How do I configure a GIF viewer to work with Agent?
First, you have to have a GIF viewing program, such as LVIEW. What you'll do is configure Windows so that when you press the View button on the View Attachment dialog box, Agent will automatically launch your viewer and pass the GIF file to it.
This works with other types of binaries. Simply substitute the correct file extension in place of GIF.
How do I make Agent automatically launch binaries in Windows 95?
In order for Agent to launch binaries with their associated applications in Windows 95, you must set up an "open" action for the file type. The steps below describe in detail how to do so:
Which operating systems does Agent work with?
We've tested Agent with Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT 3.5, and it works fine with all of them.
We haven't tested Agent under OS/2, although we hope to do so soon. Our users are reporting very mixed results, but it is working fine for some of them. See our OS/2 page for more details.
How do I configure Agent for offline operation?
Agent is designed to make offline newsreading as convenient as possible. When used with an appropriate Winsock driver, it will automatically connect to your service provider when it needs to go online and disconnect as soon as it is through. This can save you both effort and money, but you may need to do some careful configuring to make it work properly.
The first step is to configure Agent to go online only when it needs to, and to immediately go offline when it is through. To do this, select the Options | Preferences menu item and click on the Online Operation tab on the resulting dialog box. This dialog box contains several options that let you control the details of Agent's online and offline modes. Although you may eventually want to customize these to suit your own preferences, you can quickly set them for offline operation by clicking the Configure for Offline Operation button.
Now that you've done that, Agent will attempt to load the Winsock DLL whenever it needs to go online and will unload it as soon as it is finished. For this to work, it has to be able to find the Winsock DLL; the easiest way to ensure that is to put the DLL's directory in your PATH.
The final step is to configure your Winsock driver to automatically connect and log in to your service provider when it is loaded, and to disconnect when it is unloaded. There are too many combinations of Winsock drivers and connection methods for us to describe them all, but we've included detailed instructions for Trumpet Winsock on our Winsock Drivers page.
What is CTL3DV2.DLL and how does Agent install it?
CTL3DV2.DLL is a Microsoft DLL that gives dialog boxes that nifty 3D look. It is supposed to reside in either your \windows or \windows\system directory. Not all copies of Windows have the file, so we ship Agent with a copy of it, so that we can install it if necessary. The copy we ship is called CTL3DV2.DL_. We didn't want you to have to run an installation program to get started with Agent, so we try to be clever and install CTL3DV2.DLL when you run Agent, if necessary. We do that by checking to see if CTL3DV2.DLL is already in either your \windows or \windows\system directory. If it is not, we copy our version of the file into one of those directories.
First, we try to copy it into the \windows\system directory, because that's where Microsoft recommends putting it. If we are unable to write to that directory, then probably the reason for the failure is that you are running a network copy of Windows, and don't have rights to the system directory. In that case, per Microsoft's recommendations, we copy the file to the \windows directory.
If you get the message "CTL3DV2 was not correctly installed" when you start Agent, then it means that somehow a copy of CTL3DV2.DLL got put in Agent's working directory or in some other directory on your path. CTL3DV2 will display that message if you try to run it out of any directory other than \windows or \windows\system.
How do I specify the directory for Agent's database?
Generally, Agent looks for its .INI and database files in the directory it is run in. You normally set this with the Working Directory field in the Program Manager icon's File Properties dialog box. There are several ways to override this and instruct Agent to place its data files in another directory:
To use the command line parameter, specify agent.exe <path> on the command line. The optional <path> argument can be either the directory containing AGENT.INI or the name of the INI file to use as AGENT.INI.
Home= ;The directory where Agents database files and custom dictionaries are ;stored. If this parameters value is blank (the default), Agent looks ;for these files in the directory containing AGENT.INI. Note: Changing ;this setting does not move your files. Use File Manager to move all ;the files (*.IDX, *.DAT, and CUST*.TLX) to the new location and then ;restart Agent for this change to take effect.
Why is Agent putting files in the wrong directory?
As explained in the data directory topic, when Agent is run it normally uses the current directory to store its data files. If you don't specify this, it will put them someplace you don't want them, often in your root or Windows directory.
Several beta testers have noticed third-party shell programs or desktop managers running Agent in unexpected working directories, with the data files going into whatever directory that turns out to be. If the shell program doesn't run it in the same directory each time, you'll also have the problem described in the next section.
See the topic on data directory for specific instructions on how to set this.
Why does Agent forget all my settings each time I run it?
As explained in the section on the data directory, Agent expects to find its setting and data files in the data directory. If it can't find them, it assumes it is being run for the first time and displays the registration screen.
You normally specify this directory in the Working Directory field of the Program Manager icon that runs Agent, or through Agent's command-line argument. If you don't specify this directory, or if you run Agent through some third-party shell that doesn't properly set the working directory, it may run in a different directory than it did the last time you ran it. If there are no data files in that directory, you'll get the registration screen again. (You'll also get a set of files created in that directory, as explained in the previous section.)
See the topic on data directory for specific instructions on how to set this.
How do I set up Agent for multiple users or news servers?
As explained in the section on the data directory, Agent stores its setting and data files in the directory specified in its command line or set by the Program Manager when it runs. This means that you can share a single copy of the program files among several independent data directories.
This works well for multiple people using the program, since each directory can have a completely different set of preferences and newsgroup files. It also lets you use more than one news server; the multiple directories are necessary because unless the two servers mirror each other, different articles will be available on each at any given time. Also, the servers will no doubt use different numbering schemes, making it impossible to track read/unread counts.
To do this, create a single directory to hold the program files that you download from us. Then create a separate directory for each user or news server. Finally, create a separate Program Manager icon for each, with the Command Line field pointing to the program itself (c:\windows\agent\agent.exe, for example) and the server directory (c:\windows\agent\george, perhaps) specified as a command-line argument or in the Working Directory field. (See the topic on the data directory for specific instructions on setting this.)
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