Quick Start

For the Impatient

To download files from the Usenet using a search engine and Binjet downloader:

- Install and configure Binjet downloader. This is explained below.

- Find files of interst using the Binjet search engine. See http://www.binjet.com/index.html.

- Click on the link of interest. The server will send you a downloading job file. This file is small, it tells Binjet what to do to get the items you want from Usenet servers.

- Open this file with Binjet downloader. Binjet will do the job defined in the job file and get the wanted Usenet items for you.

More Detailed Instructions

1. Install Binjet if you have not done this already.

2. Start it. Click on the General Preferences tab. Most of the default settings are reasonable and do not have to be changed. Anyway, you can change them later if feel that something else is better for you. Only a couple of settings need to be adjusted before you can start using Binjet.

3. Choose your base directory. This is the directory where Binjet will store your settings and its temporary files. To choose a new base directory, first create it using Windows Explorer. Then click on Browse button in Binjet General Preferences tab, navigate to your directory and click OK. It is highly recommended that you use a directory on a hard drive with plenty of space, outside of your system folders and not on your system drive. You can change base directory later, but you would have to move its contents to the new location, to retain your settings.

4. Set the values of your Internet connection speed and usage limit. These values vary significantly from user to user and you have to set them yourself rather than rely on the default settings. It is important to set them right. If you set them too low, downloading speed will be slower than it could be. If you set them too high, Binjet will try to achieve unrealistic high speed by opening more news server connections. This will not make any difference for you, but puts unnecessary load on the news servers.

Read more about General Preferences tab in Configuring General Preferences.

5. Click on the Accounts/News Servers tab.

6. Type news server account details in the lower part of the dialog and click Add New when ready. Account alias is just a meaningful (for you) name for an account. Account rank defines usage of the account. By giving rank 1 to an account, you make it used very actively. Accounts with rank 2 are used only if an article could not be retrieved using rank 1 accounts. Accounts with rank 3 are used if rank 1 and 2 accounts failed, and so on. Within the same rank, accounts are sorted alphabetically by the aliases, and used in this order.

You can change account details later by clicking on account alias in the list, making your changes and clicking on the Apply Changes button on the right.

Configure as many accounts as you have access to. Binjet can use them in parallel and does not place any restrictions on their number.

Read more about managing your news servers accounts in Managing News Servers Accounts.

7. You are about ready to go. To start downloading, you need task files. You get these from Usenet search engines. To start downloading, open such a file using Binjet. You can do it when Internet Explorer asks you whether to open a file or save it to disk. You select "Open". It you saved a file to disk, you can double click on it. If it is associated with Binjet, it will be opened by Binjet. The third way to open a task file is from Binjet itself. You click on the Downloading Jobs tab, then on the Add New button, navigate to the file, select it and click OK.

After a task file has been accepted and a new job has been added to the jobs list, it may or may not start automatically, depending on you settings. Running jobs are marked by a green triangle (arrow). Jobs that are ready to start are marked by a green circle. If the job has not started and you want to start it, click on it in the list and then click on the Start button on the right.

You can start as many jobs as you wish. Binjet will assign available resources (server connections and bandwidth) to the jobs.

Read more about downloading jobs in Controlling Downloading Jobs.

Downloaded files are placed to output directories according to the file type. If you have not changed anything in the File Management tab, then pictures go to <base directory>\images, video files to <base directory>\video, sound files to <base directory>\music, and so on.

Read more about directing Binjet output in File Management.

If Binjet is configured to minimize to the task tray and you minimize it, there is no button on the task bar. Only its icon in the task tray is visible. To see Binjet again, right-click on the icon and select "Show".

This is about all you should know to start using Binjet. Good luck.