Getting Started

At this point it is assumed that you've already installed the program and have successfully executed it for the first time. If not you should read Installation and come back here once you're ready.


Setting up a new server account

This is the very first thing you must do. If you access the Internet with a modem, now would be a good time to connect.

Pull down the Account menu and select "Create ..." You'll see a dialog box that is already filled in with example values which you should edit to suit your particular configuration.

Display Name is the "friendly name" you will use to refer to this account. You can put anything you want in here.

DNS Name is where you put the name of the computer that will provide you with your connection to USENET. You should have received the name as part of the information you got from your Internet Service Provider. You can put a dotted-quad IP address here if your server does not have a DNS name.

Timeout is the amount of time Pineapple News will wait for a reply from your news server before giving up and assuming that the connection must be dead. The default is two minutes which is appropriate for most situations. If you know your server connection is particularly unreliable you might increase this time to, say, ten minutes. Note that you enter the timeout in the form of an integer and a unit name, for example "30 seconds" or "2 minutes."

Posting Name is the name that other USENET users will know you by. There are no particular requirements for this field, you can put anything you want in here.

Posting E-mail is the e-mail address that will be added to the headers of messages that you post. It seems to be the tradition these days to use a fake e-mail address, or "spam guard," when posting to USENET. If you're into that sort of thing this is the place to put your made-up address. If you do, please do us poor programmers a favor and don't get too creative. Many "spam guard" e-mail addresses are so far into outer space that Pineapple News can't properly parse the author's message headers. The program checks the address you enter and won't let you proceed if it doesn't look at least halfway valid.

Organization is the name of whatever organization you'd like to claim affiliation with. The information goes into a header in messages you post. It's okay to leave this field blank.

Server Requires Login is a check-box that specifies whether or not your news server requires you to log in with a username and password before you can start downloading news. If you check it then the two fields below it, Username and Password, are enabled and will allow input. If you need a username and password for your server it should have been given to you by your Internet Service Provider. If you didn't get a login ID then it's probably safe to assume that you don't need one, so leave the box un-checked. Either way it can't hurt to try, the worst that will happen is that your news server will send back an error code which Pineapple News will display for you to see.

Now you're ready to create your new server account. Press the Save button. The program validates the contents of all the fields and if it doesn't like one or more of them it will display a warning and set the input focus to the first offending field and make you do it again.

Assuming all the data passes the validation checks your new server account will be created and will appear in the left pane of the main window (called the "storage view.") Next you'll see a question box asking if you want to download the server's newsgroups list. This is the master list of all newsgroups available on your server and it is required for proper operation, so answer "Yes" unless you cannot connect to the Internet at the moment for some reason. If you don't download the list now you can do it later by selecting "Download newsgroup list ..." from the Account menu.

If you choose to download the newsgroup list the Transfer Window will appear. With a little luck everything will go okay and in a few minutes the newsgroups list will be completely downloaded. If not, the Errors tab of the window will display the response the server gave, or perhaps some reason that Pineapple News couldn't connect with your news server at all. Hopefully the messages will be of some assistance in helping you resolve the problem.

If you cannot download the server's newsgroup list for some reason it is possible to create a text file that will work as a substitute. See the help topic Navigating with Tracker for more information. It's not recommended however because let's face it, it's a copout! Don't just run from your problems, be a hardcore geek and learn how to solve them!


Subscribing to newsgroups

To complete this step you must already have successfully created a server account, including downloading its master newsgroups list (or creating an acceptable substitute).

Click on the icon on the left side of the main program window, inside the storage view, that represents the server you're interested in. From the Account menu pick "Select newsgroups ..." This brings up the newsgroups selection window.

The window has two lists of newsgroups. The list on the left will be ones that satisfy your search criteria. The list on the right will be newsgroups you are subscribed to.

First, set the download type for the newsgroups you will add. Notice that there is a group of radio buttons in the middle. "Headers Only" and "Headers and Bodies" specify whether downloads from this group will get only article headers or full message bodies. The first choice, "No download," means that the group will be added to your server account but it cannot be downloaded until you set it to one of the other two choices. If you don't know what you want set it to "Headers and Bodies," which is conceptually the simplest choice.

Now search for groups you're interested in. Notice that the search input line is pre-filled with a single asterisk which means "show me all newsgroups." Press the Search button and you'll get the whole list. You can limit your search by giving a more restrictive search string, for example "comp.sys.be.*" would get you a list of BeOS newsgroups, assuming your news server carries them. You can use asterisks at the beginning or end of your search string, or on both ends at once, but not in the middle (unfortunately my search function isn't advanced enough to handle that). But it's fast enough that you can do multiple searches quickly to find what you want.

Once you're looking at one or more newsgroups you're interested in, select them with the mouse. You can select more than one group at a time by holding down the Shift key while you click on them. Then press the "Subscribe" button and the newsgroups go into your subscription list. If you change your mind about one or more groups select them in the right-hand list and hit the "Unsubscribe" button. When you get tired of playing around hit the "Finished" button, which should cause the newly subscribed groups to appear in the storage view.


Downloading articles

Now that you've subscribed to some newsgroups it's time to get some articles. In the storage view (left side of the window), right-click on the icon for the newsgroup you're interested in. That should bring up a context menu. The first choice is the one you want, "Download 'name of newsgroup'". This will cause the transfer window to appear again and you're on your way. You can also get the same result by double-clicking on the newsgroup.

The headers view (the top right pane of the main window) should start to fill with headers. If you chose to get headers and bodies the articles will be completely downloaded and ready to read. If you chose headers only then you'll have to double-click on a header you're interested in to download it. Or you can mark a bunch of headers for download and get them all at once if you want. Right-click on each header, which will produce a context menu. Select "Mark for download." The article header's icon will change to include a red arrow, meaning it is ready to be downloaded. When finished marking all articles you can open the Transfer menu, pick "Download Marked," then "Newsgroup" to get all selected articles.


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