What's New in AllNews Version 1.32 Build Date Dec 12, 1998 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fixed : notation in NNTP/SMTP servers Connection to nonstandard ports for NNTP (119) and SMTP (25) is accomplished by entering the server.name:port notation. A bug in the evaluation of this notation has been fixed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Win95 modem DCD detection and interoperation with autodialers I've toyed with the idea of translating DCD to Win95/NT for a year now, researching how to implement it, possible alternatives using existing autodialer products, etc. The result of this effort is a solution that works for Win95 and Win31, but offers no help (yet) for WinNT or OS/2. Win95 (and Win31) allows application to do direct i/o to the modem ports, whereas WinNT and OS/2 do not. There are many fine autodialers available as shareware and freeware for download from various sites on the internet. The new features of AllNews are designed to interoperate with the majority of them. I will entertain requests to address issues with specific dialers. "Config | Comm | Comm Port" has now been re-enabled for Win95. It should be set to the port assigned to the modem (typically 2 for COMM2). The "Config | Comm | "Alert tone on DCD loss"" checkbox causes the system alert sound to be played when AllNews detects the drop of DCD. The "Config | Comm | "Popup box on DCD loss"" checkbox causes a message box to be displayed when AllNews detects the drop of DCD. When the telephone connection is lost, DCD drops. AllNews detects this event and posts it to the log, status bar (if enabled), generates the PopUp notification (if enabled), and sounds the system event (if enabled). It also performs a Stop/Disconnect operation, rescheduling activities that are in progress. At this time, the autodialer is expected to detect DCD loss and re-establish the telephone connection. The "Config | Comm | "Reconnect after DCD is re-established"" checkbox and "Delay [] seconds" tells AllNews that it should reconnect to the NNTP servers and resume the scheduled activities some number of seconds after DCD is lost, end then re-established. When AllNews detects the new session (DCD is detected), it posts the event to the log and and status bar (if enabled). It then delays a configurable period to allow the PPP session to be established. 30 seconds is a good value for unattended operation. Once the delay has expired, AllNews presses its Go/Connect button to resume the scheduled tasks. Of course, you can click on the button yourself for faster service when you see that the session has been re-established. Some autodialers want to launch the application they will control, and monitor its activity to determine whether they should re-establish a lost connection. The "Config | Comm | "Exit AllNews when all fetches complete"" checkbox tells AllNews to terminate when all scheduled activity completes. It remains active until you request some lists of posts or fetch of some articles, etc., the requests complete, and the session closes due to inactivity. When all opened sessions close due to inactivity, AllNews exits. This is usually something like 10 minutes, and is configured in Servers | Edit | Time Outs | Idle. Some NNTP servers may have their idle timeout set lower than yours, and terminate the connection themselves. The "Config | Comm | "Connect as needed when DCD detected"" checkbox tells AllNews that when a request is made that requires a connection (such as get list of posts or fetch a post), and AllNews is not currently connected, and DCD is detected, that AllNews should automatically go online and establish the connection. Otherwise, you may be asked whether to connect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status bar indicators Config | Controls has a setting to place a DCD status indicator on the status bar. This is only useful in Win31 and Win95. WinNT and Win-OS2 will show a blank pane. There is also a setting which enables a clock pane on the status bar, and one to select 12/24-hour mode. Config | Status allows monitoring of any combination of disk drives from C: though H: (limited by what devices are present on your computer), and optionally stops retrieving posts when selected drives are full. A pane in the status bar contains the names of the selected drives and the amount of space available on them. It also shows available memory and system resources. This pane is updated about every 30 seconds. Clicking in the pane causes it to update immediately. When a disk that is selected as "Stop when disk full" has less than 5MB of space available, AllNews determines that it is full, and begins an orderly shutdown. Activites that are in progress are allowed to complete, but no further activities are requested of the servers. The user has the opportunity to free up space and restart activity. The "popup when disk full" and "Alert Tone when disk full" check boxes allow the system event sound to be played and/or a popup box to be displayed to attract the user's attention, as desired. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Confirmations (aka "Training" the newsreader) By default, AllNews is set up to operate for a novice user. Each time the user requests an action that may cause some event or series of events that could make a serious impact on the behaviour of AllNews, or each time a certain informative message is displayed, it is presented as a "confirmation" popup messagebox. Many of these confirmations allow AllNews to be trained to the preferred behaviour of the user, by setting the "Don't ask me again" checkbox, then selecting the desired activity. Subsequently, when this event occurs, AllNews remembers what was previously entered and executes it automatically; the notification is suppressed. The Config | Confirmations page allows review/setting all of the configurable confirmations. Here, a setting that had been set to an automatic response can be restored to "ask", or set to the opposite action. Thus, the popup boxes can be individually restored. There is also a "Default action is YES" checkbox. When checked, the confirmation defaults to YES. Otherwise, it defaults to NO. ---------------------------------------------------------------------