What is alt.2600.warez ?

alt.2600.warez is a non-binary,warez dedicated newsgroup located on usenet.
The subject matter of the newsgroup is "warez"; free software for the masses.
This specifically does not include cracks,a subject which is better dealt with in usenet groups like alt.binaries.cracks 
or alt.binaries.cracks.phrozen-crew.
You also might want to try a search at astalavista - a crack,serial,key generator dedicated search engine.


How does alt.2600.warez function ?

Unlike other warez related newsgroups no files are actually posted *in* this newsgroup (read: no binaries are posted).
In fact,posting a binary is a definite no-no. Posting one anyway will get you flamed and in many cases readers will put you in a kill filter;
no one will see your posts anymore.
Instead alt.2600.warez focusses on a more effective way of spreading warez: FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Warez FTP site operators post messages telling you their FTP site is "up".
These posts contain all the relevant information you will need to login to that site: the name or address of the site, the port number,
the login, and the password.  


How do I locate the software I want ?

Log on to as many FTP servers as it takes to find what you want.
Do searches on the internet using search engines. Do NOT post a request. Repeat: do NOT post a request.
The readers of alt.2600.warez in many cases wade through several hundreds of messages per day looking for relevant information:
being request number one-million-one-and-counting will not gain you any goodwill.
Furthermore, warez are illegal and nobody in his or her right mind will take the liberty to tell you your requested piece of software
can be found on someone else's server! 


Can I posts requests ?

Yes and no. No, you cannot request software (see "How do I locate the software I want?").
No, you cannot ask for a crack, serial or key generator (see "What is alt.2600.warez?").
Yes, you can ask if somebody has *seen* your piece of software "out there" so you at least have an indication whether or not you're looking in vain.
Do so only after making sure your software cannot be found easily: requesting something that the regular visitors of the newsgroup come across daily
on almost every FTP server will not gain you any goodwill.  


What is the posting netiquette for alt.2600.warez ?

See "What is alt.2600.warez?" (no cracks, serials, key generators. No posting of files). 
See "Can I posts requests?" (no requests - within certain limits). 
Postings, wherever possible, should be clear and concise. Many readers are on modem dial-up accounts: big posts about nothing waste their time and money. 
Posts will never ever be made in HTML. This will get you flamed and in bad cases you'll end up in a kill filter,
your posts afterwards not being seen by many of the regular visitors. 
Posts should be on topic (warez) or closely related (security issues, relevant software news, etc.). 
Replies should be relevant (check what other people already have answered) and the quoted original post should be snipped
(delete what is not needed in order to understand your response). 
Posts, in manner and content, should, where possible, contribute to the standing of the newsgroup. Foul language, although you're perfectly free to use it,
does not reflect well on yourself, does not engender the want to help you out, does not encourage newcomers to learn and become valuable members. 

Replies to other people's wars or flames should be avoided: this is not your issue. 
Replying to trolls is *strongly* discouraged. Trolls feed on replies. No matter *what* you write to them,
it is the very fact *that* you write to them that counts. Although you will see people replying to trolls do not feel tempted to do so yourself. 
Do NOT crosspost (posting one messages to multiple groups at once). You should only post messages to groups you will check for responses.
If you want to post to two groups, post separately to each. Responses from every group a cross-posted message is in will also be cross-posted
and what could have been one small thread in one newsgroup becomes a giant thread in many newsgroups. 
Use the subject line for a short "title" of your post. Use the big white space for the actual message. 
Do not post in ALL CAPITALS. THIS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING. 
Do not use characters like $ in your subject line: many people kill filter on those characters to avoid reading spam. 
Avoid posting anonymously (via remailers for instance): many regularskillfilter these anonymous domains because so many trolls post via them.


What do I need to use alt.2600.warez ?

A newsreader Forte Agent for instance.
Your reader should be set to not post in HTML; to reply to a cross posted message only in the one group you're replying from;
set to a line length of about 72 characters. 
An FTP client BulletProof FTP for instance.
Retry should be set at a minimum of 60 seconds; password, unless otherwise specified in an "up" message,
should be a valid email address (use a Hotmail account or something like that if needed - NOT guest@bpftp.com or the like). 

Despam your email address. Spambots travel through usenet harvesting email addresses. Add bogus information to you address
(johnsmith@home.com becomes something like johnsmith johnsmithnot@home.com). Inform people what to remove from you address in order to reach you.
Avoid using all capitals or adding "nospam", "delete", "deletethis" as programmers try to make spambots smarter and smarter;
try to add something not so obvious or "they" will clean up your address and use it anyway. 
You will need at least one virus scanner. More than one is better. Keep your anti-virus files up to date. 
GoBack(Optional).
This utility allows you to revert your system to an earlier point in time.
When a newly installed download for some reasons messes up your whole system, even when you accidently delete your Windows folder,
GoBack will let you... go back to when it still worked.


Should I worry about being embarrassed for asking a newbie question ?

No. So long as you have read this FAQ and done your best to RTFM, most folks are willing to answer questions not covered here or in your PC
and newsreader help files. Everyone here was a newbie once. If you receive a facetious answer, ignore it.
Most regulars in these groups are genuinely interested in helping others. Not every answer can be put into a FAQ,
only the most frequently asked questions are intended to be here. However, if you fail to read your newsreader documentation or this FAQ carefully,
and you ask a question answered in those places, you will get heated responses. RTFM!!! Moreover, if you are a true newbie this newsgroup
has a newbie school: a friendly newsgroup without flaming where people are more than eager to help you out. This newbieschool can be found at: 
Newbieschool
Newbieschool
(the "news://" part means it is a newsgroup on usenet. The second part is the newsserver where this newsgroup lives.
You will have to enter this in your newsreader. RTFM. The last part, local.newbieschool, is the name of the newsgroup.
Once connected to the newsserver retrieve the group list, again, RTFM, and subscribe to said newbieschool).  


I see warez lists go around; should I subscribe ?

No. These are used to collect valid email addresses and you will get spammed.
All the warez you're looking for can be found right here in this newsgroup.


OK, to get my warez I need to log on to the posted FTP servers but I can never connect?!

alt.2600.warez is read by hundreds of people, not just the people you see posting.
Once a "site up" message goes out the site is bombarded with connection requests. Keep trying. Time is on your side.  


Great, now I'm connected but there's nothing there; it's an empty FTP! What's up? 
 
Toggle (on becomes off and vice versa) the Passive Mode in your FTP program (RTFM) and try again.  


Cool! I got what I want! Now how do I install it ? 
 
Virus scan your download. Use at *least* one but preferably more than one virus scanner. Scan your download. 
Depending on the download you will need WinZip,WinRAR,WinACE
to unpack your download. Within each archive, each package,
there might be yet another archive/package. You'll have to go on until everything is unpacked.
Xtrax
 is a utility that handles this job for you,
unpacking and unpacking until you end up with the final product in one folder.
Install the software. Special instructions, such as a serial number if needed, are located in a .NFO file.
Nowadays Microsoft has associated this file extension with MSInfo32.exe (System Information).
You can view the file by holding the shift key pressed while right-clicking on the file.
Choose "Open with....", select Notepad and check the option "Always open with...".
Setting the font in Notepad to Terminal shows you the text art in its true form as well.

After installing your software virus scan your system.
Although virus scanners can look inside archives/packages, they cannot look in certain compressed setup files.
You *might* have just installed a virus or a trojan on your system.... (At this point remember that GoBack can return your system to,
for instance, the second just before you installed this problem....).  


I ended up with an ISO file. Now what?  

An ISO is a CD image. You can use WinImage to extract the ISO to see if the software will run from hard disk.
You can convert the ISO to a  virtual CD using a freeware utility called ISO2FCD. You might want to burn the ISO onto a blank CD.
Use Easy CD Creator,Nero,orCDRWin.
  


I ended up with a BIN and a CUE file. Now what?  

This is a CD image. Use CDRWin or Nero to burn it to a blank CD.


What is ...2600 meaning anyway?  

2600 stands for the 2600Hz that a certain Cap'n Crunch whistle made. It would be used to fool a telephone into allowing free long distance calls.
A trick that now no longer works.
2600 is also the name of an extremely popular "hacker" magazine...and the magazine got its name from the same source...
  

What is ...PLONK ? 
 
Abbreviation for "Put Lamer ON Killfile" or "Person Leaving Our Newsgroup - Killfiled".
If someone PLONKs you, they have added your name to the kill filter in their news reader, and will no longer see your posts.
Bad behavior, stupidity, trolling etc. will get you PLONK-ed. Eventually, none of the regulars in the newsgroup will see your posts.
This means all your question, comments, or pleas for help will go unheard... or, even worse, answered by idiots.


What is ...a kill filter? a kill file? 
 
A kill filter filters out/away all messages that comply to a certain rule.
You could for instance get rid on your side of all messages written by someone named "Dork",
eliminate all posts from any poster using email address "dork@not.me"" etc.  


What is ...a troll? 
 
A troll is someone who posts controversial or rude messages, in hopes of making people mad. A troll feeds off of responses.
He/she isn't happy unless you are upset. (I'm sure you know a few trolls at work/school...). PLONK a troll.
Once someone has been realized to be a troll, he/she should be ignored. The more responses the troll gets,
the more they will spam the newsgroup with messages that are intended to upset people. If you ignore them, they go away.
Some trolls pretend to be someone from the newsgroup. Watch, read, study the headers in messages
(use the search/find feature of the Help file from your newsreader to find out how to make all headers in a post visible).
See if the headers compare to what a poster usually has. When in doubt, leave it - do not respond. When someone who is always nice and funny
suddenly uses foul language and seems bent on hurting people chances are high it's a troll pretending to be someone else.  


What is ...a flame ? 
 
A flame consists of a, by comparison, extremely hard response. A flame is usually aimed at stupidity.
Someone who asks for Photoshop might get told nicely to read a FAQ like this.
When the person returns an hour later and asks the same thing again it is very likely that this person will get flamed;
i.e., get to be called stupid, ignorant, possessing an IQ considerably lower than that of a politician etc. 
When you get to be flamed yourself learn from your mistake. And don't take it personally.
Shooting off your mouth only compounds your error and illustrates in clear detail how lame you really are instead of merely inexperienced.
This is a rough and busy neighborhood, don't expect to have your hand held.  


What is ...RTFM ?  

Abbreviation for "Read The Fucking Manual". This basically means read whatever instructions, help files,
or FAQs apply to the topic at hand.
You would not believe how many questions people ask about topics dealt with extensively in the help file of the program they inquire about.  


What is ...a ratio ?
  
A ratio is an upload requirement that must be met before downloading from an FTP site.
There are two kinds, file ratio and byte ratio, which monitor files/bytes uploaded, and then allow a number of files/bytes to download.
People in alt.2600.warez *hate* ratio sites.
There are too many reasons to list, but the two most relevant reasons are: 1) the purpose of this newsgroup is to share 2)
everything you are looking for can be found on non-ratio sites. There are hundreds of FTP sites to be found by reading this newsgroup.
Just keep reading.  


What is ...OT ? 
 
Abbreviation for "Off Topic". A post with pertinent information that doesn't specifically relate to warez is considered OT. 

 
What is ...spam ? 
 
Unsolicited commercial email.  


What is ...ACE ? C00, C01, C02, etc.?  

Archives from a compressor called WinACE. Use WinACE or Xtrax to open. Current versions of WinRAR also handle the format.  


What is ...RAR ? R01, R02, etc. ? S01, S02 etc. ? 001, 002, 003 etc. ?  

Archives from a compressor called WinRAR. Use WinRAR or Xtrax to open. 

 
What is ...ZIP ?  

Archives from a compressor called WinZip. Use WinZip or Xtrax to open. Naturally WinRAR handles it as well. 

 
What is ...a quilt? Quilting? A Pattern?  

Downloads on the servers posting in this newsgroup are often split up in mutliple compressed volumes.
This is done for the convenience of telephone modem users. This batch of compressed volumes is a "pattern" (for a certain program).
After you've downloaded it you will start uncompressing the volumes to get the original program: now you are quilting.
When you're done your quilt is ready.  


What is ...Passive Mode?
  
When you download from a FTP server it is the server that connects to you.
To do so it needs two connections to you: the original one on which you connected and a new one; the control connection.
When a firewall or router is involved, either at your side or theirs, it can happen that this second connection will never be established.
A symptom of this is being able to logon to a site but not being able to list the content of the site. The solution to this is Passive Mode.
When switched on it is you who makes all the connections to the server.  


What is ...A/V?  

A/V is shorthand for;
Login: anonymous
Pass : valid email