A Web Interface For Newsgroups Downloads

Users who work with newsgroups usually use desktop clients such as Newsbin, Grabit or Microsoft Outlook to do so.

Some Usenet providers offer web access to newsgroups with options to download files right from the web interface which can be very comfortable in certain situations but especially when no desktop clients can be installed on a computer system.

URD, which stands for Usenet Resource Downloader, is a software program that provides a similar web interface for Usenet users who use services that do not offer a web interface, or were the web interface is not offering what you'd like it to offer.

This web interface can be used to browse, search and download files from newsgroups. It supports nzb files which can be imported and exported.

Other features include making use of multiple connections to a newsgroups server if that is supported by the server, using encryption if it is supported, downloading newsgroups headers, schedule updates of newsgroups, preview nfo and jpg files and smarty template support.

A few things are not supported yet like being able to upload to newsgroups or reading posts in non alt.binaries newsgroups. The web interface works with many popular newsgroups providers including Giganews, Astraweb and Newszilla.

The program itself has to be installed on a computer system running Linux, preferably a web server. Installation support is provided for Debian and Ubuntu with installation on other Linux distributions being similar.

Download to your debian-based (e.g. Debian or Ubuntu) linux PC.
Doubleclick on the file to install, or alternatively run:

# sudo dpkg -i urd_0.6.2-1_all.deb

(This will install URD in /usr/share/urd, and add an apache alias for /urd to that directory)

Change PHP's max memory usage:

# sudo vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini
memory_limit = 128M

Uncomment the include path (for Smarty):

# sudo vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
include_path = ".:/usr/share/php"

Then go to http://localhost/urd/ and follow the installation instructions.

Usenet Resource Downloader could be an interesting application for users who want to download or browse newsgroups through a web interface.

Advertisement