# &app; Manual (&manrevision;)

2008
Sander Tuit
LottaNZB development team

            avirulence@lottanzb.org

&legal;

Sander
Tuit
LottaNZB development team

                avirulence@lottanzb.org

LottaNZB User Manual V&manrevision;
&date;

Sander Tuit avirulence@lottanzb.org

LottaNZB development team

This manual describes version &appversion; of LottaNZB.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding &app; or this manual, follow the directions on the Launchpad bug tracker page.

## Introduction

&app; is an application for the GNOME desktop that enables you to download binary news from the Usenet.

The Usenet is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system that has been around long before the first websites showed up. Beside normal text messages, user may also post files, which are most commonly split up into different messages. To simplify the download of such files, the NZB file format was developed by the creators of the Newzbin.com Usenet Index. Such files contain the information about what is to be downloaded exactly and are usually created by Usenet search engines such as the mentioned one.

&app; uses HellaNZB as its backend to process such NZB files and download the files they point to, and finally validate and extract the downloads if necessary. But &app; can do even more than that and lets you:

- Use it as a stand-alone NZB Usenet client or as a front-end for a HellaNZB client running on any computer

- Enqueue multiple NZB files directly from within your file manager and web browser at once

- Arrange the download queue and add NZB files using drag 'n drop

- Define multiple Usenet servers

- Limit the bandwidth used to download

- Easily configure both HellaNZB and &app; without having manually edit configuration files

Thanks to the work of &app; users from different countries, &app; is available in Danish, Dutch, French, German and Spanish.

## Getting Started

### How to launch &app;

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Internet LottaNZB Automated Usenet Client .

Command line

  To start &app; from a command line, type the following command, then press Return:

  `lottanzb`

### First Start of &app;

When you start &app; the first time, you will need to configure it. You will be asked to select the usage mode that fits you best.

&app; tries to find out which is the most appropriate mode for you and displays a hint at the bottom of the window that will help you decide. &app; has three usage modes, which are described below.

#### Stand-alone mode

If you do not want the HellaNZB daemon to run in the background all the time, or if you do not want to set up the daemon yourself, this is probably the best usage mode for you. When &app; starts, it automatically launches the HellaNZB daemon and shuts it down when &app; closes. When you don't have a clue about what the HellaNZB daemon is, this will also be the best choice for you.

If you want to use the stand-alone mode, you need to fill in the address and port provided by your Usenet server. Note that the default port is 119. When the server requires authentication, you will need to fill in your username and password as well. On the bottom of the usage selection window you can fill in the location of the HellaNZB daemon. However, this should be detected automatically.

This information is necessary to immediately begin downloading. Primarily, this window is only meant to be used on first startup of &app;. Later on, you can edit those values in the preferences window, where you can even specify multiple servers, enable SSL encryption etc.

##### Usage mode selection dialog

Shows the dialog you can set up the stand-alone mode with.

#### Local front-end mode

If you have already set up the HellaNZB daemon and want to have it running in the background all the time, you should choose the local front-end mode.

If you want to use the local front-end usage mode, you just have to select the configuration file HellaNZB uses. This is named hellanzb.conf and can usually be found in /etc, /usr/etc or ~/.hellanzb.

You will not be able to change HellaNZB's settings in &app; if you choose this mode.

##### Usage mode selection dialog for local front-end

Shows the dialog you can set up the local front-end mode with.

#### Remote front-end mode

If you want to connect to a HellaNZB daemon that runs on another computer, you should choose this usage mode. It will not be possible to change settings or add NZB files in this mode, but you can monitor the progress of your downloads.

If you want to use the remote front-end mode, you should fill in the IP address and port of the computer the HellaNZB daemon runs on and the XML RPC password for the HellaNZB daemon.

##### Usage mode selection dialog for remote front-end

Shows the dialog you can set up the remote front-end mode with.

### Main Window

When &app; has been set up correctly, &app;'s main window will be displayed.

#### Main window

Shows &app; main window. Contains titlebar, menubar, toolbar, download area, and information bar. Menubar contains File, Edit and Help menus.

The &app; window contains the following elements:

Menubar.

  The menus on the menubar contains some commands that can be used to work with &app;.

Toolbar.

  The toolbar contains some commands that might come in handy.

Infobar.

  The infobar displays information about items that are currently being downloaded.

Download area.

  The download area shows items that are currently being downloaded, that are being processed, that are in the queue or that are finished.

## Usage

You can use &app; to perform the tasks described in the following sections:

### Downloading an item

There are several ways to add an item to the download queue:

#### From within your file manager and web browser

When you install &app;, it is registered as an application to handle NZB files. This enables you to add NZB files to the download queue just by clicking on them in your file manager. When downloading an NZB file, your web browser should give you the possibility to directly pass it over to &app;.

You can even select multiple NZB files in your file manager and enqueue all of them at once.

#### Using the File menu

First of all, choose File Add NZB files . The Add files dialog (see screenshot below) is displayed. Select the file you want to add (it is possible to select multiple files), then edit the name and category at the bottom of the dialog and click Add.

##### Add files dialog

Shows the Add files menu.

#### Using the Add toolbar button

The third way to add NZB files to the queue is to use the Add button in the toolbar. This button opens the same Add files dialog as described above.

#### Using drag 'n drop

Another way to add NZB files to the queue is to drag them from the file manager or desktop onto the download queue. The Add files dialog will be opened with the dragged file selected. It is also possible to drag 'n drop multiple files onto the download queue. The files will then be automatically added to the queue.

#### Using Newzbin.com

The final way to add NZB files is only accessible when a Newzbin.com account has been set up in the Preferences window. If a Newzbin.com account has been set up, it is possible to add a download to the download queue by entering the Newzbin.com ID. To do so, go to File Add file from Newzbin.com . Now, the Add download dialog will be displayed. Fill in the Newzbin.com ID, click Add and the download will automatically start.

After hitting Add, it may take several seconds for the download to appear in the download queue. This is because &app; needs to download the NZB file from Newzbin.com first. So exercise yourself in patience.

##### Add a download from Newzbin.com

Shows the Add download dialog.

### Monitoring the download progress

When &app; is running and you have added some files to the download queue, the files show up in the download area. In the download area you find four columns:

- Name: This column shows the name of the item.

- Category: This column shows to which category the item belongs to. When the item is downloaded and processed, it will show up in the download directory with the category prefixed to its name. When the item was added to the download queue by drag 'n drop, it will be in the 'Other' category.

- Size: This column shows the size of the item.

- Progress: This column shows the progress of the queued item. There are five possible states a downloading item can have:

  - Downloading: When an item is being downloaded, the percentage which is downloaded is shown in this column. On the screenshot below you can see an item that is being downloaded.

    #### Downloading

    Shows a file that is currently being downloaded.

  - Queued: When an item is queued, it waits until the current active download is complete and the items above it in the queue are downloaded. By clicking Move up/down you can change the queue's order. You can also drag 'n drop the items until the queue is correctly ordered. In the screenshot above you can see two queued files.

  - Processing: When an item is being processed, it is checked for integrity and when found complete, it is extracted and moved to the download directory. On the screenshot below you can see an item that is being processed.

    #### Processing

    Shows a file that is being processed.

  - Repairing: When an item is being repaired, it means that there are some integrity problems with the download. Note that repairing may take some time.

  - Finished: When an item is finished, it can be removed from the download area by clicking the Clear finished button.

### Rearranging the download queue

There are situations in which you want some items to be downloaded before others. There are two ways to accomplish this:

- The first way to rearrange queued items is to use the Move up and Move down buttons. First, select the item you want to move up or down and then click the corresponding button in the toolbar.

- The second way to rearrange queued items it to drag 'n drop. First, select an item you want moved up or down and then drag it to the position in queue you want the download to be. The screenshot below shows an item (Ubuntu 7.10 DVD) that is being moved to a lower position in the download queue.

  #### Rearranging by drag 'n drop

  Shows a queue item that is being moved.

## Settings

To configure &app;, choose Edit Preferences . The Preferences dialog contains the following tabbed sections:

### General settings

Below you can find a screenshot of the general settings tab.

#### General settings tab

General settings tab.

Download settings

  - Download directory

    When downloaded items have finished processing, they are moved to this directory. Make sure there is enough disk space available at the selected location. To change the download destination directory, click on the directory button and select one of the locations in the list, or choose Other....

  - Maximum download rate

    Some people want to have some bandwidth available for checking e-mail and browsing websites. When you do not have enough bandwidth, you can limit the bandwidth the HellaNZB daemon uses.

    The HellaNZB daemon does not really limit the download speed, but it averages the download speed by stopping with downloading for a second or so, to average the download speed to the value you have filled in here.

  - Download PAR recovery files only if necessary

    When downloaded items are damaged, they can be repaired by using PAR files when available. If this option is selected, &app; only downloads the recovery files when the downloaded items are damaged. This can significantly decrease the size of the downloaded files.

Other settings

  - Start in the system tray

    When this option is selected, &app; will not show the main window when started, but will only show the system tray icon. By right-clicking the system icon and clicking Show main window you can show the main window. This option come in handy when you want to start &app; when you start your desktop environment, but do not want the main window to show up everytime you log in.

  - Use libnotify notifications

    When this option is selected, libnotify notifications, which blend in with your Gnome desktop, are displayed for example when downloads are finished.

### Server settings

Below, you can find a screenshot of the server settings tab.

#### Server settings tab

Server settings tab.

As the screenshot above shows, there are three buttons that can be used:

- Editing the selected server's settings

- Deleting the selected server

#### Adding a new Usenet server

When you click the add button in the server preferences tab, we get the Add server dialog as depicted on the screenshot below. This window is the same as the Edit server dialog.

##### Add/edit server dialog

Add/edit server dialog.

General

  We need the following options when adding a new Usenet server:

  - Server name

    This contains the current servers name. This name is not very important. It just provides a label for the server list. However, note that it should be an unique name.

  - Address

    The address of the Usenet server. Note that you should not include the port number.

  - Port

    The port of the Usenet server. The default port for most servers is 119.

Authentication

  - Server requires authentication

    Enable this option when your Usenet server requires you to log in.

  - Username

    If your Usenet server requires you to log in, you should fill in the user name that was provided.

  - Password

    If your Usenet server requires you to log in, you should fill in the password that was provided.

Connection settings

  - Enable SSL encryption

    Enable this option if your Usenet server provides SSL encryption. Most Usenet servers provide this as a premium service. If downloading from this server does not work, try to disable this option, since your server most likely does not support SSL encryption.

  - Maximum number of connections

    Most Usenet servers have a maximum number of connections that can be used by their customers. You should fill in the maximum number of connections allowed here.

    If you have a slow internet connection, you should decrease the number of connections even more to get an optimal download speed.

### Newzbin settings

The Newzbin.com website offers nicely categorized NZB files that can be used in &app;. &app; now allows you to add a download by just entering the ID that Newzbin.com provides.

Newzbin.com has a closed registration system at the moment, which means that you should know someone with an account in order to be able to use this service. Secondly, it's important to know that you need premium credits in order for usage of Newzbin.com.

If you are looking for a free source of NZB files, please take a look at binsearch.info. This website allows you to search for and create NZB files.

#### Newzbin.com settings.

Newzbin.com settings.

Authentication

  When you enable Newzbin support, you have to fill in the following settings:

  - Username

    The username Newzbin.com provided you with.

  - Password

    The password Newzbin.com provided you with.

## About &app;

The first versions of &app; were written by Sander (aVirulence). Early 2008, Severin (Lantash) joined the development team, rewriting most of the code and making &app; the great application it is now. Somewhat later, Stéphane also joined the team as &app;'s resident tester and translator. After &app; 0.2 had been launched, Andrew joined the team, fixing bugs and implementing new features. To find more information about &app;, please visit the &app; website.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, visit the &app; launchpad page.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public license as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 3 of the License, A copy of this license can be found at this link, or in the file LICENSE included with the source code of this program.