Installing WinVN

WinVN Depends On Winsock

Before installing WinVN, make sure your TCP/IP software is correctly installed. You should have exactly one winsock.dll file on your path. This file should be provided with your TCP/IP software.

Information You Will Need

The name or IP address of your news server.

A username and password, if required by your news server. Contact your news provider if necessary. See Authorizing Yourself to the News Server.

If you plan to send mail using SMTP, the name or IP address of your SMTP mail server.

Unzipping WinVN

Create a directory in which WinVN is to be installed (i.e. c:\winvn). Unzip the distribution files into this directory using pkunzip or a compatible decompression program.

DLL Locations for Windows 3.x 16-bit version

Place wvtb.dll and gwinsock.dll in the same directory as the winvn.exe.

Move (don't copy) ctl3dv2.dll into your \windows\system directory.

DLL Locations for Windows NT and Windows 95 32-bit version

Place wvtb32.dll and gwinsock.dll in the same directory as the winvn32.exe.

Move (don't copy) ctl3d32.dll into your \windows\system32 directory.

GWINSOCK.DLL

gwinsock.dll is WinVN's interface to Winsock . Some Winsock stacks (for exampleTrumpet Winsock) may exhibit poor performance in conjunction with WinVN's gwinsock.dll. WinVN provides an alternate DLL genasync.dll which may improve performance in such cases. To install the alternate DLL, modify the WINVN.INI file: in the "[Communications]"section, modify "GenSockDLL=gwinsock.dll" to read "GenSockDLL=genasync.dll".

Environment Variables

If you are running Windows 3.x, you will need to set the TZ environment variable.

You may also set the WINVN environment variable See Invoking WinVN.

Filling In Communications Information

Start WinVN. You may wish to add a WinVN icon to a group in the Program Manager.

You will be prompted for your NNTP News Server address and some other information. The only required field is the NNTP Server name. You only need to fill in the username and password fields if your news server requires them. Additionally, if you plan to use mail, select MAPI if you use the Microsoft Mail system or some other MAPI compatible mail system, otherwise select SMTP and enter the address of your mail server. See Configure Communications.

Filling in Personal Information

Next, you will be prompted for your personal information, such as name, E-mail address, and organization name. This information is used to identify you when you post an article or send a mail message. See Configure Personal Info.

Note this information can be changed later from the Configure Menu in the main window.