Download NewsLeecher 6.0 alpha 1

The first alpha release of NewsLeecher version 6.0 has become available. With this program it is possible to download files from newsgroups in a simple way. The program supports nzb files, has a SuperSearch and can automatically check downloaded files for integrity and completeness, and then extract them independently. Version 6.0 is especially interesting for people who use the SuperSearch. A new option has been added called SuperLeech. It can repeat certain search criteria at regular intervals, for example to bring in new episodes of television series as soon as they become available.

So, what is the SuperLeech service :

This early alpha test of NewsLeecher V6.0, implements a new NewsLeecher service called “SuperLeech”. The SuperLeech service is an add-on to the SuperSearch search service, and allows one to setup search queries that will automatically find and leech wanted articles off the Usenet, as soon as possible, after they have been made available online.

Currently, SuperLeech implements 3 different service modes :

Say you are interested in a podcast series called “My favorite podcast series”. To automatically download new episodes of the series, when they become available, simply setup a SuperLeech entry with the search query set to “My favorite podcast series” (Wed. quotes) and the search method set to “Leech [ Episodes ]”.

SuperLeech will then detect and leech the new episodes, almost as soon as they get posted to the Usenet. Furthermore, SuperLeech will make sure that already leeched episodes are not leeched again, to avoid wasted bandwidth.

Note that the “Leech [ Episodes ]” mode, is using certain standard season and episode specific substrings in the article subjects (S##E##, ##x## and more) to detect episodes properly, so those substrings must be present for the mode to function. In most cases , though, that should not be a problem, as the majority of posted episode related articles will have that info included, as standard.