Chip 1997 October

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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about SBNews ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. I Want SBNews to only download files with .jpg or .gif in the subject field 2. Help! I want to get rid of all these unsolicited advertisements (i.e. SPAM)! 3. I'm having trouble getting SBNews to work with AOL 4. SBNews puts all of the downloads in the same directory -- I want them in separate directories. 5. SBNews connects, does a little stuff and then disconnects without downloading! What's wrong? 6. I get a bunch of "Decoding Initialization Failure Messages". What's happening? 7. Lockout Posting Host doesn't work right... 8. Where can I find some adult groups? 9. Can I lock out just part of an email address? Just the domain name? 10. How do I use the encrypt/decrypt programs? What are they for? 11. If I register, will the code be good for the next release? 12. Is the personal information I give you confidential? 13. Please tell me more about the credit card registration system. 14. Why do you only charge $15.00? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Want SBNews to only download files with .jpg or .gif in the subject field. Personally, I don't like to do this, and that's why SBNews doesn't do it by default. The problem is that many new novice users (or even experienced users for that matter...) forget to put the filename on the subject line. Then, you'd miss the file! However, some of you feel differently, and thus I have included the capability as follows: 1. Open up the Configure:Acceptable File Masks Dialog from the pull-down menu 2. Delete *.* from the list. 3. Add *.jpg, *.gif, and anything else you wish to download. 4. Check the option marked "Require mask to match on subject line" SBNews will now scan the subject field for an acceptable file mask before the file is downloaded. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help! I want to get rid of all these unsolicited advertisements (SPAM)! Unsolicited, off-topic newsgroup messages, commonly referred to as SPAM, have become quite a problem recently. Many commercial adult sites post unwanted x-rated material to groups without any consideration of whether the material is on-topic or not. Usually, these pictures are plastered with banners advertising the service. There are several ways to eliminate SPAM with SBNews: * Use the Maximum XRef Limit field in the Configure:Preferences dialog. I find 10 to be a good setting. This will prevent downloading of messages that are posted to many different groups. Most of the SPAM advertisers hit many groups at once, and this will filter it out. You'll probably also want to check Preload XRef Hdrs while you're there; This will pre-download the XRef lines ahead of time to prevent newsbot from having to disconnect/reconnect on an offending message. * Use the Lockout XRef option located in the Configure pull-down menu. You can enter all the names of newsgroups that you know you don't want to download pictures from. Then, if newsbot finds a message that is cross-posted to a group that you don't want, that message will be skipped. As with above, you'll probably also want to check the Preload XRef Hdrs option, located in the Configure:Preferences pull-down menu. * When you see someone posting images you don't like, use the Lockout Poster function located in the Current or Previous pull-down menus. Newsbot will ensure that you never see a message posted from that email address again. * SPAM advertisers love to put their http: address on the message subject line. If you notice one of these offending addresses, go into the Lockout Subject dialog and lock out the address. * You can use the <Headers> button to view message headers before messages are downloaded. You can easily skim this list and see what posters are sending SPAM and lock them out. * It's important to note that you do not need to enter a full address or subject into the subject/poster lockouts -- you can just enter a keyword or portion of the phrase. For example, if you received a bunch of messages from "fred@bogusspam.com", "tom@bogusspam.com", and "joe@bogusspam.com", you could just lockout "bogusspam.com" and that would get rid of all of them. It's that simple! * I've found it helpful to lockout the word "free" in the subject and/or poster lockouts. Nearly every SPAM advertiser wants you to think their "pay" service is "free", so this works for the vast majority of them. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm having trouble getting SBNews to work with AOL You're not alone -- so are a lot of people. As far as I can tell, AOL does not provide a standard nntp news server. I might be wrong on this, I don't know. If anyone does know for sure, then please send me a note. In the meantime, my best suggestion would be to get a real Internet account in addition to your AOL service. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SBNews puts all downloads in the same directory -- I want them in separate directories. Use the Configure:Path Expansion option -- that's what it's there for. You have several options available, such as using numbered subdirectories or subdirectories based on a portion of the newsgroup name. Consult the documentation or help file for more information. [This is the answer to the question.] Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SBNews connects, does a little stuff and then disconnects without downloading! What's wrong? There could be several different causes for this problem: 1. Do you have some groups enabled? When you first install SBNews, all it will do is download a newsgroup listing (newsrc.lst). Since you haven't selected any groups, SBNews won't try to receive any. You need to use the <Add> button to add some groups. You can either type the name directly if you know it, or you can use the <Browse> button (located in the <Add> dialog) to browse through the listing of groups that SBNews downloaded from your server. Once you've added what you want, press <Connect> to start a connection. 2. Are there error messages? For example, you may have typed invalid group names and SBNews can't locate them. Perhaps you entered a bad news server address and SBNews can't find your server. If you get an error message you don't understand, then don't hesitate to email me; I can probably shed some light on the problem. 3. Transient server trouble. The Internet is a dynamic system, with all kinds of different hardware involved. Sometimes your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may experience a problem with their news server. These usually clear up in a day or so. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I get a bunch of "Decoding Initialization Failure Messages". What's happening? The number one cause of this problem is insufficient disk space. I know, I really need to spiff up the handling of this to give you some informative error messages and have a more graceful shutdown. I will probably be doing this in the future. In the meantime, if you get some Decoding Initialization Failure messages, then the first thing you should do is verify that all of your download drives have plenty of free disk space. This message is actually given whenever Newsbot cannot createa file. It may be due to some other reason than disk space, although I have never seen any. Possibilities could be writing to a read-only media (i.e. CD-ROM), writing to a network drive you don't have access to, writing to a drive that doesn't exist, overwriting an existing read-only or system file, or some other circumstance that causes Windows to not want to create the file. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lockout Posting Host doesn't work right... Lockout Posting Host has a somewhat technical meaning and is often misunderstood. Lockout Posting Host is intended to refer to a specific news header field called "NNTP-Posting-Host". This field holds the name of the host which the message author posted from. Lockout Posting Host does not refer to the stuff after the @ symbol in a fromheader. The reason for Lockout Posting Host is simple... Many undesirable authors will forge the from field in the header to make it more easy to track them down. Locking out part of the from field won't work, since these people generally post under many different made-up names. However, many times the NNTP-Posting-Host field is automatically filled in by their news program and is valid. In these situations, you can use Lockout Posting Host to eliminate all messages from that host. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where can I find some adult groups? I've made it my policy to not specifically endorse any newsgroups containing adult subject matter. Therefore, I can't recommend any specific groups for you to try. All of the adult groups are fairly easy to spot; The majority of them are located under the "alt.binaries.pictures.erotic" hierarchy. If you use the <Browse> button located in the <Add> dialog, you should be able to scroll down and find a big block of them. Like I said, their names are fairly obvious so you should be able to spot them without difficulty. It's possible that your news server might not list these groups in the newsgroup listing -- I've had unconfirmed reports of this. In this case, you will need to learn the newsgroup names from an alternate source and you can just type their names into the <Add> dialog. One useful hint (not necessarily related solely to adult newsgroups) is to use the Statistics:Similar Newsgroups pull-down menu function. This will provide a listing of groups cross-referenced with the one you're currently receiving. These groups usually contain related subject matter and you may wish to investigate them. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Can I lock out just part of an email address? Just the domain name? You can type in any string you want into the lockout poster dialog. SBNews will lock out the message if the string you enter appears anywhere in the from field of the message. So yes, you could lockout a domain name, for example "@badhost.com". Note: You can override the "match any position" behavior by selecting the appropriate checkbox when you enter the lockout information. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do I use the encrypt/decrypt programs? What are they for? The encrypt and decrypt programs are used to encrypt or "scramble" data files so they can't be read by anyone without a special encryption key. They are useful in case you have sensitive information and want to make sure unauthorized persons don't happen across it. Encrypt.Exe and Decrypt.Exe are command line utilities. They are intended to be run from a command prompt session, such as the Windows-95 "MS-DOS Prompt". They're not very friendly, but are good for quick work if you know your way around command line programs. Version 4.4 of SBNews, as well as 2.4 of SBJV, will include the ability to encrypt and decrypt from pull-down menus. This capability is located on the File menu entry in the large jpeg viewer window (i.e. the one accessed by clicking on a thumbnail in Newsbot or selecting View Jpeg). The menu bar options are a lot more user friendly, and would be a good option for those who are a bit dissatisfied with the command line format of Encrypt.Exe and Decrypt.Exe. Note: Newsbot can be automatically configured to encrypt data "on the fly" as it's downloaded. This is located under the Configure:Auto-Encryption pull-down menu. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If I register, will the code be good for the next release? Registering for any version of SBNews entitles you to registration in all versions -- past, present, and future. This includes both the Win-3.1 and Win-95 versions, as well as any other platforms that SBNews may be released on in the future. You only need to register once. You will never have to register again. Your code is also good for several of my other programs, including SBJV and SB Image Explorer. You can consider these a sort of free bonus if you'd like. They can all be found in various areas of my website. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is the personal information I give you confidential? Yes, absolutely. I will not give out your name, email, or anything else to anyone! I do not believe in selling peoples names or other personal information. Your information never leaves my hard drive, and nobody except me is allowed access to it. I believe very strongly in the importance of privacy, especially in our modern technological society. I will not let anyone know any of your personal information. Period. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please tell me more about the credit card registration system. The credit card registration system is operated by a company called Anacom. They provide a secure server which supports the Secure Sockets Layer. What this means is that the information that you enter is encrypted so that nobody can intercept it. This is all done automatically by your web browser and Anacom's server. The encryption technology is becoming standard across the Internet and is built into all popular web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape. Anacom is a very popular credit card server -- they've been doing this for a long time, and many Internet businesses use them. For more information about the Secure Sockets Layer(SSL), you can try Netscape's information page at http://home.netscape.com/info/security-doc.html .(Note: If netscape moves this page and/or you can't find it, send me an email at smbaker@primenet.comand I'll find it for you) When you enter your credit card information and press <Submit>, Anacom's server connects to a credit card processor directly via a modem line, just like the little credit card machines at normal stores/restaurants. Anacom then sends me an email notification letting me know that a new order has arrived. This email (to me) does not contain any credit card info; All credit card information is maintained securely at Anacom. Your credit card information is never transmitted along unprotected channels -- everything is stored on Anacom's secure server. The information is so well protected that I can't even access your card number myself! Once I receive the email notification, I run a little program that generates a registration code for you and I email the code to you. I usually download my mail several times per day, so most people get their registrations within a few hours. You should expect to have it within 24 hours and I make the absolute guarantee that you will definitely have it within 48 hours. If not, then email me at smbaker@primenet.comand I'll look into it ASAP. The credit card charge will show up on your credit card as "SB Software". This will be all the information that shows up on your bill -- there won't be anything indicating which product of mine you purchased or the nature of that product. There are occasional problems (such as timeouts) that may occur in the credit card process. The credit card network is a complex system and in periods of high demand, can get a bit backlogged. I'm sure you've noticed that, for example, if you pay by credit card at a restaurant sometimes the clerk has a bit of trouble processing the machine and has to do it over again. This same situation can happen to an online transaction. If you do experience problems (such as a timeout), please try back in a few minutes, or an hour or two. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why do you only charge $15.00 for registration? I'm not kidding, a lot of people do ask this question! :) I'm betting that selling a greater number of registrations at a lower price will be more profitable then selling few registrations at a high price. The low price makes the product more accessible to the majority of Internet hobbyists who are already strapped for money. After all, the goal of my programming efforts is as much to provide a useful and beneficial program that makes users happy as it is to provide an income for myself. That's also the same reason why I include SBJV, SBImgExp, and the other applications all in the same package. They all share code (SBJV is basically an external version of Newsbot's image viewer) and I just wouldn't feel right about making people pay for each of them separately. I think $15.00 is a very fair price to ask. I've spent a huge number of hours on this project, mostly implementing suggestions from users and correcting bugs that users have reported. Registering your copy helps to provide me with the incentive to continue working on the project, which in turn leads to better versions for you to use! Shareware programming is my sole source of income and it is what I'm using to pay for my education. Many people have stated that they feel SBNews is worth more than $15.00 and that they would like to pay me something extra for my efforts. I have no problem with this! In fact, I can use all the support I can get! If you would like to send me something extra, I would be very grateful. You can contact me personally via the email at smbaker@primenet.comto discuss this if you'd like. I have considered perhaps setting up a "sponsors" page (entirely optional, of course) on my site to list those who send additional support. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- email smbaker@primenet.comfor more information. Copyright ⌐ Scott M Baker and/or SB Software. All rights reserved. Revised: July 18, 1997.