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Support
Feedback is very important to me so do not hesitate to report any feature requests or bug reports. Please do not mail those directly to me but use the issue tracker. The issue tracker can be found here; awaiting your feedback!
First you need a site which supports RSS feeds which contain direct download links to the nzbs.
Some sites require some parameter to be added to the URL before they work. Consult the RSS's site for RSS details and what to add to the URL to make them work (like API key, username and other parameters).
Below a list of most frequently asked Feed sites and most common forgotten URL parameters. But please: consult the site's RSS documentation!
PLEASE NOTE: replace all <ANGLE BRACKET> values (including the brackets) with values provided on your feed's site, please read the documentation on the feed's site very carefully!
Step 2: Configuring NZBVortex
Now it's time to use the above RSS feed url to configure NZBVortex
Open the RSS feeds view in NZBVortex
Press the plus button, bottom left of the feed list
Enter the desired feed name
Enter the feed's URL in RSS URL field
Optional steps:
Enter an optional "Include" filter. Feeds will be filtered using this filter. Use a space to enter more keywords (AND), add a comma to add an (OR) rule. Example: the matrix, big bang Will match feed items containing the keywords "the" and "simpsons" or the keywords "big" and "bang"
Enter an optional "Exclude" filter. Feeds matching this filter will be excluded. Same space and comma rules of the include filter. Example: divx, 1080p Excludea all DivX and all 1080p releases.
Enter an optional category filter, some feeds publish a categories for every feed. Use same space and comma rules as mentioned in include and exclude filter
Auto watch is able to watch for an season/episode of a TV show. If it found the desired season/episode it will automatically start watching for the next episode, handy right?
Add Downloads paused will pause added NZBs from this feed. Handy for testing feeds.
Disable "Automatic download NZB's matching" to disable auto download of NZB's.
Note 1:
After you have added the feed details NONE of the already available feed items will be downloaded, only new feed items will be processed. This is by design; otherwise an incorrectly setup RSS feed will cause NZBVortex to downloads 100's of NZBs after setting up the feed. Use the "Play" button below if you want to process all the matching feed items which are available during add.
Note 2:
If you untick the checkbox before the feeds name in the feed list it will not update itself.
Step 3: Controlling the buttons
Feeds are updated and new feed items processed every 15 minutes, no user interaction required. When the RSS feeds view of NZBVortex is open the feeds will not auto update; you are still busy configuring the RSS feeds.
Now lets explain the other buttons on the screen:
The minus button next to the plus button: removes the selected feed
The "refresh" circular arrow button: update all feeds and processes the new feed items (if you can't wait 15 minutes)
The Play button, this is a special button. There are situations where users want to apply the filter on the already available feed items. Pressing the Play button will apply the filters on the already available feed items.
Double clicking a feed item in the lower part of the screen will download the selected NZB. Handy for manually downloading a desired feed item.
Please contact me if I need to explain more regarding RSS Feeds. The above information is a little basic but I need your help to improve the instruction.
Do it yourself clean install / problem solving It somesime happens that the application is having trouble caused by a invalid configuration or statefile. If you want to start all-over with a clean installation: use the following steps to start with a fresh install.
NOTE: Make sure you have all the usenet server settings at hand, all settings will be reset!
I downloaded the latest version from this site and now it mentiones my trial has expired You have purchased NZBVortex from the Mac App Store, you can not install the version from this site on top of the version you got from the Mac App Store. Never manually update the Mac App Store version by downloading the client from this site; wait for the update to appear in the Mac App Store. Mac App Store updates are always later because of Apple's review process, we can't change that. Reviews can take up to a few weeks. More information regarding average review times here. Please delete NZBVortex and download again from the Mac App Store.
Mac App Store version is older then the one on your site, how do I update? You will have to wait for the update to appear in the Mac App Store, never use NZBVortex from the site to update the one you got from the Mac App Store. Mac App Store are always later because of Apple's review process. Reviews can take up to a few weeks. More information regarding average review times here. NZBVortex downloaded from the site and the one available in the Mac App Store use two completely different license models.
Can I tranfer my license from Mac App Store to Site license or visa-versa? Sadly: no, we do not offer this service. We can't verify or manipulate individual licenses sold via the Mac App Store. Apple does not allow us to.
My download speeds are <1KB/s or a download mentiones it is too damaged This is not a bug in NZBVortex - the download is not available on your server anymore but NZBVortex tries to get the data anyways. A lot of downloads are being taken down by their copyright owners (DMCA takedown and notice). Try another NZB. Keep in mind: the data is not on your server: it's not a bug.
Only one NZB and file is download at the same time, what's up with that? NZBVortex is optimized for multiple servers and connections, we use them all optimally. The connections are used in parallel to make sure the data is being downloaded as fast as possible. To minimize disk I/O, limit the disk space usage during download and get optimal network speeds te connections work on article level not on file level. A NZB is compiled of multiple files. One file is a compiled set of articles. All the articles of all files of the nzb are put in a big heap and being processed by all the servers' connections. Server connections only know the concept of articles, it just start on top of the heap and download multiple articles at the same time. This is a way more efficient approuch compared to one connection per file. Trust us: we have this covered!
My downloads never start, I am new to using Usenet In short; you need to configure a Usenet Server in NZBVortex preferences. Your Internet Provider might provide you with one, but most of the time those are of very bad quality. Please consider getting a paid usenet account; search Google for "usenet providers". Make sure you watch for the highest possible "retention". More details how to use Usenet: www.binaries4all.com/beginners
My download speeds are low First of all; NZBVortex has been optimed for extreme high and low connection speeds. There is no speed limit in NZBVortex and no known bugs regarding speeds. Please try the following steps first:
NZBVortex reports speeds in kilo- and megabytes Your internet connection is most likely expressed in kilo or megabits. If you multiply your speed reported NZBVortex by 8 you get kilobits or megabits. i.e. NZBVortex reports 256KB/s, this is equivalent to 2048Kb/s (mind the lowercase b) which 2 megabit/s.
Disable speed limit in NZBVortex (turtle buttom right should not be blue)
Disable Scheduler (clock icon on toolbar should not be blue)
Make sure you entered the correct number of connections in server preferences, you can not choose that number yourself! Higher is most definitely not always better! Choose at max the number of connections your account supports. Ask your usenet provider!
You can't share the account details between multiple clients on the same or a different computer Please close any other application which uses your usenet account
Other download applications like bittorrent, gnutella or even a browser downloads will take a part of your max download speed.
Try a more recent NZB, older NZBs might be harder to get from usenet
Are there Application Updates running?
Please remove server from server settings and set it up again
Adding a NZB takes a long time and uses a lot of CPU Please quit (not close, real quit) Mozille Firefox and try again. Mozilla Firefox messes up the usage of the internal database we use (sqlite) for some users, sporadically. It's not a bug in NZBVortex but one in Mozilla Firefox, you might want to try to start from a clean profile in Firefox.
NZBVortex keeps asking for download location during start on OSX 10.7.4 Apple made a rather highly visible bug in Mac OSX 10.7.4 (Lion) and 10.8.0 (Mountain Lion DP3 - Update 2) which completely forgot to release a big part of the Sandbox. Apple release an update to fix this issue, make sure you check for OSX updates and install them all.
NZBVortex keeps asking for download location during start using symbolic links The current sandbox does not support symbolic links for download, completed or watch folder. Please configure these folders to real folders/drives instead.
I see connections sporadically go to zero and see an yellow exclamation mark NZBVortex has a out-of-memory protection which is rather strict, if the memory usage is too high it will limit the download speed temporarily to allow NZBVortex to save unsaved data. On very high speed connections this might cause the limiter to kick in too early. The solution is to set the maximum memory usage for unsaved data higher. For very high speed connections use the following command in terminal after you have quit nzbvortex. defaults write com.NZBVortex.NZBVortex UsenetEngineSettings -dict-add WriteCacheUpperLimitSize -int 500
Downloads always remain on "Waiting for Save" or "Saving" You have an ESET product installed like ESET Cybersecurity and upgraded to Mountain Lion. ESET's software was not compatbile with Mac OS X Mountain Lion's sandboxing. Please uninstall any ESET software you have and reinstall the latest version. Please do not upgrade: use a clean installation.
NZBVortex has a lot more options available to change for the advanced users. This topic will describe all available options. The options can be changed via Terminal or via a Plist editor (more details below).
Parameter name
Data type
Description
FirstRun
Integer
Firs time launch of NZBVortex (0=no, 1=yes, default=1)
WriteCacheSize
Integer
In memory write cache (in MBs, default=20)
WriteCacheUpperLimitSize
Integer
In memory write cache upper limit (in MBs, default=250)
SimultaneousTransfer
Integer
Download all nzbs at once (0=queue mode, 1=download all at once, default=0)
MinimalFreeDiskSpace
Integer
Minimal free diskspace on NON-system drives in MB (default=50)
MinimalFreeDiskSpaceSystem
Integer
Minimal free diskspace on system drives in MB (default=4096)
GlobalConnectErrorTimeout
Integer
How long (in seconds) should nzbvortex try to connect the server without errors (default=15)
SimultaniousTransferConnectionsPerNZB
Integer
In simultanious mode spread with how much conns per nzb (default=2)
SocketReadTimeout
Integer
Wait time in seconds before connection is considered lost (default=5)
SocketReadTimeoutSSL
Integer
Wait time in seconds before SSL connection is considered lost (default=10)
DNSCachePeriod
Integer
Number of seconds a dns entry is cached (default=86400)
RSSFeedUpdateInterval
Integer
RSS feed update frequency in seconds (default=900)
RSSInitialUpdateWait
Integer
Wait time in seconds for first RSS update on start (default=5)
RSSInterFeedUpdateWait
Integer
Inter-RSS-feed update wait time in seconds (default=10)
RSSInterNZBDownloadWait
Integer
Inter-RSS-feed NZB download wait time in seconds (default=10)
RSSComputerWakeupDetectionTime
Integer
Used to detect computer sleep in seconds for additional sleep (default=5)
RSSComputerWakeupAdditionalWait
Integer
After wakeup do not update RSS feeds in seconds (default=15)
RSSMaxFeedItemsPerFeed
Integer
Collect up to this number of feed posts in rss preview (default=500)
RSSMaxFeedItemsPerFeedKeepMinimalDownloaded
Integer
Minimal number of downloaded feed items to keep in feed (default=50)
StateFileSaveInterval
Integer
Number of minutes between state file auto save (default=30)
ShutdownInsteadOfSleepWhenDone
Integer
Shutdown mac instead of sleep when queue is finished (default=0)
AlwaysKeepSleepWhenDoneEnabled
Integer
Always enable sleep when done on launch (enabled=1, disabled=0, default=0)
MonthlyBytesTransferred
Integer
Number of bytes transferred this month (default=0)
MonthlyBytesTransferredMonth
Integer
Month number for which the bytes are counted, current month (jan=1, feb=2...)
MonthlyBytesTransferredLastWarningMonth
Integer
Last month a warning was displayed for (jan=1, feb=2...)
SmartCheck
Integer
Skip par2 check when no par2 check is required (enabled=1, disabled=0)
How to change values via Plist editor
Quit NZBVortex
Navigate to Library/Preferences in your home folder
Using plist editor open com.NZBVortex.NZBVortex.plist
Edit values in UsenetEngineSettings
How to change values via Terminal
Quit NZBVortex
Start Terminal
Enter the following command defaults write com.NZBVortex.NZBVortex UsenetEngineSettings -dict-add <Parameter Name> <Datatype switch> <Value> replace <Parameter name>, <datatype switch> and <value> with the desired values.
You must use the following Datatype switches in the defaults command
Data type
Datatype switch
Integer
-int
String
-string
Example: enable the "delete nzb after add" feature: defaults write com.NZBVortex.NZBVortex UsenetEngineSettings -dict-add DeleteNZBAfterAdd -int 1
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