FNS Products

INTERNET NEWS DELIVERY SYSTEM

Overview: FNS Internet News Delivery System

FNS Internet News Delivery System

FNS Internet News Delivery System was designed to deliver stories (transcript sections) to users' PCs in real time. It uses TCP/IP and is based on ActivePush^tm technology.

It consists of two programs: Local News Server and NetReader. They work in tandem on a client's network or a standalone computer connected to Internet.

Platforms supported are Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT4.0/2000.

Local News Server acts as a gateway between local clients (NetReader) and FNS main News Server.

We recommend that Local News Server be installed on a dedicated machine (Pentium 166 or better, with at least 32Mb RAM), although it can work together with NetReader on the same PC (which has to have at least 64MB RAM).

FNS NetReader

NetReader is a program that runs on a user's PC; it displays stories (transcript sections) in real time, as they come; categorizes them based on user defined keywords; searches, prints and emails individual sections or whole transcripts, and much more.

Download and Install the Software

Individual users using standalone systems (not connected to a network) need to install both the Local News Server program and the NetReader program on their PC, using steps 1-6.

If your computer is a network workstation, you only need to install the NetReader program. Skip steps 1-3 and go directly to step 4.

Step 1:	Download Local News Server by clicking on this link: LocalNewsServer.exe (1.2 Mb) If you are using Microsoft Explorer 4 or above, you may either click on “Open this file/Run this program from its current location” and then go to step 3, or Click on “Save this file to disk” (be sure to remember the directory where the file has been saved).
Step 2:	If you downloaded and saved the program to a directory, go to the Windows desktop, double-click on “My Computer,” and select the drive and folder where you saved the files. Double-click on the file “localnewsserver.exe”.
Step 3:	Follow the installation wizard directions. Use default settings unless you want to customize the installation.
Step 4:	Download NetReader by clicking on this link: NetReader.exe (1.3 Mb) If you are using Microsoft Explorer 4 or above, you may either click on “Open this file/Run this program from its current location” and then go to step 6, or Click on “Save this file to disk” (be sure to remember the directory where the file has been saved).
Step 5:	Go to the Windows desktop and double-click on "My Computer", then select the drive and folder where you saved the files. Double-click on the file "netreader.exe".
Step 6:	Follow the installation wizard directions. Use default settings unless you want to customize the installation.

Configure the Software

Local News Server

Local News Server starts in minimized form. To bring the program up, double click on a yellow circle icon in the icon tray (in the lower right hand corner of the screen). Once the program is on the screen, click on "Settings", then "Setup". A setup box with 3 tabs should come up.

1. Enter authentication information:

Click on the "Remote News Server" tab.

Host Name: should be cm1.fnsg.com

User Name and Password: You should have received your unique user name and password from FNS. Remember, the authentication system is case sensitive, so watch the state of the "Caps Lock" button when entering data into these fields.

2. Configure remote connection:

Click on the "Internet Connection" tab.

Use Local Area Network (LAN): Use this option if you have a network permanently connected to Internet (SDSL, T1 etc.)

Use Proxy Server: if your network is connected to Internet through a proxy server or a firewall system acting as a proxy server, check this box and enter the proxy server address in the appropriate field.

NOTE: Local News Server requires port 2190 to be open for normal operation. Please ask your network administrator to check it - otherwise Local News Server won't be able to establish a connection to the main FNS data server.

3. Configure local connections:

Click on the "Local Configuration" tab.

Listening Port: This is the port on the local network which NetReader programs running on users' PCs connect to. Default value is 3990, but you can specify any number as long as you set the same number in NetReader (see below).

Purge Interval: The number of days Local News Server keeps stories in its internal cache. Expired stories are automatically purged on an hourly basis.

Purge interval can be set from 1 to 30 days; the higher the value, the more stories are kept on the hard drive, so make sure there's enough free space on the drive. You can safely use the formula:

Megabytes required = (Number of days) x 5.

Break on errors: If checked, every error detected will cause an error message box to pop up. Useful for troubleshooting; otherwise should be left unchecked, since it requires a button to be pressed to continue when an error condition occurs (which may not be critical, but will still interrupt the program operation).

Debug mode on: If checked, makes Local News Server to log all activity in a special file. Useful for troubleshooting; otherwise should be left unchecked, or else the log file will keep growing unlimitedly.

NetReader

NetReader needs to be configured to work in your environment. To access the setup options click on the Setup menu option and the Preferences option. Then click the Local News Server tab.

1. In the Server IP Address field fill in the name of the machine that is running the Local News Server. You should get this information from your network administrator.

2. Make sure that the TCP Port is the same as the listening port on the Local News Server. The default is 3990. Leave it as is unless your network administrator instructs you to do otherwise.

After you have configured the Local News Server settings, click on the Save Options tab to access the default save options.

1. Choose your Default Save Folder. This is a folder where you'll find all items you will have saved using "Save" or "Save Transcript" buttons.

2. Choose whether or not you want a date/time stamp to be included in the filenames of saved stories.

3. Choose the default format for saved stories – text or doc.

NetReader is now set up with a very basic configuration. Please refer to the user's manual for more information on how to fine-tune and use the FNS NetReader software.

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