QuadSucker/News

(c) 1999-2007 SB-Software, http://www.quadsucker.com

Purpose:

QuadSucker/News is a multithreaded newsgroup downloader. It is intended to download binary attachments from usenet newsgroups. QuadSucker/News is enhanced specifically for downloading pictures and includes four thumbnail viewers. Other formats (sound, archives, movies, etc.) are also supported.

See Also:

Streaming Download Tutorial -- Good for Picture groups
Pick and Choose Tutorial -- Good for Movie/Music/Application groups
Registration Tutorial -- How to enter your registration code

Table of Contents

• Features
• Operating Modes: Streaming Download vs Pick and Choose
• Quick Start
• Black and White List Filtering
• Duplicate Checker
• The Headers Window
  • Viewing Headers (Streaming Download Mode)
  • Selecting Headers (Pick and Choose Mode)
• Command Line Options
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Revision History
• Registration

Features:

• Four threads simultaneously download news attachment, providing a speed improvement of up to 400% over standard single-threaded news downloaders.
• A fifth thread continuously scans your selected newsgroups for new messages.
• Extremely simple configuration -- only three parameters need to be entered to setup QuadSucker/News.
• Built in thumbnail image viewers.
• Built in full-screen image viewer.
• Advanced fully integrated duplicate checker.
• Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP look and feel -- Intuitive and easy to use.
• Shareware version is fully functional, with no time limits, disabled features, or other nags.
• "Boss Key" (ALT-F10) to hide the program in the windows system tray

Operating Modes

The first and most important choice that you'll need to make is what operating mode to use. QuadSucker/News supports two main operating modes: Streaming Download, and Pick and Choose. Here are short descriptions of the two modes:

Streaming Download

Streaming download mode is intended for the person who wants to download EVERYTHING and sort it all out later. It is primarily intended for the pictures newsgroups -- the alt.binaries.pictures hierarchy. In this mode, QuadSucker/News gobbles down all of the binary attachments it can and stores them on your hard drive. You'll get lots of stuff real fast. Presumably you'll go through it all later, either with the built-in jpeg viewer, or a standalone viewer such as SortPics.

Controlling what you want to download in Streaming Download mode is mainly done with "filters". QuadSucker/News includes black and white list filters. A black list filter prevents things that you don't want from being downloaded. A white list filter specifies things that you specifically want downloaded. Most people use the black list filters extensively; and few use the white list filter.

Pick and Choose

Pick and Choose mode is intended for the person who only wants to download a select number of specific files. It is intended for the multimedia and large file newsgroups -- for example: mpeg movies, mp3 music, zip/rar archives, etc. In this mode, QuadSucker downloads the "headers" (small summaries of the articles) ahead of time and let's you pick through them and choose what items you want. QuadSucker won't downloading anything that you have not selected.

Controlling what you want to downloading in Pick and Choose mode is done with the "headers" dialog. You use the <headers> button on the main dialog to get there. The headers dialog displays all of the headers (i.e. summaries). You drag the ones you want from the list of available headers to a list of selected headers. Then QuadSucker will download the items you put on the selected list.

Quick Start:

NOTE: We've written up an illustrated tutorial that will get you through the basic configuration steps. Click here to view the tutorial.

1. Press the Config button to bring up the news server configuration page.
   1. Mode Selection Page
      
      On the mode settings page, you get to choose between streaming download mode and pick and choose mode.
      
   2. Server Settings Page:
      
      On this page, there are three items that must be entered. All three items are determined by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
      
      1. News Server Name. This is the computer that QuadSucker/News will connect to in order to retrieve news. It is usually something like news.ispname.com or nntp.ispname.com.
      2. User Name. Most news servers now require authentication and will require you to enter a user name and password. This must match the user name and password that is setup with your ISP. It is usually the same as your PPP/SLIP login username and password, but may not necessarily be so.
      3. Password. This goes with the username entered in #2.
         
   3. Download Settings Page
      
      The default path should work for most users -- only change it if you have a need to
      
   4. Thread Settings Page
      
      We recommend starting out with 2 threads to make sure your news server supports them, and then gradually increasing to more later on.
      
   5. Finished
      
      When you're finished with the wizard, click the <Finished> button and you'll get back to the QuadSucker main window
      
2. Press the Groups button to configure your newsgroups. You will be presented with the newsgroup screen which features several buttons. The Add button is used to add new groups to the list.

   Since this is (presumably) your first time running QuadSucker/News, you will have to download something called a "newsrc" list -- this is the list of newsgroups supported by your ISP. When you press Add the first time, it'll show a little message that says to press Refresh, so press the Refresh button.

   Pressing the refresh button will begin a newsrc download. The whole process is automatic, but may take a while due to the size of the file. If there are errors, then the information you entered in step #1 is probably incorrect -- go fix it. Otherwise, once the newsrc is downloaded, you can effortlessly search and scroll the list to pick out the groups you want.

   Note: You can also manually enter a newsgroup name at any time without downloading a newsrc. Do this if you already know the newsgroup name.

3. Press the Start button to begin downloading. QuadSucker/News will begin downloading messages in sequence from the first group to the last. Congratulations, you are now downloading binary news.

Black / White String Filtering

QuadSucker/News supports two different search filters:

• Black List: The black list contains keywords or substrings which you DO NOT want to download. If these keywords are present in any of the primary message headers (subject, author, etc.), then the message will be skipped.
• White List: The white list is used to limit downloading to ONLY those keywords which you enter. It is used when you know specifically what you are looking for.

Most people I know of use the black list extensively to lock out spammers and off-topic posters. If you see someone posting spam, right-click on the spam picture and select black list. Then you can optionally add any of the primary headers (subject, author, etc.) to the black list.

You can also add items to the black list directly by pressing the <Filter> button or by hitting the <Black List> buttons located on the <Status> pages.

Black/White filename Filtering

The black and white filename filters work similarly to the black and white string filters. However, there are several notable differences:

• A message has to be partially received before the filename can be known (i.e. there is no way to know ahead of time). Therefore, if a message fails the filename filter, QuadSucker/News has to disconnect from the server and reconnect to abort the message. On some servers, this can impose a short delay and slow down transfers.
• For the above reason, you should use the black/white string lists, rather than the filename lists if possible.
• The asterisk (*) is a wild character in filename strings. For example, '*.jpg' would match all filenames that end with '.jpg'. Similarly, 'a*.jpg' would match all filenames that start with 'a' and end with '.jpg'.
• The question mark (?) is a wild character that matches only one source character. For example, 'a?.jpg' would match the filenames 'a1.jpg', 'a2.jpg', but not the filename 'a123.jpg'.

Duplicate Checker

The duplicate checker built into QuadSucker/News offers many features not built into competing products. A single unified duplicate database is able to reject files based on name, subject, or contents. This database is maintained automatically by QuadSucker/News without user intervention.

As an added bonus, the built in jpeg viewer will automatically query the duplicate database and display the message subject when you view the corresponding file.

All duplicate options are accessed by first selecting <Config> and then clicking the <Duplicates> tag. In QuadSucker/News, maintaining the database and rejecting duplicates are two independent options:

Duplicate Database Enable

Check this option to enable the recording of duplicate information to your computer. I recommend that you should always leave this option enabled, regardless of whether you intend to actually reject duplicates or not -- that way if you do decide to reject duplicates in the future, all of the data will be there.

When you enable the duplicate database, QuadSucker/News will build a file called "dup.lst" in your QuadSucker directory. This file will contain one line for each file and/or message that is downloaded to your computer. The information stored includes the message name, subject, author, filename(s), and checksums of the file contents.

Subject Checker

The subject checker is intended to reject duplicates of matching subjects. For example, if you download a message with the subject "this is my picture" and later try to download a message with the same subject, the file will be rejected. This works very well in practice and eliminates many duplicates and reposts.

The one drawback of the duplicate subject checker is that sometimes people will use the same subject for multiple messages. For example, if two separate people were to post a message entitled "this is my picture", then QuadSucker would reject the second one even though the contents may be different. There are two ways to prevent this: the 'also match author' and the 'also match lines' checkboxes. If these options are checked, then the file will not be rejected unless the author and/or message line count is identical to the first post. This limits false rejections significantly.

Filename Checker

The filename checker is intended to reject files with the same name. For example, if you download "myfile1.jpg" and later try to download "myfile1.jpg" again, the duplicate filename checker would prevent the download.

The filename checker has a similar drawback in that many people give files the same name. For example, a lot of people post files under numerical names, i.e. "1.jpg", "2.jpg", etc. In this case, the filename checker may reject files which are really the same. For this reason, the filename checker has the same 'also match author' and 'also match lines' options as the subject checker.

Due to an artifact of how news messages work, the filename is not always known until you have started to download the message. This means the only way to 'reject' a duplicate file is to actually abort the transfer. Aborted transfers are slow to recover since the connection has to be re-established. However, since QuadSucker/News uses four simultaneous threads, you shouldn't notice this problem as much.

Contents Checker

The contents checker works by identifying files which have the same contents (duh!). It works independently of the filename and subject checkers and will reject files with duplicate contents even if they have different names. This form of duplicate rejecting is very precise and never yields false results.

The problem with the contents checker is that QuadSucker/News has to download the entire file before it can be checked for duplication. Thus, enabling the contents checker will not speed up downloading at all. However, it does provide the following benefits:

• Save disk space: Since duplicate files are automatically deleted, they won't eat up space on your hard drive.
• Save your time: Since you will presumably be viewing downloaded files later, if the duplicates are automatically deleted, it will save you having to sift through them.

Integration with Viewer:

The built in full-screen jpeg viewer will automatically query the duplicate database and display the subject of a message corresponding to the file that is displayed.

The bottom line:

Most users may prefer to enable all three duplicate checkers. I suggest experimenting -- the 'log' window will show you when a given file is rejected any for what reason, so watch the log window and see if you're getting the results you want.

Viewing Headers (Streaming Download Mode)

This section describes how to view headers in "Streaming Download Mode". Streaming download mode is one of the modes that you can configure QuadSucker/News to operate in. The intent behind streaming download mode is that you want nearly all the items in the newsgroup, and hence you won't be spending much time going through the headers.

Quadsucker/News includes a powerful facility for displaying the list of messages (also called "headers") in a given newsgroup. Viewing the headers allows you to see what will be downloaded next, and possibly to reject certain messages or override automatically rejected messages.

To view headers, click the <Headers> button on Quadsucker's main window.

Headers are displayed one per line. By default, headers belonging to a multi-part message are grouped together and indented.

Legend of Header Status:

Selecting Headers (Pick and Choose Mode)

The section describes how to select headers in "Pick and Choose Mode". Pick and Choose mode differs from streaming download mode in the respect that files are not automatically downloaded -- QuadSucker/News waits for you to go through the headers and pick the files that you want to receive. Once you have picked headers, QuadSucker will download the files that you want.

To view headers, click the <Headers> button on Quadsucker's main window.

There are three parts to the Header Selection Dialog, as illustrated below:

As soon as headers are available, they will be displayed in the "Available Messages" section of the list. To Pick messages to download, simply drag them from the available message list to the selected message list.

You can also browse through the available newsgroups using the Newsgroup list on the left side of the panel. When you change newsgroups, the available message list will update to show the available messages in that group.

Command Line Options

Command line options allow you to specify customized startup options for quadsucker. These options must be entered on the command line before starting the program. There are a few places to do this:

1. Use the windows-95/98/NT/2000 command line prompt and type in a command line
2. ... or ... Create a shortcut on your desktop and enter the options into the shortcut
3. ... or ... Modify the shortcut that's in the start menu

Command line options are an advanced feature of Windows and are not the easiest thing to understand. Unless you absolutely need to use one of the following options, then I suggest you avoid the issue altogether.

Note: Windows is very particular about the placement of quotes in command lines. The following (note the use of the quotes) is are examples of valid command lines:

• "c:\Program Files\quadnews\quadnews.exe" -autostart
• "c:\Program Files\quadnews\quadnews.exe" -regkey customregkey

Supported command line options:

Frequently Asked Questions

Below you'll find the answers to some frequent questions and problems.

Why is the newsgroup list missing lots of groups ?

Some news servers don't include all available groups unless you send authentication information. Use the <Config> button, and select the <Server> tab. Insure that your authentication is correct. Enable the 'Send authentication info even if the server doesn't ask for it' option. Exit the config dialog, press the <Add> button, and <Refresh> your newsgroup list. Watch the dialog for any obvious errors. Hopefully all of the groups will be there now.

Why does it say 'error 502' or 'authentication incorrect' ?

Most news servers require a name and password to access the server. This name and password may usually be obtained from your ISP (try poking around in an existing news program installed on your computer to find the settings if you don't know them). Use the <Config> button and <Server> tab to find the server settings. Make sure your 'User Name' and 'Password' are correct. Disconnect QuadSucker, exit, reload, and try again.

My authentication is correct... Why do I still get lots of error 502 messages ?

Some news servers restrict the number of simultaneous connections that you can use (any respectable news service should offer a bare minimum four simultaneous connections, but some do not). When QuadSucker attempts to open many connections to a restrictive server, the connections trample one another and cause many '502 errors' usually with an added note about 'too many connections'. Solution: Use the <Config> button and <Threads> tab, and reduce the number of threads. Stop quadsucker, wait a few minutes, and <Start> quadsucker back up again.

Where are my downloaded files going? I can't find them!

QuadSucker places the downloaded files in your 'download path'. Press <Config> and select the <Download> tab to see where your download path is currently at. QuadSucker will automatically separate the downloaded files into several subdirectories based on group names. For example files from 'alt.binaries.pictures.animals' will be put in the subdirectory 'animals'. There is an <Explore> button conveniently located on the download page to help you find your files.

What is the JPEG auto-commenter feature and how do I use it?

The JPEG auto-commenter feature can be turned on to automatically add comments to JPEG files that contain the message subject, author, etc. It's useful for those instances where you might be viewing a picture several months on down the line and you say to yourself: "Now where did that image come from?" or "What is this picture supposed to be about?" The JPEG auto-commenter may be turned on using the <Config> button and click the auto-comment tab.

Comments are automatically displayed on the title bar assuming you are using the built-in image viewer, or by using the popular SortPics Image Viewer and Sorting utility.

Is QuadSucker/News compatible with commercial news servers like Giganews?

Absolutely, in fact I use Giganews all the time. Using a commercial server usually offers additional performance, higher downloads, and better retention that your default news server. Of course, a commercial news server is not required, and many QuadNews uses continue to use their existing ISP-provided default news server.

Register

QuadSucker/News is not free! You are allowed to evaluate the software for a limited amount of time. If you find QuadSucker useful and continue to use it, then you must register to continue using the product.

Complete registration information is available at http://www.quadsucker.com/order/.

Registrations may be paid for online in a variety of methods (credit card, etc), or may be made through the mail. See the QuadSucker site at http://www.quadsucker.com/ for full details.

Revision History

• Version 1.0
  • Initial public release
• Version 1.1
  • NewsRC thread was using 100% of CPU due to polling for variable state. Added a Sleep(500)
  • Added Status:Statistics page
  • Added Config:Version page
  • Automatically checkpoints newsgroup info as its downloaded
• Version 1.2
  • Fixed message pointers not being saved properly
  • Made add dialog multiselect capable
  • Image viewer will display message subject from dup database if available
  • Moved debug button to status page
  • Added help button
  • Added accept/reject button to header list
  • Added override button to header list
• Version 1.3
  • Fixed memory overallocation, THeader vs TNewsHeader
  • Eliminated leak in viewer by setting Close->Action=caFree
  • Free Pic,Curpic in viewer->Destroy
  • Free picture buffer in viewer->Destroy
  • Fixed problem with registration message still appearing after user is registered
• Version 1.4
  • Fixed Sortpics button causing a GPF on second use per session
  • Prevent title from changing to SortPics when SortPics button pushed
  • Set window position to poDefaultPosOnly -- prevent window from displaying self off screen
  • Checked FormConfig!=NULL in TimerStartStopTimer (I don't know why this was causing a problem)
• Version 1.5
  • Updated copyright notice
  • Support for transparent gifs in image viewer
• Version 1.6
  • Added quick tips to add newsgroup screen
  • Added note to add newsgroup screen that multiple groups may be added at once, as some users didn't realize this
  • Reworked add newsgroup screen to allow pressing <add> multiple times without exiting dialog
  • Prevent group manager from accepting duplicate groups
  • Remove the registration nag screen that was appearing after five minutes of user activity.
  • Added history list to add newsgroup search box. History only records search strings which have been used for more than three seconds (to prevent recording strings while you're typing them)
  • Removed beta notice from documentation as it was no longer true and was making some users uneasy.
  • Removed maximize icon and ensure that dialog is not resizable.
  • Ensured correct operation of minimize icon.
• Version 1.7
  • Recompiled with Borland C++ Builder 5
  • Fixed Sortpics requiring registration code
  • Numerous updates to sortpics/viewer -- multithread engine, etc. See www.sortpics.com for full details.
  • Ran into strange problem with Win2k and/or SMP. Win2k was refusing to redraw one of the alternating jpeg buffers (this happened on each thread). Problem was solved by switching from BCB's malloc to Win32's HeapAlloc(). This may be indicative of further undiscovered problems (either in Win2k, BCB5, or QuadNews)
  • Fix border flicker problem that was being cause by background drawn over image
• Version 1.8
  • Fixed race condition where table->EnumerationValid could be set w/o sorting the table
  • Added multipart joining algorithms: primitive and advanced
  • Fix header window not calling proper sort function
  • Increased lines per debug window to 500; Delete 25 at a time
  • Viewer: Added thread to perform dup scanning in background
  • Fixed memory leak of dup info when viewer disposed of
  • Fixed memory leak in String Manager destructor (see sortpics.html)
  • Fixed performance problems with headers dialog: dialog would continue consuming CPU after closed, and CPU usage was high on large header lists
  • Added graceful disconnect feature
  • Introduced non-adsoftware version with delay
  • Added try-again support to wait 10 seconds and try again on 502 messages (works good with Supernews when it starts to fail our connections)
  • Added more statistics
  • Close the header socket when it's not in use: works better for servers that limit # of connections
• Version 1.9
  • Fix problem with msg pointer not working right on file w/ missing pieces
  • Fix problem with using pause/stop messing up multipart d/l and message pointers
  • Added export command to duplicate viewer
  • Fixed formaddgroup from being autocreated
  • Fixed newsrc downloader being disabled when add group dialog used
  • Multipart algorithm not working on messages that had both () and [] in them
  • Fix delays when header window open
  • Modified header d/l thread to queue up and commit 500 headers at a time to prevent excessive sort delays and multipart grunging
  • Widened fields in group display
  • Widened fields in header list
  • Added headers downloaded status info to header thread
  • Rewrote header window to use OwnerData listview -- much faster
• Version 2.0
  • Added collapse multipart checkbox to header list
  • Fixed problem with very long message text lines causing overflow & crash
  • Fixed memory leak in headers window when items selected -- BCB VCL bug
  • Made headers dialog resizable
  • Added find button to headers dialog
  • Added some command line options
  • Fix header thread not waking up when started
  • Added connection refused dialog
  • Added black and white file masks to filter settings
  • Fix lockouts/rejects not working if header window not opened
  • Added checklist to disable running of header thread
  • Made header dialog save size, position, and column widths
  • Made status dialog save size, position, and column widths
  • Widened & right justified size field in received files list
  • Added option to always download all the headers
• Version 2.1
  • Added Boss Key (ALT-F10)
  • Added checkmarks to add-newsgroup dialog to show subscribed groups
  • Sped up add-newsgroup dialog by converting from listbox to ownerdat-listview
  • Switch to adsoftware V3
  • Fixed possible exit crash in QueryConfigSync()
  • Fixed possible exit crash in DebugMessageSync()
  • Make quick start appear to right of main window if space permits
  • Disable white lists if no entries present
• Version 2.2
  • Ignore lines with http:// in them -- helps eliminate signature lines mistaken as uuencoded text
  • Fix some of the dialogs with clInfoBlk backgrounds to force black text (was causing trouble for people with white fonts)
  • Added adaptive algorithm to header display to keep it from slowing on very large header lists
  • Made it so you can sort header dialog by other subject, author, etc
  • Turned on double buffering in group list to reduce flicker
  • In statistics window, try-again and missing pieces stats were swapped
  • Automatic retry on timeouts & dropped connections
  • Fixed received files listing including aborted/deleted files
  • Fixed delete not working in received files dialog
  • Removed all adsoftware support
  • Program was displaying unregistered dialog if non-standard regkey was used
  • Prevent install program from deleting registry entries on re-install
  • The white filter may now match newsgroup names (i.e. putting alt.binaries.fubar in the white filter will match all messages in that newsgroup)
  • Added error message if start button pressed w/o host name or groups
• Version 2.3
  • Fix assertion failure GlobStrIsEntry(h->From) in dupeman.cpp
  • Fix assertion failure when opening SortPics viewer
  • Made main window resize-able and maximize-able
  • Added low disk warning
  • Made newsgroup dialog resizeable
  • Added sort newsgroup list to status:tools dialog
  • Added options to browse download directory in config and status dialogs
  • Added FAQ to documentation
  • Added option to force sending of authentication info
  • Fixed occasional GPF during newsrc retrieval by using GlobStr table to store group names
  • Fixed GPF while editing existing SortPics categories (use FREE instead of free, STRDUP instead of STRDUP)
• Version 2.4
  • Fixed problems with really long filenames causing GPF
  • Fixed numerous dialogs displayed incorrectly if using large fonts
• Version 2.5
  • Support for ports other than 119 -- use <server>:<port> for hostname
  • Added enable/disable viewer option
• Version 2.6
  • Changed registration fee to $29.95
  • Made jpeg viewer more tolerant of badly formed files
  • Fixed display problem with large fonts and some dialog boxes
• Version 2.7
  • Added Yenc Support
  • Fixed problems decoding lines that started with a period
• Version 2.9-BETA1
  • Added enable debug checkbox to debug screen
  • Default to debugging messages disabled (speeds up normal processing and lowers CPU load)
  • Added "pick and choose mode"
  • Made header thread count as one of the threads in use. Raised maximum number of threads from 4 to 5. Msg downloaded thread will "loan a socket" to header thread if header thread needs to run.
  • Major modifications to header selection dialog (support pick&choose mode, added group list, added menu bar)
  • Added menu bar to QuadSucker main window
  • Upgraded the configuration settings dialog to be more wizard-like
  • Added descriptions to the status window
  • Renamed "download status" window to "statistics & download status"
  • Spiffed up the info dialog
  • Make min/max line/byte filters count bytes in all parts of multipart messages
  • Add min/max byte filters
  • Add number of bytes to header window
• Version 2.9-BETA2
  • Fixed "waiting for worker to give up socket" problem with 5 threads
  • Fixed crash when attempting to sort an empty pick list (or header list)
  • Fixed checkbox on error log not moving when window resized
• Version 2.9-BETA3
  • Fixed "graceful stop" window not disappearing if graceful stop used in last message in pick list
  • Added hide rejected messages checkbox to header window
  • Added additional diagnostic message to debug log when skipping messages
  • Automatically detect closed socket and re-open
  • Fix open button in received files list not always working
  • View button in received files list will default to "open" button if file is not supported by built-in viewer
  • Added read button to header window
  • Terminate mime messages at end-of-block rather than end-of-message
  • Automatically continue mime messages if the following messages start with a valid mime decodeable line
  • Made help button in headers dialog bring up users manual
• Version 3.0
  • Fixed lookup failures on hostnames with spaces at the end
  • Allow user to drag&drop in picked header list to reorder list
• Version 3.1
  • Updated registration code scheme
  • Made filters dialog resizable to provide more room in blacklist listboxes
  • Added option to limit number of headers downloaded per group
  • Misc updates to viewer (see www.sortpics.com)
  • Make default size of headers window smaller to fit 800x600 displays
  • Fix crash when using duplicate list viewer
  • Sort the items in the blacklist/whitelist filter boxes
• Version 3.2
  • Fix crash on read window if window closed while message downloading
  • Prevent read window from bogging everything down on long messages
  • Added age filter to headers dialog
  • Fix viewer not viewing files correctly
  • Added post command
  • Added reply command to read window
  • Fix header sort by bytes
  • Fix header sort by lines
  • Add vertical scrollbar to reader window
• Version 3.2a
  • Minor cosmetic change
• Version 3.3-BETA-1
  • Added Thread/Throughput statistics page
  • Fixed progress bar to display correctly on multi-part messages
• Version 3.3-BETA-2
  • Added right-click menu to selected list
  • Added right-click menu to the available list
  • Added post menu & post-message options to header window
  • Removed the "beta" warning from Pick & Choose mode in config dialog
  • Support for program-specific registration codes
  • Widened registration code entry field
• Version 3.4
  • Added store/recall buttons to server list
• Version 3.5
  • Added Save and Load options to message writer
  • Added font option to message writer
  • Added copy/cut/paste to message writer
• Version 3.6
  • Support double-click in recall server window
  • Added pick & choose statistics
  • Fixed status text not updating when in collapsemulti mode in header window
  • Fixed status text in header window w/ collapsemulti using blocknext instead of multinext
  • Added save and load pick list functions
  • Check for changed download path before each message block (as opposed to when start button pressed)
• Version 3.7
  • Added jpeg virus detector
  • Revamped black/white list dialogs
  • Added import, export, clear commands to black/white lists
  • Added right-click menu to group list
  • Added move-to-top and move-to-bottom to right-click group list menu
• Version 3.8
  • Added search string to headers window
• Version 3.9-beta-1
  • Added pointers button to group list
  • Added hint text to newsgroup list buttons
  • Reduce memory requirements by 20%
  • Fixed search string filter in headers dialog not updating screen if no matches found
• Version 3.9-beta-2
  • Multiselect in group list
  • Enable / Disable multiple groups at once
  • Delete multiple groups at once
• Version 4.0
  • Added copy-to-clipboard commands to the debug windows
  • Multiselect for Promote, Demote buttons in group list
• Version 4.1
  • Fixed items not read-only in group list
  • Turn off drag/drop image when dragging group list items
• Version 4.2
  • Fixed import/export buttons in keyword filter dialog
  • Added option to enter registration code on startup screen
• Version 4.3
  • Added download classification settings to config window
• Version 4.4
  • Fix delete-not-terminated setting not being saved
  • Added jpeg auto-commenter
  • Display jpeg comments in built-in viewer
• Version 4.5
  • Support for resizing in the headers window
  • Fixed scrollbar problem with header window when no headers displayed
• Version 4.6-beta
  • Experimental support for encrypted usenet connections
  • Rewrite of socket code; switch to TSBSocket
  • Removed tutorial; it is now placed online so that the executable size is reduced (4.6-beta-2)
  • Locking in SSL code (4.6-beta-2)
• Version 4.7
  • Eliminated lock contention over control updates in workers. Significantly less CPU util now (4.6-beta-3)
• Version 4.8
  • Added option to turn off case conversion
  • Switch to bcb6
  • Fix possible problem with Received Files 'Open' under vista
  • Translate vista virtual paths to physical paths