Edited and updated: June 2000 by Đanté

Introduction     For New Members     For Lurkers     For Veterans The Basics Getting Parts Recreating The Image Burning The CD     EZCD Scans     CDRWIN Scans Making An Image Posting A CD Glossary Downloads Index Home

[1] The Basics [1.0] I keep seeing acronyms and shorthands I don't understand. What do they mean? Check out the Glossary at the bottom of this FAQ for some of the more common ones. You can also try visiting http://www.netlingo.com for more information.   [1.1] What is a CD-R? If you don't know that you really need to stop by alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc and play there for a while. A CD-R is a recordable CD ROM device. There is a good CD-R FAQ at http://come.to/abcdi with lots of great info. You are strongly suggested to visit.   [1.2] Do I have to have a CD-R? In general, YES, you will need a CD-R (aka burner). If you don't have one you should really consider just getting the rip in alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc or alt.binaries.games. For an alternative, with caveats, see [1.3] below.   [1.3] What about WinImage? WinImage 5.0 (and later) is a partial solution to people without burners. It will allow you to extract the contents of an ISO (or Mode1 BIN) image to your hard drive without having to burn a CD. However, be aware of a few points.   You will need room on your machine for the ISO itself (say 400MB), plus room for the contents (say another 400MB). (Once extracted, you could remove the ISO) If you do remove the ISO, your extraction is a one-time deal. If you accidentally blow away part of your extracted files, suffer a hard drive failure, etc. and you've lost the image. There is very likely a practical limit on how many ISOs you can extract to your hard drive at any one time. If you have media to back up the ISOs you might be able to work around this, but most will end up costing more than CDs nowadays (~$1/CD), so why not get a burner and do it right? You won't be able to easily lend an extracted image to a friend to try out <g>.   [1.4] SCSI or IDE CD-R? SCSI. True, IDE drives are cheaper- but not all the software will work correctly with them just yet. IMHO SCSI is the only way to go.(Updated information: EIDE Ultra ATA 33 or Ultra ATA 66  (with DMA-mode set for both hard drive and CD-R) seems to work quite well now- though SCSI remains superior.)   [1.5] What is an image file? An image file is an exact binary image of the contents of a form of media, such as a hard drive or compact disk.   [1.6] Is there a discussion group? YES! alt.binaries.cd.image.tools.d is the discussion group for a.b.cd.image. All discussion about posts, reposts, etc. should go here and remain out of ABCDI itself in order to keep it as close to pure binaries as is possible. Note that there are still some servers that don't carry this group, so ask your news admin if you don't see it on yours.   [1.7] Why are these posts over 100 parts? Most CD's are in excess of 500 megabytes, and once they're compressed equal approximately 200 - 400 megabytes. This will make the post over 100 parts. Most will be 150 - 250 parts depending on the size of the CD.   [1.8] The same stuff is/was available in alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc or alt.binaries.games, so why would I want all this extra crap? That is for you to answer. As stated earlier, the RIP you can get in abwi or abg will not have all of the original contents of the OEM/Retail CD. In addition, most have been altered to not require the CD and are thus not an exact duplicate.   [1.9] What's a DOS window? If you're not running a non-Windows type machine (i.e. a Mac or Linux) then if you don't know what a DOS window is, you really don't need to be here, but in a group for beginners.   [1.10] Where can I find answers to questions about other Warez groups and/or Usenet? Any questions that are general Usenet topics (i.e., the posts expire too quickly, my ISP sucks, etc.) should be redirected to a Usenet FAQ, or a *.general group for your news server and not necessarily handled in the FAQ for this group. Many of them are covered in the warez FAQ found at http://www.warezfaq.org.   [1.11] How can I setup filters in Agent to ignore any talk in ABCDI and only see the image posts? Agent has a very nice regular expression filtering mechanism builtin to it, allowing you to perform specific actions against messages that match your specifications. Particularly useful here is the ability to mark messages you do not wish to read as Ignored or Read or even delete the header completely. The regulars of ABCDI have pretty much decided to implement the filter below (with slight personal variations, of course) in order to filter out all non-image posts from ABCDI, thus encouraging people to actually USE the discussion group, abcdi.tools.d. Now you can, too! (Whoopee!) (Note filter changed from |nfo|txt|pgp| to the following, to represent changes in normal usage.) [*,200] and not subject: ({0/}|"0 of "|nfo|sfv|zip|{^image}|{^repost}) To set this filter into action, do the following:   Select the ABCDI group from the Subscribed Groups window. Select the Window->Usenet Filters menu item. Select the Filter->Add Kill Filter... menu item. Type the above filter string into the listbox at the top. Decide what you wish to do with the filtered headers and select the appropriate radio button in the Kill Action section. (NOTE: Delete will remove the header completely from your machine - you will have to disable this filter and re-grab headers if you wish to ever see these headers) Press OK.   [1.12] Why do my questions in ABCDI go unanswered? Where can I go to get help? This group is for posting CD images ONLY. All discussion is expected to take place in alt.binaries.cd.image.tools.d and as a result, most regulars have created filters to weed out the non-binary posts, including your questions. If you have a question that is not covered by this FAQ, or a comment, rant, etc. you are strongly advised to take it to the discussion group if you wish any kind of audience.   [1.13] I've just found Usenet and/or this group. I'm a bit confused but I've got a bunch of CDs that I think I can post. Where do I start? Not here. Seriously, this is not the place to begin your Usenet posting career. This group is for people who already know how to post correctly, have spent time leeching programs and watching and learning how things work. If you don't know what the posting tools are, don't know the acronyms, don't know who "knows their stuff" and are worth listening to, haven't successfully posted other files (including tests to alt.binaries.test), etc. then you shouldn't be trying to post here. Your enthusiasm is appreciated and we'd like to see you as a valued contributor, but please do your learning in ABWI or other groups and wait until you are CERTAIN that your posts will be correct before tossing hundreds of megabytes onto the Net. This group treads on thin ice as it is, what with the huge amount of data passing through daily. Many news-servers do not want to carry it. The only thing saving us is the strict discipline of the contributors and the high signal-to-noise/crap ratio we currently enjoy. Careful, correct posting will allow us, you, and the countless quiet leeches to continue to evaluate software via ABCDI.   [1.14] What is a good News server to get the ABCDI groups with? There are several Service providers that have a good record with ABCDI Those being Mindspring, AT&T, Erols, Flashnet.   There are also several News services which are talked about among ABCDI users.   Alt.net http://www.altopia.com/ Pricing: (6/2000) Full news access, with a maximum transfer speed of 32,000 bps and a single login at a time - $12 per month Full news access, with a maximum transfer speed of 128,000 bps and a single login at a time - $48 per month Full news access, with a maximum transfer speed of 256,000 bps and a single login at a time - $96 per month   Airnews http://www.airnews.net/ This is NOT suggested for Posting just downloading. (One reason for this is that Airnews has a policy of not allowing two identical posts to be uploaded, so if you upload a file which does not propagate well, and try to repost it- Airnews will not allow the file until the original has cleared from the server, which could take a week or more, making even scheduled reposts a bit "iffy" as to the schedule- since Airnews has excellent retention.)   Airnews.net Service Name Maximum Speed in Kbits/sec *** Binary News- group Access Mailbox included (10Meg) Cost per Month* Three Month plan** Six Month plan** Airnews Classic 150K Yes No $9.95 $9.65 $9.36 Airnews Extra Edition 230K Yes No $14.95 $14.50 $14.06 Airnews Bronze 320K Yes Yes $24.95 $24.20 $23.46 Airnews Silver 490K Yes Yes $39.95 $38.75 $35.56 Airnews Gold 768K Yes Yes $69.95 $67.85 $65.75 Airnews Platinum 1100K Yes Yes $99.95 $96.95 $93.95  plus sales tax at 8.25%  (6/2000)  (yes you still have to pay sales tax even if you don't live in Texas)   And you get as a bonus, a free, registered-copy of Forté Agent specially configured for Airnews.   Newscene http://www.newscene.com/ Pricing: (6/2000) 1 Month $12.00 3 Months $33.00 6 Months $60.00 * Note: Only one IP connection per user account at any one time. This implies that only one computer can be connected at any given moment. Up to 4 connections are allowed from that single computer or IP connection. There is no limit on the number of messages sent or received as long as it does not constitute flooding or excessive volume.  No speed or volume/transfer caps are mentioned on the website, that I can see- although I've read accounts from folks who said that grabbing more than 10 Gigs per month will get you cancelled. Some folks say 6 Gigs- who knows?    Newsguy   http://www.newsguy.com/ Subscription  1 Month 6 Month 12 Month                         $10.95  $39.95   $69.95 No speed or download caps are mentioned on the website, as of this writing (6/2000)   GigaNews   http:/www.giganews.com/pricing   Product Prepay Price Full Access, 128Kbps (64K x 2 streams) 1 Month $12.00   3 Month $30.00   6 Month $54.00 Full Access, 256Kbps (128K x 2 streams) 1 Month $22.00   3 Month $60.00   6 Month $108.00 Full Access, 512Kbps (256K x 2 streams) 1 Month $42.00   3 Month $120.00   6 Month $216.00   SuperNews http://www.supernews.com/ Pricing  (as of 6/2000) Monthly Subscription - 2.5 Gigabyte Monthly Max Traffic $13.95 (monthly billing) Monthly Subscription - 10 Gigabyte Monthly Max Traffic $34.95 (monthly billing) Monthly Subscription - 20 Gigabyte Monthly Max Traffic $59.95 (monthly billing) Annual Subscription - 2.5 Gigabyte Monthly Max Traffic $99.95 (annual billing) Usenetserver   http://www.usenetserver.com/ Payment Rates Plan GigaBytes/ Downloaded a Month Auto-Bill *1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months Text Plan 1 6.95 11.95 19.95 29.95 49.95 Standard 2.5 9.95 14.95 27.95 49.95 99.95 Bronze 5 14.95 19.95 39.95 69.95 129.95 Silver 10 19.95 24.95 49.95 79.95 149.95 Gold 15 29.95 34.95 79.95 149.95 279.95 Platinum 25 39.95 44.95 99.95 179.95 349.95 Pro-Plan 50 74.95 79.95 199.95 379.95 699.95 * There is a $5 setup fee