Configure Communications...

Opens a dialog box allowing you to select communications/networking options.

WinVN is a Winsock based TCP/IP application. You must have networking software loaded on your PC and a Winsock compliant Dynamic Link Library (DLL) in your Windows or Windows System directory. Windows normally comes installed with these files. See Installing WinVN.

NNTP (News) Server
Fill in the Internet address of a news server. You can use the IP address or the name of the server. Obtain this information from your system administrator. Several settings in the WinVN.ini file are stored based on the name in this field, so do not change it unless you need to.

TCP port
Fill in the TCP port designation of the news server program. Typically this is "nntp". In the case of some misconfigured TCP/IP software, you may need to type in the value 119, which is almost always the port number used by news servers. Other values can be used only if your local news server is so configured. If you are using SSL, the port will automatically change to 563, but use can override this with any value you choose.

Use SSL
If checked it negotiates an encrypted connection to your news server. (Your server must support SSL.) SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. Its a method for encrypting the communcation between your computer and the server. When using SSL your username and password as well as all the data you send & receive is protected from eavesdropping. In order to use SSL, you will need the OpenSSL libeay32.dll & ssleay32.dll dynamic link libraries (DLL) installed in the WinVN program folder or in your Windows directory. You may be able to find these at www.slproweb.com. You will need 32bit builds for 32bit versions of WinVN, and 64bit builds when running 64bit WNVN on a 64bit OS.

Connect at startup
When selected, WinVN will connect to your news server as soon as WinVN starts, When deselected, WinVN will not connect at startup, and you will need to manually connect.

Retrieval Timeout
Used when downloading or decoding more than one article. Useful for unattended operation.
While downloading, if no data is received within the specified time in seconds, WinVN will terminated the connection, attempt to reconnect and restart the retrieval process. 0=disabled default=120 (seconds)

Send "Keep-Alive" message when idle for n seconds (0=off)
Maintains the connection to the news server by sending periodic group selection messages to the server to prevent the connection from being disconnected due to idleness. This is disabled by default, and should only be used when your news server is misconfigured to drop connections in an unreasonably short period of time, or if it has a connection limit and the dropped connection is not removed immediately preventing you from reconnecting. The keep-alive message is only sent as long as you have an article list window open. The minimum value is 15 seconds. Set it to 0 to diasble the keep-alive message.

News Transport
Modern news servers use the XOVER protocol. XHDR is available for backwards compatibility. This setting should usually be left at Auto Select or XOVER.

Use Header Compression should be checked to use one of the three header compression protocols currently in use. If header compression could not be successfully negotiated, when connecting, this checkbox will automatically uncheck.

Username & Password
Some NNTP news servers require you to provide an authorizing username and password before they will allow you full access to some or all newsgroups. If you plan on connecting with such a server, you should fill in the appropriate username and password for the server you have selected. WinVN stores your password in encrypted form in winvn.ini. However, be aware that the NNTP AUTHINFO protocol used to authenticate you to the server is quite insecure, so your use of this option may be hazardous. You should leave the name and password blank if the news server does not require authentication - if you have specify a name and password, and the server does not require it, your connection will most likely be refused. If you are using an SSL connection, all of the data to the server is encrypted automatically.

Save Password
When selected, the password entered will be saved (encrypted) in the WinVN configuration file. If deselected, WinVN will not save your password.

SMTP (Mail) Server
Fill in the Internet address of an SMTP mail server if you plan on using TCP/IP mail from within WinVN.

Advanced...
Click this button to configure advanced SMTP options such as using SSL/TLS encrypted mail transports, setting your mail login name and password. See SMTP Security

Mail Transport
Select one of 4 options used to determine how WinVN will send mail. The options are:

- Disabled - Do not allow outbound mail.

- Use SMTP - Send mail via the Internet Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) interface. WinVN provides the ability to compose mail using the same composition window as used when creating news postings.

- Use MAPI - Send mail via Microsoft's Mail Applications Protocol Interface (MAPI). Use this option if you are using Microsoft Mail at your site. But other Mailers which support MAPI (Qualcomm's EUDORA or Microsoft EXCHANGE) should work too.

- Auto Select - WinVN will attempt to locate MAPI and use it if available, If MAPI is not available, it will default to SMTP.

Mapi Prefix
Usually set to SMTP:

MAPI Demand Logon
If you have the Demand Logon option selected, WinVN will force a MAPI login "upon demand" (when mail is sent) instead of requiring a login instantly when WinVN is started.

See Saving Configuration Information and Authorizing Yourself to the News Server.