

cheers m8 thats solved a few of my prob u r a hero :D!!!

Is there such a thing as a free news server? I have Comcast and I haven't been able to get "news.comcast.net" to work when I'm trying to connect with Forte...I have no idea if they provide the service, but I'm assuming since that didn't work, they don't.

Anyone else who has Comcast know if they provide it? How about AOL?

Sorry to be such a 'tard. I know pretty much nothing about this stuff.

*EDIT*

Ok, I found a free one in another post, but if anyone uses Comcast and knows the answer, I'd still like to know if they provide it. Gracias and stuff.

Thanks m8, sorted me out, maybe this should be a sticky?

hmmm.. i get alt.binaries.cd.image.playstation2, ...... playstation2.dvdiso, etc... but no xbox? does this mean my internet provider won't let me go on the xbox newsgroup?

Hi DCX i did all this & when i find a header i want to download it downloads but when i check the folder i d/l it to theres nothing??????? f**king driving me mad...im using agent can you help...cheers...

Originally posted by peppermintjam
Hi DCX i did all this & when i find a header i want to download it downloads but when i check the folder i d/l it to theres nothing??????? f**king driving me mad...im using agent can you help...cheers...

Ok Peppermintjam, make sure you have setup a download folder. At the top of Agent click on 'Group' > 'Default Properties'. Where it says 'Directory for saving attached files' click on the 'browse' button next to it. Select a place on you computer where you would like to save your files. I would suggest making a folder on you desktop. You know you have successfully saved your files when a green icon appears to the left of the file.

As far as your files you attempted to download check the directory where Agent is located. Find the folder called 'downloads' and it should be in there.

Hope this helps.:)

A good program to use is GrabIt

I use this and have had no problems with it and its free aswell.

Originally posted by liambramall
A good program to use is GrabIt

I use this and have had no problems with it and its free aswell.

I really like grabit as well mainly because of its easy to use interface but it freezes on me alot. Anyone else have this problem?

DCX done that but still not downloading also there is no downloads folder in agent just a temp one,and once i d/l a file theres just a small white notpad on the left side on it?????

If you have followed all of the steps the only thing left I can think of you're doing incorrect is maybe you're not downloading the correct files. If you downloaded a file and it left a white notepad icon, that would mean it is simply a text message with no attachments. Look at the example of 2 files I downloaded. 1 file is a text file and the other is an attachment. The attachment file (Green icon) will be the one that is saved to the designated directory. The text file will not be saved.

I hope this solves your problem peppermintjam.

http://afterlifegif.homestead.com/files/Icons.JPG


This is just an example. Not actual Xbox files.
http://afterlifegif.homestead.com/files/example.JPG

I hate to ask another question, but..

Firstly I can't seem to find the xbox newsgroup, although i can find all sorts of movies, and ps2 ones ( I use Pipex ADSL )

Secondly, all of the files i see say incomplete, i.e.
[5120 lines, incomplete]

[This is a multi-part message, of which only 1 of 16 parts are available.]
[These parts are unavailable: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16]

[To retrieve the incomplete message, use menu option Message | Join Sections.]

Have I missed something ? or are people not posting the full thing ?

Thanks in advance

The frustrating thing about newsgroups is that you will invariably be missing some of the files required. i.e. if a download is split into say 17 files there'll always be a couple missing. You can always ask for the missing files of course and hopefully they will be reposted.

Just use the PAR files.. if your missing 2 files, just download any 2 of the .p01, .p02, etc files and use SmartPAR to fix. Missing parts and asking for fills used to be the only reason I didn't like newsgroups at first.. and now that we have par files, newsgroups are my #1 source for downloads.

awesome tutorial, thanks alot!

Kane, you asked about comcast. Well, they don't really have a newsgroup. They are using giganews. You have to go to that website and log in with your main comcast name. But, it blows. Comcast is only giving you 1gb to download per month. I subscribed to giganews and get an extra 8.4gb for $15. If you find you use newsgroups alot, you will definately get your money's worth.

thanks so much man!

been wondering how these goddam things work lol thanks a million

cheers m8! :beer:

Help mates, I downloaded all the .rar files and when I try to extract, I get a CRC failure or something to that effect.

What does that mean?

Thank you!

UPDATE: I downloaded the latest winrar and it extracted just fine...thanks anyway

this is great shame i have no broadband bt have got satelitte broadband i dont know if it works with newsgroups though.

nice 1

This has been a great help m8 thanks. I am having similar problems to those above. Is there a command to retreive ALL parts or all the parts available for a partiular game.

For instance I am trying to download Splinter Cell using Agent. How do I find all the parts I need.

Are there any sites where ALL the parts are always available.

The best course of action for newsgroups is to subscribe to a pay as you go one, and then use newbin pro and set the free isp server as primary and the pay as you go one as secondary.

It will load from the free one first and then get the missing chunks from the pay as you go!

All the benefits none of the drawbacks and fast.

CO