NNTP Sucker Readme

NNTP Sucker is a network news downloader.

NNTP Sucker will suck all newsgroups selected by a Groups file from the NNTP server selected. Every time you run it it will suck only the NEW messages. It is much like MacSlurp, except it doesn't crash as often, and is automatic. It also can be quit at ANY time without losing any messages. NNTP Sucker will also post any new messages it finds. If it fails it will move them to the "Failed" folder in the spool folder. You can fix the error and put the file back in the spool folder and NS will try again.

Setup:

Spool Folder: This is usually setup to a folder in your NNTP Sucker folder. This is where all rnews batches get stored. Toadnews will have to know where this folder is.

Parser to Launch: This is usually Toadnews, or Pancake's Parse News. NS will launch (if not running) the selected parser every time it spits out a rnews.* file into the spool dir.

Concurrent sessions: This is only available in the registered version of NNTP sucker. It allows you to have multiple sessions run at the same time.

Sleep Ticks: The amount in 1/60s of a second to give to the system every time WaitNextEvent is called. If you don't know what that means, just leave it on it's default setting.

Interactive Operation: This is by default checked. It makes alerts come up whenever there are any problems. As soon as you get the kinks out, and start running NS in the background make sure to turn it off. If there are any errors, the "NNTP Sucker Errors" file will record any problems. Make sure to check it periodically.

New Groups: A new group is a group that NS has never got any messages from before. This option allows you to only get a certain percentage of a new group. Some NNTP Servers have thousands of messages, this allows you to get only a couple to start out with.

Maximum Messages: For every group NS will check to see if the number of messages it has to suck is greater than this value. If it is, it will just suck the amount specified of the new messages.

Maximum Percent of Group: NS also checks to see if the number of messages to suck is greater than this percentage of the group. If it is, it will just suck the specified percentage of the new messages. To turn off this feature just specify 100%. This feature is useful if you don't suck news for a while, and don't want to have to suck all of the messages.

Once Done: This determines what NS will do when it's finished, it can Quit, Restart, or Shutdown. It will only restart or shutdown if the user doesn't manually quit (why restart when the user is oviously there?) NS is also smart enough to delay restarting until the parser quits.

The rest are Pancake specific options. NS works with Pancake, but will work FINE without Pancake. If you turn on the "Use Pancake Groups" and set the System path correctly, NS will automatically suck all Usenet groups in your Pancake configuration.

If you want to just setup something in NNTP Sucker without it starting to suck new news, hold down the command key and lanch NS.

If NS is running under Sys 7 it will use temporary memory whenever the internal memory runs out, so you can keep the partion at the measly 300k. And even if it can't get temporary memory it will gracefully quit, and next time you load it up, it will start at the message it left off on in that newsgroup. I've also designed NS to flush the disk, and message pointers at the same time, so any crash will result in not too many duplicate messages.

The groups selected to suck are specified by a text file called "Groups" located in the same folder as NS. Every group you want to suck is specified by a line in the file. A line can be ignored by putting a ; or a # in front. A example Groups file should be included with this.

The files NNTP Sucker creates (rnews.*) are for use with Toadnews or Pancake's Parse News unbatching software. A D.news* format will soon be available for registered users.

A typical setup of NNTP Sucker is to use Toadnews, and rnMac. Toadnews converts the rnews.* files into a folder (typically called News) where every group is a folder, and each file is a message. rnMac then will read those messages like Newswatcher does. (but not quite as nice).

RnMac is available at: /info-mac/comm/UUCP/rn-mac-13b6.hqx
ToadNews at: /info-mac/comm/UUCP/toad-news-11.hqx

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to e-mail me at ferrari@izzy.com. I also am working on the Pancake bbs system, and info can be got from:
http://www.izzy.com/~ferrari

NNTP Sucker is NOT free. It is shareware. Please send 10 dollars to:

Darrell Turner
510 Lindsey Dr.
Wayne, PA 19087

If you register NNTP Sucker, you can get a new version that supports 1-5 concurrent sessions. This allows you to suck twice as fast as before. Ten bucks is not asking much!