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This section discusses the basic operations required to run BackWeb on your computer.
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Once BackWeb is downloaded and installed on your PC, it automatically runs at system startup. The BackWeb agent icon appears on your desktop.
You can access a BackWeb pop-up menu by positioning the cursor on the agent icon and clicking on the right mouse button. The pop-up menu includes common, frequently used commands.
You do not need to open the BackWeb window to activate BackWeb. Once BackWeb is running and the BackWeb agent icon appears on your desktop, BackWeb will automatically download and/or display InfoPaks according to its current configuration. You need to open the window only to change BackWeb configuration, add/delete channels or play InfoPaks manually.
Double click the BackWeb agent icon to open the BackWeb window:
The BackWeb window consists of three panes:
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| InfoPaks |
| Downloads in Progress |
You can choose which of these panes you want displayed as well as the screen proportions between them by dragging the borders separating the panes.
The BackWeb window is used to monitor and control the operation of BackWeb.
The BackWeb window includes a toolbar with common options for quick access.
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BackWeb provides the following drop-down menus from the menu bar:
| BackWeb. Provides access to the BackWeb home page, allows you to shutdown BackWeb and close the BackWeb window. |
| Controls. Allows you to start and stop the auto-player, suspend downloading of InfoPaks and define the setup parameters for BackWeb. |
| Channel. Enables you to join channels manually or via the Channel Directory, open a channel's Web page or registration page, enable or disable a channel or view its properties. |
| InfoPak. Enables you to replay the previously played InfoPak, play or stop playing a selected InfoPak, remove the current BackWeb wallpaper, save, delete and view the properties of an InfoPak. |
| Help. Provides access to Help information and allows you to quickly set up BackWeb. |
Pop-up menus can be accessed by positioning the cursor on an object (such as a channel, an InfoPak, or an InfoFlash being played), and clicking on the right mouse button. Pop-up menus include common, frequently used commands specific to the object being clicked on.
The Channels pane displays a list of all the channels that you are registered to. The first item in the Channels pane is “All Channels”, which displays all InfoPaks in the InfoPak pane. Selecting a channel causes the InfoPaks Pane to display the list of InfoPaks for this channel.
To the left of the channel may be one of the following symbols:
| x The channel is currently not receiving new InfoPaks. |
| >> The current download is from this channel. |
The InfoPaks pane displays a list of all the InfoPaks that have been downloaded and currently reside on your computer. The InfoPaks displayed are from the selected channel in the Channels pane or from all of the channels if “All Channels” was selected. The display is organized in columns containing the properties of the InfoPak.
To the left of the InfoPak may be the >> symbol, indicating that the InfoPak is active.
The Downloads in Progress pane displays the InfoPaks that are currently being downloaded.
The Status Bar of the BackWeb window contains the following information:
| Short help about the selected command. |
| Total number of InfoPaks from the selected channel. |
| Number of new InfoPaks from the selected channel. |
When using BackWeb, there are several questions that you should address. What is the maximum amount of disk space you would like to allocate for InfoPaks? Do you want BackWeb to change your own background wallpaper automatically? Do you want to receive audio InfoPaks?
Such questions and others can be determined by using the BackWeb window to:
| Add channels and delete them. |
| Enable and disable interaction with channels. |
| Set up channel properties, such as display types and disk space. |
| Monitor and control downloading of InfoPaks. |
| Control various InfoPak parameters, such as automatic playing. |
| Play InfoPaks manually, stop running InfoPaks and mark InfoPaks as “keep” to disable the automatic delete. |
| Delete InfoPaks. |
| Suspend BackWeb activities (download and automatic playing). |
To define the connection communication settings, select Setup from the Controls menu or click the Setup button on the toolbar. Click the Connection tab and a dialog box will appear.
In the dialog box there are three communications parameters that you can set:
| Internet Connection. Select either a Permanent (Local Area Network) or Dial-up modem connection to indicate what type of Internet connection you want to use. |
| Click the Advanced button, the Advanced Settings dialog box will appear. |
| The Advanced Settings dialog box allow you to choose between the following: |
| BackWeb selects the UDP port automatically. |
| You can define the UDP port that the client will use when communicating with the BackWeb channels. This option is provided for the user whose network contains a Firewall. In this case, choose a port and ask your system administrator to configure the Firewall to allow UDP communication to the chosen port number. |
To control the amount of disk space used for storing InfoPaks on your hard disk, select Setup from the Controls menu or click the Setup button on the toolbar. Click the Storage tab and a dialog box will appear.
In the dialog box, specify how many MB of disk space you wish to allocate each channel that is downloading InfoPaks. This amount can be changed at any time for any channel using the Properties item in the Channel menu.
The total disk space allowed for all of the channels is automatically calculated and displayed.
(Ziff-Davis)(D56A)(1997).ISO/demos/backweb/doc/client3x/note.gif){kind=small} | Changing the amount of disk space will affect the existing channels if they are configured to use the default disk quota. |
To control the display frequency of InfoFlash and audio message InfoPaks, select Setup from the Controls menu or click the Setup button on the toolbar. Click the InfoFlashes & Audio tab and a dialog box will appear.
In the dialog box the following settings can be customized:
| Automatic Playing - Specify if you would like to play InfoFlashes and/or audio messages automatically. |
| Playing Frequency |
| Specify the minimum time interval (in minutes) between InfoFlashes or audio messages. An InfoFlash or audio message will not be automatically played until the specified time has elapsed. |
| Specify the time interval (in seconds) that the keyboard and mouse have to be idle before an InfoFlash or audio message is played. |
| Sound - If checked, BackWeb enables sound in InfoFlashes. If unchecked, InfoFlashes play silently, and automatic playing is disabled for audio messages. |
To control the interaction with screen saver InfoPaks, select Setup from the Controls menu or click the Setup button on the toolbar. Click the Screen Savers tab and a dialog box will appear.
Use the dialog box to customize the following screen saver options:
| Automatic Playing. Check to use BackWeb screen savers in place of your system screen savers. |
| Interaction. With conventional screen savers, a mouse movement or click causes the screen saver to disappear, enabling you to continue working. BackWeb supports this option, but you may, if you prefer, allow mouse interaction with screen saver InfoPaks. |
| Pressing F1 in the BackWeb screen saver terminates the screen saver without terminating the InfoPak; this allows you to interact with the InfoPak even if you selected the “Exit the screen saver” option. |
If you set up your Windows 3.11 to request a password before exiting the screen saver, pressing the F1 key is the only way to interact with the screen saver InfoPak, because mouse movements will terminate the screen saver and display the password pop-up window regardless of the setting in “Interaction”.
| Sound. Enable or disable sound in screen savers. |
To control wallpaper InfoPaks, select Setup from the Controls menu or click the Setup button on the toolbar. Click the Wallpapers tab and a dialog box will appear.
Use the dialog box to customize the following wallpaper options:
| Replacement Policy. Specify if you want the wallpaper to be replaced automatically by BackWeb and how often it should be replaced. |
| Idle Time. Specify how long the keyboard and mouse have to be idle for the wallpaper to be replaced. |
There are two ways to add a channel:
| Via the channel provider’s Web site (recommended). |
| Directly through the BackWeb Window by specifying an IP address or host name of a BackWeb server on the Internet. |
For your convenience, BackWeb provides an updated list of channels by accessing the BackWeb channel directory list which is maintained at the BackWeb Web Site. From this list you can access the channel’s Web site and register from there.
These options are discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.
The BackWeb window allows you to do the following:
| Control various InfoPak parameters, such as the frequency with which InfoFlashes are displayed. Refer to Customizing BackWeb above. |
| Play specified InfoPaks. |
| Stop or pause the currently running InfoFlash or audio message. |
| Delete InfoPaks or mark them as “keep”. |
| View InfoPak properties. |
These options are discussed in Chapter 4.
To close the BackWeb window, select Close from the BackWeb menu or click on the Close button on the BackWeb window.
Suspending downloading of InfoPaks allows you to pause the downloading of InfoPaks without actually disabling BackWeb for the current session. While downloading is suspended no downloading of updated InfoPaks takes place. A crossed-out BackWeb agent icon appears on your desktop.
| To suspend the downloading of InfoPaks, select Suspend Downloading from the Controls menu. |
| To restart downloading, select Resume Downloading from the Controls menu. |
The BackWeb auto-player can be stopped and restarted to allow you to suspend the viewing of InfoPaks temporarily. Downloading of InfoPaks continues even when the auto-player is stopped, but no InfoPaks appear on your screen. A crossed-out BackWeb agent icon appears on your desktop.
| To stop the auto-player, select Stop Auto-Player from the Controls menu. |
| To restart the auto-player, select Start Auto-Player from the Controls menu. |
| While the auto-player is stopped you can manually play InfoPaks. |
Shutting down BackWeb disables the BackWeb agent from running on your computer for the current session. When shut down, the BackWeb agent icon disappears from your desktop, no InfoPaks appear on your screen, and no downloading of updated InfoPaks takes place.
| To shut down BackWeb, select Shutdown from the BackWeb menu. Click OK to confirm BackWeb shutdown. |
| To restart BackWeb: |
| 1. | Double click the BackWeb icon in the BackWeb program group. |
| 2. | Double click the BackWeb agent icon, or double click again the BackWeb icon in the BackWeb program group. |
To uninstall BackWeb, double click the Uninstall BackWeb icon in the BackWeb program group.