So, you've decided you want to post an episode of your favourite TV show, but you're not quite sure how to go about it. Well, that's the entire purpose of this page...to explain the best way to go about doing just that. Follow these instructions and you should have no problems at all.
If you don't already have them, get:
WinRAR - http://www.rarsoft.com/
QuickSFV - http://www.oocities.org/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/index.html
Power-Post 2000 - http://www.cosmicwolf.com/ (I've *just* [Aug 14th.] discovered that Chris had to move to this new URL nearly a month and a half ago...sorry for any problems the continued link to the old site has caused anyone!)
Install these programs and configure them as necessary. To configure Power-Post 2000, click "View | Program Settings ...". Power-Post requires much of the same information that a news reader does, such as news server name, ID, password, name/nym, e-mail address, etc...the easiest thing is to cut-and-paste the information required on the "News Server" and "Headers" tabs from the appropriate places in the news reader you use. Be sure to check the 'Add "X-No-Archive: yes" Header' on the "Headers" tab. On the "Newsgroups" tab, click "Add...", type the name of the newsgroup you want to post the files to (for instance, "alt.binaries.test", without the quotes) into the box that will appear and click "OK"...repeat the process for any other newsgroups you think you might post to; you might as well add them all now. On the "Program" tab, set "Default Max Lines Per Part" to 5000 if it isn't already set to that (if you use a higher value, your files won't propagate to news servers properly and you'll get lots of repost requests) and then check any of the boxes that aren't already checked (once you get tired of the sounds that Power-Post makes, you can come back and uncheck the "Play Sounds" box, but listen to them at least once...they're, ummm, 'unique' <grin>!).
OK, now on to preparing and posting an episode!
1. Use WinRAR to split each episode into multiple files of about 15 MB each. In Windows Explorer, right-click the episode you want to post and select "Add to archive..." (if you have multiple archivers installed, check the icons to make sure you get the option for WinRAR <grin>!). In the "Archive name and parameters" dialog box that appears, under "Compression method" select 'store', under "Volume size, bytes" enter '15,000,000', under "Archiving options" make sure that both 'Create solid archive' and 'Put recovery record' are selected, and click "OK". Once the RAR files have been created, I find it convenient to move them into a directory of their own, making it a little easier to do the next two steps.
2. Use QuickSFV to generate a .sfv file, so the downloaders can verify that they haven't gotten any corrupted files. In Windows Explorer, select all the RAR files that were just created, right-click one of them and select "Create .SFV File". In the dialog box that pops up, verify the file name chosen (it should be OK as is), uncheck "WIN-SFV Compatible" (if it's checked) and click "OK".
3. Use Power-Post 2000 to post the files. Start the program and select "File | Add Files To Queue ..", navigate to the proper directory, select the .sfv file and all of the RAR files and click "Open". In the dialog box that pops up, the "Subject" tab will be showing and the "Subject Header Template" will be highlighted...in version 1.3 build 25 (the current version as of December 22, 2000; check by clicking "Help | About Power-Post 2000 ..."), the default template that is there will cause problems for Free Agent users, so do *not* use it. Instead, use:
<Episode Description> - File $1 of $2 - $F
(you can cut-and-paste from this file into the template box if you wish; Power-Post will save the contents of that box for use the next time you run it)
When replacing "<Episode Description>", be sure to identify the show, the episode name and the size and format of the file. Some examples:
Star Trek TNG - Encounter At Farpoint - 648MB VCD
Roswell - A Roswell Christmas Carol - 200MB DivX
This will give people all the information they need to decide whether or not they want to download the episode you're posting. Click on the "Newsgroups" tab and then click the box beside the newsgroup you want to post the episode to. Click on the "Prefix (0/N) Text" tab and type any additional information about the episode into the box. This information should, at the very least, state whether you will be doing a full repost of the episode and, if so, when, as well as what your policy on part fills is. If you have this information prepared in a text file (probably a good idea, as it's unlikely to change much from episode to episode), you can cut-and-paste it from the file into the box using the standard Windows controls. Then make sure that the "First File Only" radio button is selected. You can then click on the "File Order" tab and re-arrange the order the files will be posted in, if you desire...typically, the .rar file is second-last to be posted, with the .sfv file being last. When you're done here, click the "OK" button and the main window will now show the files you chose added to the posting queue. On the toolbar, you'll see two buttons with the standard VCR "play" icon...one of them will also have a stopwatch icon. The button with just the "play" icon will start posting the files immediately, while the one with the stopwatch icon as well will allow you to specify the time that you want Power-Post to wait until before it starts posting.
There you go...that's all there is to it!