AltaVista Search My Computer Private eXtension

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AltaVista Search My Computer Private eXtension Version 1.0 (Build 196D) Release Notes December 2nd, 1996 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Getting Started 2. SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS AND APPLICATIONS 2.1 Minimum Configuration 2.2 Supported Platforms 2.3 Pre-requisite Software 2.4 Supported Data Types 3. INSTALLATION PROCEDURES 3.1 How to Install from CD 3.2 How to Install from Internet Download 3.3 How to Create an Index 3.4 How to Manually Configure an Unsupported Browser 3.5 How to Configure User Interface for French, German, or Spanish 3.6 How to Install QuickView Viewers. 4. DEINSTALLATION PROCEDURES 5. CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT 5.1 How to contact Technical Support 5.2 What Information to Provide 6. UNSUPPORTED WINDOWS95 SEARCH INTERFACE PROGRAM 7. KNOWN PROBLEMS End Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION AltaVista Search My Computer Private eXtension brings the power of DIGITAL's AltaVista Internet Service to your own personal files. It allows you to quickly find files and mail messages anywhere on your PC's local disks, and on any shared network disk to which you are currently connected. From the same user interface it allows you to perform searches of the Internet using DIGITAL's AltaVista Internet Service. This document describes how to install the product, lists known problems, and explains how to contact AltaVista Technical support if you have problems. 1.1 Getting Started To use AltaVista Search My Computer do the following: 1. Check Sections 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 below to ensure that your PC is running a supported configuration. 2. Install the product as described in Section 3. You can now perform searches of the Internet, but before you can search for files and mail messages on your PC's disks, you must wait for an index of your files to be build. A program to build an index of your files is started by the installation procedure. When the index is ready, a message will be displayed, after which you can enter queries to search for your files. 2. SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS AND APPLICATIONS 2.1 Minimum Configuration To run AltaVista Search My Computer Private eXtension you must have, at a minimum: o 25MHz 486 processor o 12MB of memory. o 10MB disk space. 2.2 Supported Platforms The AltaVista Search Private eXtension V1.0 is supported on: Windows95 WindowsNT V4.0 (Intel) 2.3 Prerequisite Software One of the following web browsers must be present in order for the product to work: - Netscape V2.x - Netscape V3.0 - Microsoft Internet Explorer V2 - Microsoft Internet Explorer V3 The Windows95 TCP/IP protocol (included in Windows95) must be installed and configured. Third party TCP/IP implementation are not supported. QuickView Plus from Inso Corporation is desirable but, not essential. 2.4 Supported Data Types AltaVista Search Private eXtension V1.0 supports indexing/searching of: o mail messages stored by the following mail programs: - Microsoft Exchange V4.0 - Eudora Pro V2.1 - Eudora Pro V2.2 - Eudora Pro V3.0 - Eudora Lite V1.5 o the following file types: - Ami Pro, Ami, Professional Write Plus - Dbase III/IV/V - DEC DX 3.0 and below, 3.1, 4.x - DOS/Windows executables and DLLs - Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) - Lotus Manuscript 1.0/2.0 - Lotus 1-2-3 1.0/2.0/3.0/4.0/5.0 - Microsoft Access V1.0/V2.0 - Microsoft Excel 2.x/3.0/4.0/5.0/7.0 - Microsoft Office Binder - Microsoft Powerpoint 3.0/4.0 for Windows - Microsoft Windows Write - Microsoft Word for Windows 1.x/2.0/4.x/5.x/6.x/7.0 - Microsoft Wordpad - Microsoft Works DOS 1.0 2.0 WP - Microsoft Works Win 3.0 WP - OfficeWriter - Quattro Pro for Windows 5.0/6.0 - Rich Text Format (RTF) - Text (DOS & ANSI 7&8 bit) - WordPerfect 4.2/5.x/6.0/6.1 - Wordstar for Windows 3. INSTALLATION PROCEDURES NOTE: If you have previously installed a pre-release version of this product (i.e. V0.7, V0.8, or V0.9), you must de-install that version before installing V1.0. To de-install the previous version, use the "Add/Remove Programs" option in the Windows95 Control Panel. 3.1 How to Install from CD To install from CD-ROM: 1. Insert the AltaVista Search My Computer CD into your CDROM drive. 2. In Windows95 Explorer click the left mouse button on the drive letter corresponding to your CD-ROM drive (eg. D:). 3. Double click the left mouse button on the SETUP application in the directory list of the CD-ROM. 4. Follow the instructions. 3.2 How to Install from Internet Download To download and install the self-extracting archive, 1. Follow the instruction in the download web page. 2. Save the kit file avsmc10.exe into a directory on a local disk. 3. Use Windows95 Explorer to display this directory 4. Double click the left mouse button on the avsmc10.exe application in the directory list. 5. Follow the instructions. 3.3 How to Create an Index Before you can search for files and mail messages on your PC's disks, an index of your PC's disks must be created. The installation procedure will automatically start the indexer, but you will not be able to perform searches until the indexer has finished. To monitor the progress of the indexer, click on the indexer icon in the Windows95 status tray. 3.4 How to Manually configure an unsupported browser. If the installation procedure failed to detect your web browser, or you are using a web browser that is not supported by the installation procedure (see Section 2.3), you can manually configure AltaVista Search and your browser to work together. To manually configure your web browser: 1. Add the following entry to your bookmark list: file:///C:/Program Files/Digital/AltaVista Search/ Private eXtension/initPage.html NOTE: This assumes that you installed AltaVista Search in the default directory. If you installed AltaVista Search in another directory, use that directory in the bookmark. 2. If you use a Proxy server to access the Internet, add the following entry to the "No Proxy" list in your browser: 127.0.0.1 If you do not use a proxy server to access the Internet then no further configuration is required. If you do use a proxy server then you must configure AltaVista Search as follows: 3. In your web browser, go to the AltaVista Search initial page bookmark that you added in step 1. 4. Click on the "Configuration" link at the bottom of the page. 5. Click on the "No" button beside the "Use internet proxy information defined in web browser?: " 6. Click on the "Submit" button. 7. Return to the configuration page by clicking on the "Configuration page" link. 8. In the field labelled "Enter proxy here", enter the name and port number of your proxy server as it appears in your browser, eg. www-proxy.abc.dec.com:8080. Note that you must enter the full NAME of the proxy server. IP addresses (eg. 16.12.12.12) or partial host names (eg. www-proxy.abc) will not work. 9. In the field labelled "Enter a list of domains that do not use a proxy:" enter the names of domain that you do not access through your proxy server. 10. Click on submit. AltaVista Search and your web browser are now configured to work together. 3.5 How to Configure User Interface for French, German, or Spanish AltaVista Search My Computer V1.0 includes draft versions of the French, German, and Spanish language user interfaces. To change the language used in the user interface, do the following: 1. In Windows95 Explorer go to the directory in which you installed the product. By default this directory is: C:\Program Files\Digital\AltaVista Search\Private eXtension 2. In this directory you will find the following files: ENGLISH.REG FRENCH.REG GERMAN.REG SPANISH.REG Copy the file corresponding to the language you want to use to the root directory of one of your disks. Double click on that file in the root directory. You can now delete the copied file from the root directory if you don't want to keep it for later use. 3. Stop the Indexer and the AltaVista Dispatcher, then restart them. To change the language that the browser search interface uses: 1. Go to the AltaVista Search bookmark in your browser. 2. Click on the "Configuration Page" link. 3. In the Configuration Page, go to the "Language Selection" section. Click on the button beside the language you want to use. 4. Click on the "Submit" button. NOTE: AltaVista Search My Computer will always Search/Index English, French, German, and Spanish language files and mail, regardless of the language the user interface is displaying. 3.6 How to Install QuickView Viewers. AltaVista Search My Computer supports the previewing of documents using Inso Corporation's QuickView and QuickView Plus products. These are NOT supplied with AltaVista Search My Computer. There are two ways of obtaining these viewing products: 1. Purchase QuickView Plus from Inso Corporation. More information is available from http://www.inso.com/ 2. Use the basic QuickView product that is include as an optional feature in Windows95. To install the basic QuickView product do the following: a. Go into the Windows95 Control Panel b. Double click on "Add/Remove Programs" c. Click on the "Windows Setup" tab d. Click on the "Accessories" item in the components list e. Click on the "Details..." button f. Scroll through the list of components until you find "Quick View" g. Click on the tick box beside Quick View to select it. h. Click on OK in each window. 4. DEINSTALLATION PROCEDURES You can de-install the product using the "Add/Remove Program" option in the Windows95 Control Panel. 5. CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT 5.1 How to contact Technical Support If you have any problems with this software, or you want to send us your comments and suggestions, you can do so via our web site. Go to the following URL, then click on the "Help" button. http://altavista.software.digital.com/ 5.2 What Information to Provide When asking for technical support on a problem, please include the following information: 1. Problem Severity: This indicates how seriously the problem impacts your use of the product. Select one of the following: High = a major part of the product is unusable Medium = a minor feature of the product is unusable, or you have found a way or bypassing the problem Low = minimal impact, or cosmetic problem 2. Product Version Details: o the version of AltaVista Search My Computer you are running. e.g. V1.0 (Build 213) o The Software Version Numbers of related products, e.g.: Microsoft Exchange Mail Eudora Mail Windows 95 Windows NT Application(s) that produced the file(s) you are searching 3. Problem Description o The exact wording of any messages that appeared on your screen: - File name where the error occurred - Line number where the error occurred o A description of what you were doing when the problem occurred, e.g. indexing Eudora mail, searching o A description of how you tried to solve the problem, or any workarounds you have developed. 4. Log Files The product generates log files in the directory in which it was installed. By default this directory is: C:\Program Files\Digital\AltaVista Search\Private eXtension Include all files with names ending in ".LOG" in your problem report. 6. UNSUPPORTED WINDOWS95 SEARCH INTERFACE PROGRAM This product includes an unsupported Windows95 Search program that can be used instead of the web browser based search interfaces. It is intended for use in the unlikely event that the browser interface is not functioning correctly. This program is located in the directory into which you installed the product. By default the directory is: C:\Program Files\Digital\AltaVista Search\Private eXtension\ The name of the program is PAV_GUI.EXE. To run it either click on it in explorer, or create a shortcut to it in a convenient location. 7. KNOWN PROBLEMS The sections that follow describe known problems in V1.0, and where appropriate describe a workaround for the problem. Summary of known problems: 7.1 Installation 7.1.1 Un-install doesn't always delete all files 7.1.2 Install does not handle multi-user Windows95 environments 7.1.3 Install fails ""The decompression of %s failed..." 7.2 Indexing 7.2.1 Indexer stops/closes while indexing disk files 7.2.2 Indexer doesn't run at correct time on NT 4.0 beta 7.2.3 Text in HTML HREF tags is not indexed 7.2.4 Text in images files is not indexed. 7.2.5 Indexer appears to loop on large binary files. 7.2.6 Poor system performance on multi-processor systems 7.2.7 Attachments inside attachments aren't indexed 7.2.8 Indexer stops if folders on shared disk become unreachable 7.2.9 Exchange doesn't work if MS Word is the default editor 7.2.10 Exchange .PST files "locked by another process" 7.2.11 Error "Could not install Eudora MAPI system..." 7.2.12 Can't receive MS Mail when Dispatcher and Indexer running 7.2.13 Not all Exchange Mail indexed if Exchange server unreachable 7.3 Searching 7.3.1 No response to query from browser. 7.3.2 Proxy Authentication not supported 7.3.3 Wild cards don't behave as expected 7.3.4 Dial-up Networking Request when Stand-alone PC rebooted 7.3.5 First query times out on disconnected SLIP/PPP systems 7.3.6 Viewing Exchange Mail is slow the first time 7.3.7 QuickView of mail message with no body displays empty window 7.3.8 Forward/Reply doesn't work on some versions of Exchange Mail 7.3.9 Can't display Eudora mail messages >64KB on Windows95 7.3.10 Auto Proxy Browser option not supported 7.1 Installation 7.1.1 Un-install doesn't always delete all files Under some circumstances the de-install process does not delete all product files. During subsequent reinstallation warning messages appear indicating that some files already exist. When prompted you should answer "yes" when asked whether to overwrite existing files. The installation will then proceed correctly. 7.1.2 Install does not handle multi-user Windows95 environments When installing, menu items are added to the common program groups instead of the user specific program groups. 7.1.3 Install fails ""The decompression of %s failed..." On some systems the avsmc10.exe will fail with the following message, even though there is ample disk space: "The decompression of %s failed. There may not be enough free disk space available in the TEMP directory." If this occurs then perform the following steps: 1. Open a DOS Window 2. Type the SET command with no parameters 3. Find the line that starts TEMP=. The directory name following the = is your TEMP directory. 4. In Windows95 Explorer go to the TEMP directory and delete all of the files in it. 5. Run avsmc10.exe again. If the install fails with the same error, then you will need to download an alternative kit from the AltaVista web site. This kit is packaged differently to avoid the above problem. Contact Technical Support (see Section 5) to detail on how to download the alternative kit. Once you have downloaded the kit, install it as follows: 1. Create a new, empty directory on a local disk 2. Download the above kit into the directory 3. Execute avsmc09z.exe. This will unpack the kit files into the directory, but it WILL NOT run the install. There will now be a number of files in the directory, one of which is SETUP.EXE 4. Run setup.exe and follow the instructions. On completion of the install you may delete the files in this directory, they are not used by the product after it is installed. If the install still does not work, contact AltaVista Technical support (mail to avs-personal-bugs@digital.com) for assistance. 7.2 Indexing 7.2.1 Indexer stops/closes while indexing disk files Some files, usually corrupt files, cause the indexer to stop or close before it has finished indexing. The file name displayed by the indexer as the current file being indexed, may not be the cause of the problem. It may be a file just before or just after the file in the directory. To get past this problem you can try the following: 1. move any suspect files into a directory that is not being indexed, then rerun the index 2. If you are indexing your whole disk, change the index setup to index only directories that contain files you want to index. 3. Change the index setup to exclude file types that you are not interested in indexing. To do this: o Click on "Configure" button in the Indexer window o Click on "Documents" tab o Click on "Files Types" button o scroll through the list of file types and make sure that only files you are interested in have a check mark. Once you have done this return to the Indexer window and click on "Start Index". 4. You can attempt to identify the file causing the problem: o In the Indexer Window, hold down the CTRL key, then click the Left Mouse Button on the "Configure..." button. The Debug Logging window will appear. o Select "Documents" and "pancho/index", then click OK. o Click on "Index Now" A log file called pav_pancho.log will be created in the directory into which you installed AltaVista Search My Computer. The log will contain the names of each file that was index. Using Wordpad, open the log file. Starting at the bottom of the file, identify each file that was indexed, and one by one try moving each file into a directory that will not be indexed, then run the indexer again. If you isolate the file that caused the Indexer to stop, and it does not contain any sensitive information, please mail it to avs-personal-bugs@digital.com so that we can fix the problem. 7.2.2 Indexer doesn't run at correct time on NT 4.0 beta On NT Beta 4.0 systems the Indexer may run at a time several hours later than the time specified in the Indexer "Schedule" configuration. To work around this problem you can: 1. Change the Indexer Schedule option to "Never", then run the index manually when required. 2. If you have the Windows95 System Agent installed, use the System Agent to schedule the Indexer. The are instructions on how to do this in the online help for AltaVista Search My Computer. The System Agent is available in the Microsoft Windows95 Plus! pack. 7.2.3 Text in HTML HREF tags is not indexed 7.2.4 Text in images files is not indexed. 7.2.5 Indexer appears to loop on large binary files. If you have configured the indexer to index binary format files that it does not support (eg Lotus Notes), the indexer may take a long period of time to index the file, and consume large amounts of memory. If you observe this behaviour, change you indexer configuration to not index these file types. Please send requests for files types you wish AltaVista Search My Computer to support to avs-personal-bugs@digital.com. 7.2.6 Poor system performance on multi-processor systems Some multi-processor systems may exhibit poor overall system performance when the Indexer is running. If this occurs, do the following: 1. Start the Task Manager. 2. Click the right mouse button on the AltaVista Search Indexer process. 3. Set the Affinity setting to one processor. 7.2.7 Attachments inside attachments aren't indexed Attachments inside attachments are not indexed in Exchange Mail. 7.2.8 Indexer stops if folders on shared disk become unreachable If you store your Exchange Mail folders on a shared disk, and that disk becomes inaccessible while the Indexer is processing Exchange mail, then the indexer may stop. If this happens, restart the indexer after the connection to the shared disk has be re-established. 7.2.9 Exchange doesn't work if MS Word is the default editor If you have MS Word as your default editor in Exchange, your may find that Exchange, MS Word, or your Windows95 will behave slowly and erratically when the Indexer is running. The only workaround for this problem is to not use MS Word as the default editor in Exchange. 7.2.10 Exchange .PST files "locked by another process" A message will indicate that your Exchange .PST files are "locked or in use by another process", if you attempt to access them from another PC while: o the AltaVista Query Dispatcher is running. o the AltaVista Indexer in indexing Exchange mail (but not while it is idle or indexing documents or Eudora mail). If you need to access you .PST files from another PC, then you must first stop the AltaVista Dispatcher, and ensure that the indexer is not indexing your Exchange mail. To stop the AltaVista Query Dispatcher, click the right mouse button on the Dispatcher's icon in the status tray, then select the "Exit" option from the menu. 7.2.11 Error "Could not install Eudora MAPI system..." Using Eudora Pro, you have the option of utilising the Eudora MAPI server. This allows you to send mail from Word etc. If you have Eudora configured to use the option "Whenever Eudora is running" (Tools, Options, MAPI), you may receive the following error from Eudora if the Indexer is running: "Could not install Eudora MAPI system because MAPI.dll and/or MAPI32.DLL are in use. Please close any MAPI clients that are running (including Exchange)." This problem will not occur if you choose "Never" or "Always" for this option in Eudora (Tools, Options, MAPI for User Eudora MAPI server). 7.2.12 Can't receive MS Mail when Dispatcher and Indexer running If you have Microsoft Exchange configured to use MS Mail, you may not be able to receive MS Mail while the AltaVista Indexer or Dispatcher is running. If you ensure that Exchange is started BEFORE the Indexer and the Dispatcher then you will be able to receive mail normally. 7.2.13 Not all Exchange Mail indexed if Exchange server unreachable In some Exchange Mail configurations, not all mail messages will be indexed if one of the profiles refers to an Exchange server that is unreachable when the index is being created. This problem occurs in the configurations where: o There are two or more Exchange Profiles configured on your PC, and more than one is selected to be indexed. o One Exchange Profile has no mail messages that can be indexed (eg because a server is unreachable), but another profile does have mail that can be indexed. o The "empty" profile is indexed first. In this situation mail messages accessed by the profiles after the "empty" profile will not be indexed. There is no workaround for this problem. 7.3 Searching 7.3.1 No response to Search query from browser. When attempting to do a query you may get one of the following messages: "There was no response. The server could be down or is not responding." "Unable to open http://127.0.0.1:6688/. The item may have been moved to a different address, or it may not be available right now. Please try again later. Both of these messages indicate that the AltaVista Query Dispatcher is not responding to the query request. The Dispatcher is a program that is always running on your PC to processes AltaVista queries from your browser. There are a number of possible causes of this message: 1. The AltaVista Dispatcher is not running. Check the status tray to see if the AltaVista Dispatcher icon is present. If it is not then run the Dispatcher (Start->Programs->AltaVista Search-> AltaVista Query Dispatcher). 2. If you are running on a laptop, or on a stand-alone PC that does not have a permanent Internet connection, you may get these timeouts for several minutes after you PC has booted. After this period, or if you establish a connection to your ISP, the Dispatcher will respond to queries. NOTE: AltaVista Search My Computer does not contact any Internet servers when it is processing local "My Computer" enquiries. The Internet address 127.0.0.1 is a special Internet address that always refers to your local PC, regardless of what its actual Internet address is. If neither of the above solutions resolved your problem, please contact AltaVista Search Technical Support as described in Section 5 of this file. As a workaround while waiting to resolve this problem, you can use the unsupported Windows95 search interface that is included in the product. See Section 7 for details. 7.3.2 Proxy Authentication not supported If you are using a proxy server that requires username/password authentication, then you will not be able to search outside your IntRAnet using AltaVista Search My Computer. 7.3.3 Wild cards don't behave as expected The wildcarded operators "?" and "*" do not operate as is generally expected. Specifically: - There must be at least three characters proceeding any wildcarded character - "*" will only match up to five (5) characters - Two or more consecutive "?" characters will be treated as an "*" 7.3.4 Dial-up Networking Request when Stand-alone PC rebooted When running on a PC that uses Dial-Up Networking as its Internet connection, you may be prompted to connect to your Internet Service Provider when you boot your system. This will only occur if you have your PC configured to "Auto-Dial" whenever Internet access is requested. If this occurs, click on the Cancel button to dismiss the request. After a timeout period (see 7.3.1) AltaVista Search My Computer will operate correctly. Alternatively you can disable the "Auto-Dial" option in the Internet setting. To do this go into the Control Panel, click on the Internet icon, click on the AutoDial tab. Click on the "Use AutoDial" tick box to remove the tick. 7.3.5 First query times out on disconnected SLIP/PPP systems If your computer is connected into the network via a dial-up connection, and that connection has not been established, queries to AltaVista Search My Computer will fail for approximately 5 minutes after you system is first started. After this timeout period queries will work normally. If this timeout period is unacceptable, you can use the unsupported Windows95 Search program instead of the browser search interface. See Section 7 for details. 7.3.6 Viewing Exchange Mail is slow the first time The first time that an Exchange Mail message is selected from the search results list, it may take a long time to be displayed. Subsequent mail messages will be displayed more quickly. 7.3.7 QuickView of mail message with no body displays empty window Self explanatory. 7.3.8 Forward/Reply doesn't work on some versions of Exchange Mail On early versions of Microsoft Exchange Mail client, the "Forward" and "Reply" buttons do not work when viewing search results. An error message is displayed and the operation cancelled. In order for these functions to work, you must have Microsoft Exchange Client Service Pack 2 (or higher) installed. 7.3.9 Can't display Eudora mail messages >64KB on Windows95 Eudora mail messages with body text (excluding attachments) larger than 64Kbytes cannot be displayed on Windows95. The workaround is to view the message in Eudora, or use QuickView if you have it installed. 7.3.10 Auto Proxy Browser option not supported The Auto Proxy browser option is not supported. It is possible to modify the .PAC file to allow AltaVista Search My Computer to work. To do this, add the following as the FIRST lines in the function FindProxyForURL in the .pac file: if (url.substring(7,16)=="127.0.0.1"){ return "DIRECT"; } AltaVista Search V1.0 Release Release Notes My Computer Copyright (c) 1996 Digital Equipment Corporation AltaVista is a Trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation Outside In Viewer Technology (c)1992-1996 Inso Corporation Eudora is a trademark of Qualcomm. Microsoft Exchange, Windows 95, Windows NT, MS-DOS, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Windows NT, Excel and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. dBASE is a trademark of Borland International, Inc. Quattro is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corporation. MANUSCRIPT, and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Wordperfect is a trademark of Wordperfect Corporation. DECdx is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.