yEnc [ The lordsnow website ]

[21-Mar-2002: Agent v1.91 with yEnc supprt released] -- [18-Mar-2002: Jeremy Nixon voices some critique about yEnc] -- [05-Mar-2002: yEnc draft v1.3] -- [27-Feb-2002: "implementation notes" v3] -- [25-Feb-2002: formal description of yEnc] -- [14-Jan-2002: set up a mailing list (send a mail to yenc@infostar.de with 'subscribe yenc' in the Subject: line)] -- [14-Nov-2001: created the alt.binaries.test.yenc NG for developers] -- [07-Nov-2001:the original "implementation notes" released] -- [31-Jul-2001:released yEnc draft v1] --

Introduction

February, 2002

yEnc is not an alternative for mp3, jpg, mov, avi, etc... It's a new way to encode any TYPE of file to make compatible with Usenet! Some form of encoding is ALWAYS needed when posting to Usenet - yEnc is just a new flavour.

The reason WHY encoding is needed is that Usenet is traditionally a 7-bit service, designed for transmitting text files. Files on your PC are 8-bit. If you would post them to Usenet, every byte in the file would be truncated at 7-bits - making it useless to anyone downloading it.

UUE has become the de facto standard of encoding on Usenet. Today, all software support it natively and most Users aren't even aware that their files are UUE encoded before posting them to Usenet.

yEnc is a new encoding method and takes advantage that these days (2001) Usenet is as good as 8-bit ready. The result of this is that yEncoding only adds about 3% overhead to the original file-size, while the other methods add something like 35 to 40%.

The yEnc encoding method was developed by Jürgen Helbing. yEncoding has been put in the public domain, which means it's free for anyone to use.

yEnc Support in Newsreaders

February, 2002

If your Newsreader does not support yEnc you will have to download and save yEnc articles as text files. After that you can use an external yEnc decoder to reconstruct the original file. There's a fairly big list of external decoders on this page, on the left, for most popular platforms.

Lots of Newsreaders support yEnc already. All you may have to do is update your Newsreader to a newer version. Alternatively, you could also try a different Newsreader than the one you use now.. one that DOES support yEnc. Again, check out the list on this page, on the left.

Microsoft Outlook Express

OE is a very popular program, but doesn't support yEnc! If you are an OE user and you want yEnc support LET MICROSOFT KNOW by sending in a feature request! In the meantime save your files as plain text and use an external decoder. There are step-by-step instructions available at www.yenc32.com/oeusers.php

Forte (Free) Agent

Agent v1.91, with yEnc support, has been released.

From v1.92 both Agent and Free Agent will be released as one package. This is also the time at wich Free Agent will get yEnc support. If you're a Free Agent user you will have to save your yEnc files as text and use an External Decoder until then. There are step-by-step instructions available at www.yenc32.com/fausers.php