A news client is an application software that reads articles on Usenet (generally known as newsgroup), either directly from the news server's disks or via the Network News Transfer Protocol. Newsreaders that help users to adhere to the netiquette are evaluated by the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval (GNKSA). There are several different types of news clients, depending on the type of service the user needs - whether intended primarily for discussion or for downloading files posted to the alt.binaries hierarchy. Although Usenet originally started as a message board without any file attachment ability, many Usenet users today do not participate in NNTP discussion groups, as was common during the 1980s and 1990s before the emergence of website forums, and only use Newsgroups for downloading files such as music, movies, software and games. Therefore, their needs call for a streamlined client for quickly grabbing binary attachments, and without the extraneous clutter of text reading and posting features that file downloaders have little use for. As NZB files have largely replaced the inefficient and time-consuming process of having to download headers, many of the more recently-developed binary downloading clients have dropped header support entirely.
Types of Clients
- Traditional newsreaders - designed primarily for reading/posting text posts; limited and often cumbersome binary attachment download functionality. (example: most email clients such as Outlook and Netscape, as well as more specialized newsreaders such as Agent)
- Binary grabbers/pluckers - designed specifically for easy and efficient downloading of multi-part binary post attachments; limited or nonexistent reading/posting ability. These generally offer multi-server and multi-connection support. Most now support NZBs, and several either support or plan to support automatic Par2 processing. (example: Grabit, NewsBin, Newsleecher)
- NZB downloaders - basically a binary grabber client without header support; can only load 3rd-party NZBs to download binary post attachments; Since there's no support for viewing a NNTP server's grouplist or headers, they cannot browse groups or read/post text messages. (Example: NZB-O-Matic, SABnzbd, Ninan)
- Binary Posting Clients - designed specifically and exclusively for posting multi-part binary files. (example: PowerPost)
- Combination client - Jack-of-all-trades that fully supports text reading/posting, as well as hassle-free multi-segment binary downloading. Being the most complex and feature-rich, these also tend to be the most difficult to learn. (example: Xnews, Usenet Explorer)
