| Managing Headers |
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The most basic part of newsgroup use is the headers. This section will tell you how to handle the headers. Everything from numerous ways of retrieving them from the server, to deleting them from your hard drive. |
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| Managing Headers > The Post List |
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The Post List is the area that the headers you've retrieved are displayed, it contains a list of all available posts from the selected Newsgroups. The contents of this is dependant on the current filter profile, as well as the state of the Filter Bar. The Post List displays the following information about each post in it, displayed in the appropriate column:
Clicking on a column affects the order of the posts in the list by sorting the posts by the contents of that column. Clicking multiple times switches between ascending and descending order. In the Post List, there is one line for each post. As such, NewsBin shows all the parts of a multi-part post as one line. Multi-part posts use a pseudo standard of identifying the number of the part out of the total number of parts in parenthesis like this: "This is a large file – largefile.dat (01/50)" What NewsBin hides from you is that there are 50 other posts that have
(02/50), (03/50), etc, in the subject. If NewsBin cannot find all the
parts to completely download the post, Posts displayed with a green background are new posts, and were only retrieved this last time you downloaded headers for the group. Posts with blue text are posts that have duplicate parts, and as such might be an indication of those posts being under attack by people trying to make them unusable. The numbers to the right of the Post List These numbers reflect actual posts available to be downloaded, not the number of articles. One post may be comprised of many articles (ie: multi-part posts) but NewsBin counts them as one. This is why the number will always be smaller when compared to some other news readers such as Microsoft Outlook. |
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| Managing Headers > The Post List > Icons |
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For an overview of the other icons that can be displayed in the Post List, please refer to the Interface Walkthrough. |
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| Managing Headers > Load Spool |
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When you're only interested in headers you have already retrieved from the server, and not in waiting for newer ones to download, then the Load Spool command is the one you want. The Load Spool command will load any previously downloaded headers from the spool file. The headers for the selected groups will be put in the Post List, though depending on the Filter Bar's settings, you may not see them right away. You can load groups' spools by selecting them in the Group Tab and either hitting Ctrl-L, or right clicking on the group(s) and selecting Load Spool. Do not try to load too many groups' headers into the Post List at once, since it will run afoul of the same memory problems as the Download Latest command. |
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| Managing Headers > Start Button |
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The In Manual mode, pressing the Start Button only downloads headers for each enabled group in turn. After all headers are downloaded, you can view the headers for specific groups by selecting them and Loading their Spools. Note that this command is only available through the Toolbar. |
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| Managing Headers > Start Button > Recycle Servers |
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The |
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| Managing Headers > Download Latest |
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The Download Latest command will cause NewsBin to retrieve new headers for each of the selected groups, displaying all the headers for those groups in the Post List. For more information on Download Latest, refer to the Quick Start Guide. |
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| Managing Headers > Download All Headers |
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Occasionally servers will change the numbering of posts, and NewsBin will loose track of which headers it has already retrieved, and which it hasn't. Sometimes this will result in the inability to retrieve new headers. In order to compensate for that, there is the Download All Headers command. This command can be found in the right click menu in the Groups Tab, and selecting it will cause NewsBin to ignore both the existing spool and First Time Records, and download all the posts for the selected group(s) from all enabled servers. Do not try to use this command on too many groups at a time, since it will run afoul of the same memory problems as the Download Latest command. |
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| Managing Headers > Stop Button |
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The Note that this command is only available through the Toolbar. |
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| Managing Headers > Delete Spool (Was Purge) |
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Delete Spool (Was Purge) will delete all saved headers from previous downloads for this group, in other words, delete the Spool File. It does not make NewsBin forget where it left off in the group, so the next time Download Latest is used, it will still only get headers you have not retrieved before. Information logged in the Signature Cache and PostID Cache is also retained, so duplicates will still not be downloaded as long as these options are turned on. This is mostly helpful in reducing the memory required to load groups when you are confident you will not be needing the already downloaded headers any longer. If you do wish to download older headers again, you will need to use either Download All Headers, or Reset Download Counts commands instead. |
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| Managing Headers > Reset Download Counts |
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If you wish to download all the headers for the selected groups, but only up to the number of First Time Records you have defined, you can select the groups you are interested in in the group list, then right click on the group(s) and chose Reset Download Counts. The next time you download headers for the group(s) selected, NewsBin will retrieve as many as the First Time Records specifies. Delete Spool will not perform this action. |
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| Managing Headers > Clear List |
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The |
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| Managing Headers > Other Settings that affect Header handling |
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By default, if you configure NewsBin with multiple news servers, it will download headers from all enabled servers simultaneously. If you want NewsBin to retrieve headers from the servers sequentially, enable the Preferences > Options... > Network > Sequential Servers option. Utilities > Postid Cache or Ctrl+B will toggle NewsBin's ability to reject posts you've already downloaded based on the unique identifier (the PostID) attached to each post. This identifier is globally unique so NewsBin will not download the same post twice even if you are using multiple servers. Keep in mind that you may see the same headers on subsequent downloads but only if you did not download the entire post, or attached binary file, that the header belongs to. Preferences > Options... > Setup >First Time Records will limit the number of headers initially retrieved for a group to the number specified. It is only in effect the first time you download headers from a group, or immediately after you Reset the Download Counts on a group. Preferences > Options... > Max Header Retries will set the number of tries to connect to a server if something should cause the header retrieval to fail. A setting of 0 means infinite. Preferences > Options... > Switches > Sort, Ignore RE will cause the sorting commands to ignore any "RE:"s at the beginning of a post's subject. This way all posts on a topic will be grouped together when sorted by subject. Preferences > Options... > Switches >
Auto Startup will cause NewsBin to act as though you had pressed
the |
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| Copyright 2003 DJI Interprises |
will be displayed to the left of the header in the Post List. And if you
have 
label indicate the number of posts displayed versus the total number of
posts found ignoring any filters.
