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SBNews: News Robot Utility (C) Scott M Baker, smbaker@sb-software.comor smbaker@primenet.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. The SBNews online help is usually more specific and up-to-date if you are looking for information on a specific command or feature. This document should be considered more of an installation and setup guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 * Duplicate Checking * AutoSave * Auto Encryption * Files.BBS Generation * Statistics * Coord: The Newsbot Coordinator * Acknowledgements * Registration * How to Contact the Author * Revision History ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Purpose: The purpose of this program is to automatically downloadand uudecode files from newsgroups via a winsockconnection. 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. Both uuencodeand mime base-64 formats are supported, although piecing together of multiple files works best with uuencoded data. 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. Newsbot will download a newsrcfile for you automatically the first time you connect to your news server. You can access the newsrc file by using the <Add> button and selecting <Browse>. Newsbot is primarilly intended for automatic unattended download. Newsbot can be used to gain a large number of files with little or no user intervention, allowing the user to spend most of his/her time viewing the files. Nevertheless, there are several manual features supported to give the user control and status information, such as thumbnails displayed during download, anti-SPAM controls, and the ability to manually select headers to filter out unwanted mail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 (temporary) directory of your choice. 2. Run the file SETUP.EXE -- this is an automatic InstallShield setup program and will copy all files and do everything else necessary to get the program installed for you. 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". Automatically exits SBNews after all groups have been received. * "-noabout". Omits display of the about dialog on startup of Newsbot. Note: Only supported in registered version! * "-autorestart". Automatically restarts after all groups have been received. Note: Incompatible with -autoexit and -autocat * "-autocat". Generates image catalogs in each group after all groups have been received. * "-minimize". This will cause SBNews to be minimized on startup * "-autoshrink". Automatically causes SBNews to be shrunk down to the taskbar on startup. This is equivalent to using the File:Shrink-to-Taskbar pull-down menu option. How to use command line parameters: You can enter command line parameters in several different ways. Here are some popular methods: * SBNews Defaults: In SBNews, click the pull-down menu "Configure" and the item "Default Command Line Switches". This will present you with a listing of the most popular command line switches, and you can check/uncheck them to select the default behavior, and SBNews will act as if the appropriate options were given on the command line. * Win-95 Start Menu: If SBNews has been configured onto the Win-95 Start Menu (the install program does this by default), then you can set command line options there. Click the 'start' button, then select 'Settings' and 'Taskbar'. On the taskbar settings dialog, select the 'Start Menu Programs' tab, and then the 'Advanced' button. This will bring up an explorer-type window which has all of your start menu programs on it. On the left-hand tree display, navigate to the SBNews folder. Once you've done this, the right hand panel will show the items in the SBNews folder (Documentation, help, readme, and sbnews). Right-Click the one that says "SBNews" and then follow the instructions for Win-95 shortcut below. [I know, this is all very complicated, but that's microsofts fault, not mine] * Win-95 Shortcut: Right click on the shortcut and select 'properties'. Click the 'Shortcut' tab on the properties dialog. Then find the edit field that says 'Target'. You can enter any command line parameters here -- for example "c:\program files\sbnews\sbnew.exe -autoexit -autocat". * Win-95 MS-DOS Prompt: You can type a full command line into the MS-DOS prompt, with command line options and all. (Assuming you know how to use the MS-DOS Prompt, this should be simple for you -- otherwise you should probably choose one of the other methods) * Win-95 Start:Run Menu: If you use the Windows-95 'Run' command on the start menu, then you can enter command line options right after the executable file name. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 from 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 as 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 Removal box 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. Miscellaneous Preferences: Miscellaneous 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 relevent 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 downloading 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. capitalization 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 Headersbutton to bring up a header listing for the group, then use the Readbutton 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 identical 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 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 primarily 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. Times 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 $19.95. Registration may be performed online at http://www.newsrobot.com/credit/credit.html 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 Email: smbaker@sb-software.com smbaker@primenet.com My Homepage: http://www.newsrobot.com Primary site for SBNews: News Robot http://www.sb-software.com Generic site for all of my 'SB' products Find the latest SBNews/Newsbot at this address: http://www.newsrobot.com/sbnews/sbnews.html Find the latest SBJV at this address: http://www.newsrobot.com/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 * Version 4.0 * Added automatic lookahead to Jpeg viewer * Maybe fixed a memory leak while viewing GIF/BMP files * Newsbot will now load minimized if set by shortcut, etc. * A port number may now be specified in the nntp host name (i.e. news.foo.com:119) * Set literal strings in code segment option in 16-bit version (save dseg space) * Added print command to jpeg viewer * Added generate catalogs command to jpeg viewer * Added context sensitive help to several dialog boxes * Fixed minor tab-order problem in main window * Added splitter to Jpeg Window to allow resizing of file/dir pane * Added horizontal scrollbars to Jpeg Window file/dir pane * Raised maximum number of Jpeg categories to 75 * Categorization pane will automatically go multi-column if necessary * Added temporary checkbox to lockout list edit * Stretched thumbnails to fill entire thumbnail window * Centered thumbnails * Fixed problem with large jpeg's not being displayed in thumbnail viewer * Fixed keyboard navigation in header window * Header download now shows on progress bar * Fixed protection violation when blank space is first character on line * Version 4.1 * May have fixed problem with 'Lockout Posting Host' causing crashes * Reduced memory requirements of 'Preload XRef Headers' * Fixed goof-up if path prefix removal removes entire group name * Added 'Lockout Any Header' * Added 'Lockout Organization' * Added -autocat command line switch * Added 'Default Command Line Switch' settings to configure menu * Added 'Catalog All Groups' command to file menu * Added timeout settings to configuration menu * Changed JView path storage to use a variable rather than system wide cwd so one JView window won't interfere with another's path * JView windows opened on a specific filename will now automatically switch to that directory * Spiffed up jpeg viewer File:Open dialog * Fixed help file problem if program not loaded from directory with help file * Version 4.2 * Fixed problem with lockout-any causing GPF on long header lines * Added confirm delete toggle to Configure:Preferences dialog * Added hotkeys for "Current" menu * Added delete indicator to thumbnail preview * Fixed problems with 16-bit version not working in Windows-3.1 * Spiffed up overwrite messagebox in jpeg viewer * Version 4.3 * Added join directory command to jpeg viewer * Jpeg viewer can now load bitmaps with less than 256 colors * Raised Re-Stateset stack size from 2048 elements to 4096 elements * Added "require file mask in subject" toggle to acceptable file masks * Fixed problem in RE search engine that had to do with high-ascii characters * Credit card registration now supported on web site http://www.newsrobot.com/ * Web site moved from Primenet to Simplenet * Added additional information to jpeg viewer overwrite messagebox * Fixed problem with "Maintain NewsRc" switch not working properly * Fixed bug with "Preload XRef Headers" missing the first newsgroup in each xref * Improved subject line filename guesser * Eliminated mime header information from status display * Version 4.4 * May have fixed bug in files.bbs support if date not available. * Fixed padding in catalog generation (wasn't doing anything) * Added padding=4 to catalog generation * Added quality setting to catalog generation * Added additional error checking to blend name on generate catalogs dialog * Added voice registration nag * Added promote group and demote group commands * Added zoom command to jpeg viewer * Fixed jpeg viewer zoom ratio changing as picture is panned/scrolled * Fixed problem with "no mask in subject" not rejecting messages * Switched from polling to async select on nntp data read. Should improve performance. * Used async winsock connect rather than blocking to reduce freezing problem on bad connections. * Added plugin support (see SBPLUGxx.ZIP for details) * Added Decrpyt and Encrypt menu commands to jpeg viewer * Fixed help in Win-3.1 version * Image viewer support for .FTS/.FITS telescope image files * Added option to force sending of authentication data at logon. Default to True. * Fixed bug with spaces not supported in download path * Version 4.5 * Error checking on MSGID's longer than 256 chars * Fixed incorrect winsock error messages being emitted * Error checking on excessively long log lines * Got rid of those "invalid mark xx" and "xx bytes before marker" errors * Reworked disconnect code to be a bit more forceful * Added minimum free disk space check * Added check for blank key enter in decryption dialog * Don't automatically send auth name/pword unless user has enetered one * Hide password in authentication dialog * Hide password in connection status log * Version 4.6 * Fixed up autoscan hard drive to work with win95 long filenames * Convert all filenames in dupe file list to lower case * Added status info for autoscan hard drive * Fixed bug with premature ending GIF files causing system crash * Minor changes to socket code in hopes of dealing with some CPU usage issues * Switched to newer version of BC++ (5.0) * Fixed problem with about box not going away if register on opening screen * Added button to reg screen to load browser with SBNews address * Maybe fixed a problem with errors occurring while disconnecting * Possibly fixed a problem with lockout-any and/or lockout-xref * Updated copyright date to include 1997 * Version 4.7 * Fixed problem with header listview not sorting, adjusting column width, etc. * Fixed embarrassing typo on registration page * Version 4.8 * Added shrink-to-taskbar command * Fixed a long-unnoticed misspelling of "previous file incomplete" * Jpeg Viewer - added more information to duplicate overwrite dialog * Jpeg Viewer - treat .jpe and .jpeg files as .jpg files * Fixed problem with Blank/Delete not updating thumbnails immediately * Ugly workaround for the disappearing newsgroup list problem in Win-95 tabbed mode * Log and Status lists now only scroll if the last item is hilighted * Increased number of items in Log and Status lists * Jpeg Viewer - Added sort button to categorization list * Added documentation commands to help menu * Added registration nag to status line * Worked on the 10036 error in Win-3.1 versions * Jpeg Viewer - fixed print command * Jpeg Viewer - fixed problem with really big and really small images causing crashes * Added hotkey for delete-previous (shift-Del) * Added -autorestart command line switch * Added NoSpam.Htm; Document on avoiding SPAM * Added Top10Reg.Htm; Document on top 10 reasons to register * Version 4.9 * Widened msgnum: and total-msgs: fields to handle 7-digit numbers * Fixed catalog generator in 16-bit version * Fixed problem with using the <Delete> button on groups before current group * Added randomize to jpeg window * Fixed off behavior with authinfo confused messages * Made thumbnail viewers recognize .jpe and .jpeg files * Added graceful disconnect command * Finally fixed the WSAECONNRESET problem with win3.1 version (I Hope!) * Version 5.0 * Disabled processing of CMYK jpegs as they were causing unpredictable crashes * Added delete incomplete toggle * Defaulted "consider lines" in dupe file checker to off since it confuses most people * Version 5.1 * I accidentally made registration code case sensitive in 4.9; This ought to fix it. * Viewer: Made index window responsive to marks * Added httpgrabber toggle to httpgrabber window since excessive spamming has made it nearly useless * Fixed case sensitivity on command line options * Fixed crash with GIF files that were chopped short * Robustized newsrc code * Fixed problem with excessively long newsgroup names causing crash * Fixed possible problem with GetWindowPos() API call * Switched to multithread library * Used _beginthread instead of CreateThread on jpeg viewer threads * Fixed problem with possible double exit on autoexit command * Added search specified to browse newsgroups dialog * Fixed error message when cancel hit on restore-from-taskbar * Version 5.2 * Added search keywords * Added filenames to current: and previous: displays * Plugin reject wasn't working; I fixed it * Added lockout buttons next to kill buttons * Added command to header list to not display locked out entries * Fixed problem with minimum free disk space check not working in all cases * Version 5.3 * Fixed lockout subject and/or file causing GPFs * Increased RE stack max size from 4096 to 16384 -- support for more lockouts * Increased maximum messages per group from 8000 to 32000 in 32-bit version * Added nntp-posting-host to message info dialog * Added lockout posting host to lockout current/previous * Removed paths of incoming files to prevent decoding initialization error * Made lockout current/previous refuse to display "null" * Added "temporary" flag to lockout current/previous * Added promote and demote buttons to jview categorization * Fixed GPF when status message sent before main window open * Fixed problem with dupe checker purges when items_to_keep set less than or equal to 0 * Version 5.4 * Added preload posting host preference * Modernized lockout dialog in headers listing * Got rid of box saying you can't delete a group when you only have one group * Added lockout button to received file listing * Added right-click menus to current/previous images * Added right-click menu to log listing * Jpeg Viewer: Added Go-To Menu * Jpeg Viewer: Added Move-To Menu * Eliminated memory leak in browse dialog * Fixed problem with lockout any causing trouble * Version 5.5 * Updated FAQ to reflect Decode Initialization Errors in root directory * Updated download path dialog to reflect above * Made encryption key fields auto-scroll * Fixed a problem with unresponsiveness in the user interface * Added timestamping to diagnostic log output * Added checkbox to about dialog to disable it (registered users!) * Added escape character to lockout strings * Detailed help on lockout wildcards * 32-bit version includes InstallShield setup program * Fixed problem with "match any position" in lockout:filename * Fixed lockout button locking out wrong picture in Tabbed view * Added note for diagnostic log enable on startup * Version 5.6 * Fixed install program for 32-bit Win-95 installation (OCX errors) * Version 5.7 * Fixed "jump-to" on the first newsgroup in the list. * Minor revisions to close socket code * Version 5.8 * Added Refresh button to browse dialog * Raised registration fee from $15.00 to $19.95 * Added date field to win95 header listing * Added color settings for date & lines fields to color prefs * Version 5.9 * Emergency release to handle bug with newsrc download causing crash * Version 6.0 * Usually, I only update the major revision number (i.e. left hand digit in the version) for major changes, but we ran out of right-hand digits! * New website for SB-Software: www.sb-software.com * Added max consecutive disconnect option to Config:Preferences * viewer: Added refresh button * viewer: Added "order by" submenu * viewer: Added "titles above" checkbox to catlog generation dialog * Fixed a few viewer crash problems * Added command line option -minimize to cause SBNews to be minimized on startup * Version 6.1 * Robustized bmp viewer * Fixed support for encrypted hmp and gif * Raised default max-consec-disconnect to 100 * Version 6.2 * Fixed improper colors in some dialogs under win98 * Made fields in pointers dialog wider * Added boss key * Added -autoshrink command line option * Fixed problem with header list accept/reject not working properly * Version 6.3 * Fixed problem with encrypt/decrypt commands causing crash * Fixed kernel32 crash when system date excessively out-of-bounds * Added novice instructions * Speeded up browse dialog refresh time * Added count fields to browse dialog (for debugging -- no real practical purpose) * Added update button to browse dialog and stopped automatic update when search spec changed * Version 6.4 * Added sort newsgroups command * Fixed .jpeg and .jpe files not being displayed in thumbnails * Added rename command to viewer * Added delete to recycle bin command to viewer * Fixed delete group and reconnect GPF * Added info on newsrc to FAQ * Version 6.5 * Fixed newsrc problem in 16-bit version * Modifications to registration system * Misc cosmetic fixes Version 7.0 * Major rework of header download system * More robust * Support XOVER as a fallback if XHDR fails * Toggle in Config:MiscPref to use XOVER as default * Fix problems with "socket closed by server" * Auto-reconnect on closed socket * Should now work reliably w/ demonews.mindspring.com * Reorganization of config pull-down menu * Split miscpref/limits * Added force-numeric-order option to Configure:Preferences * Modified newsrc stuff * Version 7.1 * Fixed problems with shrink-to-taskbar accepting keys after cancel * Fixes to files.bbs system * Better error recovery on 500 errors * In particular, error "501 Header not in index" will recover correctly * Added menu option to enable previous/next viewers * Added delay for cable modem users * Version 7.2 * Raised max newsgroups in 32bit version to 2048 * Fixed low message pointer when using graceful exit * Modifications to encryption package * Added more info to decode init fail error * Y2K compliancy -- fixed problem with NEWGROUPS command * Fixed possible buffer overrun in LockedOut_XRef * Added buffer overrun check to TNews::RejMessage * Added extra buffer room in StoreHeaderXRef * Version 7.3 * Fix crash when viewing very small files (1x1, 0x0, etc) * Added additional asserts to TNewsIo::ArticleReady, AskForMessage, and NextMessage * Guarded possible overflow in copy of MsgId in TNewsIo::ArticleReady * Fix excessive memory use in lockout tests by freeing the statesets in an re-matcher if more than 2048 exist. * Fix possible buffer overrun in jpeg error routines * Raise state stack limit from 16K to 64K * Version 7.4 * Corrected spelling mistakes * Minor redesign of large GUI -- eliminated groupboxes to make more room in listboxes * Removed two status messages: "-- unexpected close" and "-- socket closed by server". They were redundant and used up status window space