News Robot Utility

(C) Scott M Baker

Note: This program is still in the early beta stages. It hasn't been very extensively tested and it's very possible that you may experience trouble. Please report any problems to me at smbaker@primenet.com.

Purpose:

The purpose of this program is to automatically download and uudecode files from newsgroups via a winsock connection. 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.

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.binaires.pictures.animals
alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons
alt.binaires.pictures.fractals

There are a wealth of adult-oriented newsgroups, but I'm not going to list them in this document.

Requirements:

• Windows 3.1 or greater
• Winsock connection capability (i.e. SLIP or PPP)

Installing and Using the Program:

To install, just unzip the archive into the directory of your choice (presumably you've already done this or you wouldn't be reading this document!). Running the program is as simple as executing the file "newsbot.exe".

The first thing you'll need to do is to set your news host name. The news host is the computer that you will be contacting to receive the newsgroups from. If you don't know the name, then you may wish to a) contact your service provider or b) examine an existing news reader on your system and try to figure it out.

The next step is to specify the newsgroups that you wish to download. Go down to the "NewsGroups" box and click the add button for each group that you wish to download from.

The "Connect" button is used to start a session and the "Disconnect" button is used to stop a session.

Preferences

Most preference options are selected from the configure:preferences dialog.

• 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.
  • 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.
• Dupe Checker: The dupe checker is used to avoid downloading duplicate messages. It works by keeping a marker corresponding to the from user name and subject of each downloaded message. If the marker is already on the file, the message will not be redownloaded. This is useful for eliminating messages that are crossposted and/or reposted from one group to another.
  • 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.
• Path Expansion: These options will place files from different groups in different download directories.
  • None: Places all downloaded files in the same download directory.
  • Group Number: Places files in directories designated by their group numbers in the group list (i.e. the first group would go in .../group1/, the second in .../group2/, etc)
  • Group Name: Transforms the group name into a download path. For example, alt.binaries.pictures.astro would go into .../alt/binaries/pictures/astro/.

Unfinished Stuff

This program is still largely unfinished. There's lots of "bells-and-whistles" that I'm planning on adding in the future. So don't dispair if a few features that you'd like are missing. Important things I'm hoping to add are:

• Automatic Connect and Disconnect (i.e. start receiving when it's loaded)
• Ability to download newsrc (the list of newsgroups)
• Ability to specify search filters (i.e. only retrieve messages with xxx in the subject field)
• Manual toggling of articles you want to download

Registration

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 $15.00.

The registration policy is as follows:

1. Mail $15 (a personal check made out to "Scott M. Baker" is fine) to my US-Mail address. Include your EMAIL address with the check.
2. I will generate a registration code that corresponds to the email you included. I will email this registration code back to you at the address you provided.
3. Load up newsbot and select Register from the menu. Enter your email and the code I provided. The program will now be registered.

Registration entitles you to use of the program (and all future upgrades) for as long as you wish. The 15-second shareware delay while loading will be removed.

How to contact me:

US-Mail:

Scott M. Baker
2241 W Labriego
Tucson, Az 85741

My Bulletin board:

The Not-Yet-Named BBS
(520) 544-4655 (USR Dual 14.4k)
(520) 797-8573 (USR Sportster 28.8k)

Email:

smbaker@primenet.com

My Homepage:

http://www.primenet.com/~smbaker

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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