Contents

NTSend Message Manager

for Windows NT 4.0

NTSend is a program for sending messages in Windows NT.

NTSend can be used to send one person, or an NT group of people a message.  It can keep a 'favourites' list of the people that you most commonly send messages to.  NTSend can also create and maintain custom groups or lists of people and PCs that you can send messages to.

The following topics describe the operation and appearance of the program.

Getting started

Sending a message

Menus

Options

Using custom lists

Export / Import Lists

Command-line parameters

NTSend will not run on Windows 95 or Windows 98 due to LAN Manager implementation differences in these operating systems.

John Kelly

NTSend 1.3.3, 11th October, © 2002


Getting started

Getting started with NTSend

To be able to send a message...

NTSend needs to know who to send the message to.

Click on a person, computer or NT group from the 'Net Items' list on the left.  Then put it in the list of Recipients on the right by clicking the [image] 'Add to Recipients' button

Note: You can add any number of recipients, but each item can only be added once.

NTSend needs to know the message to be sent.

Click in the 'Message text' field and type in the text of your message.  E.g. 'Hello, are you going to the pub?'

Once you have some text in the 'Message text' field and you have at least one item in the 'Recipient' list then the 'Send' button [image] is enabled for you to activate your message.

NTSend will then show the results.

When you send the message, another window appears with the caption 'NTSend Status'.

This will show the results of sending the message.  First of all it will show the various NT servers being polled for information on who is logged in.  Next it will wait for the information to be sent back.  Next it will send the message to everyone in the recipient list that is logged in.  Finally, NTSend will show a line saying 'All Messages complete'.  Close the Status window to continue.

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Sending a message

Sending a message

The Getting started topic takes you through the first steps of sending a message.  The following topics go into more depth on the options available when sending a message.

Selecting servers

Selecting recipients

Selecting favourites

Changing your signature

Reading the Status window

Possible errors

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Possible errors

Possible errors when sending a message

Error messages

If you get an error like one of these

when you try to send a message, it simply means that your message or broadcast is too long.

Message limits

There are two different limits on sending messages.  When you try to send a message to the domain, then this is called a broadcast and you are only allowed a maximum length of 128 characters.

If you send a message to an individual or to a list of individuals then the limit for this type of message is 895 characters.

Note: Domain broadcasts are not recommended for a number of reasons.  Mainly that they will not be popular with your recipients as they will receive multiple copies of the message.

Responding to the error

If you respond by clicking 'Yes' then your text will be shortened to the maximum allowed length but your message will NOT be sent.  You can then review it and choose to re-send it if you want.

If you respond by clicking 'No' then your text will remain unchanged but your message will still NOT be sent.  If you do not shorten your text then the message will generate the same error if you try to re-send it.

Clicking 'Help' will of course bring you to this help topic!

Back to Sending a message.


Selecting servers

Servers

NTSend, by default, only sends messages to people and PCs that are logged in.  It does this because if it tried to send messages to items which were not active then it would have to wait for a while until the message timed out and returned with an error.  Therefore NTSend does not normally waste time trying to contact inactive items.

Note: If you DO want to send messages to items which are not logged into a domain, e.g. if you don't use domain authentication, then turn off the 'Send to active domain items only' option in the Options dialog.

For  NTSend to send messages to items which are logged in, it must find out what IS logged in.  It does this by finding all the servers on the network, and then querying them for active sessions.  If you don't want to contact all the servers then you can select which servers to query.

To select your servers, go to the Servers tab (on the right hand side of the form).

Each server has a checkbox to select or de-select it.  Make your choices.

Types of servers

Some servers will not have any active NT sessions.  E.g., An Oracle database server may have lots of people logged into it but none of these are an NT type connection.  E-mail servers are another type of connection again.  NT messages require an NT connection.

Try to choose servers which provide File, Print or authentication services.  Other servers will not cause a problem but may slow down the process of querying for active sessions.  Some servers may be listed which are not true NT servers, like Samba providers, and these will not return any meaningful information and should be avoided. (Mine doesn't anyway)

The servers are queried more than one at a time, but NTSend must wait for all of the responses before sending the messages.  Therefore, if there are a lot of servers on your network, you should choose only the servers that manage the users and PCs that you want to talk to.

Back to Sending a message.


Selecting recipients

Net Items

In the Net Items list you will find (when present on the network)

Custom Lists	If you have added any lists then they will be listed at the top of the network resources.
A Domain	The Windows NT network Domain. Note: Sending a message to the Domain is a quick and dirty way of contacting people.  Quick because the broadcast goes out very quickly, but dirty because everyone gets four copies of the message.  People who are not on the same LAN may not receive these messages since some routers will not allow broadcasts.
Users	The people logged in on the network.
PCs	The PCs that are on and connected to the LAN.
NT groups	The groups that your NT administrator has created using NT's User Manager.

Recipients List

To choose people or PCs to send your message to, you need to select and transfer them from the Net Items (or Favourites) list over to the Recipients List.

To select more than one item you can hold down the Control key and click multiple items.

To transfer them you can either: -

Press enter.

Click the 'Add to recipients' button [image].

Right click the selection and choose the 'Add to recipients' option on the popup menu.

Drag the selection over to the Recipients list using the left mouse button or

Select the 'Add to recipients' option from the Edit menu.

Once you have your list of recipients selected, you could then create a custom list to use again at another time.

Back to Sending a message.


Selecting favourites

Favourites

Instead of choosing your recipients from a long, unwieldy list of NT users, NT PCs and NT groups, you could select them from a smaller hand-picked list of items which you use most of the time.  This list is called the Favourites list and can be found behind the Net Items list.

To store your commonly used items in this list, select the items from the Net Items list and then either: -

Click the toolbar 'Add to favourites' button [image].

Right click the selection and choose the 'Add to favourites' option on the popup menu or

Select the 'Add to favourites' option from the Edit menu.

Once you have your favourites saved, you can transfer them to the recipients list in the same way as from the Net Items list: -

Press enter.

Click the 'Add to recipients' button [image].

Right click the selection and choose the 'Add to recipients' option on the popup menu.

Drag the selection over to the Recipients list using the left mouse button or

Select the 'Add to recipients' option from the Edit menu.

If you later find that you don't use an entry or entries very much and would like to remove it or them from the Favourites list, then make your selection(s) and either: -

Press the delete key.

Click the 'Remove from favourites' button [image].

Right click the selection and choose the 'Remove from favourites' option from the popup menu or

Select the 'Remove from favourites' option from the Edit menu.

Back to Sending a message.


Changing your signature

Signatures

NTSend automatically adds a line at the end of your message called a signature.  This normally consists of a line of text detailing who sent the text, and from what PC, e.g. 'Sent by Administrator from SNOTTY'.  This can be changed in the 'Signature' box and the last eight signatures that you send will be saved for re-use.  You can select a previous entry from the 'Signature' drop down list.

NTSend will leave at least one blank line between your message and the signature, however if you include multiple blank lines after your message text then your signature will be added at the end of them.

The last used signature is always restored at program startup.

Back to Sending a message.


Reading the Status window

Status window

On sending a message, NTSend opens a new 'NTSend Status' window.

This provides information on the progress of the messages being sent.

The servers are queried for active logins.  In the above example, only one server is found called 'SNIPPY'.

NTSend waits for the information to be returned to it.

It then commences with the messages.  Where the recipient is a user or PC, then the result is shown against the name.  If the recipient is an NT group or a custom list then the line lists this information in front of the name of the actual recipient.  E.g. the example above shows the Domain Users group being messaged and the recipients include 'SNIPPY' and 'JKelly'.

Once all of the recipients have been attempted, the final line is shown - 'All messages complete'.

Back to Sending a message.


Using custom lists

Custom Lists

As well as sending messages to people, computers and NT groups, you can also create custom lists which can be saved for later use.

Create a custom list

To create a custom list click the 'Add New List' button [image] to open the 'Edit Message List' screen.  If there are any items selected in Net Items or Recipients then they will automatically be included in the new custom list.

To add List recipients, select them in the Net Items list and click the Add button.

To remove List Recipients, just select them and click the Delete button.

Edit the List Name to your chosen name and click Save.  The new list will be added to the main Net Items list.  This list will be saved when you close the program and can be added to the 'Recipients' list just like any other item.

To abandon the list, click the Cancel button.

Note: If there are no recipients specified, the Save list button will be disabled to prevent saving an empty list.

Edit a custom list

To alter an existing custom list, click on it in Net Items or Recipients and either: -

Click the 'Edit list' button [image].

Right click the selection and choose 'Edit list' from the popup menu.

Select 'Edit list' from the Edit menu.

To add List recipients, select them in the Net Items list and click the Add button.

To remove List Recipients, just select them and click the Delete button.

To save the altered list, click the Save button.  NTSend will ask for confirmation that you want to overwrite the existing list.  Press Yes to save the new list.

Delete a custom list

To delete a custom list completely, select the custom list item on the Net Items, Recipients or Favourites lists, and either: -

Click the 'Delete list' button

Right click the selection and choose 'Delete list' from the popup menu.

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Export / Import Lists

Exporting / Importing Lists

Export Lists

In order to transfer Custom Lists from one computer to another, the NTSend menu option, 'Export Lists' can be used to produce a file with the list information contained in a registry file format.  NTSend will prompt for a file name and will add the file extension '.reg' if it is omitted.  This file can then be transferred to the target computer and can either be executed by double clicking which will use the Microsoft program Regedit to load the information, or else it can be loaded using the 'Import Lists' menu option.

Import Lists

To load the List information from another computer, select the 'Import Lists' option from the NTSend menu.  This will prompt for a file name.  It will then try to load the necessary information from the specified file.  Only use this option with files produced by the Export Lists option.

Note:

The Import Lists option may seem redundant when you can just double-click the file to load it.  However some System Administrators set the network policies to disallow the use of the Regedit program.  If this is the case then the 'Import Lists' option will still load the file successfully.  This will only load NTSend List related information and can not be used as a generic Regedit substitute.  NTSend only saves registry information in the user's personal area (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NTSend) so no special access permissions are required and no other systems are affected.

Errors

If the Export Lists option is selected when there are no Lists then the following error results.

If the Import Lists option option is supplied with a file with no NTSend List information in it, then the following error results.

If the Import file information is not correct, (probably from someone editing it) the following error may result.

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Menus

Main menus

The NTSend menu options are: -

	Refresh -  Updates the Net Items view to show any new items on the network ------------ Export Lists - Saves the List information to a file in registry file format.  See this help topic for further information. Import Lists - Loads List information  from a registry file.  See this help topic for further information. ------------ Exit - Closes the application.
The Edit menu options are: -
	Add to recipients - transfers any selected items over to Recipients.  This option is only available if items in Net Items or Favourites are selected. Remove from recipients - Moves selected items out of Recipients list.  This option is only available when items are selected in Recipients. ------------ Add to favourites - Copies selected items in Net Items over to Favourites.  Only available if items are selected in Net Items. Remove from favourites - Moves selected items out of Favourites.  Only available if items are selected in Favourites. ------------ Add New List - Create a new list from the items selected in Net Items.  Only available if there are items selected in Net Items. Edit List - Open an Edit List dialog to allow modification of an existing list.  Available when a list item is selected. Delete List - Remove a custom list from the items list.  Available when a list item is selected. ------------ Options - Displays the Options dialog box.
The Help menu options are: -
	Contents - This option activates this help file, open at the main Contents page. ------------ About - Displays information about this program.

Popup menus

The Popup menus display only the relevant options for a particular view and selection of items.  The options are named identically to the above options and do the exact same tasks.

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Command-line parameters

Parameters

There are two valid parameters which can be added to the NTSend command-line.

These are: -

/CLEAR E.g. NTSend /CLEAR	This can be used to erase all registry entries relevant to NTSend if un-installing the program. All entries are stored under the registry key \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NTSend and this is what is deleted.
/? E.g. NTSend /?	This option displays this help file.

Any other parameters will cause an error dialogue and the program will terminate.

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Options

Options dialog box

Options dialog

The Options dialog when chosen by clicking the Options button on the toolbar, looks like this -

The choices displayed are as follows -

Domain items
Show active Domain items only	This option when selected will only show PCs and users that are active on the list of selected servers.
Send messages to active Domain items only	This choice, when selected, will check for an active session on the selected servers before trying to send a message to the recipient.  This generally speeds thing up because if you send a message to a recipient when they are not logged in, then the time out period can be lengthy.
Server queries
Wait time for server queries (in seconds)	This is really a failsafe rather than a feature.  This option will set the maximum time to wait for ALL the servers to complete their responses.  Useful if one of the servers does not respond correctly.  The default value is 20 seconds.
Send messages even if queries time out	This option is related to the timeout value above.  If the server responses take too long, then this option determines if you want to continue and send the message(s) regardless.
Miscellaneous
Show tooltips on top of lists	This option when de-selected will disable the tooltips (or hints) for the Net items, Favourites, Servers and Recipients lists.  These tooltips, while informative, can be intrusive once the user knows what the lists show.
Close the status message box automatically	The status box shows the results of the messages.  If you don't want to review the operation then select this to hide the status box once the messaging is complete.
Clear the message text once sent	This option will clear the message test box after the message is sent.
Minimize to the system tray	The minimized program can be made to show either a button on the taskbar (the norm) or can be set to show a mini icon in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen.  This mini icon can be right clicked to show a short popup menu with a restore option and an exit option. Or else it can be left clicked to restore the program to normal size.

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Local Area Network