Note: The following guide  is based on the assumption that you have the permission of any copyright holder for the software you intend to post. Anyone posting any software to UseNet who does not have that permission is taking a serious risk of action being taken against them. This can range from a warning (usually given by the ISP or NSP for a first offense) to cancellation of their NSP/ISP account, up to and including legal action, both civil and criminal. If there's any question in your mind about your right to post the file or files, don't post! That said, read on to learn how to post properly

By now you’ve learned how to download and use the binaries that are posted to these groups, and now you want to upload some! Most people start by posting fills, so that’s what we’ll address first. Then we'll move on to the much more difficult proposition of preparing and posting a multiple-file binary post

Before posting anything anywhere, we need to consider the appropriateness of a post. If you are thinking of posting a fill for someone else’s post, are you sure the original poster wants someone else filling requests?

Many posters insist on doing the initial repost and/or fills themselves, and many downloaders prefer to get such from the original poster as the files are less likely to have been either corrupted or tampered with.

On the other hand, many posters don’t mind at all if someone else fills requests for their posts, as they may have limited time or bandwidth.

Posters usually state any such preferences either in their posting NFO files or in the “/0” file at the start of the post.

So, if you’re thinking of filling a “REQ” for someone else’s post, check the NFO or the “/0” file first to see if that would ruffle anyone's feathers. Respecting the poster's wishes in that is just simple courtesy. But if the poster hasn't made his fills policy clear about requests, and people report one or more files are still incomplete or "broken" after a reasonable period (48 hours or so,) you should feel free to fill requests.

If it is not a fill, but a full post that you wish to do, first consider: Is your post “targeted” correctly (i.e. is it going to the correct group for that sort of post)? For example: If you want to post a game you have gotten, are you planning to post it to the correct game group? A game group for Macs isn’t likely to appreciate a game that runs on the IBM-PC, and vice-versa.

ABWI (alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc) is a group specifically designated for IBM-PC compatible applications. Games are off-topic in this group, as are pictures, movies and CD-images. All of those would miss their greatest and proper audience if posted to an inappropriate group such as ABWI.

Files posted to the wrong group simply don’t reach nearly as many people as they would when posted to the proper group. CD-images posted to a rip group, where many people don’t even know how to burn a CD-image, are not going to reach as many people who want them and who would use them, as they would if they were posted to a CD-image group such as alt.binaries.cd.image.other, for example. ABWI is designated as the group for IBM-PC compatible applications only. That means no CDs, no MP3s, no pictures or movies (other than those relating to a valid post,) and no freeware unless it's unattainable elsewhere. The reason for not posting any of those things to ABWI is because they all have newsgroups dedicated to them already, just as ABWI is dedicated to IBM-PC applications. It is in the appropriate group that any post is the most well-received. So one of the first things you need to decide is which group (or groups) is correct for what you want to post. That is called "on-topic" posting, and it is the hallmark of experienced posters.

Some groups are "catchalls" for binary files, such as alt.binaries.misc. But most newsgroups have been created specifically for certain types of posts; so post on-topic for your post to be well-received, and to reach the maximum number of people who want it.

Now that you have carefully selected the appropriate group, you have to choose the right tool for the job, and set it up properly.

Posting in alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc is done with clear and descriptive subject headers, which, at a minimum, should include the application name and any version number ( such as “Rambucks Memory Optimizer V1.0”).

Posting tools can augment the ability of Agent to post multiple files. See the section entitled “Posting multiple files with Agent” for specifics. For mulitiple file posts, however, the recommended tool and version is Assert and Alain's modified Power Post, originally by Chris Morse. Morse released the code to the public domain, and Assert and Alain have made the best yEnc-capable posting tool available from it; with full source-code available so as to verify that it contains no malware. The latter is important when you are posting to the warez groups especially.  You need to be 100% certain of your tools, and you can't get more certain than when the full source is available for compilation. Even if you don't compile it yourself, if the source-code for the version you are using is available, other people surely will have compiled it, and compared the result with the distribution binary. Any discrepancies will be public knowledge, and any such will be noted frequently in the warez groups.  

The current version (at this writing) of PowerPost by Assert and Alain is 11b, and is freely available at http://powerpost.cjb.net/  That version has been checked and found to be free of any malware such as viruses, trojans, key-loggers, bots, etc.

If you are posting a single file, such as a fill for example, your subject header would read something like “FILL: Rambucks Memory Optimizer V1.0,” and both Agent and PowerPost will add the file name to it automatically.

You may be posting the fill to the attention of someone who asked for it, but the general format stays the same.

One thing to keep in mind is the length of the subject header: Please try to keep it as short as possible so it won't be unreadable in the default-view on a normal-size monitor. About 55 characters should be enough in most instances and is easy to read on the majority of monitors.

Selecting the program:
 

Two tools will be discussed here, Forté Agent, and PowerPost by Chris Morse as modified by Assert and Alain. Since Agent is by far the most-used “client” to read news with, you are probably already familiar with it and have most-likely posted text posts with it. Posting binaries is only slightly different, requiring you to make some settings specifically for posting attachments which weren’t discussed in the agent-setup page of the WebFAQ. <more info>

Get PowerPost at  http://powerpost.cjb.net/  Since Morse released the source-code there have been a number of variants on it, notably those that are yEnc-compliant. The variant pointed to above is the most commonly-used and widely acclaimed variant.

Get Forté Agent at ftp.forteinc.com/pub/agent/ get the Agent32 for the current 32-bit version of Agent

Setting-up Forté Agent for posting:

 (Pictures are for Agent 1.92-2.0 but are also good guides for using V3.x of Agent= the GUI looks different, but the settings are the same.)

From the Group menu select Default properties, and then select the Send Files tab.

Note that Send attached messages as Digest is unchecked. That setting is usually only used for multiple small pictures. The next two items are the most important. Send large messages as multiple messages must be selected if your post is to have any chance of propagating at all. Usenet is designed for text and not binaries. We can send binaries by encoding them as text, which is the UUEncoding we selected above. We need to break that into manageable segments, which is the next item, Maximum bytes per section: Note that in this example the maximum is set to 472,500 bytes, or about 7,500 lines per section. This is truly the maximum you should try, and if you find that your posts are not propagating well at this setting, you should try lowering it by about 500 lines, to about 441,000 bytes or 7,000 lines. That’s about 31,500 bytes for 500 lines. Should you discover from testing that you need to lower the count still further, you can adjust the numbers accordingly. Click OK to accept the settings. Agent is perfectly suitable by itself for posting a single file or a few files, but for multiple files you need  additional posting tools such as Agent Post by Walking Dude, or some other add-on to facilitate multiple-file posting. See the section on “Posting multiple-files with Agent” for more information.

Setting-up Power-Post for posting:  

(Version shown is A&A's version10c, but basics hold true for 11b as well.)
 

	When you first open the program, after a brief splash-screen with credits, you get this. Select and click the Setup button.
	That pops-up this very important screen. Here you enter the news server (s) you will be using.  Leave the Max Bandwidth (KB/s) at the bottom at zero (0) unless you want to choke the upload bandwidth.   Once you have filled-in this tab click  Apply, then click the Headers tab .
	This is where you will enter the particulars you want in your posting headers, such as the pseudonym under which you will be posting, and a bogus email. Leave the check-boxes unchecked, as you see here.   Click Apply   Now click the Newsgroups tab.
	Here you Add the newsgroups you will be posting to. As shown in the picture at the left the most important group of all is alt.binaries.test, as that is the group in which you will test all your setup parameters and any changes you make. Never post to a newsgroup other than alt.binaries.test until you have first tested the settings in the program! This cannot be stressed too much.   As a UseNet veteran, you have seen many badly botched posts made by people (not all newbies, either) who failed to test their settings before posting.  Don't be one of them. For any particular post the group you will be posting-to will be selected from this list of newsgroups.   When you have added the groups you think you will be posting-to, click Apply Now click the Program tab.
	The most important thing here is to make sure you have the best possible part size. In this example 3000 lines per part is selected. That equals about 384KBytes per segment, which is fine for most posts where file-sizes are typically 5 Megabytes or less, and where maximum propagation is desired.  When posting a DVD or movie in 50 Megabyte files, you may have to experiment to find a good size for your server. Sizes up to 1 megabyte (about 10,000 lines, yEnc) have been used, but be aware of the fact that a great many servers around the world will reject a part or segment-size that large.    Make Visible Current File/Item Being Posted  is merely a display preference, and is checked. You can change that if you prefer, later on, without interfering with the program's ability to post.   Auto-Show Progress Dialog After Pressing Play?  isn't essential, but is checked here as it does not interfere with posting. If you prefer, you can uncheck it.   Sort files alphabetically before Queueing?  Is simply a logical preference, no harm in unchecking it, but that might create a strange-looking and hard to follow multi-part-binary post.   Auto-Retry on ?Errors, Disconnects & Timeouts? Needs to be checked, this one is important!   Minimize program to SysTray? Is the program's behavior when you click on the [-] box to minimize it. If unchecked, the program will minimize to the taskbar, if checked it will minimize to the tray.   Autodetect .PAR2 bloc size is unchecked. The idea is to assign the lines per part to coincide with the size of the PAR2 blocs automatically.  Here is is unchecked, as it is a point where problems can occur, especially with less experienced posters.