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- SBNews: News Robot Utility
-
- (C) Scott M Baker
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 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.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Table of Contents
-
- * Purpose
- * General Information
- * System Requirements
- * Distribution Information
- * Features
- * Files Included
- * Installation
- * Command Line Parameters
- * JPEG Viewer
- * Configuration
- * Appearance
- * Host Name
- * Download Path
- * Path Expansion
- * Miscellaneous
- * Lockout Lists
- * Authentication
- * Acceptable File Masks
- * Dupe Checking
- * AutoSave
- * Auto Encryption
- * Files.BBS Generation
- * Statistics
- * Coord: The Newsbot Coordinator
- * Unfinished Stuff/Planned Enhancements
- * Acknowledgements
- * Registration
- * How to Contact the Author
- * Revision History
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 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.binaries.pictures.animals
- alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons
- alt.binaries.pictures.fractals
-
- There are a wealth of adult-oriented newsgroups, but I'm not going to list them
- in this document.
-
- I have included a sample file, SAMPLE_G.TXT, which includes a listing of binary
- newsgroups. There are no descriptions, but you can probably find out from the
- newsgroup name what subject matter the newsgroup deals with.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 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.
- * Auto-Encryption -- can be set to automatically encrypt files when saving
- to disk to keep their contents private.
- * Automatic FILES.BBS generation for sysops
- * Eliminate advertisements/SPAM with the Maximum XRef Limit (see
- preferences) and the XRef Lockout Filter (see lockout lists)
-
- Files Included:
-
- * NEWSBOT.EXE: Executable; what you need to run to get the program to work.
- * NEWSBOT.HTM: Documentation in HTML format (read with your browser)
- * NEWSBOT.DOC: Documentation in plain-ASCII format (read with any plain
- ascii text editor)
- * BWCC.DLL (16-bit) or BWCC32.DLL (32-bit): Borlands Custom-Control DLL
- library; used to support Newsbot's grey dialog boxes.
- * FILE_ID.DIZ: Brief description file; useful for bbs distribution
- * SAMPLE_G.TXT: Plain-ASCII listing of binary newsgroups
- * REGISTER.HTM: Registration info in HTML format
- * REGISTER.DOC: Registration info in plain-ASCII format
- * README.1ST: General information on documentation & archives
- * ENCRYPT.EXE: Standalone utility, Used to encrypt files on disk
- * DECRYPT.EXE: Standalone utility, Used to decrypt files on disk
- * COORD.EXE: (32-bit version only) Used to coordinate multiple Newsbot
- applications running concurrently
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Installing and Using the Program:
-
- Here are some very quick notes on installing and using Newsbot:
-
- Installation:
-
- 1. Unzip the distribution archive into the directory of your choice.
-
- Running:
-
- 1. Run NEWSBOT.EXE -- this can be done in various ways - from the Win-95
- command prompt, the Windows Explorer (and/or file manager), the Windows
- Run Program command, etc.
- 2. On your first session, you'll be prompted for a "News Host Name". This is
- the name of your news host, and should be given to you by your ISP
- (internet service provider).
- 3. On your first session, you'll be prompted for a "download path". This is
- the path where you want the files you download to be placed.
- 4. Once NewsBot is loaded, you'll want to add some newsgroups. This is done
- with the "Add" button. You'll need to know the names of the groups you
- want; you might want to consult SAMPLE_G.TXT for some sample newsgroup
- names.
- 5. Press the "CONNECT" button to start everything. All else should be mostly
- automatic from here on. Feel free to tinker around with the menu items
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Command Line Parameters
-
- * "-i INI_FILE_NAME". Sets the name of the INI file to use. By default,
- newsbot uses the file newsbot.ini in your windows directory. Specifying a
- filename here will cause newsbot to use the file under that name in
- newsbot's home directory. For example "Newsbot -i news1.ini" would use
- the filename "news1.ini" in newsbot's home directory.
- * "-auto". Will automatically begin downloading news articles as soon as
- newsbot has loaded. Note: For unregistered users, about screen will still
- be displayed!
- * "-autoexit""-noabout". Omits display of the about dialog on startup of
- Newsbot. Note: Only supported in registered version!
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Jpeg Viewer
-
- SBNews has a built in Jpeg viewer for viewing JPEG files offline. The JPEG
- viewer can be operated in several ways:
-
- 1. By double-clicking on a [RECEIVED] entry in Newsbot's log window
- 2. By single-clicking on one of the preview pictures on the right hand side
- of Newsbot's main window.
- 3. By using the FILE:VIEW JPEG option from Newsbot's pulldown menu.
-
- Once loaded, the JPEG viewer window will display the JPG file selected and
- include a listing of filenames and directories on the left-hand side of the
- window. This listing is provided to let you easilly select other files to view.
- Double clicking on a directory in the directory list will change to that
- directory and double clicking on a filename in the file list will display that
- file. The CHDIR and VIEW buttons perform the same functions, respectively.
-
- The "<" and ">" buttons will view the immediately previous and next files in
- the currently selected directory. You may use these to rapidly view a list of
- files that were downloaded overnight for example. The ">" button will activate
- a slideshow of the current directory. Each file will be displayed, there will
- be a slight delay, and the next file will be displayed.
-
- The FILE menu of the viewer has several options:
-
- * Open File: Allows you to open a new file using the windows common-dialog
- open method.
- * Delete File: Deletes the current file that you are viewing.
- * Save as BMP: Saves the current image as a BMP image, which may later be
- used as windows wallpaper, for example.
- * Set as Wallpaper: Saves the current file as a BMP and tells window to use
- it was wallpaper.
-
- The SlideShow menu has a few options as well:
-
- * Start/Stop: Starts and stops the slideshow, equivalent to the ">" button.
- * Set Interval: Sets the amount of delay between slideshow pictures.
- * "Normal Mode": Images will be displayed in the jpeg viewers window.
- * "Wallpaper Mode": Images will also be set as WallPaper. This sort-of
- turns your entire desktop into a slideshow display. You can minimize the
- JPEG viewer window and continue to do work while images display in the
- background as wallpaper.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Configuration
-
- Appearance:
-
- Newsbot has several different main window styles. You may select whichever
- style appeals to you most, they all convey more or less the same information:
-
- * Small: Designed to display as much information as possible in a small
- footprint. The "file log" is unavailable, but all other information in
- present.
- * Large: Default configuration for systems with 800x600 resolution or
- above.
- * Windows-95 Tabbed: Same footprint as the small dialog, but uses a tab
- control to select different panels of information. Somewhat less
- cluttered, but you will need to use the tab between the information you
- want to see. Large current/previous thumbnails.
-
- Host Name:
-
- The host name is the name of the nntp host which NewsBot will connect to. If
- you don't already know this, then you may wish to contact your Internet Service
- Provider (ISP) or check an existing news program on your system for the name.
-
- Download Path:
-
- The base path where downloaded files will be placed. If you enable any of the
- download path expansion (see misc. preferences), then files may be downloaded
- into sub-directories of this base path.
-
- Path Expansion:
-
- By default, all files will be downloaded into the download directory that you
- have specified. However, this can lead to confusion, since you will not know
- which files came form which newsgroups. Thus, there are several "path
- expansion" options that will create a sub-directory tree for the individual
- groups. The options are:
-
- * None: All files go into the same subdirectory
- * Group Number: Files are placed in numerical directories, according to
- their order in your newsgroup list.
- * Expanded Group Name: Each field of the Newsgroup name is made into a
- subdirectory name. For example, "alt.binaries.pictures.misc" would become
- "alt\binaries\pictures\misc". This option is useful for Windows-3.1
- systems, since subdirectory names may only be a short length.
- * Full Group Name: The entire Newsgroup name is used ass one big
- subdirectory name. This is only available in Windows-95 with long
- filename support.
-
- ┌──────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
- │Path Expansion Exa│Resultant Path es.pictures.misc) │
- │Path Exp Setting │ │
- ├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
- │None │c:\download\ │
- ├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
- │Group Number │c:\download\group1\ │
- ├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
- │Exp Group Name │c:\download\alt\binaries\pictures\misc\ │
- ├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
- │Full Group Name │c:\download\alt.binaries.pictures.misc\ │
- └──────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┘
-
- For the "group name" options, you may wish to trim repetitive prefixes from the
- front of the path name. For example, there's no need to include
- "alt.binaries.pictures" in the beginning of each pathname -- it just leads to
- wasted space. The Path Prefix Removalbox is used for this purpose. Any
- string(s) that you enter in this box will be removed from the front of the
- newsgroup name before the path is generated.
-
- Miscellanious Preferences:
-
- Miscellanious preference options are located under the Configure menu under the
- heading Preferences.
-
- * Logging: Logging options control the creation of the newsbot.log file.
- The log may be useful so that you have more information about the files
- that you have downloaded. The log filename is "newsMMDD.log", where MM is
- the current month and DD is the current day. For example, the log for
- June 6 would be saved in "news0606.log". The log is plain-ascii and may
- be viewed with any text editor, or by using the dos "type" command.
- * Log Enabled: if checked, then a log file will be written. Otherwise, no
- log will be written.
- * From user name: records the name of the person who posted the
- message
- * Subject: records the subject line of the message
- * Comments: records the first few non-file lines of the message.
- Useful if the sender has prefaced the message with some explanation
- of it's content.
- * Too Small: Messages that are below the minimum message line limit
- (see below).
- * Too Long: Messages that are above the maximum message line limit
- (see below).
- * Dupe File: Files caught by the dupe-file checker.
- * Dupe Subject: Messages caught by the dupe-subject checker.
- * Mime Headers: Really just debugging info for me....
- * Delete old Logs: If checked, then any log files not equal to the
- current date will be deleted when newsbot is run. This minimizes
- * Case Conversion: These options will convert the case of the filename to a
- uniform format. Due to limitations in the 16-bit application model,
- filenames will probably be always upper case in the 16-bit executable.
- * None: Leave filename case as it appears over the modem.
- * Lower: Convert all filenames to lower case.
- * Upper: Convert all filenames to upper case.
- * Disconnect/Reconnect: The disconnect/reconnect system will automatically
- disconnect and reconnect the current nntp session in order to abort a
- message that is being transmitted. This is used to save time, rather than
- downloading entire messages which are not stored on disk. If you disable
- disconnect/reconnect, then Newsbot will receive the entire message,
- although the message will not be written to disk. You may toggle
- disconnect/reconnect on or off for several subcases:
- * No-Data: Messages with more non-encoded lines than the no-data
- threshold set below.
- * Dupe-File: Files caught by the dupe-file checker (not relavant to
- the dupe-subject checker, as the dupe-subject checker won't
- download the message in the first place)
- * No-Mask: Files which do not match an acceptable file mask.
- * Current-Delete: Files which were deleted during transfer by a user
- request.
- * Lockout-File: Files whose names are matched by the lockout filename
- system.
- * Lockout-XRef: Messages where a string in the XRef field matches the
- lockout-xref system.
- * Lockout-Host: Messages where the NNTP-Posting-Host name matches the
- lockout-host system.
-
- Note: Sometimes the Disconnect/Reconnect options may cause your news
- server to record an excessive load. This is because Newsbot will
- disconnect the connection, but your news server may continue to keep the
- connection open for a short period of time. Thus, the news server may
- think that you are using more connections than you really are. This
- situation is unlikely, but if it does present a problem, then you may
- wish to disable the disconnect/reconnect options.
- * Message Line Limits: Newsbot can limit which messages are downloaded
- based on the length (number of lines) of the message.
- * Minimum Lines: Messages with fewer than the specified number of
- lines will not be downloaded. The rationale is that small messages
- do not contain any useful information (pictures are big!) and some
- efficiency may be obtained by not downloaded them.
- * Maximum Lines: Messages with greater than the specified number of
- lines will not be downloaded. The rationale is that really huge
- messages are a waste of time. It's usually the case of someone who
- scanned in a picture at too fine a resolution.
- * "No Data" Threshold: This specifies the number of lines that can be
- in a message when no attached files (eg images) can be found before
- the message is skipped. For example, if 500 lines are scanned, and
- no attached image is present, then the message is probably grunged,
- a misplaced part of a multipart encode, or some other useless data.
- * Maximum XRef Limit: Many people have complained about an excess of
- off-topic advertisement messages (i.e. SPAM) being present in the
- newsgroups. This option is designed in an attempt to avoid these
- advertisements. Typically, advertisers will post their messages to a
- large number of newsgroups, and thus the XREF list for the article will
- have many entries. Newsbot can be set to filter messages with too many
- XREF's out. The default is set at 999 which effectively disables XREF
- filtering. You can enable XREF filtering by entering a lower number here
- (10 is a good place to start).
- * Preload XRef hdrs: By default, the "lockout XRef" and "Maximum XRef
- Limit" systems do not filter out an invalid message until the download
- has begun. This is because the XREF line is not transmitted until the
- message is sent. However, you can tell Newsbot to download all the XREF
- headers ahead of time, before any messages are downloaded. Thus, Newsbot
- will know the XRef information ahead of time and can avoid the unwanted
- messages entirely. However, XRef information is somewhat bulky, and does
- require a fair amount of time to download the headers. Thus, there is a
- trade-off involved. Feel free to experiment.
-
- Lockout Lists:
-
- The lockout lists are used to lock out messages that contain certain text
- strings. For example, you may not wish to download messages written by a
- certain person, or messages whose title contains a certain string. There are
- several types of lockout lists supported:
-
- * Lockout Poster (i.e. Author): Applies to the "From:" line of the nntp
- message. Use this if you wish not to receive messages from a specific
- person.
- * Lockout Subject: Applies to the "Subject:" line of the news message. This
- is useful if there are certain keywords which you want to lockout if they
- are present in the subject field.
- * Lockout FileName: Prevents specific filenames from being downloaded. You
- can type a specific filename or a wildcard specification to lockout a
- group of files.
- * Lockout Host: Checks the "NNTP-Posting-Host" field of the news message.
- This is useful to eliminate posts from a specific news server. Many
- obnoxious posters will alter their email name in the from field, making
- them impossible to lockout by normal means. However, the news server
- usually will put it's correct host name in the "NNTP-Posting-Host". Thus,
- this field may be used to weed out the obnoxious poster. However, be
- warned that locking out a NNTP-Posting-Host will lockout all users who
- post from that host!
- * Lockout XRef: Checks the "XRef " field of the news message. The XRef
- field contains a list of other newsgroups that the message is
- cross-posted in. Sometimes a person will post a message into several
- groups at once -- this is called crossposting. Sometimes an obnoxious
- poster will cross-post their messages into groups that they don't belong
- in.
-
- All lockout lists are case insensitive (i.e. capitolization does not matter).
- All lockout lists support wildcard characters, * and ?. "*" is interpreted as
- "any sequence of zero or more characters" and "?" is interpreted as "any single
- character". Here are a few sample wildcard strings:
-
- * (Lockout-Poster) "joe@fubar.com" would refuse any messages from
- joe@fubar.com
- * (Lockout-Poster) "*@foobar.com" would refuse messages from ANYONE at
- fubar.com
- * (Lockout-Poster) "joe@*" would refuse messages from "joe" no matter where
- he posts from
- * (Lockout-Filename) "*.zip" would refuse any file that had an extention of
- ZIP
- * (Lockout-Filename) "fastcash*.*" would refuse any file which had
- "fastcash" as the first 8 characters.
- * (Lockout-Filename) "index-?.jpg" would refuse any file which had
- "index-", exactly one more character, and then ".jpg" as an extention.
- * (Lockout-Host) "news.somehost.com" would refuse any messages posted on
- "news.somehost.com"
- * (Lockout-XRef) "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica" would refuse any messages
- that are cross-posted into "alt.binaries.pictures.erotica"
-
- The is an additional toggle which lets you toggle between an "exact match" and
- "match any position in text".
-
- * Exact-Match: The search pattern must match all of the text exactly; There
- can be no leading or trailing characters. For example, "abc" would not
- match "abcd" or "xabc".
- * Match-Any-Position: The search pattern can match any position in the
- text. There can be leading or trailing characters. For example, "abc"
- would match "abcd" and "xabc".
-
- There is a TEST button on the lockout dialog which will let you enter a string
- and see if it matches anything. This is useful if your a little confused about
- the wildcard strings and want to make sure what you entered does actually do
- what you think it should.
-
- Note #1: The "NNTP-Posting-Host" and "XRef" lines of a message are not normally
- displayed by SBNews, so you might be wondering where to get the information to
- type into those lockout lists. If you notice a particularly annoying message,
- you can use the Headers button to bring up a header listing for the group, then
- use the Read button to display the full text of the annoying message. Inside
- the read screen will be a header listing where you can find NNTP-Posting-Host
- and XRef fields.
-
- Note #2: Some lockout settings, such as Lockout Poster and Lockout Subject can
- be determined before the message is downloaded. Thus, Newsbot will bypass the
- message completely. Others, such as Lockout File, Lockout Host, and Lockout
- XRef, can not be determined until the message has begun to be received. Thus,
- Newsbot must start receiving the message and then abort the message while the
- download is in progress.
-
- Authentication:
-
- The authentication options are used for news servers which require a user name
- and password to access the newsgroups. If your news server does not require a
- name and password, then you should leave this option alone. Authentication is
- located under the Configure menu.
-
- Acceptable File Masks:
-
- Newsbot allows you to specify which types of files will be downloaded.
- Specifying "*.*" will enable any file to be downloaded, and this is the
- default. For example, if you only wanted to receive images, then you may wish
- to remove *.* and add in *.gif and *.jpg. If you only wanted archives, add in
- *.zip. etc.
-
- Dupe Checking:
-
- Two different types of dupe checking are supported. They may be used
- independantly, or you can use both of them at the same time if you wish. By
- default, the dupe checkers maintain a list of approximately the most recent
- 2048 messages received.
-
- * Subject Dupe Checker: Remembers duplicates by keeping track of the
- subject of the message. Normally, the Dupe-Subject checker should be used
- with the "Consider 'From'" setting checked as enabled. Thus, if the same
- person posts multiple messages with the same subject, the message will be
- flagged as a dupe. This is useful for preventing download of crossposted
- messages (i.e. identical messages posted in multiple groups)
- * Filename Dupe Checker: Remembers duplicates by keeping track of the names
- of the files that were downloaded. This is very effective at weeding out
- dupes, but has the side effect of sometimes deleting messages that are
- not really duplicates. For example, there are a lot of files name "1.JPG"
- out there!
-
- Both of the two above mentioned dupe checkers have some options that control
- their behaviour:
-
- * Reject Duplicates: If checked, then dupe checking will be performed as
- stated above. If not checked, then no dupe checking will be performed.
- * Save dupe list: If checked, then dupe information will be saved from
- session to session. If not checked, then dupe information will only be
- kept for the current session.
- * Items to Keep: This is the number of items to "remember" for the dupe
- checker. A bigger number here will remember more messages (or files), but
- will also require more memory and/or disk space to hold to dupe checker
- information.
- * Consider "From": If enabled, requires the from fields of two messages to
- be indentical for the files to be considered duplicates. A good idea for
- the dupe subject checker, but probably not advisable for the dupe file
- checker.
- * Consider "Lines": If enabled, requires the number of lines of two
- messages to be within a 10% tolerance for the messages to be considered
- duplicates. For multi-part files, only the first message is considered.
-
- AutoSave:
-
- Automatic save is used to automatically save the current state of Newsbot
- periodically during operation. This is useful if since if Newsbot crashes,
- Newsbot will be able to start back up at the correct position in the newsgroups
- and with all of your dupe checking and lockout information enabled. There are
- two types of autosave:
-
- * AutoSave Pointers: Saves message pointers. These pointers tell newsbot
- your current position in the newsgroups, i.e. how many messages you have
- already seen in each groups.
- * AutoSave Everything: This saves all state information, including the dupe
- checkers (assuming the dupe checkers have saving enabled), HTTP grabber,
- lockout lists, messages pointers, etc.
-
- Auto-Encryption:
-
- Auto-Encryption is intended to keep files that you download "private". This is
- primarilly in case you are downloading sensitive information that you don't
- want unauthorized people to be able to access. If Auto-Encryption is enabled,
- then files will be encrypted with a key that you specify. Only those persons
- who have this key will be able to retrieve the information in these files.
-
- Note #1: Be careful when you pick an encryption key. If you forget what you
- picked, then there is no way to "find out" what it was. Case is important, so
- make sure you know what parts (if any) are capitolized. Longer encryption keys
- do offer better protection. However, my algorithm is by no means perfect, and
- someone with enough time and computing power could undoubtably crack the code.
-
- Note #2: Encrypted files cannot be "read" by another other programs until they
- are decrpyted in some manner! No other program except Newsbot and it's
- associated utilities can deal with files encrypted in this manner.
-
- There are two ways to retrieve (or "decrypt") encrypted files:
-
- * With the built-in jpeg viewer. The built in jpeg viewer will
- automatically detect encrypted files and prompt you for the decryption
- key if necessary.
- * With decrypt.exe. Decrypt.exe (and for that matter, Encrypt.exe) are
- standalone utilities that you can use to encrypt and/or decrypt a series
- of files. Once decrypted with decrypt.exe, a file may be read by any
- other program. To decrypt files, use a command line similar to the
- following:
-
- decrypt key filename.ext
-
- Where "key" is the decrpytion key and "filename.ext" is the filename that
- you want decrypted. You may use wildcards in the filename and decrypt.exe
- will decryypt all files matching the specification. Decrypt.exe will not
- "mess up" unencrypted files, nor will it improperly decrypt a file if an
- improper key is supplied.
-
- Decrypt.exe and Encrypt.exe have some additional options. Run the program
- without any command line parameters to get a list of applicable options.
-
- FILES.BBS Generation
-
- FILES.BBS files are used by bulletin board systems to catalog files in download
- directories. If you're the sysop of a bbs, then you may find the automatic
- FILES.BBS generation useful. Otherwise, it probably won't be of much interest
- to you.
-
- Newsbot can create a variety of different FILES.BBS styles; You may select
- whichever one works best with your bbs. If none of them do, then you can
- probably find a conversion or import program for your bbs software which will
- do the trick. The various styles are listed in the listbox. Selecting "none"
- will disable files.bbs generation.
-
- By default, Newsbot will generate a FILES.BBS file in each directory that files
- are downloaded into. The FILES.BBS file will be "appended", not "overwritten".
- You may specify an alternate filename if you wish. If you include a
- drive/directory in the filename, then all groups will be listed in one big
- file.
-
- The "Convert to 8.3" option will put standard DOS 8.3 (filename.ext) filenames
- in the FILES.BBS rather than the Windows-95 long filenames. For example,
- "longname.jpg" would be entered as "longna~1.jpg". This may be useful for bbs
- programs which do not understand long filenames.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 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.
- * Latency: A measurement of how long it takes your news server to respond
- to a command message. Tiimes listed are in milliseconds (1 second = 1000
- milliseconds). Slower or highly-used servers will have greater latency
- times, whereas faster servers will have low latency times. If you are
- using other Internet applications at the same time as NewsBot, then the
- latency figure may rise.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Coord: The Newsbot Coordinator
-
- Coord.Exe (only available in 32-bit version) may be used to synchronize the
- dupe-checking capabilities of multiple news robots. Running multiple Newsbots
- at the same time may allow you to better utilize some of the slower news
- servers out there. To do this, you must run COORD.EXE before loading any
- instances of Newsbot.
-
- Some notes about using Coord:
-
- * Coord should be considered EXTREMELY BETA. It seems to be working for
- most of our testers, but there hasn't been time to conduct widespread
- testing at this time.
- * Make sure you run it before loading any newsbots.
- * Coord is used to run multiple newsbots at a time -- if you only want to
- run one newsbot, then don't bother with it!
- * Coord has it's own preferences for the dupe checkers -- you might want to
- be sure to set them to what you want.
- * Dupe Checking Statistics in Newsbot will be unavailable while running
- coord (use coord's dupe statistics instead)
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Unfinished Stuff
-
- Althought most of the core of Newsbot is finished, there are still quite a few
- bells and whistles that I'm planning to add. If you have any features that you
- would like to see that aren't listed below, then please email me. The following
- are some of the more-important things on my list:
-
- * Ability to download newsrc (the list of newsgroups)
- * Ability to specify search filters (i.e. only retrieve messages with xxx
- in the subject field)
- * "Catch-up" capability
- * User specified download paths
- * Multithreaded operation in 32-bit version
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Acknowledgements
-
- I would like to thank the following people for their help, support, or
- contributions to SBNews/Newsbot:
-
- * The many people who've helped me beta-test!
- * The Independent JPEG Group
- * The ISO Jpeg Standards Committee
- * Brian Kantor & Phil Lapsley (RFC977)
- * S. Barber (NNTP Extensions document)
- * The Papa winsock site
- * The Tucows winsock site
- * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen, "Notes on News"
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Registration
-
- SBNews/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.
-
- For information on registration, please see REGISTER.DOC (or REGISTER.HTM).
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Contacting Me
-
- US-Mail:
-
- Scott M. Baker
- 2241 W Labriego
- Tucson, Az 85741
- United States of America
-
- 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
-
- Find the latest SBNews/Newsbot at this address:
-
- http://www.primenet.com/~smbaker/sbnews/sbnews.html
-
- Find the latest SBJV at this address:
-
- http://www.primenet.com/~smbaker/sbjv/sbjv.html
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Revision History
-
- * Version 1.0
- * Initial public release
- * 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
- * Added icon
- * 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
- * Version 2.1
- * Spiffed up Jpeg viewer window
- * Fixed up error handling on JPEG decoding routines
- * Fixed possible error with "Null" strings
- * Version 2.2
- * Fixed problems with palette in 256 color mode
- * More tolerant of uuencoded lines with extra characters
- * Made small version of window even smaller
- * Dupe File, Delete Current, and No Mask signals will now
- disconnect/reconnect the session to keep from having to download
- entire message.
- * Several user-friendliness improvements
- * Included SAMPLE_G.TXT, a list of binary picture newsgroups
- * Added "-i [INIFILENAME]" command line parameter
- * Added Save as BMP option to JPEG viewer
- * Added Set Wallpaper option to JPEG viewer
- * Added normal vs Wallpaper mode toggle to JPEG viewer slideshow
- * If you drag & drop a JPG file into newsbot's main window, then
- Newsbot will launch a Jpeg viewer window to view the file.
- * Moved dupe checker preferences to their own menu item
- * Added "Items to keep" settings for dupe checkers
- * Fixed major distribution problem in hash function
- * Added Blank option to Current/Previous menus to blank out the
- current picture
- * Viewer enable defaulted to active
- * Fixed problem with long pathnames in jpeg viewer
- * Fallback when improper BWCC.DLL loaded
- * Version 2.3
- * Fixed GPF on loadup of nonregistered users
- * Version 2.4
- * Fixed problem with invalid (missing?) dates causing GPF
- * Made mime filename guesser stop at punctuation (except _ -)
- * Added color options to Jpeg viewer
- * Automatic restart after communications errors
- * Added automatic start command line option -auto
- * Added about box disable command line option -noabout
- * Fixed possible GDI leak in small viewer windows
- * Added wildcard (* and ?) support to lockout poster list
- * Cached hostname/ip address for reconnect
- * Added table of contents to documentation
- * Included seperate register.htm / register.doc
- * Automatic disconnect when all groups finished
- * Added Exit menu item to file menu
- * Version 2.5
- * Fixed GPF when lockout poster list empty
- * Version 3.0
- * Major redisign of internal header listing
- * Use linked list instead of array
- * Use hash table while downloading rather than linear search
- * Modification to header sort methods
- * Store from & subject in hash table
- * MSGID only stored for duration of current message; Needed to
- save wasted memory.
- * Major redesign of dupe checker routines
- * Store from & subject lines in same hash table as header
- listing to reduce memory requirements.
- * Allow FROM and LINES fields to be included in comparison.
- * FROM and LINES fields remembered and saved to disk
- * Addition of [Headers] button to group list: Manually configure
- header table
- * Added Received File statistics to statistics menu
- * Added Font configuration to config menu
- * Added help text for menu options
- * Added FROM and LINES toggles to dupe file checker
- * Added LINES toggle to dupe subject checker; Made FROM toggle-able
- * Revamped re search engine to support more than 4000 re nodes.
- * Added Lockout-Subject and Lockout-Filename
- * Made lockouts so they can be restricted to specific groups
- * Revamped dupe checker dialog to include edit and find/findnext
- features
- * Added stateset system to RE checker to improve speed in RE
- matchings
- * Log files now include date in filename to make deleting old logs
- easier
- * Delete old logs option added; Defaulted to on; gets rid of previous
- day(s) log files.
- * Added delete button to jpeg viewer to speed up deleting.
- * Added horizontal scrollbars to main dialog list boxes
- * Added autosave configuration
- * Added Save Preferences command
- * Rewrote ctime function to tolerate bad dates
- * Added Auto-Encryption to downloader
- * Added Auto-Decryption to viewer
- * Added Encrypt.exe and Decrypt.exe
- * Added additional file formats to fullscreen jpeg viewer
- * Version 3.1
- * Bug Fix: Major problem with Jump-To button
- * Bug Fix: Re-statesets (i.e. Lockout system) had a bogus quicksort.
- Fix should run faster & use less memory.
- * Jpeg Viewer: Added scaledown capability to TGA/BMP formats
- * Jpeg Viewer: Index window
- * Jpeg Viewer: Added stretch-to-fit option
- * Set maximum headers per group to 8000
- * Fixed infinite loop on nonexistant newsgroups
- * Fixed crash in ctime with bad dates
- * Fixed bug with shareware delay not working (Arrgghhh!)
- * Fixed gif/bmp/tga support crashing big viewer in 256-color mode
- * Version 3.2
- * Fixed thumbnail viewers not working properly in 256-color mode
- * Version 3.3
- * Fixed scrollbars in full screen jpeg viewer
- * Increased maximum number of newsgroups from 128 to 512
- * Made "Path Expansion" a seperate menu option
- * Added "full name" path expansion for win-95 users
- * Added Path Prefix elimination to path expansion options
- * Added READ and LOCKOUT buttons to header list
- * Better mime filename guessing
- * Auto append .JPG or .GIF to mime images if extention missing
- * Fixed uudecode filename routines to handle quoted strings
- * Re-aligned log listbox in large screen version
- * Added categorization system to jpeg viewer
- * Toggles for categorization and directory panes
- * Added horizontal scrollbars to header listing
- * 32-bit version: Changed header listbot to a ListView control
- * Added lines field to header listing
- * Fixed problem with jview colormodes not being saved properly
- * Fixed memory leak in re stateset routines (eg lockout system)
- * Minor speedup to re search routines
- * Enabled current/previous viewers in 16-bit version
- * Truncated subdirectory names to 8 chars in 16-bit version
- * Added confirmation options to JPeg viewer
- * JView file list reflects deleted files
- * Added tabbed windows-95 main dialog option
- * Added Configuration:Appearance option to set main dialog style
- * Replaced line count by progress bar in 32-bit version
- * Fixed GPF when "%" character in header
- * Added Latency/Throughput statistics
- * Version 3.4
- * Fixed problem of .DOC file not being updated in previous release
- * Added Menu to header dialog
- * Added selection functions to header dialog menu
- * Possible fix for Coord problems under NT 4.0 (maybe 3.5 too!)
- * Turned on 32-bit packing in 32-bit versions
- * Fixed abort problem in unregistered about dialog
- * Added 5-minute timeout to NNTP routines
- * Fixed message reader so it can handle passworded sessions
- * Added stretch to min(Window,Fullsize) option to jpeg viewer
- * Added center option to jpeg viewer
- * Made Jpeg picture viewer background gray
- * Eliminated flicker when resizing JPeg viewer
- * Spiffed up appearance of Jpeg and Index windows with gray
- background
- * Eliminated auto-generation of header log
- * Added save header log option to header dialog
- * Added file marking options to jpeg viewer
- * Added "only display marked files" option to slideshow
- * Made move and delete handle marked batches of files
- * Moved several of newsbots error messages to the resource file
- * Allow 224 in place of 221; Fix for microsoft nntp server
- * Send "mode reader" in response to a 200 or 201 message (only send
- once!)
- * Msg reader now has a window for header lines to be displayed
- * Added Pointers button to let user change message pointer
- * Version 3.5
- * Fixed the "fix" I put in for "mode reader" in version 3.4
- * Version 3.6
- * Fixed problem with jpeg viewer delete button causing crash
- * Added "-autoexit" command line option
- * Added lockout host and lockout xref menu options
- * Made Strman's Enumerate function not recalculate list if no changes
- * Added too many xref limit to miscpref
- * Added preload xref to miscpref
- * Added Next and Previous menu items to Jpeg viewer menu
- * Added keyboard shortcuts for next and previous items in Jpeg viewer
- * Fixed tabbing problems in jpeg viewer somewhat
- * Mouse click+drag can be used to scroll images in hpeg viewer
- * Fixed JPeg viewer categorization pane getting messed up when window
- resize
- * Improved GrayStatic control; Eliminated unneccessary repaint of
- full control
- * Fixed wrong date being written to files.bbs file
-
-