QUICK GUIDE TO Efficient POSTING ( with extra notes regarding yEnc and PAR2 files ) Post with yenc. It saves you time, it saves us time. A 100 meg file posted in yenc is 101-102 megs. Posted UUencoded it is 130-140 megs. PowerPost yenc version is good. Post Par or PAR2 files. Par is nice and quick, PAR2 is slow and efficient and can greatly reduce the amount that people have to download to repair and damaged or incomplete posting. http://www.quickpar.org.uk/Download.htm Most importantly - CHECK YOUR POST. Check the RAR's before you post. Check your Par's or PAR2's. Check your ISP to make sure that your posting is complete on your server. It is relatively easy to post segment fills using powerpost. Why post an entire 15 Meg RAR, when only 375k is missing? In the last two months I have seen 6 videos posted that were incomplete on the posters server. The posters did not check to see that they were complete. In one case their were no Par or par2 files posted. In another case a poster posted a 12 disk set. One disk was incomplete on his own server and he posted 7 PAR files, but 9 were need. Only 20 missing segments. 6 MB In another case, the poster posted unverified PAR2 files that were bad. So Check your posts. ----------------------------- Quick settins for WINRAR, Yenc and QuickPAR WINRAR Settings Compression method = Store Split to Volumes, bytes = 15,360,000 Check -> Put Recovery Record ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- QuickPar Settings [The settings below are the default, if you haven't changed them, you probably don't need to.] Check box Restrict Block size to multiples of Usenet article size Block Size: 384,000 (this is the default = 3000 lines) Number of Recovery blocks: 120 (for smaller posts, this is enough to fix 3 completely missing RAR's) Recovery File Size: Variable (limited to size of largest data file) OPTIONS: Prefered Block size: Check Box - yEnc: 3,000 Lines ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- ---+++===+++--- PowerPost Settings (yEnc Version) [Default is yenc, Max Lines per Part MUST BE CHANGED to 3000 (to match default QuickPar setttings) If you downloaded PowerPost with this article, it is probably not necessary to change] View Menu Program Settings Program TAB Default Max Lines Per Part: 3000 Use yEnc? Check ============================================== Why use the above settings?? It is quick and efficient. A Post using yEnc format has 128 bytes of information per line. A multiple of 1000 lines is frequently used, and 3000 is arguably optimal because it is a balance betweeen largest segments size ( which also means fewest segments ) and best distribution. 3000 lines is also the default setting for QuickPar. 3000 lines works out to 384,000 bytes = 375 kB. My ISP provided Newserver frequently misses segments if they are larger than 500k, and I have heard of others that do. But segments this size seem to have very good propagation. =================== VERY IMPORTANT =========================== For most efficient use of PAR2, the block size in QuickPar should match the block size in PowerPost. If the block size is the same, each missing segment can be be repaired with one Recovery Block with QuickPar. If the settings in PowerPost do not match the settings in QuickPar, it can take 2 or 3 recovery blocks to repair ONE missing segment. For the most effienient use of PowerPost, the Rar size should be a proper multiple of the Powerpost segment size. -- QuickPar Recovery Files Size: Why use Variable (limited in size of largest data file) Variable is the best method for large postings like videos. You only need to download the number of blocks that you are missing. Variable(limited in size of largest data file) - The largest par2 will have enough blocks re recover one missing rar. Number of recover blocks = 120 This is enough to recover three missing rars. Winrar Questions Q. Why uses Store as the compression method? A. Video is compressed already. It saves you time, it saves us time. Using Winrar Best compression method might save 1-2% in the file size. On my computer it takes 32 seconds to split an episode of 344 Meg AVI file into RARS and 5 seconds to put it back together. Using Best compression takes 12 minutes to split into RAR's. This setting really comes down to personal preference. Q. Why use recovery Record. A. This adds a little to file size, but can be a wonder for quick repairs. IF you use PAR, you should always always add recovery records. If you are using PAR2 I would strongly recommend it as well. At least a couple of times a month I get a RAR that QuickPar says are fine, but WINRAR test shows an error. I do a repair using Winrar and it fixes it. At least once a week I get a rar that Quickpar says is bad, but Winrar can fix it so I don't bother downloading PAR2's. I believe the default is 1% Recovery Record. Q. Why use 15,360,000 bytes? A. Convenience. 15,360,000 bytes (Approx 15 Megs) works as a nice multiple for segment size in posting and recovery Block size with QuickPar. Every block is the same size in each RAR and any single missing segment can be replaced with one recovery block. One limitation with newsbin and some other newsreaders is that they can not download incomplete's if the 1st segment is missing. This is another good reason for limiting the size to around the 15 meg size. Other sizes are fine, but take a minute and make sure PAR2 block size is the same as posting segment size, and that RAR size is a exact multiple of segment size. Q. Why is this posted? A. Because the vast majority of posters do not understand the relationship between yenc, QuickPar and Winrar. 9 out of 10 times that I need par2 files, I have to download 2 par2 blocks for every missing segment. -------------------------- 1024 bytes = 1 KB (kbyte) 1 MB = 1,024,000 bytes Example of Quick Par - yenc - Rar Size calculations 3000 Lines yenc -- 128 bytes per line = 384,000 bytes = 375 Kbytes 375k * 40 segments = 15.000MB = 15,360,000 bytes WINRAR file size -- other rar sizes 375k * 30 segments = 11.250MB = 11,520,000 bytes WINRAR file size 375k * 50 segments = 18.750MB = 19,200,000 bytes WINRAR file size 375k * 60 segments = 22.500MB = 23,040,000 bytes WINRAR file size -------------------------- 4000 Lines yenc -- 128 bytes per line = 512,000 bytes = 500 Kbytes 500k * 30 segments = 15.000MB = 15,360,000 bytes WINRAR file size 500k * 40 segments = 20.000MB = 20,480,000 bytes WINRAR file size 500k * 50 segments = 25.000MB = 25,600,000 bytes WINRAR file size -------------------------- 3500 Lines yenc -- 128 bytes per line = 448,000 bytes = 437.5 kbytes 437.5k * 40 segments = 17.500MB = 17,920,000 bytes WINRAR file size 437.5k * 50 segments = 21.875MB = 22,400,000 bytes WINRAR file size LINES = (QuickPar) Block Size == (PowerPost yenc) Default Max Lines Per Part * 128 (WinRAR) Split to volumes, bytes = LINES * 128 * segments