What is WinRAR?

WinRAR is a competing product to WinZip; both products compress/decompress and archive files. Files compressed with WinRAR typically have the .rar extension, as opposed to .zip for WinZip archives. WinRAR can also create and decompress a WinZip archived file.

Like later versions of WinZip, WinRAR has the ability to create archives in multiple parts; that is, it not only can compress a file but can split it up into smaller parts. In WinZip, this is called a "split Zip file"; in WinRAR, this is called a "multipart" or "multivolume" archive. When this is done, the extensions for the smaller RAR files end up being .r00, .r01, and so forth, with the first file just having the .rar extension. To decompress a multipart archive, you simply have to ensure that all the component files (.rar, .r00, .r01, etc.) are in the same directory. When you double-click the .rar file, all other files are automatically found by WinRAR without you having to select them, and the final decompressed file is automatically assembled from all those files.

In many Usenet newsgroups, .rar files are favored over .zip files; many FAQs for newsgroups, especially the binary ones, mention and openly push .rar over .zip. Many posters to various groups have said that they prefer the way WinRAR creates multipart archives. Multipart archives are important on Usenet, as a majority of newsgroup servers have strict size limitations for binary groups, and many foreign newsgroup users tend to be on Internet service providers (ISPs) that have strict megabyte limitations on downloads. Because of these limitations, it is actually considered impolite to post very large files, as many people won't be able to download them all at once due to the restrictions. Posting multipart archives solves this problem, as users can download as much as they're able to at one time and still eventually end up with the complete file.

Also see:

• What do various computer file extensions stand for?
• What is WinZip, and how do I install it?
• About Usenet newsgroups