SBNews detailed installation instructions for Win95

These instructions are intended for novices and I have intended to make them as detailed and easy to follow as possible. These instructions assume that you will be using the 32-bit Windows-95 version of SBNews.

[Note: I'm not the best at documentation; If you notice anything that is unclear, misspelled, or has bad grammar, then please let me know]

1. Download the SBNews package from the web.

SBNews is an executable program, and as such, you need to download and install the program itself. SBNews can be found in a variety of shareware sites, web page links, etc. I will provide instructions on how to download it from my personal web site.

1. Load up your Internet Browser (i.e. Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, etc)
2. Type "http://www.newsrobot.com/sbnews" (do not type the quotes, they're just for illustration) into the 'Location:' field of the web browser and press return.
3. Your browser should display the SBNews/News Robot home page. Across the left-hand side of the screen are a series of buttons. The first one is for the 16-bit version, and the second button is for the 32-bit version. Press the second button. The text associated with this button says "Download the 32-bit version [SBN32_xx.ZIP] (With Setup, Windows 95/NT)"
4. Your browser should open up a 'save-as' dialog. The dialog should include the default filename of the SBNews package and should already be in your default browser download area. Note the filename and directory that the file will download into and press return.
5. Your browser will download the SBNews ZIP file. This may take some time.

2. Unzipping the SBNews package

The SBNews package that you downloaded above is a compressed archive of files in the popular ZIP archive format. Methods of unzipping the package vary widely depending on what archiver support you have already installed on your computer. You will need an unzip utility such as PkZip or Winzip. You can find the latest version of winzip at http://www.winzip.com.

[Note, I'll be filling in this section later with some detailed instructions on how to use Winzip and/or pkzip]

3. Installing SBNews

Once SBNews is unzipped, there will be several files residing in the subdirectory that you unzipped into. One of these files is called 'Setup.Exe', and this is the file that you must execute to complete the installation.

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Navigate explorer to the directory which contains the unzipped files.
3. Double click on the file name 'Setup.Exe'
4. An InstallShield Installation program will being. InstallShield is one of the most popular install utilities out there, and it should be familiar to you if you've installed much Windows-95 Shareware.
   • The setup is preconfigured with all of the most popular options already selected, so you shouldn't need to change anything.
   • Most of the time, just hit <Next> or <Accept> and it will do the right thing.
5. Once the install is completed, a new program group will have been added to your Start Menu. The SBNews program will be available under this program group.

4. Running SBNews for the first time

The first time you run SBNews, you'll be asked for some information to configure the system. You should only need to enter this configuration information once.

1. Go to the Windows-95 <Start> button and select the SBNews Program group, and the file 'SBNews'
2. SBNews will load and display an about box with a 15-second delay. The delay is a Shareware incentive to get you to register; IF you have already registered, then you may enter your registration information now.
3. Once the delay has completed, click on the button that says 'Press to Continue'
4. You will be prompted for the name of your News Host (or NNTP host) [Figure 1]
   • The news host is the name of the computer that you will connect to on the Internet to receive Usenet News articles.
   • The news host is typically tied to your ISP (Internet Service Provider, the people who give you your Internet service), and you can contact them to find out.
   • If you're reading news with another program (Netscapes built-in Newsreader, Free Agent, etc) then you can look in the configuration of one of those programs.
   • It usually has the format of "news.ispname.com" or "nntp.ispname.com", or something similar to that.
   • Supernews (www.supernews.com) provides a pay third-party news server in case you don't like your ISP's news service.
5. Next you will be prompted for a download path [Figure 2]
   • The download path is where all of the files or pictures that you download will be placed on disk.
   • You must enter one -- don't try to leave it blank.
   • 'c:\download' or 'c:\images' are some good possible download paths.
   • Remember what you enter here in case you want to use Windows Explorer or another program to find the files later.
6. You may wish to enter authentication information. Authentication information is the name and password that your News Host (see step 4) uses to authenticate you. Not all news hosts require authentication, but some will deny you access, or limit the scope of available groups, if you do not include authentication information. Your authentication name and password may (probably) be the same as the name and password that you use to access the Internet. You can always do this later if you like.
   1. Go the to 'Configure' pull-down menu in SBNews [Figure 9]
   2. Select 'Authentication' from the configure menu
   3. Enter the NAME and PASSWORD that your news server uses to authenticate you, and press OK. [Figure 10]

5. Connecting for the first time

1. To connect to the new service, press the <Connect> button. It's located to the right of the Transfer status list box. [Figure 3]
2. SBNews will attempt to connect to your news server.
   • If you entered an invalid 'NNTP host name' in the previous section, then you'll probably get an error message that says 'Unable to Resolve Hostname' or something to that effect. Find out the right host name (contact your ISP if necessary) and re enter it by selecting the 'Configure' pull-down menu and the 'Host Name' option. Then press <connect> and try again.
   • If you didn't enter any authentication information, or your authentication information is wrong, then you may get some error message to that effect. Select the 'Configure' pull-down menu, then 'Authentication' item, and enter the correct authentication information.
3. SBNews will download a NewsRc.Lst file. The NewsRc.Lst file is the listing of all newsgroups that your news server supports. It is not necessary, but it is an aid in findout out what groups are available. Downloading the NewsRc.Lst file will take several minutes, but it only needs to be done the first time you connect and will not need to be done in the future. [Figure 4]
4. When everything is done, SBNews will disconnect since you have not yet entered any newsgroup names. This is normal. [Figure 5]

6. Configuring Newsgroups to download

Usenet content is divided into different Newsgroups. Each newsgroup typically has specific content in it. There are many thousands of Newsgroups available and you must have the names of the ones that you wan't to download. You can't download from all of them; It would simply take forever!

1. Press the <Add> button, next to the newsgroups list, roughly in the center of the SBNews screen. [Figure 6]
2. If you know the name of the group that you want to add, then you can type it and press <Ok>
3. If you do not know the name of the group that you want to add, then select <Browse>
   • The browse dialog displays the contents of the NewsRc file that we talked about earlier; It is the list of all newsgroups that your server supports. [Figure 7]
   • The contents of the NewsRc is displayed on the left hand side, and a list of groups that you want to add is displayed on the right. Select a group and press one of the little arrow buttons in the middle to move a group from one side to another.
   • Once you have found all of the groups that you want to add, press <Ok>
4. You should now be at the SBNews main screen, and there should be several groups listed in the NewsGroups list in the middle of the dialog. Press the <connect> button to connect to your server and begin downloading. [Figure 8]

Note: It is my policy not to specifically suggest newsgroups containing adult or sexually explicit materials, and therefore I will not provide directions on how to specifically configure these groups. If you are looking for these groups, then most of the names begin with "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica" and you can go from there. If you are under 18 years of age, or this material is illegal in your area, then I suggest you avoid any group names which begin with "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica".

7. Retrieving the files that you have downloaded

• If you're downloading JPEG image files, then thumbnails of the images are displayed on the right hand side of the SBNews window. These thumbnails are a reduced size version of the full image intended to give you a visual overview of what you're downloading. You can always click on a thumbnail to get the full size picture.
• All files that are downloaded are saved to your hard drive for later use. You can use any available viewer program on these files. You can use Windows Explorer to navigate to the download directory and view the files.
• SBNews includes a built in full-screen image viewer which is capable of displaying most popular formats (JPG, GIF, BMP, etc). This can be accessed by several methods:
  • Clicking on any thumbnail image will bring up the viewer
  • Selecting "File:View Jpeg" from the SBNews window will bring up a viewer window
  • You can also download a standalone version of the viewer called 'SBJV' from my website.

8. Some misc tips:

• By default, all files will go into the one directory that you designated as your download directory. While I believe this is the simplest for novices to learn, once you become familiar with the program, you might want to look at some of the path-expansion options located under the "Configure:Path-Expansion" pull-down menu. These options will split up the files into different directories for each group that you download from.
• The usenet is filled with off-topic commercial advertisements commonly referred to as "Spam". For some tips on avoiding or eliminating spam, see the "Help:Methods-To-Avoid-Spam" pull-down menu option.

Figure 1: The Set Host Name dialog

Figure 2: The Set Download Path dialog

Figure 3: SBNews when it first loads up... Press the <Connect> button

Figure 4: Downloading the newsrc list. This will take a while!

Figure 5: After the newsgroup list (newsrc.lst) has been downloaded

Figure 6: The Add Newsgroup dialog

Figure 7: The Browse dialog

Figure 8: SBNews beginning to download from the first newsgroup

Figure 9: The configure:authentication pull-down menu

Figure 10: Entering authentication information