GrabIt

3.0 stars

"Only so-so..."

December 16, 2006  |   By bcgm3

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Freeware is freeware... It didn't cost anything, and was pretty easy to set up (More like Outlook than Thunderbird in the way of setting up name/pass accounts).

Cons

There was a message about something expiring after x days upon first launch, along with a nag screen that takes you to a page where you can buy accounts for use with the program.

Very slow to launch and get headers.

No spam message filters, either.

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3.0 stars

"Not Free...Free To Try"

July 11, 2006  |   By Jpesker

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Fairly easy to use once you get a news server

Cons

Limits for Free use are 2 Searches and 2 Downloads/Per Day. This means multiple part downloads are useless, making this a useless program for any heavy downloads. This should be catagorized differently on download.com because it is not really FREE. Well ok, its FREE to do absolutely nothing with it.

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5.0 stars

"Time saver"

July 3, 2006  |   By ring0

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

This program saves me so much time using nzb files. There may be better programs out there that do the same thing but, to me, they are not worth seeking out.

Cons

There is a popup that is presented all the time, I don't want to take the time to figure out what it's for so I just cancel it everytime the program starts.

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5.0 stars

"The easiest Newsgroup program to learn and use."

January 22, 2006  |   By CableguyTK

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Its free.

It has a great interface.

It is very easy to pick up, learn and use.

GrabIt Search is amazing and FREE...as opposed to NewsLeecher requiring you to pay subscription for such a feature ON TOP of the price of the program.

Cons

NZB downloading support is very poor.

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4.0 stars

"Excelent program for usenet downloads"

September 26, 2005  |   By Mardukc

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Easy to use, well thought features and especialy usefull for downloading large chunks of data like movie files.

Cons

Just a bit slower then xnews and no image preview so its less usefull for use with downlods of photo's etc.

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1.0 stars

"A Real "Shame" from Shemes"

September 24, 2005  |   By JPAbramson

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Good concept and user interface. Free (unless you want to activate the search feature).

Cons

A "bulk downloader" this isn't. Works okay on sample groups with a small number of posts, but will crash (or at best process with empty results) any newsgroup you would actually want to download from. The developer is focused on adding more fee-based features, rather than correcting this serious flaw.

I Must agree with other posters about the highly unprofessional support resources on the developer's site. The "large group bug" does not appear in the FAQ. It is not listed in any of the "sticky posts." So instead, users regularly post questions about this and receive replies ranging from the flippant to abusive. After 30 minutes filtering through the hundreds of posts on this topic, you will see this is a major problem that perennially is supposed to be the major focus of the "next version." Yet it remains unsolved, and people are still going through a cycle which ends in a nastygram from forum moderators after hours of fruitless effort.

So until then, why don't they post something about it to save everyone a lot of headache?

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3.0 stars

"Error! Error! Error!"

May 17, 2005  |   By Gr8ful Lurker

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

Get the latest version from the developer's site. This nice little newsreader handles binaries very well, has an easy GUI, auto decodes yENC binaries and text, runs circles around OE, etc....BUT

Cons

...better have your RETRY button-pressing finger ready. This buggy little program doesn't like high-traffic, high-retention groups, and is bandwidth hungry. Don't plan to surf while you grab your music and vids, or walk away from a batch, even if you have broadband. This one you have to babysit. Not really the point of a download manager, is it?

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4.0 stars

"Fast, Easy to configure, and Free"

May 7, 2005  |   By frkipling

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

This is the easiest Usenet reader for Windows I have seen. A window prompts for the server on initial start up, and does a scan of available groups immediately. The batch retrieving and converting has worked flawlessly thus far. For the staggering cost of 'Free', if you need a Usenet reader for Windows, this should be the first one you try!

Cons

As has been mentioned previously, being able to select batch jobs by wildcard would be helpful, but this is a minor point.

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5.0 stars

"Reply to negative reviews"

March 11, 2005  |   By John L. Galt

Version: GrabIt 1.3.1b build 668

Pros

First of all, let me explicitly state that I am a volunteer moderator at Shemes.com. I am in no way related to Ilan Shemes, GrabIt's sole developer, nor am I soliciting funds or accepting any monetary compensation for the time and effort I provide both moderating the forums as well as Beta Testing versions of GrabIt.

That being said, I would like to answer some of the concerns that MerryOtter has mentioned here as well as clear up some recent issues that seem to be getting widespread attention.

[quote]This program fails on groups with a large number of messages. (The actual limitation is not specified.) [/quote]

First of all, let it be known that not *every* user has experienced this problem, and that the problem is not universal - I myself have run into this only with a single of the pre-public release Betas before and to this day have yet to run into a large group problem. As I have mentioned in the forums, this might very well have to do with that fact that I do not use pay servers with large retention periods (I use my own ISPs servers, which have typically had retention periods from as low as 36 hours to as high as 5 days), but there is other commentary as well form other users, such as another moderator, Dave Jeitner, who had an old 500 MHz machine that also had no problems and he was using the same server for both his modern machine as well as that 500 MHz machine, and rarely encountered problems as often as some people in the field were encountering.

Cons

There is a large groups bug that is being worked on *actively* and Ilan, even with his busy schedule, hopes to have something in the next several months.

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