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:
- Windows 3.1 or greater
- Winsock connection capability (i.e. SLIP or PPP)
Distribution:
- 16-bit (Windows 3.1) Version: SBNEWSxx.ZIP (xx denotes version
number)
- 32-bit (Windows 95) Version: SBN32_xx.ZIP (xx denotes version number
Features:
- Unattended download - do other work (or go out to lunch) while
downloads and uudecoding are all processed for you!
- Automatic HTTP address logging -- NewsBot will keep track of any HTTP
URL's that were found while downloading addresses. These will be saved to
a convenient HTM file, HTTPGRAB.HTM.
- Built in JPEG viewer. Allows you to see postage-stamp size images of
the files you are downloading in progress.
- Delete/View previously downloaded JPEG files.
- Comprehensive logging capabilities - save the subject and from information
for files that you might want to follow up on later.
- Dupe Checkers -- avoid downloading the same files multiple times.
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.
- Similar NewsGroups: Newsgroup headers contain an
"Xref:" line which lists other newsgroups to which a specific article has
been posted. Many times, a poster will "cross-post" an article to multiple
groups which share the same interests. The Similar Newsgroups list will display
all of the accumulated Xref's for the current area.
- HTTP Grabber: The HTTP Grabber automatically keeps a
list of any WWW addresses that are found in the text and/or subject lines
of downloaded messages. In addition, a HTML file called HTTPGRAB.HTM will
be written to the newsbot directory. You may load this file with your WWW
browser and look up any references that SBNews found.
- Dupe File List: The list that the dupe-checker keeps
in memory to catch dupe files.
- Dupe Subject List: The list that the dupe-checker keeps
in memory to catch duplicate subject lines.
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:
- Automatic Connect and Disconnect (i.e. start receiving when it's
loaded)
- Ability to download newsrc (the list of newsgroups)
- Ability to specify search filters (i.e. only retrieve messages with xxx
in the subject field)
- Manual toggling of articles you want to download
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Load up newsbot and select Register from the menu. Enter your
email and the code I provided. The program will now be registered.
- 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
- Version 1.0
- Version 1.1
- Added about dialog and shareware delay
- Cleaned up (shrunk) main screen and reorganized information
- Added context-sensitive hint text at bottom
- Fixed problem with message pointers not being recorded properly
- Version 1.2
- Added JPG viewer window (supported in 800x600 or above only)
- Probably fixed a nasty stack overflow (Runtime Error 202) bug that was
causing trouble with new users.
- Version 1.3
- Made JPEG viewer more crash resistant
- Increased JPEG viewer read buffer to deal better with images with large
headers
- Added a title to the main window
- Finished registration code system
- Version 1.4
- Version 1.5
- Made sure to free gensock.dll on exit
- Added Configure:Preferences dialog, many new preference options
- Version 1.6
- Raised counter-over threshold from 250 to 1000
- Set update timer at 100ms instead of 250ms
- Added Lockout Poster system
- Revamped dupe checker for better reliability
- Added similar newsgroups list
- Raised maximum number of newsgroups from 32 to 128
- Added view and delete options to current and previous menus
- Fixed problem with crashes on high-ascii characters in lockout poster
list
- Fixed possible bug with long header lines
- Now handles nonexistant newsgroups without halting
- Version 1.7
- Shareware delay now increments by 1 every day Newsbot is used
- Newsbot now stops loading groups from INI file when first blank entry
is found (speedup?)
- Revamped the dupe message checker (again!)
- Fixed bug which was causing unnecessary JPEG error 117
- Fixed problem with decoding lines that started with a double period
- Version 1.8
- Added message when old BWCC found
- Version 1.9
- Change "about" menu to "file" menu
- Added open jpeg viewer option to file menu
- Prevented crash if 0 messages in a group
- Added HTTP URL Grabber
- Fixed problem with long subject/from lines (i.e. >256 chars)
- Double clicking on the log will bring up a viewer
- Made sure files are written to proper directory
- All uudecode filenames are normalized to lower case
- Added dupe file checker
- Revamped dupe subject checker (again!)
- Version 2.0
- Added authentication support (AUTHINFO Original)
- Ability to deal with SOME mime messages
- Added acceptable file mask dialog
- 32-bit version available
- Incorporated gensock code into SBNews; Gensock.DLL no longer needed.
- Fixed memory leak in jpeg viewer
- Used suballocater to deal with strman hash table nodes
- Added "add" and "refresh" options to similar groups dialog