Lots of Trouble Extracting .rar Files?

[Hart Larry]

I must have posted this earlier to the subscription address instead?  For some 
years I have been collecting rar encoded binaries from usenet.  I either grab 
messages in pine and run uudeview to decode, or grab files directly from an 
easynews web site.  Most of these rars find nothing to extract.  I can still 
extract older rars with .mod music files from years ago.
I am running unrar and rar in linux, with a Dec-PC, Speakup Fedora 1.
Also, many are posting par2 files incase we miss any of the rars.  We grabbed a 
linux program to handle these, however, I cannot find any command-line options 
to put everything together.
Are their any smarter rar extracting programs which any of you can please 
suggest which also handle wild cards?  Thanks so much in advance
Hart