Getting Started with WebReader

WebReader gives you the option of running several copies of itself concurrently, one for each NNTP server you wish to connect to. The first time you start WebReader for a given NNTP server, WebReader will look for files whose names end in the name of the server, e.g., Properties.nntphost.tlg.net, etc. If the required files do not exist, WebReader will create them.

Note: In all that follows in this and subsequent pages, any reference to the Properties file, the Newsrc.* files or the desc.* files will include files whose names have the NNTP server name appended to them.

1. For instructions on how to install WebReader, refer to the notes which accompanied the distribution. It is assumed that you have already unpacked and installed the WebReader distribution in the directory of your choice.

2. If you already have a Unix-compatible newsrc file, you may use it to generate the associated WebReader files. The page Converting an existing non-WebReader newsrc file to WebReader format tells you how to do this. As an alternative, you may download all the newsgroups from your server, but this typically can take anywhere between a minute to over an hour, depending on the number of groups known to your server, whether or not you choose to fetch the group descriptions, the speed of your NNTP server and the speed of your Internet connection. The only advantage to the download is that you have the option of fetching the group descriptions as well; the conversion utility, on the other hand, sets each group description to the string (description not available). If you wish to do the complete download, select the Yes button in Step 4 below when prompted to by WebReader.

3. Change directory to the one WebReader is installed in, then start WebReader by issuing the command

   	java WebReader <NNTP-server>
   

   in a shell window, where <NNTP-server> is the name of the NNTP server to which WebReader is to connect when started.

   The first time you start WebReader, the WebReader Installation Helper will be invoked to guide you through the customization process. The Installation Helper will successively prompt you for certain required information, such as the NNTP server name, SMTP host name, e-mail address and country code, as well as some optional information. If you cancel the Installation Helper, WebReader will not start. Also, the Installation Helper will be run whenever you try to start WebReader specifying an NNTP server for which the associated Properties file is missing the required data.

   Upon completion of the customization step, WebReader will attempt to connect to the requested news server. If successful, the following messages will get displayed:

   Connection to NNTP server <NNTP-server> open
   No articles queued for posting
   

   What happens next will depend on whether or not a valid group names file structure has been created; for example, this will happen if you had converted your non-WebReader newsrc file to WebReader format, as in Step Two, above, or if you had previously downloaded the list of newsgroups for your NNTP server. Otherwise, the following dialog box will prompt you to perform the download:

   

   If you choose to download the groups list at this time, a progress dialog box will be displayed, indicating the number of groups downloaded and updated as the download proceeds.

4. After WebReader has successfully completed initialization, and the WebReader initialization completed message has appeared in the shell window, the WebReader main window will appear (assuming you have not yet subscribed to any newsgroups):
   

   If you wish to be able to view and/or post HTML articles, and you are behind a firewall, you will need to specify the Proxy Server: and Proxy Port # properties. These properties are described on the Server category page; contact your network administrator for the name of the proxy host and port number.

   For details on the rest of the WebReader resources, read Setting WebReader properties.

   In order to post HTML articles using a WWW server, you will need to arrange with an organization to host your HTML articles; contact sales@fractals.com for a list of companies offering this service. Note that local HTML type articles do not require the services of a WWW server. Any company wishing to host HTML articles on their WWW server should also contact sales@fractals.com for information on licensing the required WebReader server software and documentation.

5. Unless you have done the conversion described in Step Two and had previously subscribed to some groups, WebReader will initially be configured with no subscribed groups, so at this point the subscribed groups list, which is at the top of the WebReader main window, will consist of a single entry identifying the name of the NNTP server WebReader is communicating with; refer to Subscribing and unsubscribing to a newsgroup for details on subscribing. Once you have subscribed to a few groups, the first icon in the window will become a folder and will be followed by a number of file icons, one for each group you are subscribed to which contains articles.

Let's say you have subscribed to the groups misc.test, comp.lang.java.programmer and news.software.readers. When WebReader starts up, it looks for new articles for each of the subscribed newsgroups. As it processes articles, it will display the numbers of the first and last articles currently in each group, e.g.,

	misc.test: firstArticle = 113233
	misc.test: lastArticle = 113778
	comp.lang.java.programmer: firstArticle = 24264
	comp.lang.java.programmer: lastArticle = 27840
	news.software.readers: firstArticle = 27508
	news.software.readers: lastArticle = 27958

While the new article headers are being read, a popup window will be displayed showing the total number of headers to be downloaded and the current number of downloaded headers; you may, at any point, cancel a download for a group and continue with the next group, by pressing the Cancel button.

After the new headers have been fetched you are ready to continue; follow one of the links below for more help.