NZB Idiosyncrasies

NZB files are a little unreliable or maybe it is just user error since I'm knew at this. ;-)

There doesn't seem to be a way to verify the .nzb file contains all the article ids required to assemble the final file. I got caught by this already. The .nzb file was incomplete so hellanzb couldn't finish the job. At first I thought the error was that some articles were missing from the server, but further investigation revealed the articles were actually missing from the .nzb. I downloaded the .nzb file again and this time it was complete.

Here's the problem. A .nzb file is not like a torrent file which is generated by the uploader and has a unique signature to ensure the result is correct. Each Usenet search engine generates its own .nzb files. There is nothing in the .nzb to indicate completeness or that the downloaded file is the one you were expecting. It all depends on the reliability and trustworthiness of the search engine site.

I guess I'm still looking for a good a Usenet search engine.