To set up ToadNews, you need to get your news transport up and running, which means that you have to spend some time configuring it first. Once you've got it working, contact the system operator (via e-mail or the phone) of the site you want to get news from (the newsfeed).
Tell them:
• …that you wish to receive news
• …what newsgroups you want sent to your machine
• …that you can support compressed batches
Once you have got UUCP sending news to your machine you can set up ToadNews to deal with it.
Things To Do Before Running ToadNews
Before you run ToadNews you should create a folder to put your news in. We recommend that you put it in the same place as your spool folder. Name this folder “News”.
You are now ready to run and configure ToadNews. Click the icon below if you want to launch ToadNews now.
 
Launch ToadNews now –>
Unbatcher Preferences
The first step in setting up ToadNews is to configure the Unbatcher. First, go to the ToadNews menu and pull down and into the Preferences submenu and select Unbatcher…. You should see the following dialog:
 
Now that you see this dialog, you should do these things:
(1) Enter your node name into the box named UUCP Name. If you are using UUCP, this should be the same name that you used when configuring your UUCP engine (if not, then any name less 12 characters should be fine as long as it does not include spaces or punctuation).
(2) Press the first upper grey button named Select. You will be presented with a standard open dialog box. You now need to find the directory that UUCP will put your incoming news into.
(2) Press the second upper grey button named Select. You will be presented with a standard open dialog box. You now need to find a directory that you want your Usenet news to be placed in. Remember the directory you initially created (the folder named “News”)? Find the directory that you made earlier and press the "Select" button.
(4) Enter the time interval in minutes that ToadNews looks for new newsbatches. Set this higher if you don't get news that often -- if you only receive new newsbatches from UUCP once every hour then there is no reason to check for news every 10 minutes (a interval of 60 minutes would do fine).
(5) Check the options that you want. These check box options are important:
Allow cross-posts articles to be saved to multiple newsgroups
• Checking this box makes ToadNews to save a copy of an article to every newsgroup listed the article's "Newsgroup:" header line. Turning this option tends to waste disk space.
• Unchecking this box makes ToadNews only save one copy of the article (to the newsgroup listed first on the article's "Newsgroup:" header line), reducing the redundancy of cross-posts.
Use aliases
• When the Allow cross-posts box is turned on, turning this option on makes all the copies of a cross-posted article use a System 7 file alias to the first article in the list. (This saves room on your precious hard-drive) If this option is turned off, all articles are duplicated.
Automatically add newgroups to list of active newsgroups
• Turning this option ON saves you having to enter new newsgroups (by hand) into the active newsgroup list. If you get a posting for a group rec.food.banana and you don't have the newgroup listed in your active newsgroup list, ToadNews will automatically create an entry for it. This can be useful, however, it can also be annoying if someone posts to comp.sys.mac.comm and some.local.group.comm. You most likely don't want a newsgroup from the other side of the world.
• Turning this option OFF makes ToadNews reject (ie: don't save) any articles which are posted to newsgroups that aren't listed in your active newsgroup list.
Save invalid articles to "junk"
• Turning this option ON makes ToadNews save articles that were improperly formatted (according to RFC1036) to the newsgroup "junk". Also saved to this group are articles posted to newsgroups that weren't accepted by any newsgroups in your active file. This allows you to see if your Usenet provider is sending you groups that you don't want.
• Turning this option OFF, makes ToadNews through improperly formatted articles into the "bit-bucket" (well, "out-the-window" is a better term).
Backup active file newsgroup file afer unbatching is finished
• Turning this option ON means that ToadNews will always have a backup of your active file (which lists which newsgroups are active on your node) should your original file become corrupt.
Expirer Preferences
The next step on configuring ToadNews you need to select Expirer in the submenu from Preferences in the ToadNews menu. Once you have done that you will see the following dialog:
 
Expire whenever spool volume free space falls below X%
• Checking this box makes ToadNews expire old news whenever the free space on your hard drive falls below a certain percentage (which you specify in the box beside the % sign) of the total space of your hard drive.
• Unchecking this box makes ToadNews turns this option off.
Default expire time (in days) for new newsgroups
• In ToadNews you can decide the default value of how long each newsgroup keeps it's messages before they are expired. If you have automatic news group creation turned on, setting this value to 0 will cause these new newsgroups to have a expire time of 0 days.
Window Preferences
ToadNews you has several different windows. You can configure what you see in each window by selecting Window in the Preferences submenu under the ToadNews menu. When you select that menu you should see:
 
You can filter what kinds of messages are reported in the Log window by either turning each message category's check-box on. (For example, to make the Log window report statistic-related messages, you would check the box marked Statistics)
Save Log Messages To File
• Checking this box will force ToadNews to write messages that are displayed in the log window to a file named ToadNews Log in your spool folder. This box will be greyed out if you haven't selected a default spool folder.
Limit log window buffer size to Xk
• Turning this option ON forces ToadNews to limit the size of the log windows buffer to the amount specified in the box beside it. When the buffer reaches the specified limit, the log is erased and started over.
• Turning this option OFF allows ToadNews to use a log buffer limited in size only by the amount of memory that is made available to ToadNews.
Update newsgroup window during processing
• Turning this option ON makes ToadNews to refresh the information contatined in the Newsgroups window during any unbatching or expiring option. (This makes processing proceed slightly slower)
• Turning this option OFF tells ToadNews not to refresh the information contatined in the Newsgroups window during any unbatching or expiring option. (This makes processing proceed slightly faster)
Decompressor Preferences
ToadNews allows you to use external programs to decompress incoming newsbatches. You can choose whether or not ToadNews uses an external application, by selecting Decompressor in the Preferences submenu under the ToadNews menu. When you select that menu you should see:
 
Use built-in decompression routines
• Selecting this button tells ToadNews to use its own decompression routines to uncompress newsbatches when necessary.
Use an external decompressor
• Selecting this button tells ToadNews to use the specifed application (the one in the box beside the caption "Program") to decompress a newsbatch. You can use the button Select to choose the application that will decompress the newsbatch.
Threader Preferences
ToadNews allows you to use external programs to thread the articles on your hard drive. By threading the articles, it creates information for use by your newsreader so that newsreading can be done in an orderly and quick way. You can choose whether or not ToadNews threads newsgroups by selecting Threader in the Preferences submenu under the ToadNews menu. When you select that menu you should see:
 
Don't use an external threader
• Fairly explanatory. If this button is selected, ToadNews does not tell any applications to thread newsgroups.
Use an external threader
• Selecting this button tell ToadNews to use the specifed application (the one in the box beside the caption "Program") to generate threading information when ToadNews has finished unbatching or expiring news. You can use the button Select to choose the application that will generate threading information.
Startup Preferences
ToadNews allows you to perform a set of tasks when the program is started. You can specify which tasks are performed by selecting Startup in the Preferences submenu under the ToadNews menu. When you select that menu you should see:
 
Some of the options that you can choose are:
Unbatch new newsbatches in the batch folder
• Turning this option ON tells ToadNews to unbatch all newsbatches that are in the batch folder at startup.
Expire old articles in all newsgroups
• Turning this option ON tells ToadNews to expire all old news at startup.
Launch external threader
• Turning this option ON tell ToadNews to launch the specified external threader at startup.
Quit after completing all of the selected tasks
• Turning this option ON tell ToadNews to quit after all of the above tasks have completed.
NOTE:
When you start ToadNews , holding down the OPTION key will cause ToadNews to ignore these settings.
