NewsLeecher – Downloading files
Binaries4all QuickJumpIn the previous chapter we downloaded the headers from alt.binaries.x, and now we’re going to download the ‘freeware collection’ post.
Open the Articles tab and select all the files you want to download. Right click on your selection and a context menu appears. If you hover the cursor over Leech, another menu unfolds. Note: to leech is a popular version of to download.
| Leech | Download items to the default download folder. |
| Leech (First) | Download items to the default download folder and place the files at the top of the download queue. |
| Leech (Smart) | Download the items to a subfolder of the default download folder. The name of that subfolder is created automatically using the headers. |
| Leech (Smart, First) | Combination of Smart and First. |
| Leech (Specify) | Download the items to a user-specified location. A screen where you can enter this location will pop up. |
| Leech (Specify, First) | Combination of Specify and First. |
| Leech (Paused) | Download items to the default folder and place the files in the ‘paused’ download queue. Downloading will start when the user un-pauses the items. |
| Leech (Paused, First) | Combination of Paused and First. |
| Leech (Active) | Download the files to the folder that is active at the File Manager tab. |
| Leech (Active, First) | Combination of Active and First. |
I chose Specify because I want to select a download location different from my default folder.
The Leech Specify screen appears. Here we can select the download location for this post. In the upper field we can enter the location where we want our download to be placed. In the lower field we can specify a name for the folder into which the download will be placed. In this case our download will be placed in D:\Download\Freeware Collection. If the folder does not yet exist, it will be created automatically. Finally, we hit the OK button and our download begins.
If nothing seems to be happening, check whether NewsLeecher is connected. The Connect button has to be ‘pushed’:
The download starts and in the status column you can see NewsLeecher downloading. At this moment part1 and part2 are being downloaded and part3, part4 and part5 are queued. They will be downloaded when NewsLeecher has finished downloading the preceding parts.
We can also monitor our downloads in the status screen below. The information also shows us which server is downloading which part of a file.
In the NewsLeecher status bar we can see the maximum speed NewsLeecher reached while downloading, the current download speed and the free disk space:
The graph also provides us with information about the download speed. You can limit NewsLeecher's download speed by using the slider on the left. This can be useful when you don't want NewsLeecher to occupy your total bandwidth.
The Queue tab provides us with a list of the files that are currently waiting for download. Furthermore, this tab gives us some additional options regarding the download queue:
| The four arrows | Change the position of one ore more files in the download queue. |
| Cancel All | Delete all items from the queue. |
| Cancel Paused | Delete all paused items from the queue. |
| Cancel Selected | Delete all selected item from the queue. |
| Pause | Pause selected items. |
| Resume | Resume selected items. |
| Subject Search | Only show those items that contain the string that you can enter here |
| Show paused | If unchecked, paused items will be hidden. |
| When Empty | Select an action which should be performed when NewsLeecher downloaded all un-paused file in the queue:
|
It is possible to pause all downloads with one click. Just hit the Pause button:
You can minimize NewsLeecher to your system tray by hitting F9 or by clicking the To Tray button:
If you checked the Always minimize to system tray option when configuring NewsLeecher, minimizing the program will have the same result.
When the download of an item is finished, this item will disappear from the Queue. If the queue is empty, the download is complete.
In any case, downloading incomplete files is also possible. In fact, this is an important part of downloading incomplete posts because you can repair these incomplete file with the PAR2 files. If you don’t download these files, you will need a significantly larger number of PAR2 blocks. See the QuickPar tutorial for further information.
Downloading incomplete files is done in the same way as downloading complete files.
Congratulations! You now have the knowledge needed to download with NewsLeecher. However, there are more ways to download with NewsLeecher without downloading headers first. This can save you a lot of time.To the next chapter: Importing NZB files
Binaries4all QuickJump
