Binreader Archives - Newsgroup Reviews Blog

January 17, 2013 by NGR

For those new to Usenet the task of finding the right newsreader can be challenging. Especially if you’re not sure where to look and what features are the most important. Today we’re going to honor our 2013 Editors Choice Award winners and recommend some excellent Usenet browsers. Some are free to download and use while others offer free trials. We’ll make it clear whether the clients are free or premium. Along with highlighting some of the key features that helped each newsreader, web client or mobile Usenet app make our list.

Similar to our Best Usenet Provider awards we recognize more than one winner. As there are way too many great newsgroup services and Usenet clients on the market. In the case of newsreaders we could easily list ten or more clients. For the purpose of our awards we have chosen six winners. Along with a top 10 list.

Without further delay we’d like to congratulate each of our 2013 NGR Editor’s Choice winners. The list includes the Newshosting Client, Easynews Web Interface, Newsbin Pro, SABnzbd, NewsLeecher and Binreader. Round out our list of the Top 10 Usenet clients were GrabIt, Unison, News Rover and EZ Global Search.

Let’s take a closer look at our 2013 NGR Editor’s Choice winners for “Best Usenet Clients“:

Newshosting Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Newshosting continues to innovate their popular Usenet client. With all the features you’d expect from a leading newsreader and then some. The client is free for Newshosting members and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. With a Usenet search engine, video previews, auto-repair and auto-unRAR functions the client takes care of everything. All you do is choose what to download and let the Newshosting client do the rest.

Newshosting offers 2,100+ days of binary retention along with 1,400 days of text posts. Subscribers enjoy unlimited Usenet access, Newshosting Usenet client, 256-bit SSL, uncapped speed and 24/7 support. Take advantage of the Newshosting $9.99/mo. and $99.99/yr. unlimited Usenet specials.

Easynews Web Interface : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Who says you need a software client to access newsgroups? Most people assume that to be the case but it isn’t as Easynews offers an excellent web Usenet interface. With the ability to search for content, preview files, stream content and download from Usenet. The Easynews web interface is free to members. In fact you can try Easynews free for 14 days. There are also some really cool iPhone, iPad and Android apps.

Newsbin Pro Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

Newsbin Pro has been an NGR editor favorite for years now and they continue to innovate and make the popular Usenet client even better. Newsbin offers an excellent user interface with support for compressed header downloads and NZB files. Newsbin will even help you organize downloads. The client costs $30 and includes a year of search. With an optional Usenet search feature. New users can download a 10 day free trial.

SABnzbd Usenet Client : 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

SABnzbd hardly needs an introduction for Usenet fans. The free, open-source Usenet browser has been downloaded over 5 million times (Windows, Mac and Linux). SABnzbd+ turns your web browser into a Usenet client. It lacks features for those who want to download headers or enjoy text groups. Yet for binary seekers SABnzbd is very cool. Drop in an NZB file and SABnzbd will download, verify, repair and extract the contents.

NewsLeecher Usenet Client – 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

NewsLeecher is another premium client that we’ve enjoyed using over the years. Especially their SuperSearch feature which is great for easily finding Usenet content. The user interface is clean and the client presents some nice advanced features. With lots of bells and whistles to configure for enhancing your Usenet experience. The client costs $3.99 a month for NewsLeecher + SuperSearch.

Binreader Usenet Client – 2014 NGR Editors Choice Award

We enjoy Binreader for a number of reasons. First of all its free and available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Secondly they offer a portable version that you can run from a thumb drive. With Binreader you can search for content through Binsearch.info and let the client do the rest. From downloading to PAR2 repair and RAR extraction. You can download the latest version directly from the Binreader site free of charge.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 2013 Editor’s Choice Awards for the best Usenet clients. Please help us recognize and congratulate the winners for their efforts. You might also want to check out our Editor’s Choice Awards for “Best Usenet Providers“, “Best Usenet Deals” and “Best Free Usenet Trials” as each is updated frequently.

Binreader Usenet Client for Windows, Mac, Linux

November 16, 2010 by NGR

We recently had the opportunity to test a new NZB downloader. The Binreader Usenet client is currently in beta. The new reader is free and available for Windows, Mac and Linux with an Android version coming soon. The beta is currently available to download at http://www.binreader.com/

We took particular interest in the portable version of Binreader. It is a Windows download that requires no installation. Simply load the files on thumbdrive and run it from anywhere, very cool! In addition the Binreader NZB client is available for Windows, Mac OS X (requires mplayer for streaming downloads), and Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Debian Linux versions. With an Android newsreader in the works.

Their are a few key features that help Binreader stand out. First in the simplicity of using the client. We’ll demonstrate in a moment but it is the easiest newsreader we’ve used in quite a while. It has one simple purpose. Download and stream NZB files. A function it performs very well.

Binreader includes some premium newsreader features. Especially considering it is free. First the client let’s you stream content while downloading. It also extracts RAR files and does PAR repair automatically. Even better it will pause the PAR files and only download them if necessary. Now let’s take a look at the reader.

The first step is to download Binreader. In our case we chose the Windows portable version and loaded it on thumbdrive. No install, just pure Usenet goodness.

Next we copied the files to portable media and ran the Binreader executable to launch the client. No installation required.

Before downloading the first time you will want to set the news server and account information for connecting to your Usenet provider. Click the “Settings” button up top to get started.

Here you can set your news server, account and SSL settings. We quickly entered our news server along with username and password. Then came down and chose to run SSL via port 443. Next you will want to click on the “Advanced” tab.

The first setting you will want to review is the maximum number of connections. Binreader defaults to 4 but you can set it up to 50. Tip: only use the minimum number of connections necessary to achieve your desired speed. Any more wastes resources. The next setting is great “Only download PAR2 repair blocks if post is incomplete“. It is checked by default and will save you from downloading PAR files unless necessary. The second option “Automatically repair downloads (using PAR2)” is equally important. Let Binreader do the work for you. While the third option isn’t checked by default the client will remove the files from the download list when finished if you like. If not they are easy to clean up.

We left the RAR handling set to the default “Start extracting while you download”. The download folder is important. Especially if you decide to run Binreader off a thumbdrive like we did. By default content is held in a downloads folder under the Binreader app folder. This is easy to change. For those using the reader in a normal setting the default is convenient. We did not modify any of the other settings. Now it was time to test some newsgroup downloads. First we had to find a good NZB file for testing. We headed over to NZB.cc to find a Ubuntu NZB.

After finding a good Ubuntu NZB we downloaded the file and went back to Binreader. Clicking “Add NZB” and selecting the NZB file will automatically queue and start the download as shown below.

As you can see in the image the download immediately started and the PAR2 files are paused. They are only downloaded if necessary to repair the archive. In our case Unbuntu downloaded and was automatically extracted without any need for repair.

After the download is completed you can simply click the “Downloads” button at the top of the Binreader interface and find your content. One other note, when deleting downloads from within the Binreader interface it will ask whether you want to delete just the entry or the associated files. Make sure to click “No” if you only want the entries deleted. The message is clear but we wouldn’t want anyone accidentally deleting their downloaded content.

Well that wraps up our review or Binreader. We enjoyed the Usenet client and look forward to using the portable version while on travel. Definitely download a free copy of Binreader and enjoy!

Best Usenet Clients