I was turned on to newsshark by a friend from work. I had been using Agent and while it is a great program itself, it has some limitations overcome by Newsshark.

First, Newsshark is more of a tool than a news reader. While it can be used for reading individual messages, its main strength comes from how it handles attachments.

Newsshark will allow you to flag a number of news groups to scan at a time. When you start a scan, all headers from all selected group will download. You can then either page through the header list by individual group, all selected groups, or my favorite option, the find command. Simply click on find and enter your search word or words and Newsshark will display all headers matching the parameters.

What this means is that you no longer have to search through numerous different groups to find the file or message you are looking for. Also if you are looking for a particular file, Newsshark can combine postings from the selected groups to piece it together for you. Many times I have found part of a file I want in say group A and another in group B. With Newsshark all parts will be available at once making it much easier to get a complete copy of your file.

Another great feature is the "batch". When you highlight messages, you can click on Add to Batch which puts the messages into a queue. You then can select Download Batch and all the messages in the queue will process. You can removed messages from the queue will downloading as well as add them. You can even change the order of messages inside the queue to change priority.

Newsshark can also be used to read text messages in news groups but I have found other news reader programs more to my liking for this. Also Newsshark is not as user friendly as most other readers.

The basic "sponsored" version of Newsshark is free. If you want a version without adds on the top section of the program, you can purchase a non-sponsored edition.

Overall, Newsshark is excellent for what it was designed to do and that is download attachments. In this regard it is without peer. Keep your existing newsreader for normal reading but definitely add this program to your tool list.



Recommended: Yes