Answers to Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. I Want SBNews to only download files with .jpg or .gif in the subject field 2. Help! I want to get rid of all these unsolicited advertisements (i.e. SPAM)! 3. I'm having trouble getting SBNews to work with AOL 4. SBNews puts all of the downloads in the same directory -- I want them in separate directories. 5. SBNews connects, does a little stuff and then disconnects without downloading! What's wrong? 6. I get a bunch of "Decoding Initialization Failure Messages". What's happening? 7. Lockout Posting Host doesn't work right... 8. Where can I find some adult groups? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Want SBNews to only download files with .jpg or .gif in the subject field. Personally, I don't like to do this, and that's why SBNews doesn't do it by default. The problem is that many new novice users (or even experienced users for that matter...) forget to put the filename on the subject line. Then, you'd miss the file! However, some of you feel differently, and thus I have included the capability as follows: 1. Open up the Configure:Acceptable File Masks Dialog from the pull-down menu 2. Delete *.* from the list. 3. Add *.jpg, *.gif, and anything else you wish to download. 4. Check the option marked "Require mask to match on subject line" SBNews will now scan the subject field for an acceptable file mask before the file is downloaded. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help! I want to get rid of all these unsolicited advertisements (SPAM)! Unsolicited, off-topic newsgroup messages, commonly referred to as SPAM, have become quite a problem recently. Many commercial adult sites post unwanted x-rated material to groups without any consideration of whether the material is on-topic or not. Usually, these pictures are plastered with banners advertising the service. There are several ways to eliminate SPAM with SBNews: * Use the Maximum XRef Limit field in the Configure:Preferences dialog. I find 10 to be a good setting. This will prevent downloading of messages that are posted to many different groups. Most of the SPAM advertisers hit many groups at once, and this will filter it out. You'll probably also want to check Preload XRef Hdrs while you're there; This will pre-download the XRef lines ahead of time to prevent newsbot from having to disconnect/reconnect on an offending message. * Use the Lockout XRef option located in the Configure pull-down menu. You can enter all the names of newsgroups that you know you don't want to download pictures from. Then, if newsbot finds a message that is cross-posted to a group that you don't want, that message will be skipped. As with above, you'll probably also want to check the Preload XRef Hdrs option, located in the Configure:Preferences pull-down menu. * When you see someone posting images you don't like, use the Lockout Poster function located in the Current or Previous pull-down menus. Newsbot will ensure that you never see a message posted from that email address again. * SPAM advertisers love to put their http: address on the message subject line. If you notice one of these offending addresses, go into the Lockout Subject dialog and lock out the address. * You can use the button to view message headers before messages are downloaded. You can easily skim this list and see what posters are sending SPAM and lock them out. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm having trouble getting SBNews to work with AOL You're not alone -- so are a lot of people. As far as I can tell, AOL does not provide a standard nntp news server. I might be wrong on this, I don't know. If anyone does know for sure, then please send me a note. In the meantime, my best suggestion would be to get a real Internet account in addition to your AOL service. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SBNews puts all downloads in the same directory -- I want them in separate directories. Use the Configure:Path Expansion option -- that's what it's there for. You have several options available, such as using numbered subdirectories or subdirectories based on a portion of the newsgroup name. Consult the documentation or help file for more information. [This is the answer to the question.] Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SBNews connects, does a little stuff and then disconnects without downloading! What's wrong? There could be several different causes for this problem: 1. Do you have some groups enabled? When you first install SBNews, all it will do is download a newsgroup listing (newsrc.lst). Since you haven't selected any groups, SBNews won't try to receive any. You need to use the button to add some groups. You can either type the name directly if you know it, or you can use the button (located in the dialog) to browse through the listing of groups that SBNews downloaded from your server. Once you've added what you want, press to start a connection. 2. Are there error messages? For example, you may have typed invalid group names and SBNews can't locate them. Perhaps you entered a bad news server address and SBNews can't find your server. If you get an error message you don't understand, then don't hesitate to email me; I can probably shed some light on the problem. 3. Transient server trouble. The Internet is a dynamic system, with all kinds of different hardware involved. Sometimes your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may experience a problem with their news server. These usually clear up in a day or so. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I get a bunch of "Decoding Initialization Failure Messages". What's happening? The number one cause of this problem is insufficient disk space. I know, I really need to spiff up the handling of this to give you some informative error messages and have a more graceful shutdown. I will probably be doing this in the future. In the meantime, if you get some Decoding Initialization Failure messages, then the first thing you should do is verify that all of your download drives have plenty of free disk space. This message is actually given whenever Newsbot cannot createa file. It may be due to some other reason than disk space, although I have never seen any. Possibilities could be writing to a read-only media (i.e. CD-ROM), writing to a network drive you don't have access to, writing to a drive that doesn't exist, overwriting an existing read-only or system file, or some other circumstance that causes Windows to not want to create the file. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lockout Posting Host doesn't work right... Lockout Posting Host has a somewhat technical meaning and is often misunderstood. Lockout Posting Host is intended to refer to a specific news header field called "NNTP-Posting-Host". This field holds the name of the host which the message author posted from. Lockout Posting Host does not refer to the stuff after the @ symbol in a fromheader. The reason for Lockout Posting Host is simple... Many undesirable authors will forge the from field in the header to make it more easy to track them down. Locking out part of the from field won't work, since these people generally post under many different made-up names. However, many times the NNTP-Posting-Host field is automatically filled in by their news program and is valid. In these situations, you can use Lockout Posting Host to eliminate all messages from that host. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where can I find some adult groups? I've made it my policy to not specifically endorse any newsgroups containing adult subject matter. Therefore, I can't recommend any specific groups for you to try. All of the adult groups are fairly easy to spot; The majority of them are located under the "alt.binaries.pictures.erotic" hierarchy. If you use the button located in the dialog, you should be able to scroll down and find a big block of them. Like I said, their names are fairly obvious so you should be able to spot them without difficulty. It's possible that your news server might not list these groups in the newsgroup listing -- I've had unconfirmed reports of this. In this case, you will need to learn the newsgroup names from an alternate source and you can just type their names into the dialog. One useful hint (not necessarily related solely to adult newsgroups) is to use the Statistics:Similar Newsgroups pull-down menu function. This will provide a listing of groups cross-referenced with the one you're currently receiving. These groups usually contain related subject matter and you may wish to investigate them. Back to Top ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- email smbaker@primenet.comfor more information. Copyright © Scott M Baker and/or SB Software. All rights reserved. Revised: April 19, 1997.