Chip: Special Tips & Tricks for Windows 95

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Text File | 1996-07-19 | 19.9 KB | 371 lines

"Picture Sucker" and "Picture Sucker Pro" Automated News Download Programs for Windows 95/NT by L.P. Glaister Picture Sucker and Picture Sucker Pro are 32 bit multi-threaded Winsock and WIN32 compatible applications which execute on both Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. These products were developed for the internet surfer who is a collector of fine internet artwork. These programs connect to any NNTP compatible news server and will automatically download UUENCODED pictures to your hard disk. The programs may be run minimized and will run concurrently while you are using your web browser, mail system, news readers or other internet applications. The user is able to configure the programs to select news articles for download using a variety of selection criteria. With over 16,000 news groups available and around 300 of them catering to the "visual crowd" you cannot afford to waste connect time with manually initiated downloads. The Picture Sucker family of software was developed in Visual C++ running under a multiprocessor version of Windows NT 3.51. "Picture Sucker Pro" has several advanced features: * windows listbox selection of newsgroups to search * history file to avoid duplicate downloads and crossposted articles * improved download statistics on the run screen * faster scanning of news groups for possible pictures * files are stored in a subdirectory to avoid accidental program deletion *** "Picture Sucker" will not operate correctly on Windows 3.x or 3.11. *** This is because Picture Sucker is written as a full 32 bit multi-threaded winsock compliant application. Multithreading is only supported under Windows 95 and Windows NT. The program searches a list of user programmable news groups looking for articles ranging in length of approximately 500 to 8500 lines in length (most good pictures fall in this range) with the subject line containing the strings "1/1" or "01/01" ( this avoids downloading partial pictures ). Several other tests may be optionally applied as a selection criteria for downloads. This version connects to a user specified news server and uses only low level news commands that should be supported by any NNTP server. Getting Started With Picture Sucker: 1. unzip the supplied file into any desired directory preferably on a hard disk with lots of free space. One overnite download may net 2000 pictures using about 200mb. You should have this file (help.txt) and sucker.exe. 2. You will have to use your news reader program and text editor to generate a file called groups.txt. A default file will be generated the first time you run Picture Sucker. Add or remove news groups as required from this file. 3. dial up your internet service provider via the dialup networking option in windows 95 or RAS in Windows NT. 4. when connected start sucker.exe 5. The setup window should appear. Fill in your news server IP address. This should look something like news.xyzcorp.com. Numeric fields for the IP address will not work. Normally, the rest of the fields default settings will be a good starting point. If your news server requires additional user authentication, check the "required" box and fill in the username and password supplied by your news service provider. Note: dont use this unless it is required. 6. From the main window just click on "start sucking" button. This will connect to your news server and display status in the main window areas on a regular basis. 7. You may exit the program at any time during downloading. Be sure to use the Close button, this will insure that all the history and setup files are stored properly on the hard drive. 8. Now that the program is setup, starting it again just requires starting sucker.exe and clicking on the Start Sucking button. Getting Started With Picture Sucker Pro: 1. unzip the supplied file into any desired directory preferably on a hard disk with lots of free space. One overnite download may net 2000 pictures using about 200mb. You should have this file (help.txt) and sucker.exe. 2. dial up your internet service provider via the dialup networking option in windows 95 or RAS in Windows NT. 3. when connected start sucker.exe 4. you will get a message warning that no subscribed news groups were found... this is normal until you get things setup. Click on OK. You will also be warned that no setup file was found, again this is all ok during intial installation. Click on OK, this will bring you to the setup window. 5. Fill in your news server IP address. This should look something like news.xyzcorp.com. Numeric fields for the IP address will not work. Normally, the rest of the fields default settings will be a good starting point. If your news server requires additional user authentication, check the "required" box and fill in the username and password supplied by your news service provider. Note: dont use this unless it is required. 6. Click on OK. This will take you to the main picture sucker window. Before you can download pictures, you will have to get a current list of news groups from the news server. 7. Click on the newsgroups button. This will advise you that you need to click on the "refresh list" button. So... doit. This may take a while as there are over 16000 news groups on some servers. The title bar will give you a blow by blow description of what is happening. You should see the left hand window fill up with a list of every newsgroup available from your news server. 8. After the groups are downloaded, the buttons will become enabled once again. Select the groups you wish to search for articles by double clicking on the group name in the left hand window, by highlighting a group of groups using the ctrl key and mouse clicks or by using the shift and arrow keys to select a group of groups. Once a group of groups is selected, it may be subscribed to or unsubscribed to be clicking on the --> or <-- buttons. The quickest way to get started is to just click on the Defaults--> button. This will scan the left hand window for groups of interesting subjects and will move the groups to the right hand subscribed window. Now click on OK. The groups will be stored in the newsrc file... this may take a few seconds to complete the write to the hard disk. 9. From the main window just click on "start sucking" button. This will connect to your news server and display status in the main window areas on a regular basis. 10. You may exit the program at any time during downloading. Be sure to use the Close button, this will insure that all the history and setup files are stored properly on the hard drive. 11. Now that the program is setup, starting it again just requires starting sucker.exe and clicking on the Start Sucking button. New Features: 6April96 * version indicated on title bar of main window * status window cleaned up on connection and disconnection to news server * new setup fields for those of you who have to use a user name and password to get access to your news server. * Connected To: window now shows "Nobody" when downloads are finished or have errored out. 19Jul96 * sound added to indicate network speed and link activity (may be disabled) * files saved in subdirectories: PICTURES contains all decoded pictures UNKNOWN contains articles saved in text format that failed to uudecode RAW contains articles saved in text format when uudecode disabled in setup (useful when downloading regular news articles) * files saved in text format have article subject as first line in file * a default groups.txt file is generated if one is not found on startup * progress bars added to indicate progress through news groups and individual file download status Pro 04May96 * contains dialog for interactively selecting news groups to be scanned * defaults button added news group selection dialog. This selects all groups from the unsubscribed window which contain "sex", "erotic", or "picture" * programmable number of downloaded history IDs keep around to avoid duplicate pictures. A count of cross posted articles or articles you have already downloaded (matching ID's in history window) is displayed as "duplicates skipped" in the Pictures window. Windows 95 maximum history selection should be limited to 32767 articles due to limit in the Windows 95 API. Under Windows NT, history is limited by Picture Sucker to numbers between 250 and 50000 downloaded articles. * download history is saved to disk every 50 pictures in case of power failures during prolonged downloads * program name which shows on toolbar when minimized is programmable for those that wish to run the program minimized while at work. Suggested title "4th Quarter Summary". * groups may now be subscribed or unsubscribed by double clicking on the individual group or by selecting a range of groups with the shift or control keys in conjunction with the arrow keys * pictures are now downloaded and stored in the subdirectory "pictures". This should help prevent the unwanted deletion of Picture Sucker Pro. * percentages are now displayed for progress through: groups, articles, and download of a particular article. * pictures that fail uudecode are saved in their raw text form in files with names like WTF008E0ACC.TXT in the pictures subdirectory. These may be decoded with other external decoders (such as base64) that are not yet supported by Picture Sucker Pro. The number of these files generated is listed on the run screen as "unknown format". * Typical performance with a 28.8 modem and a good news server connection is around 2000 pictures downloaded overnite. Questions and Answers: Q: where can I get the lastest copy of the free "Picture Sucker"? A: either by email request from glaister@nanaimo.ark.com or at ftp://ftp.infusion.de/pub/win95/sucker.zip or at http://nanaimo.ark.com/~glaister or at ftp://ftp.winsite.com/pub/pc/winnt/netutil/sucker.zip (the most recent version will likely be found on the http site above) Q: how can I download files with different extensions? A: you can turn off the option to check for jpg and gif files and it will then download anything that matches the rest of the options. Q: how do I download multipart files? A: multipart files are really difficult.... I gave up on them because it seemed that at least 1 piece was missing from the currently posted news articles. You will get more pictures than you can ever look at without wasting time on the multipart files. Use your news reader to manually download the multiple part files if you really need them. Q: how do I tell if I need to set up the user name and password? A: Try with the authorization option not checked. If you see something like "480 Authentication Required for Command" in the message status window then you need to check the Required box on the setup screen and enter you news server user name and password. (the items are usually supplied to you by your internet service provider). Q: how do I decode this file to get the file sucker.exe? A: Most mail programs have a decode option available. If not, use your mail program to save this message as a text file. Then you can use a program called uudecode to unpack the following section. If all this escapes you, send me a message and I will try sending you the executable directly as a mail attachment. Q: what files are required to run "Picture Sucker" A: at a bare minimum, you need sucker.exe and groups.txt. If the program doesnt find the .ini file, it will present you with the setup window and will create the file with your choices. If you have "Picture Sucker Pro", all you need is the sucker.exe. The rest will be generated once you setup the IP address of your news server and refresh the list of news groups. Q: what is the file format and content of groups.txt? A: this file is a list of all the news groups that you wish to search for potential news articles fitting your selection criteria. It is formated as a text file with each news group listed on a separate line. (groups.txt is not used by Picture Sucker Pro, instead, the list of all groups, subscribed or otherwise is stored in a file called newsrc) for example: alt.binaries.pictures.nudism alt.binaries.erotic.senior-citizens alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.senior-citizens alt.binaries.pictures.black.erotic.females alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.anime alt.binaries.pictures.erotica alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.female alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.art.pin-up alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.autos alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.balls alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bears alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bestiality alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.black.females alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.black.male alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.blondes alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bondage alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.breasts Groups.txt should be in the same directory as sucker.exe. Use your existing news reader to locate groups that you want to download pictures from and add these group names to groups.txt with one group per line. You need to put at least 1 group name in groups.txt. Q: how come I don't get any pictures when I run the program? A: If your news provider is selectively censoring your news groups, you may find that none of the groups listed in the groups.txt file are available from your news provider. Try using your regular news reader (winvn, netscape etc) to search for groups that contain the material you wish to automatically download. Make sure these groups are listed in the groups.txt file. If all else fails, try looking for a public news provider that carries the groups you are interested in. I found a good list using my WEB browser and searching for NNRP. Q: where do the pictures that are downloaded get stored? A: in the current directory, (the same one that contains sucker.exe) Picture Sucker Pro stores all its downloaded files in a subdirectory called "pictures". Version 19Jul96 moved pictures to a series of subdirectories detailed in the mod notes above Q: how do I view these pictures? A: use a jpeg or gif viewer. There are many different ones available on the net. I like LVIEW as it has lots of interesting editing features available. Q: how can I order a version of "Picture Sucker Pro"? A: "Picture Sucker" (free version) is available from several sites listed above. For the enhanced "Picture Sucker Pro" send a postal money order, personal check or cash for $19.95US to: L. P. Glaister Box 64 - Madrona Drive RR #1 Nanoose Bay B.C. Canada V0R 2R0 Please include your email address. Q: Does it matter if I am using Win 95 with dial up networking to access my Internet provider? DU networking is 32 bit. A: This will work just fine. Dialup networking under Windows 95 and RAS under Windows NT are the most common connections. For those lucky enough to have a direct internet connection, this should also work. Q: Can a news provider block use of this program? A: As far as a news server is concerned, this program looks just like a news reading program. If you can download pictures using winvn, free agent or netscape, or another generic NNTP news reader, picture sucker should work. To the news server, it looks like you are a very fast reader who stays up all night reading news in the alt.binaries groups. :} Q: Does "pix_suck.ini" need to be in the windows directory? A: No, everything stays in one directory... If you want to give it to a friend, just give them everything in the directory. (you dont need to give them pix_suck.ini as this may contain your username and password for news server access). Q: When I go to the Main Screen I cannot type in any of the options such as NewsGroup, News Server, etc. Am I doing something wrong? A: The main window consists of status displays only. These are used to indicate the progress of picture sucker during the download process. If you press the SETUP button on the main screen, you will get the setup screen. This is where you need to enter the IP address of your news provider. The default settings for the rest of the check boxes should work as a starting point. You may need to check the Required Box and enter a news server username and password (see question above) but most news servers allow access to local users without this extra authorization. Q: How can I tell if the program is working and downloading pictures? A: You should see a message like "line 243 of 723 ( 33% )" that increments every few seconds until it gets to 100%. This indicates that the article was downloaded. If the decode option is checked, picture sucker will attempt to uudecode the file into whatever the original filename was listed as. The file will be placed in the same directory as the sucker.exe. If the file is not uuencoded (netscape encodes files in a format called base64) then no output file (or an empty file) may result. Keep trying, most of the pictures on the news servers I have access to are uuencoded. In the Picture Sucker Pro, files that cannot be decoded by uudecode will be stored in their original format with file names like WTF003DF.TXT. You can then try and decode these using other decoding programs available off the net. Versions after 19Jul96 have progress bars that indicate activity as well as sound. All articles downloaded are saved and optionally decoded.