Software update: NNTPGrab 0.5.90 (0.6 beta 1)

The first beta release of version 0.6 of NNTPGrab was released on Saturday with version number 0.5.90. With this program files from usenet can be downloaded. NNTPGrab can of course handle nzb files, is able to automatically process par2 files and can consult multiple usenet servers at the same time. The software is released under an open source license and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. In version 0.6, support for plugins has been added, among other things, which makes it easier to add new functionality in the future. Furthermore, a lot of “under the hood” changes have been made, which should make the program more stable and efficient. Below are the release notes for this version:

NNTPGrab 0.5.90 (0.6 Beta 1)

Exactly 2 years ago NNTPGrab 0.2.1 was released. At the time, the program was still very simple. It was then possible to import and download NZB files from 1 usenet server. In the past 2 years there have been many extensions and adjustments to the program. A lot of new features have been added such as downloading from multiple usenet servers at the same time, automatically repairing downloaded files from extracting and the ability to operate the program remotely.

Now with the arrival of NNTPGrab 0.6 Beta 1, another milestone has been reached:

The program now has support for plugins. This makes it easier to add new functionality to the program in the future.

At the moment there are already some plugins available. The yEnc decoder, PAR2 repair and automatic unpacking functionality that were already present in the previous are all now housed in separate plugins. Furthermore, plugins have been added that can collect debug logging and automatically pause/resume the download queue when the network connection is lost/restored (currently Linux only).

Finally, a plugin has been added with which the program can be fully operated using JSON-RPC. This is done through an embedded web server. We are currently working hard on a real web interface to operate the program from a web browser, so you will definitely see it in a future version.

In addition to the support for plugins, a lot of adjustments have been made internally that should make the program more efficient and stable.

Downloading files is now done by 1 central thread (previously this was 1 thread per connection). As a result, the download can be stopped immediately as soon as the button ‘Pause the task scheduler’ is pressed. Making configuration changes now also happens immediately without the program freezing for a few seconds. Another optimization has been made in the yEnc decoder. It has been completely rewritten so that it can decrypt files much faster than before.

All these optimizations mean that the program can now also be used on Fonera 2.0 routers. Although there is still plenty to do, the program should already be quite usable on it.

In addition, it is now also possible to download files from usenet servers through a proxy server (currently Linux only).

Finally, the latest new feature of NNTPGrab 0.6 Beta 1: It is now also possible to apply bandwidth limiting, in other words limiting the bandwidth used during download!