BinaryVortex is a useful tool that will download files from Usenet Newsgroups.

It is mainly optimized for downloading images, and includes both thumbnail and full-screen image viewers.

Movies, sound files, applications, and other types of files may be downloaded as well. BinaryVortex is designed to be very easy to use, and is well suited for novice users.

BinaryVortex is intended to be EASY TO USE. There are many other newsgroup utilities out there, but they all suffer from difficulty in setup. BinaryVortex is good for novices, while still being powerful enough for experts.

BinaryVortex is capable of displaying JPEG and GIF images, and has a thumbnail viewer to display images realtime. There is a full-screen viewer to view images full size if you're operating offline.

BinaryVortex includes spam rejection functions to keep you from downloading loads of unwanted crap from the Usenet.

While Binary Vortex is capable of downloading mpeg movies, mp3 music, vob dvd images, and other large files, I recommend using a downloader that is more suitable to the task, such as Android Newsgroup Downloader or QuadNews. You can find links for both Android and Quadnews at the SB-Software website. Binary Vortex was designed to download pictures and designed to download them without user intervention.

For downloading the large files, you usually want a downloader that let's you "pick and choose" the files you want to download. Both Android and QuadNews are designed to do exactly that. If you register for the "SB-Software Package" deal, then it includes not only Binary Vortex, but also QuadNews, Android, and SBNews, so you're fully equipped with the tools you need to download any conceivable type of file from the alt.binaries newsgroups.

Here are some key features of "Binary Vortex":

· Auto-restart. Normally when vortex finishes processing all of your newsgroups, it'll just stop and sit there. The auto-restart setting will cause vortex to continually scan for new messages.
· ZIP filter. Somebody asked for a filter that would prevent .ZIP archives from being downloaded. Maybe he just wasn't a big fan of ZIP archive files.... It sounded like a good idea, so I threw it in.
· Save settings every 100 messages. This checkpoints Vortex's settings. It's useful in case your computer gets shutdown unexpectedly, so that vortex remembers where it left off.
· Pause for x seconds between messages. If you have a DSL or cable modem, then Vortex will often download pictures so fast that it's hard for you to keep track of what's going on (and in particular, to hit the kill or lockout buttons when an undesirable picture flies by). The delay setting lets you slow things back down.
· Enable the boss key. See the boss-key section above.
· Enable JPEG auto-commenter. The JPEG auto-commenter is a handy feature that will store the subject, author, and other information in the JPEG comment block. If you have a viewer that displays jpeg comments (like sortpics), then this can be a handy way to get additional info on your images sometime down the road.
· Automatically rename filename collisions. It's a fact of life that there are many files named "1.jpg". Vortex can be configured to either overwrite these files, or to rename the new file as it's downloaded.
· Simple duplicate check and delete. Vortex includes a fairly simple duplicate checker that works by comparing downloaded files to existing files in the same directory. It first compares file size, and if the size matches then it will compare the file contents. If you have a large directory (tens of thousands of files), then the checker may cause vortex to slow down.


Limitations:

· The unregistered version is fully functional and has no delays, no crippled features, and no expirations. There is a registration reminder at startup.