NerdGrab version 1.0x


NerdGrab is a "binary file grabber" to retrieve and extract binary files
from internet news groups.  It is especially useful for retrieving wave
files, movies, and naughty pictures from the internet.

NerdGrab is inspired by, and adapted from, "Bingrab" by Timothy Millea.
Tim's program can be found at "http://www.nfinity.com/~tmillea".



What NerdGrab Does

NerdGrab logs onto your news server and downloads message files from a
specified list of discussion groups.  It then decodes the encoded binary
files from those messages. The decoded files are then moved to the
specified directory.

The binary files can be executables, avi movies, wav files, jpegs, gif,
dll, exe, etc.






Installation Procedure


1.   Copy all the files to the directory of your choice.  NerdGrab MUST BE RUN
     ON AN HPFS DRIVE since it uses long file names.

2.   Create a program icon for NerdGrab.exe (if you want to run from the
     Workplace Shell).

3.   Modify "NerdGrab.ini" to customize the program's operating parameters,
     such as news server, max connect time, max download file size, etc.

4.   Run "GetGrps.exe" to download a complete list of news groups from the
     news server.  Enter search sub-strings on the command line to limit
     which news groups will be selected.
     (This entire step may be omitted if you would like to manually create
     the list of news groups to search for binary files.)

5.   Manually edit the file "NerdGrab.dat" to select the groups you wish to
     download. (Incidentally, this file can have any name you like.  Just
     change the default name in "NerdGrab.ini".

6.   Run NerdGrab.exe to download the news groups.


Note:  NerdGrab requires "rxsock.dll" and "uudeview.exe".  Both of these
        programs are included in the distribution.





Running NerdGrab


1.   Type NerdGrab from the command line.

     If you wish to specify a different "ini" file, simply list it on
      the command line.  Otherwise, the default file "NerdGrab.ini" is used.





Customizing NerdGrab


    NerdGrab can be easily customized through the NerdGrab.ini file.  Each
    parameter is listed on a single line.  The parameter name is first, then
    the value of the parameter.  (There must be at least one space between
    these items.)  Anything to the right of the "#" character is ignored.

    The following items can be set:

    RegCode                The registration code which does nothing other
                             than remove the unregistered nag line.
                             NerdGrab is freeware.

    ServerUIP              This is the internet address of the news server.
                             Put your news server here.


    MinimumMessageSize     The minimum size of messages to download
                             Any message with fewer lines than this will
                             be ignored. (This is LINES, not bytes.)

    MaxNumberOfMessages    The maximum number of messages to download.
                             Once this value is reached, the program will
                             stop downloading until it is re-started.

    MaxTimeAllowed         The maximum time allowed to download in seconds.
                             Once the program has been on-line for this
                             amount of time, it will stop downloading.
                             This time does not include any amount of time
                             required to decode the binary files.

    MaxKBytesAllowed      The maximum number of KBytes of raw messages to
                             download.  All the messages are stored in
                             temporary files.  Once those files total this
                             number of KBytes, the program will stop
                             downloading messages.


    FilePutPath           The location for all the binary files to be
                             placed.  Unfortunately, this does not apply
                             to "exe" files which will remain in the
                             NerdGrab subdirectory.




GetGrps


    GetgGrps.exe will create a data file of selected news groups.  This data
    file will be read by NerdGrab to select which news groups to download.
    Type in a substring on the command line to select which groups you want
    to select.

    You can run GetGrps multiple times, since it simply appends the new data
    to the previous data.


    Example:    Select all groups with the word "picture" and "sound"

                         C>GetGrps picture sound

                Will select "alt.pictures.binaries.erotica", as well as
                any group with the substring "picture" or "sound"





Registration

NerdGrab is freeware.  Sending the author an eMail message will get you the
registration code, but this code is not needed make the program work in any
special way.  (All it does is takes away the unregistered message.)

NerdGrab is copyrighted (c) 1998 by NerdWorld (tm) and J R Casey Bralla.  The
author can be contacted at "Vorlon@pdn.net".

The usual limitations of liability apply.  (ie: You run this program at your
own risk.  It is not warranted to do ANYTHING, either good or evil.)
