the Smart Par Primer
version 2.02
When and Why to use Smart Par
the Basics
Other Issues/Problems
If the parity says Par2, and not Pxx
(like P01, P02, or Par) it's a Par2 file. Read about them here
When and Why to use Smart
Par 
Smart Par is one of the cleanest programs to come along, and with
very little practice stands a grand chance of reducing those redundant
"gimmie fills" requests that can pepper the best of newsgroups. There
are many others, and other web sites, that get into the the "how" it
works - the starting place for any and all wanting knowledge beyond
this primer. For
myself, I'm satisfied to think of it as "Parity magic" and let it go at
that.
Any multi-sectioned posting, be it Rar, Split, or just "movie1.avi,
movie2.avi,
etc." that has more than 5 parts of greater than 5 megs each can
benefit
by the use of Parity repairing.
Case: the Smallest -
webius whacker posts his old classic "I don't know nuthing.mpg"
in 5 parts of 5 megs each -
IDKN-1.mpg
IDKN-2.mpg IDKN-3.mpg
IDKN-4.mpg IDKN-5.mpg
and adds a Par set that is slightly over 5 megs -
IDKN.Par IDKN.P01
If everyone wanting this classic waste downloads all the above and
they are all good, ww and the downloader has just spent 20% more time
downloading than he needed. BUT if:
a. John Simple in Calf gets a bad download of
IDKN-2.mpg
b. Jack Slow in Boston gets a bad download of
IDKN-1.mpg
c. James Sloppy in Belgium gets a bad download of
IDKN-5.mpg
they can ALL use THE same PAR to get the FULL set.
Otherwise uploads of 3 times the original, or
200% MORE bandwidth than was used in the first place, are
required. If we all took the time to practice this
Now if Jon of Canada gets a bad download of IDKN-1 and IDKN-2
he's SOL
for a complete, but even then he only needs one additional fill - not
two
more. Still ahead with Smart Par. And the larger the post, the great
the
advantage.
Smart Par includes and some say removes the need for sfv files
(still a good thing).
All that being said, if you're a poster, please consider the use
of FSRaid instead. While quite a bit more resource intensive that
SmartPar, FSRaids ability to rename Par sets add a good deal to
viability as a posting tool.
the
Basics
1. Download the program from the link here.
2. Unpack SmartPar files to any
directory you want, then create a short cut or simply click on it to
open.
3. The first thing it asks is if you
want to associate Smart Par with "Par" files - I said No. It also asks
if
you want Smart Par to automatically attempt repair - again I said No.
There
have been a few times when this caused a "looping" effect that caused
Smart
Par to lock up.
3. Download all the available files
in the set you are interested in to your selected storage directory.
4. Open Smart Par and Click
"File" "Open Parity Set" 
5. Move to the storage directory that
contains ALL the files and pars, then select the "par" file.
__
6. If you're missing the par, simply click on any of the pXX files.
7. Smart par will then run an inventory and check the condition
of the
downloads:
In this case you have 3 Pxx files, and two files that downloaded
badly or are missing.
8. If you have enough pars to repair, click on Repair Files
If you have more bad / missing files than you have pars, then the
Recover option won't be available
in which case you need to post a request in the discussion group to
replace enough of the missing/damaged files to complete.
other wise, Smart Par will finish the Recover operation and display
In which case you're done and don't need this anymore.
Other Issues
File Names
One other point that should be covered here, but wasn't. Due to
the nature of usenet, and the differences in machine Operating Systems
(OS's), sometimes files get renamed. A file that started out looking
like:
My Movie(1 of 2).rar
Ends up on your computer looking like:
My_Movie-1_of_2-.rar
Now, for my money, it's the posters fault. But let's not beat up on
him, he may stop posting. The par file should show how the name should
be named. All you'll need to do is rename the files just the way they
show up in the SmartPar window. Or, you could switch to FSRaid, another free par
utility, that can handle this type of mis-name for you.
copyright 2003 by the abmefaq consortium Ltd