F.A.Q.

What is ikbin?
What does ikbin mean?
How do I use ikbin?

What is USENET?

What is an NZB?
Are there any open source NZB capable news clients?
How do I use an NZB?

Can I download files with ikbin?
What groups are indexed? Will you add a group?

What is ikbin?
ikbin is an open source binary newsgroup indexer.
ikbin creates NZB files that can be used with a news reader to download files.
It was created as an open source equivalent of the very cool binsearch.info.
You can try ikbin at this site. You can download the source at sourceforge.net.

What does ikbin mean?
ikbin means 'I am' in Dutch. It also alludes to the binary part of binary news groups.

What is USENET?
From Wikipedia:

Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. It was conceived by Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979. Users read and post e-mail-like messages (called "articles") to a number of distributed newsgroups, categories that resemble bulletin board systems in most respects. The medium is distributed among a large number of servers, which store and forward messages to one another. Individual users download and post messages to a single server, usually operated by their ISP or university, and the servers exchange the messages between each other.

How do I use ikbin?
Click search or browse at top menu to view the binaries indexed by this site.
When you find files you want, there are three ways to create an NZB for the files:
1. The 'regular' way -
Click the check box next to the files that interest you. Click the 'Make NZB' button at the top of the search results to download an NZB with headers for the selected files.

2. Grab it and go -
Click the 'grab' link next to the files you want to download. An NZB with the selected files will be created. This method requires Javascript.

3. Add it to your queue -
Click the 'queue' link next to files you want to download. The files will be added to a queue and displayed at the top of your screen. Add as many files as you like. When you have selected all yor files, click 'show all' and 'get NZB now' to download an NZB with all the selected files. What is this for? Sometime your search results span multiple pages, or you need to download files from multiple groups. With a simple check box you have to download a new NZB for every page of search results. The queue is a mini NZB shopping cart that stores all the files you want in a cookie on your computer. When you are ready to get the NZB, the file IDs stored in the cookie are used to create one NZB that contains all the files in your queue. This method requires Javascript and cookies.


What is an NZB?
From Wikipedia:

NZB is a free file format that makes it easier for users to locate and download materials from Usenet. NZB created by the owners of the Internet site Newzbin.com and is based on XML. The NZB format works by each file containing a list of unique message-IDs that a compatible news client can then use to identify, locate and download specific articles. These articles contain file parts that once downloaded can be assembled by the news client into working files. Using NZBs files can be added directly to a download queue of a news client, without any header retrieval necessary. Without NZBs, a user must first download the full headers for all the postings in a group, then search these thousands or even millions of message headers to find the desired subject.

Are there any open source NZB capable news clients?
We have found the following. Please e-mail us if you know any others.
NZB-O-Matic (Plus)
NZB and NZBlib

How do I use an NZB?

Can I download files with ikbin?
NO! ikbin is only an index of content found on Usenet. It is not possible to download files with ikbin. You need a news reader and news server to download files.

What groups are indexed? Will you add a group?
This is a demonstration and testing site for the ikbin open source usenet indexing software. The site is configured to automatically index a few of the busiest news groups so that we can test the robustness and speed of the site. We do not plan to add additional groups. Why not download the source and start an index of your favorite binary groups?

All the caveats of beta software apply: Content may be cleared out rather unexpectedly if a beta goes south, etc., etc.