What Is an NZB File?
An NZB file is a small text file that tells your newsreader where to find all the pieces of a download on Usenet. The name comes from Newzbin, the site that made the format popular. Big files on Usenet get split up into lots of smaller posts. Finding all those parts and putting them back in the right order by hand would be a real pain. The NZB lists every part, so your newsreader grabs them all and puts the file back together for you. NZBs changed the way people use Usenet. Some services even build NZB search right in, like UsenetServer Global Search. So don’t let the jargon scare you, NZBs are really simple once you’ve used one. You just set your newsreader to open NZB files and you’re done. If you want to know more about Usenet in general, see What is Usenet? and our Usenet FAQ.
NZB is an XML format. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language, and it’s a way of writing a file so both people and software can read it. So an NZB is just plain text. You can open one in Notepad and it looks a lot like a web page’s code. XML is kind of like HTML, except it’s made to hold data instead of showing a web page. You can read more about the format on Wikipedia.
Inside the file, each part of the download is listed by its message ID. Your newsreader reads those IDs and knows exactly which Usenet posts to download and which newsgroups they’re in. That’s how an NZB-ready newsreader finds every part of a binary.
NZB Format, Searching, and Binaries
A binary is a file that isn’t plain text, like a video, a picture or a program. To send it over Usenet it gets turned into text first. Normally you’d download a Usenet binary just like any other message, header first and then the rest. But big binaries get split into lots of smaller posts. An NZB lists all those small parts and tells your newsreader how to put them back together once they’re downloaded. This makes searching and downloading binaries a lot faster and easier.
Binaries
To download videos, pictures or software from Usenet, you need to be signed up with a Usenet service that carries the binary newsgroups. We explain binaries more in What is a Binary File? Usenet Binaries Explained.
Your newsreader, like the Newshosting newsreader, turns the file into text when you post it and turns it back into the original file when you download it.
Newzbin.com
Newzbin.com was the first site to make the NZB format popular. They built a system for indexing and searching NZBs, and it made Usenet feel a lot more like the regular web. People could just search for what they wanted. Newzbin got really popular, then shut down in 2012. But it changed Usenet for good.
NZBs and Newsreaders
Because NZBs got so popular, newsreaders started building around them, and indexing sites popped up to list the NZBs. Before that you had to dig through newsgroups to find the binaries you wanted, and it took forever. The indexing sites gave you a list of NZBs you could just search. Now almost every newsreader works with NZBs, but not all of them do, so check first. For places to find NZBs, see our Best NZB Sites.
If you need a newsreader that works with NZBs, we recommend the Newshosting client. You can connect it to an NZB indexing site and search that site right inside Newshosting. How easy is that!
Downloading an NZB
Some newsreaders make downloading really easy. When the download is done, the newsreader puts the file together for you and that’s it. No cutting, pasting or even unzipping. If an NZB is old or bad, it can have the wrong message IDs and your newsreader won’t find the posts. When that happens it’s not your newsreader, it’s the NZB.
Why NZBs Changed Usenet
So here’s the recap. An NZB uses XML to list all the parts of a big file, so your newsreader can find them and put them together fast. Indexing sites give you lists of NZBs to search. Downloads got so much easier that NZB-only newsreaders started showing up, and some newsreaders have the index search built right in.
Think of an NZB as a table of contents for your newsreader. It lists the message IDs for every piece of the file, so the newsreader knows exactly where to find what you want on the newsgroups.
How do binary files get onto Usenet? Each one is split into smaller compressed files, usually RAR files, along with PAR files. The PAR files let you repair any parts that are missing after you download. All those pieces are spread across lots of Usenet posts. The NZB points to every one of them, and that’s why NZBs are the fastest and best way to download binaries from Usenet.
Modern Day NZB Downloader Apps
Besides newsreaders that can read and download everything in a newsgroup, there are apps made just for downloading NZBs. They don’t let you browse, read or post messages. They just take NZB files, line them up in a queue and download them fast.
You’re ready to start. Grab a Usenet account from our list of Best Usenet Providers, or skip the NZB step with Easynews, which has search built into your account. Then start searching with any of the popular NZB sites. And check our Best Newsreader section to find the newsreader that’s right for you.
For the wider picture of how people actually use it, see the Usenet users network explained.
If juggling an indexer and a newsreader sounds like work, Spotnet rolls both into a single program and skips the NZB step entirely.