Cheers to the Newsbin team as they celebrate the 15th anniversary of launching Newsbin.com today. While Newsbin Pro was available on shareware sites in 1994, their website launched on October 24, 1997. The guys at Newsbin are constantly working on new features including the release of version 6.40 earlier this month. New users can download a ten day free trial while customers can download the latest version for free. In addition users can join in the celebration as Newsbin is offering free Usenet searches all day.
Here are some interesting facts about Newsbin:
- Newsbin website went live on October 24, 1997
- Newsbin was available as shareware on Indiana State University shareware site papa.indstate.edu back in 1995. It frequently hit the top 10 most downloaded list and required a winsock dll installed under Windows 3.1 to work. Once windows 95 came out with a built in TCP/IP stack, it made things easier.
- Agent is the only other newsreader still under development that was available in 1995.
- Newsbin was the first automated Usenet download tool. The others were either text readers or provided rudimentary support for binary content.
- First newsreader to provide a native 64 bit version.
- Early adopter of the yEnc encoding scheme now popular on Usenet.
- Early adopter of the NZB format created by newzbin.com (no affiliation)
- Contributed to the design of the XFeatures NNTP extended command to support compressed headers. Early adopter of that standard.
- First newsreader to support article numbers increasing over the signed 32 bit barrier (> 2.1 billion) and the unsigned 32 bit barrier (> 4.2 billion).
- Early adopter of PAR and PAR2
- One of the first to integrate RAR and PAR processing into the reader.
- Newsbin forums have been active for over 10 years, started in May, 2001
- Started offering an integrated Usenet search service in June, 2007. Search engine covers full retention of the longest retention news servers available.
- Included a remote interface for use with mobile devices in 2011. Currently an iOS app for iPhone and iPad called NBRemote is available in free and pay versions.
- Newsbin was written by (and continues to be developed by) a single developer known as Quade in the Newsbin forums.
- The backend systems and customer support are handled by Dexter. There are no other full time staff involved.
For those considering Newsbin Pro we especially enjoy the easy to use interface, Internet (Usenet) search feature and excellent support for header downloads offered by Newsbin. Our favorite feature is the lifetime license. While most other premium clients charge for upgrades, Newsbin offers a lifetime license. Allowing customers to download new versions along with regular beta releases free of charge.
We tip our cup to Dexter and Quade as they celebrate the 15th birthday of Newsbin Pro and wish them the best for years to come. Visit Newsbin.com to learn more about the client and download the latest 6.40 release.
Visit Newsgroup Reviews to learn more about Usenet. Follow us @NewsgroupRevs for news and deals.
