NZUB - NNTP newsgroup scan/download - Server Info

The Server Info Dialog is used to specify the connection information used to get to the news server. This will always include the name of the server and may include a login and password. The default port 119 is almost always used.
The objects on the Server Info dialog are as follows:

Server Info Dialog Elements

Server Name or IP Field

The name of the News server machine, either as a name or as an IP address. For example: www.cit-news.com, accessive.at.remarq.com/corporate/usenetfes.html, or 192.1.2,3

Userid Field

This is the userid used to authenticate to the news server. If the news server does not require you to log on, this field can be left blank.

NNTP servers seem to have 2 ways of validating users. They may use one or both of these methods.

• The server may require a login and password. Fill these in in the fields on this panel. You would be specifying these values in the news reader you normally use.
   
  
• The server may look at your IP address and see if it is in a valid range. Many local news servers do this and do not require a login and password. That is, if your ISP provides its own news service, it can skip the login and password and just make sure you are connected into their site. They can check this based on the IP number assigned to your machine when you connected to the Internet. If your IP is in the right range, you are allowed in.
   
  
• In cases where your ISP farms out the news service to a large news server site, you may have both forms of validation. They give everyone in the site the same login and password for the news server. The server checks the login and password and then makes sure you are in the correct IP address range for the ISP which is purchasing the service.
   
  

Password Field

This is the password used to authenticate to the news server. It is saved between sessions. In general, it will be required if a login is required.

Port Field

The NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) port is normally 119. If you have access to a news server which uses some other port, you can change this information here.

OK Button

This button closes the dialog, returning to the main dialog. The updated data is saved at this time in the ZUB.ini file. Note that the news server displayed is the one which will be used in the next download run.

Cancel Button

This button closes the dialog, returning to the main dialog. Any changes made are discarded. The "" in the upper right corner has the same effect.

Select News Server Radio Button Set

Zub will remember the server name, userid, password, and port for up to five different news servers. To add a new server, click one of the blank entries, fill in the server, userid, password, and port data and click OK. Whichever button is selected when the dialog is closed is the currently active news server.

New Messages Since

The Radio buttons in this group control how many news article headers are read from each group. The more read the more files will be seen as available for download. The more read, the longer it takes. So there is the tradeoff. The choices are as follows.

All Messages

If All Messages is checked, all available article headers for the newsgroup will be read the next time the run button is pressed from the main dialog window. If Caching is enabled, some of the headers may not have to be read as they are already available locally.

Since MM/DD/YYYY

The headers will be searched in a binary fashion to find the oldest article from the specified date. All articles from that point newer will be read.

Last Run Minus N Days

The date last time Zub was run minus the specified number of days will be calculated and the headers will be retrieved from that point. Since this is not done on a group by group basis, it is not that interesting an option. It may be removed in future releases.

Last 'n' Articles

The newest 'n' articles will be retrieved the next time a run is made where 'n' is the number specified in the dialog box. The behavior of this option is modified noticeably by caching. If caching is off or the cache for this newsgroup is empty, the newest 'n' articles are read - plain and simple.

If caching is on, the cache and what headers are cached comes into play. The following examples give a feel for what is going on:

1. The cache is empty and 'n' Articles is set to 1000. The newest 1000 articles will be read and processed and cached.
    
   
2. A few minutes go by and you run the program again. 'n' is still 1000. Lets say 50 new articles were added to the newsgroup since the last run. The cache will be loaded and the 50 new articles will be read in. The 50 new articles will join the cache. In all 1050 articles will be examined for files.
    
   
3. A few minutes go and you run the program again. This time you set 'n' to 2000. Lets say another 50 new articles were added to the newsgroup since the last run. That's a total of 100 added since the first run. The cache will be loaded and the 900 headers older than the cache will be read in. Then the 50 new ones will be read in. Now we have the 2000 newest headers to examine for files.
    
   
4. A day goes by and you run the program again. 'n' is still set to 2000. Lets say 8000 new articles have been added to the newsgroup since the last run. So our cache contains headers from 10,000 back from the newest up to 8000 back from the newest. The cache is loaded and reading starts from the end of the cache. 2000 articles are read and added to the cache. Note that there are now 4000 headers in the cache which will be examined for files but these are not the same headers which would be loaded if caching was off. The run will generated messages to let you known this happened.
    
   
5. A few weeks go by and you run the program again. 'n' is set to 1000. All the articles you have cached are expired. That is, they got too old and the news server deleted them from it's cache. When the cache is read in, the expired articles are thrown away leaving an empty cache. The program will read and process the 1000 newest articles just like in the first example.