SBNews: News Robot Utility

(C) Scott M Baker

Note: This program is still in the early beta stages. It hasn't been very extensively tested and it's very possible that you may experience trouble. Please report any problems to me at smbaker@primenet.com.

I variously refer to this program under the names "NewsBot" and "SBNews "throughout the document. You can for the most part consider them to be the same. Eventually, I plan on including extra utilities in this package, "SBNews" will be the name of the full package and "NewsBot" will be the name of the News Robot utility within the package.

Purpose:

The purpose of this program is to automatically download and uudecode files from newsgroups via a winsock connection. If you've found this program, then you probably know what this means, so I won't go into detail. Newsbot will attempt to piece together multi-part files.

If you're new to binary newsgroups, then here are a few G-rated newsgroups that you might wish to try: 

alt.binaries.pictures.astro

alt.binaires.pictures.animals

alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons

alt.binaires.pictures.fractals

There are a wealth of adult-oriented newsgroups, but I'm not going to list them in this document.

Requirements:

Distribution:

Features:

Installing and Using the Program:

To install, just unzip the archive into the directory of your choice (presumably you've already done this or you wouldn't be reading this document!). Running the program is as simple as executing the file "newsbot.exe".

The first thing you'll need to do is to set your news host name. The news host is the computer that you will be contacting to receive the newsgroups from. If you don't know the name, then you may wish to a) contact your service provider or b) examine an existing news reader on your system and try to figure it out.

The next step is to specify the newsgroups that you wish to download. Go down to the "NewsGroups" box and click the add button for each group that you wish to download from.

The "Connect" button is used to start a session and the "Disconnect" button is used to stop a session.

Preferences

Most preference options are selected from the configure:preferences dialog.

Statistical Options

There are a variety of options listed under the statistics menu item. Most of these simply return information that SBNews has collected while processing newsgroups.

Unfinished Stuff

This program is still largely unfinished. There's lots of "bells-and-whistles" that I'm planning on adding in the future. So don't dispair if a few features that you'd like are missing. Important things I'm hoping to add are:

Registration

Newsbot is a shareware program and as such, you are only granted the right to operate it for a limited time to evaluate it's performance. Continued usage requires registration in the amount of $15.00.

The registration policy is as follows:

  1. Mail $15 (a personal check made out to "Scott M. Baker" is fine) to my US-Mail address. Include your EMAIL address with the check.
  2. I will generate a registration code that corresponds to the email you included. I will email this registration code back to you at the address you provided.
  3. Load up newsbot and select Register from the menu. Enter your email and the code I provided. The program will now be registered.
  4. Your registration is good forever, and will be supported under ALL FUTURE VERSIONS of this program.

Registration entitles you to use of the program (and all future upgrades) for as long as you wish. The 15-second shareware delay while loading will be removed. In addition, if I add additional utility programs to the SBNews package, your registration will entitle you to usage of them as well.

How to contact me:

US-Mail: 

Scott M. Baker

2241 W Labriego

Tucson, Az 85741

My Bulletin board: 

The Not-Yet-Named BBS

(520) 544-4655 (USR Dual 14.4k)

(520) 797-8573 (USR Sportster 28.8k)

Email: 

smbaker@primenet.com

My Homepage: 

http://www.primenet.com/~smbaker

Revision History