NewsBin 4.0 Release Notes

NewsBin Pro 4 Release Notes

NOTE: Please read through these release notes before downloading. Version 4.0 help is available here. If you have problems, our user forum is a good place to start to get them resolved.

Summary of all fixes and enhancements since 4.06.

NewsBin Pro 4.1 Build 4268 April 24, 2003 (Download Here)

Fixes/Enhancements

Make sure the XOVER only covers reported contents to fix a problem with some non-standard servers.

Known Issues

Create folder under "Download to Folder" option requires a manual refresh (F5) to see the new folder that is created in XP and possibly 98/ME. Works fine on 2K.
The 10 day free trial does not start the first time NewsBin is run. It will work after NewsBin is restarted unless a previous 4.1 beta version has been run for more than 10 days.
Does not support multi-file multiposts. Will show misleading "Post Purged" message for those posts.
Download will fail if the filename length and path exceeds 255 characters.
If you start to exit NewsBin, and then change your mind and select "No" to the "Really Exit?" question, then all subsequent files will incorrectly be marked as duplicates. Turning off the signature cache or actually closing and restarting NewsBin are workarounds.
If you hit the "Pause" button while the bandwidth limiter is on, it sometimes also pauses header downloads, too. It shouldn't.
The 4.1 series might not run on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have too.
The 4.1 series does not run under VMWare older than version 4. Version 4.1 does not run under linux/wine.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B14 Build 4261 April 15, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed problem running on Win98/ME machines
Fixed problem with chunk files when non-US or special characters were in the post filename.

Known Issues

Download will fail if the filename length and path exceeds 255 characters.
Create folder under "Download to Folder" option requires a manual refresh (F5) to see the new folder that is created.
If you start to exit NewsBin, and then change your mind and select "No" to the "Really Exit?" question, then all subsequent files will incorrectly be marked as duplicates. Turning off the signature cache or actually closing and restarting NewsBin are workarounds.
If you hit the "Pause" button while the bandwidth limiter is on, it sometimes also pauses header downloads, too. It shouldn't.
The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B13 Build 4259 April 12, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed problem with Download to Folder option
Chunk files are now human readable.
Link to forums from Help menu
Link to new Technical Support Request Form from Help menu
Fixed display problem with status bar getting overwritten sometimes.

Known Issues

Does not work for Windows 98/ME users. We are working on it.
Download will fail if the filename length and path exceeds 255 characters.
Create folder under "Download to Folder" option requires a manual refresh (F5) to see the new folder that is created.
If you start to exit NewsBin, and then change your mind and select "No" to the "Really Exit?" question, then all subsequent files will incorrectly be marked as duplicates. Turning off the signature cache or actually closing and restarting NewsBin are workarounds.
If you hit the "Pause" button while the bandwidth limiter is on, it also pauses header downloads, too. It shouldn't.
The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B12 Build 4246 April 1, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed problem when setting TCP Window size to 0 (supposedly set to default) was actually setting the window size to 0 thus messing up download rates.
Fixed problem where "Show Filenames" was mysteriously getting enabled.
Fixed problem where file size could be misreported in some reposts.
Changed progress bar color again, fixed some cosmetic problems.
Installed range limit for window sizes to prevent damaged size info from making NewsBin windows disappear.
Remove the failure when the server sends a post with a message-id that doesn't match. Too many servers get this wrong.
We modified the registration key mechanism. Registered users will go through an automatic key upgrade process the first time B12 is installed. Make sure you restart NewsBin for the new key to take effect. You may have to disable ad blocking software if you are running it, they sometimes intercept the response from our key server.

Known Issues

If you start to exit NewsBin, and then change your mind and select "No" to the "Really Exit?" question, then all subsequent files will incorrectly be marked as duplicates. Turning off the signature cache or actually closing and restarting NewsBin are workarounds.
If you hit the "Pause" button while the bandwidth limiter is on, it also pauses header downloads, too. It shouldn't.
The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B11 Build 4159 March 13, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Put the "Server" column back in the Downloaded Files tab (due to overwhelming user requests).
Encode current server in the progress bar (i.e. S01 = Server 1 in your list).
Fixed problem using message ID to download articles as a backup to record ID failing.
Color change on progress bars to make them more readable.

Known Issues

The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B10 Build 4133 March 2, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Low Post Group Filter on Groups screen now works.
Download incomplete files option was broken, now fixed.
Downloaded files list now only shows files after they are downloaded, no longer shows progress during download. This fixes the "never finish decoding" bug.
Downloaded files list now shows group where post came from.
New "Download to Path" directory picker. Now remembers last folder
information between runs.
Modified Filter Dialog, hopefully more intuitive now.
Registration Key entry screen changed to make key entry easier.
Change to support files split up to 4000 parts. Previous cap was 1000.
Fixed problem when unusually large header info exists.

Known Issues

The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B9 Build 4088 Feb 14, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed crash on double click of group in Add Groups screen.
Final 4.1 release candidate so we can concentrate on 5.0.

Known Issues

The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Low Post Group Filter on Groups screen does not work.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B8 Build 4082 Feb 9, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed hang when loading spool for certain groups.
Re-worked the functionality under the "Groups" button. Group download is now much faster.

Known Issues

If you double-click a newsgroup in the Add Groups screen, NewsBin crashes.
The 4.1 series no longer works on Windows 95 machines. Microsoft dropped support for the OS so we have no plans to fix it.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
If you close Newsbin but cancel the close, it won't close when you really want to.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B7 Build 4066 Feb 5, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fix for Usenetserver servers (and others). Now tries to download articles based on record number if first attempt using message id fails
Umlauts and other non-English characters now get displayed.

Known Issues

Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B6 Build 4053 Feb 1, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fix for Clara.net servers.
Fix problem with new groups list not being recognized
Fixed GUI for filters.
Fixed intermittent problem where a multi-part post was listed as complete when it really wasn't.
Basic checks for attacked multi-part post. Dumbed down to reduce false positives.

Known Issues

Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Umlauts and other non-English characters do not get displayed.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B5 Build 4047 January 23, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fix for Newsfeeds servers.
Read Build 4046 Fixes/Enhancements for additional fixes/enhancements

Known Issues

Weird bug where "Stop" was hit and it didn't write the spool to
disk. Investigating this.
Left portion of status bar gets overwritten and not refreshed unless you minimize/maximize.
Umlauts and other non-English characters do not get displayed.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B5 Build 4046 January 22, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Switched fundamental method of retrieving posts by using globally unique message ID instead of server specific record number.
Fixed poster lockout from downloaded files list
Groups dialog re-worked. When no filters are selected all groups
are shown.
Filtering is now "stackable". Each check box and find filter is applied.
Refined logic for showing "Blue" possibly corrupted posts.
Pulled everything back into a single executable, no DLL file.

Known Issues

Does not work for Newsfeeds servers, or their resellers.
Column sort for Servers window is broken.
Weird bug where "Stop" was hit and it didn't write the spool to
disk. Investigating this.
Umlauts and other non-English characters do not get displayed.
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B4 Build 3992 January 14, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed memory usage problem caused by duplicate records for file downloads.
Changed the way NewsBin shows dates of posts to take into account different posting methods, posting as GMT or with local time with GMT offset.
Fixed Read Post Body function, would sometimes fail.
Added logic to turn post subject blue if the multi-part post is suspicious, i.e. sabotaged with bogus parts. This is not 100%. It will trigger on threaded text posts and on some multi-part posts posted as an Re:.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B3 Build 3989 January 9, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed the manual delete of parts for multi-part posts.
Added ability to undelete deleted parts for multi-part posts. In the post list, right click and select "Properties" then select a part. The Delete key deletes the part, the Insert key undeletes it.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B2 Build 3987 January 8, 2003

Fixes/Enhancements

More logic changes to counteract the latest attacks on the newsgroups to foil NewsBin's automatic multipart reassembly functionality.
Advanced Feature: You can now download an individual part to a multipart post from the right-click "properties" option. It is called "Read Chunk" and it will download the part and display it in notepad. There is no progress reported while downloading so be patient until the notepad window pops up.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download these alternate toolbars and save one in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.1B1 Build 3968 December 20, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Logic changes to counteract the latest attacks on the newsgroups to foil NewsBin's automatic multipart reassembly functionality.
Fixed problems with duplicate posts sometimes appearing in the
post properties lists

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.06 Build 3963 December 8, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Rebuild of 4.06B3 in release mode. You may notice a seat-of-the-pants performance improvement in the user interface.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.06B3 Build 3957 November 26, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Modified disk writing that should help machines with VIA motherboards from getting into a mode where large files fail CRC checking.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.06B2 Build 3954 November 14, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Special release to address attacks on the newsgroups.
Implemented logic to try to detect bogus parts posted with the same subject.
Can now delete entries out of the post "properties" that show the individual parts.
Reworked repost logic to take care of Spool File Not Found error.
The descript.ion file now will log poster and date by itself if asked to do so.

Known Issues

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).

NewsBin Pro 4.06B1 Build 3941 October 29, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Bytes queued for download counter now can handle > 4GB!
Fixed problem with some posts not being added to the postid.bin file.
Posts with the same subject but different message IDs were getting combined.
Last record downloaded from each group now tracked in groups.xml. Right click Delete Spool and Right Click "Reset Indexes" let you control this.
No longer downloads duplicate files less than 24KB in size (below threshold of signature cache duplicate detection system).
Hitting ESC during group download no longer causes hang.

Known Issues (fewer now...)

Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.05 Build 3919 October 6, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixes problem where a purged post caused the file download to fail
before checking the other servers.
Improved registration network access. Should be more reliable.

Known Issues (still)

Hitting ESC during group download causes hang.
Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.05B1 Build 3916 September 20, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Faster header processing
Limit number of posts per file (attack on some groups). Symptoms were 100% CPU utilization and slow header downloads.
Slightly improved memory management.
Fixed problem with purged item causing a download failure.

Known Issues

Hitting ESC during group download causes hang.
Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.04 Build 3906 September 1, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Unchanged from 4.04B1

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.04B1 Build 3903 August 28, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Converted the postid file (used for suppressing previously downloaded posts) to a compressed binary format.
Reduced memory footprint on startup due to smaller postid information.
Tied Max Record Age to the purging of the postid file.
Chunk files are no longer human readable. They used to be named with the subject of the post but subjects over 255 bytes in length were messing up. The new .cnk filenames are an MD5 hash of the subject.

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.03 Build 3896 August 24, 2002 PULLED. STAY WITH 4.01

Fixes/Enhancements

Includes fixes to failed 4.02 release
Solved problem with extremely long load times of signature file.
Removed capability to specify different directory for spool files - this was causing problems.
Please see 4.02 Fixes/Enhancements, they actually work now.

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color (unless you use download this alternate toolbar by saving it in the folder where NewsBin is installed).
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.02 Build 3846 August 16, 2002 PULLED. STAY WITH 4.01

Fixes/Enhancements

Converted the postid file (used for suppressing previously downloaded posts) to a compressed binary format.
Reduced memory footprint on startup due to smaller postid information.
Tied Max Record Age to the purging of the postid file.
Chunk files are no longer human readable. They used to be named with the subject of the post but subjects over 255 bytes in length were messing up. The new .cnk filenames are an MD5 hash of the subject.

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

NewsBin Pro 4.01 Build 3836 July 21, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed problem where large subjects (> 255 bytes) would result in a download failure.
Fixed problem with signature cache hits not getting added to the post id cache.
Made change to improve memory management for 2K/XP users.

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color
The descript.ion file will not get updated unless at least the "Log Subject" option is selected. Will not log poster and date by itself.

FINAL NewsBin Pro 4.0 Build 3824 July 15, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed problem showing complete multi-part posts that really were incomplete.
Setting Max Retries to 0 was doing 0 retries instead of infinite.
Fixed premature stop of header download if corrupt data was on the server.

Known Issues

Bytes queued for download counter wraps at 4GB
Skip Group button on toolbar is disabled.
Icons in Toolbar have wrong transparency color

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release 6 Build 3785 June 26, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Loading a new configuration file was re-loading the auto-save.nbs file used for resuming interrupted download sessions.
Resumed downloads no longer get submitted as Force Download.
Added option to disable resume under the Utilities menu (title is Auto-Start Download in Restart).

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release 5 Build 3768 June 13, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed crash when clearing downloaded files list.
Fixed problem where posts posted with the same subject multiple times to the group were not combined properly. This resulted in files being downloaded but were excessively large.
Fixed file retries.

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release 4 Build 3766 June 10, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Fixed crash when saving a download list after disabling a server.
Fixed crash on failure to register.
Fixed crash on upgrade from version 3.22 or earlier.
Fixed Download Retry of 0 to be infinite again. Got broken in the last release
Fixed Socks 4/5 firewall support
Fixed problem changing the poster lockout filename
Fixed problem with NewsBin skipping posts with very long header information
Fixed problem with the downloaded files list disappearing when it is time to trim the list to help keep memory utilization under control.
Fixed problem with Read Post Body (ctrl-R) jumbling the text together. Was not honoring carriage return/line feeds.
Fixed problem cleaning up files created by doing a ctrl-R. Now done upon exit.
Fixed problem when NewsBin stripped extra spaces from subject lines. Was showing false incompletes.
Now adds filename filter matches to the post ID cache so you won't see them again on subsequent downloads.

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release 3 Build 3732 June 2, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Resume now restores download list and forces download (instead of just remembering posts in the post list).
Fixed Socks firewall support.
Added confirmation if you try to column sort your subscribed newsgroups list.
Read Post Body now decodes NFO, TXT, and SFV files.
Global filter profile now gets cleared when you double-click a group so it is clear that the group specific filter is applied.
Now renders B&W jpgs again.
Fixed possible freeze when the bandwidth limiter is changed on the fly.
Now using full subject for chunk filename in the spool directory. Reduces chance of filename collision for chunk files.
Posts in the downloaded files, failed posts, or download list will now come up if they match a search criteria on the post list.
Fixed problem where "Load Download List" only worked if it was the first thing you did after startup.
Fixed problem when re-using server during multi-part downloads where the server configured download limit was not always respected and the close connections setting was being ignored.
Posts re-submitted for download are now removed from the downloaded files list.
Even more information given if registration fails.
Installer now includes some default filter sets.
Now retries posts on error, mostly for dialup people so their dialer has time to make a new connection.

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release Build 3703 May 15, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Installer includes installation of help files and NewsBin utility programs.
Installer now uses same default directory as version 3.32.
Ctrl-T shortcut added to toggle between Automatic Download Mode and Manual Mode. Status of toggle is shown in the status bar.
Fixed problem with headers disappearing from post list.
Load Download List was only working if it was the first thing you did upon starting NewsBin.
Fixed problem with connections being left open in certain cases
Posts re-submitted for download had leftovers in the downloaded files list.
Added prompt for confirmation when sorting groups in groups window.
Auto shutdown mode was shutting NewsBin down before the last few files were completely downloaded.
If using dialup and the connection is lost, NewsBin will now wait until the connection is re-established before continuing downloading.
Read Post Body was leaving connections open when it shouldn't have.
Bandwidth limiter that kicks in with the nag screen now goes away when you register NewsBin.
More information given if registration fails.

NewsBin Pro 4.0 Pre-Release Build 3670 April 30, 2002

Fixes/Enhancements

Now includes an installer
Failed Files List is now column sort-able.
Fixed problem where Poster Lockouts could not be deleted permanently.
Made performance improvements in header download
Fixed situation where NewsBin would get stuck if a server holding parts of a multi-part post is disabled after the post's already in the process of downloading
Fixed erroneous message tag for files already on disk as "Filename Filtered".
Fixed esoteric crash that occurred if you highlighted something in the status messages tab and then went into Posts/Properties.
Fixed problem when selecting Force Download, there was no way to get it back out of the queue if you changed your mind.
Option to view subject by filename (warning, slows sorting the post list considerably if you have 10,000+ headers to go through).
Moved the Automatic Download checkbox off the main screen to make room for the "Show Filenames" feature. Automatic Download can still be toggled under "Options/Switches".
Fixed crash on startup problems on really really fast machines (2GHz).
Fixed problem with Global Search finding posts that don't exist on the server anymore.
Cleaned up posting function problems (Quade wanted to remove this functionality alltogether but it seems to be working ok now).
Fixed crash problem when installing 4.0 on a machine running 3.22.
Subject filter was not being applied when a new group is loaded with ctrl-L
Removed Force Authentication as an option and always try to authenticate if a username/password exists. Was causing too much pain for Earthlink users and we found that Outlook does it this way anyway. Doesn't follow the NNTP spec but sometimes you have to just go with the flow.
Very long filenames were getting trashed in the download status bar.
Downloading groups was not honoring the user defined server order. Groups are now downloaded off the top server in the list if multiple servers exist.
Fixed problem that occurred if you reduce the number of active connections on the fly, sometimes NewsBin would lose track of a download in the download list.
Fixed crash when downloading groups.
Fixed problem where double-click on a group or hitting "Start" the first time would not start a download. Second time would work.
Read Post Body function was leaving connections open.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B28 Build 3267 March 22, 2002

Fixes

Made changes to help NewsBin exit faster.
Changed the locking internally so purging and loading the spool should be faster.
Improved the speed of the clearing of the list control in the main menu. This means that find in subject filtering, show filtered post, and show new should be faster when you have lots of items in the list (50-60,000+ = lots).
Re-ordered the way filters are applied to try to increase performance.
Changed the buttons yet again.

Known Problems

Posting multi-part binary files is broken. Text posting still works.
Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Max number of crosspost filter isn't working
When running dialup, if the connection drops, NewsBin dumps all posts in the download list to the failed list.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B27 Build 3226 March 16, 2002

Fixes

Fixed problem introduced when fixing problem handling strange characters in the subject.
Changed the "Find in Subject" stuff again. Buttons on left, field grows to right with window.
Cosmetic fix for show post properties from Download List. Said ctrl-L, should be ctrl-I

Known Problems

Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Max number of crosspost filter isn't working
When running dialup, if the connection drops, NewsBin dumps all posts in the download list to the failed list.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B26 Build 3225 March 14, 2002

Fixes

Fixed problem when alias for server included embedded spaces.
Fixed problem with strange characters making the subject of a post invisible.
If you disable a server, reloading the spool for a group (ctrl-L) will now also remove references to the server from the spooled data. You no longer have to purge the group and reload to clear the server from the spool.

Known Problems

Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Zero length files sometimes appear in auto download mode. These are files that were filtered.
Max number of crosspost filter isn't working
When running dialup, if the connection drops, NewsBin dumps all posts in the download list to the failed list.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B25 Build 3220 March 10, 2002

Fixes

Odometer gauge counts up faster than it should, download rate seems to be ok.
Problem communicating to registration system fixed.

Known Problems

Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Zero length files sometimes appear in auto download mode. These are files that were filtered.
Max number of crosspost filter isn't working
When running dialup, if the connection drops, NewsBin dumps all posts in the download list to the failed list.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B24 Build 3217 March 9, 2002

Fixes

Download progress indicator now based on raw size of post instead of estimated file size after decoding. This was necessary due to yEnc support.
Fixed bug where datarate gauge read higher than it should when running the CPU at 100% utilization for extended periods of time.
Fixed link to the registration page, other cosmetic changes.

Known Problems

Odometer gauge counts up faster than it should, download rate seems to be ok.
Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B23 Build 3208 March 3, 2002

3/5/02 update, now build 3209 to fix problems with W95 systems and a reported problem relating to the upgrade mechanism failing for some users. Use same link above to download.

Fixes

New 10 day free trial. Unregistered version was naging from first day.
New registration scheme implemented. Registered users will get a new key generated and downloaded automatically the first time you start NewsBin. Please let us know if you experience problems with this.
Ability to post text only has been restored
yEnc files beginning with a square bracket, "[", were not named correctly when downloaded, the bracket is getting stripped.
Hooked up Auto Shutdown
If a server is deleted, it was sometimes processed still when the groups are processed
Ctrl-V Pastes into Filter window
Delayed refresh of the server in the downloaded files list.
Counter for chunks file is at end of filename.
Ignore specific Yenc CRC value from bad poster "0000001"
Right click in files menu for lockout poster didn't work
"Already Exists" file's weren't removed from downloaded files list.
More than 10K posts in download list hung the program.
On restart, queued files were tagged as filtered
Deleted posts showed up again later in automatic mode with a filter in place.
Fixed missing post problem on multi-select by adding another mutex on global work variable
Old connection message only seen if the socket was actually in connected state
Failed response field now cleared between commands - removed spurious error messages
Change CTRL-A to select all in all list controls - Ctrl-E now adds posts to download
Added option to kill all active connections.
Option to have sig match dump connection after 24K instead of
downloading the rest of the post. Called "Old Style Signature" on
Advanced tab under settings.
Reduced connection optimization so connection is closed when going
from server to server downloading parts to multi-part posts. Should
help problems using Newsfeeds. Acts more like 3.32 now. Called
"Close Connections" on the network tab under settings.

Known Problems

Want to do more work to the new toolbar icons.
Not all features implemented yet.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B22 Build 3114 January 27, 2002

Fixes

Filters were failing to take into account posts that were incomplete but became complete
Option to save thumbnails to disk now works.
Firewall settings were not working right.
Some yEnc filenames were not being extracted correctly
Removed "Group Recs" column from the server window.
When posting files, status now says "Done" when complete.
Increased some counters to 64 bits to avoid wraparound at 4GB.
Successfully downloads files from multiple single parts that happened to have had the same subject and was combined because NewsBin thought it was a multi-part post.
Cosmetic changes to GUI, including consistency in how we label the shortcuts (i.e. Ctrl+A instead of ctrl-A), and Status Messages now come in from the top instead of the bottom.
Added a "Kill All Connections" option under the "Utilities" menu.

Known Problems

Broke ability to post text only. Have to attach a file, too.
Unregistered version nags from first day, should give 10 days.
yEnc files beginning with a square bracket, "[", are not named correctly when downloaded, the bracket is getting stripped.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B21 Build 3075 January 14, 2002

Fixes

When posting, text message was not posted although binary was.
Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings was not getting saved between runs
Post list was clearing prematurely while in auto mode when going to the next group.
Clearing the downloaded files list was leaving one record.

Enhancements

Support for yEnc encoding
Copy anything from the post list, download list, failed files list, downloaded files list, or status messages to the windows clipboard (Highlight and hit Ctrl-C).
The Clear button on the tool bar now clears active tab, not just the post list tab.
Moved the odometer over so people running 800x600 can see it. The odometer reset button has been removed but the option to reset it still exists under the "Utilities" menu.

Known Problems

Files being downloaded while selecting a file to upload in the Post dialog may be placed in a newly created "Download" directory under the directory you are selecting which file to upload.
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B20 Build 2988 January 2, 2002

Fixes

Fixed problem with year change to 2002
Fixed crash problems running under Win2K and WinXP (worse under XP)
Fixed intermittent crash problem when increasing or decreasing number of running threads.
Made modifications to ensure spool and stored record information is managed correctly.
Fixed problem when moving groups messed up the loading of the spool.
Fixed problem with losing groups when upgrading from 3.32 .ini file.
Fixed group progress highlighting.
Fixed problem with accented characters being filtered out of filenames.

Known Problems

When posting, text message is not posted although binary is.
Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B19 Build 2919 December 22, 2001

Enhancements

Bandwidth Limiter Implemented! By default, NewsBin goes full blast as usual but when enabled (under Setup, Network Tab), you can tell NewsBin to use only X bits per second of your bandwidth.

Fixes

Fixed problems running under WinXP
Made modifications to ensure spool and stored record information is managed correctly.

Known Problems

When posting, text message is not posted although binary is.
Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B18 Build 2884 December 11, 2001

Fixes

Switched back to the memory manager from B14 to fix crash on startup problem that some user experienced witih B17
Fixed problem with NewsBin showing incomplete posts correctly
Fixed problem when you try to download a purged post (record number = 0).

Known Problems

Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B17 Build 2875 December 9, 2001

Fixes

Fixed configuration conversion problem from 3.x series. Symptom was that new configuration changes were not saved.
Fixed problem with command line processing. You can specify the configuration file on the command line when initiating NewsBin.
Added separate thread for re-assembling Master Splitter files.
Changed so that removing posts from the Post List does not remove the same post from the download list.

Known Problems

Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B16 Build 2860 December 4, 2001

Fixes

Fixed problem with saving download list.
Fixed problem with spool files getting mixed up when multiple groups were selected and processed simultaneously.
Fixed problem in B15 keeping it from running on W95 and WinNT machines.
Fixed crash on exit while downloading problem.
Fixed persistent green down arrow staying on last group when processing a list of groups.

Known Problems

Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B15 Build 2852 December 1, 2001

Fixes

Fixed problem with lockout Poster
Counter on tabs now reset when lists are cleared (i.e. post list, download list, failed download list...)
Hooked up logging. NOTE: the format has changed if you are using the logging feature.
Intermittent crash problem when launching a file from the Downloaded Files List has been fixed.
Load download list now works.
New Find feature implemented.

Known Problems

Spool files grow too large when processing multiple groups simultaneously. For example, if you select 2 or more groups and hit Ctrl-G (process group) the spool file for each subsequent group processed will include the previous groups' information.
Thumbnail X/Y resolution settings are not getting saved between runs
Feature that writes thumbnails to disk is not working.
Not all features implemented yet.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B14 Build 2831 November 21, 2001

Fixes

Fixed problem running in Automatic Mode. Posts were not being purged from group to group.
Fixed problem deleting entries from download list. Only half the headers selected would be deleted.
Changed process of loading spool. Headers do not show up in the post list until the spool is loaded in the background for performance reasons.

Known Problems

Load download list does not work.
Clicking on "Register/Update Key Dialog" under "Help" will crash the program
Registration is broken. If you need to register B14, register B13 first and then upgrade.
Refer to the bug list for more info.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B13 Build 2810 November 7, 2001

Fixes

Fixed Filename Filters, were previously broken.
Fixed a possible XP problem.
Fixed problems with Post ID and Signature Cache which are used for duplicate detection.
Failed posts were not always removed in some cases where the post is re-submitted for download.
Connect to server failures are automatically re-submitted to download list.
In automatic mode, when "Show Filtered Posts" is selected, NewsBin no longer adds all posts to the download list. Only posts that pass the filters now get downloaded.
In Automatic mode, only posts tagged NEW were getting downloaded. Now all un-downloaded posts get added to download list.
Duplicate signatures were not being reflected in the downloaded files list
Downloaded Files list entries were not being updated if the file is renamed during download.

Enhancements

Changed default to show high resolution thumbnails instead of performance saving low resolution thumbnails.
New menu option in groups list opens explorer window to download path of group.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B12 Build 2768 October 31, 2001

Fixes

Fixes problem with false positive downloads being reported
Minor GUI enhancements
Still has intermittent problem when adding posts to the download list under WinXP
When you mark multiple groups in auto-mode, now waits after each group
The "New" button in the "Servers" menu wasn't clearing fields.
Failed list was showing files that actually succeeded.
The Post List was getting cleared when purging records from a group that wasn't currently displayed in the Post List.
On a socket timeout or a server limit hit, posts in progress get re-added to the bottom of the download list instead of going to the failed list.
Posts failing after 1/2 through the download were being marked as downloaded instead of failed.
When "Show Filtered Posts" is checked, filter entry fields are now disabled.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B11 Build 2694 October 8, 2001

Fixes

Duplicate signatures weren't setting the right status.
Using Double-click and Enter wouldn't set the download path properly.
Filters.xml now forced to directory where NewsBin is installed.
Disk Free Threshold warning was messed up
Sequential server switch was not saving.
Column sizes in groups/servers tab were not being saved.
Opening Server menu when no servers existed was causing a crash.
Terminated downloads were resulting in lost connections
Delete from Downloaded Files list now actually deletes.

New Features

Hitting the "Play" button when in Manual Mode now updates headers for all selected groups.
Now assembles Master Splitter files. Right-click in the Downloaded Files list and select "Combine Files".
Changed selection logic in place for Post List, Download List, and Failed Files list.
Option to toggle grid lines on groups and servers window from the Right-Click menu
Added Registration Failure help text, most instances of failures are due to bad system date.
Pending download size and download time estimate re-written
Added Button on the toolbar to clear the Post list
Added Clear history option under "Preferences"
Added button to clear subject filter.
Combine status icon with subject column in Post List like 3.x series.
Download List update only if it has focus. Reduces flicker.
Added File rename option on the right-click menu of the downloaded files list.
Hooked up Max Record Age.
Hooked up Recycle Servers.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B10 Build 2656 September 22, 2001

Fixed bugs number 20, 48, 52, 74, 78, 81, 86, and 87. See the Bug List for details
Double-click to load groups now. Single-click to load spool proved problematic when trying to select multiple groups. Ctrl-L now loads spool. Double-click loads spool and then downloads new posts.
This version creates a new configuration file with a .nbi extension. This should resolve most problems when going back to earlier versions of NewsBin after trying 4.0.
Save Download List now works. You must navigate to the "Records" directory the first time you use it. The Load Download List will not work if the file was not saved in the "Records" directory under the NewsBin install directory.
There is a possible memory leak if you clear the download list from the right-click menu option. We are looking into this.
Introduction of new robot shortcut icon to match new mascot on website.
There was no 4.0B9. We accidentally skipped a version by confusing ourselves with the 3.32 beta program.

NewsBin Pro 4.0B8 Build 2603 September 10, 2001

NEWSFEEDS USERS: You cannot enable more than one newsfeed server at a time. This is because NewsBin now processes multiple servers simultaneously instead of one at a time. Newsfeeds current policy forbids you from accessing two or more servers simultaneously and they lock you out for some period of time if you break that rule. What you can do is sign up for multiple cheap newsfeeds accounts and configure each server to use different accounts.
Once you run 4.0 the first time, your INI file will not be compatible with the 3.x series. You should back up your 3.x .ini files in case you decide to go back to 3.x for some reason.
Signature cache is not compatible with 3.x. We now check 25K of a file instead of 6K of a file to generate a signature.
There currently is no migration for 3.x filters to 4.0 filters.
Header download occurs from all servers simultaneously. Look at the server list during download. Servers tagged green are working or still connecting. Servers tagged RED have failed for some reason.
Header downloads now have a retry count in options. Set to 0 to try forever.
Click a group to load the spooled headers. Double-click to download new ones.
New right click in the groups list to force download of all headers. Bypasses First Time Records setting.
If loading a large spool file, it's alot faster if the post list tab isn't selected so CPU isn't being used performing screen updates.
Changing the order/disabling the servers in the server list will change the order the parts are downloaded in real time. If you disable a server and there are parts of a post exclusive to that server the download will fail.
Do not interrupt NewsBin while it is loading the spool file for a group. It will mess things up.
Automatic saving of the download list doesn't work yet. You can save the queued downloads manually under the file menu. The file should be saved to the records directory for now. Default extension is NBS.
All files including pictures are now downloaded to the spool directory. When the file is completed, single part files are moved to the proper directory. Multipart files are copied one chunk at a time to the proper file. This means optimal performance will be had if the spool and download directory are on the same drive (moves become copies when it spans drives).
Each chunk is stored in memory and written to disk only if it succeeds. No more short chunks unless the program crashes mid-write.
No partial MPG's/MP3's will be in the download directory during download. They can be pieced together out of the chunk files though.
All headers are stored in a single file/per group. These files are alot tighter then before because of the use of dictionary files. If these dictionary files get damaged, might as well kill the spooled records and start over.
Max Record Age purging has been temporarily disabled.
Interface to the servers dialog is quite different.
No import utility yet for the filters. The old filter files no longer exists. Instead there's a file called filters.XML which contains the filter profiles. Add a few filters using the interface, look at the filters.xml. It's relatively easy to examine and modify the file by hand. If you load it in IE, it will display the hierarchy.
When you create spam filters, you can make them inherit the filter characteristics of any existing filter profile, just use the drop box in the new filter dialog.
In the main window groups list, you can tag a group with a filter profile (right click). When you download the posts, this filter profile will be applied to the posts. After header download completes, you can override this filter profile by using
the drop box under the subject find box. Say for example you want SFV's or NFO files. Create a filter profile called SFV add subject/size filters. Then after a header download, apply the new filter profile to just see/download these files. Then you apply any other filter profile to download the other files.
Failed download list is where all failed/terminated files go. You can re-submit these files for download.
Commands resulting in 423 errors are now tried twice. This is to cover a problem with Usenetserver.
Please read the NewsBin 4.0 Bug List to familiarize yourself with any problems that may still be outstanding.
NewsBin now has two DLL files that stay in the same directory as the NewsBin executable. There is no installer yet so just extract all the files from this zip file into the directory where you want to run NewsBin from.