Kaspersky Lab NEWS AGENT User Manual
KASPERSKY LAB
Kaspersky Lab News Agent
User manual
KASPERSKY LAB NEWS AGENT
User manual
© Kaspersky Lab
http://www.kaspersky.com/
Revision date: February, 2006
Contents
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2. PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION ............................................................... 5
CHAPTER 3. GETTING STARTED................................................................................ 7
3.1. "Virus weather" ...................................................................................................... 9
3.2. Channels................................................................................................................ 9
3.3. News .................................................................................................................... 10
3.4. Subscription ......................................................................................................... 10
3.5. Notification ........................................................................................................... 11
3.6. System tray icon .................................................................................................. 11
3.7. Right-click menu .................................................................................................. 11
3.8. Kaspersky Lab News Agent window .................................................................. 12
3.9. Channel window .................................................................................................. 13
3.10. Toolbar...............................................................................................................14
3.11. Application settings............................................................................................ 14
3.12. The General tab of the News Agent settings dialog box.................................. 15
3.13. The Connection tab of the Options dialog box ................................................. 16
3.14. Launching the application ................................................................................. 18
3.15. Closing the application ......................................................................................18
APPENDIX A. KASPERSKY LAB................................................................................. 19
A.1. Other Kaspersky Lab Products .......................................................................... 20
A.2. Contact Us........................................................................................................... 25
APPENDIX B. LICENSE AGREEMENT....................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Kaspersky Lab News Agent (hereinafter referred to as "Kaspersky Lab News
Agent" or "the application") provides on-line delivery of news from Kaspersky
Lab's news channels, and notifications both about "virus weather" and the arrival
of fresh news. The application runs under the Microsoft Windows operating
system.
Kaspersky Lab News Agent performs the following functions:
• automatically updates list of available news channels at specified regular
intervals.
• monitors and displays the status of current "virus weather" status.
• supports subscription to, and unsubscription from, news channels.
• automatically downloads news from subscribed channels at specified
intervals, and provides notification of new events.
• supports review of news from subscribed channels.
• supports review of the lists of channels and their status.
• allows opening pages of detailed news in your web browser.
Kaspersky Lab News Agent can be used independently or it may be bundled with
the integrated solutions offered by Kaspersky Lab.
Attention! Kaspersky Lab News Agent handles all network communications using the HTTP protocol (port 80) and proxy server settings
specified in your web browser. You can change the connection settings
(details see section 3.13, page 16).
CHAPTER 2. PRINCIPLES OF
OPERATION
Kaspersky Lab News Agent provides online delivery of news from available
channels, and notifications both about "virus weather" (presence or absence of a
virus epidemic and its severity) and the arrival of fresh news.
At specified intervals the application connects to Kaspersky Lab's news server
and reads a list of available channels, "virus weather" status and news from the
subscribed channels. All communication with the server is performed via the
HTTP protocol (port 80). You can change the connection settings (details see
section 3.13, page 16).
The "virus weather" status is displayed as an icon in the system tray and in
Kaspersky Lab News Agent windows. The "virus weather" status has three
possible states:
Icon Meaning
Clear
Cloudy
Danger! — virus epidemic
Table 1. “Virus weather” icons in Kaspersky Lab News Agent
You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from channels using the Kaspersky Lab
News Agent main window (see Fig. 1).
Upon receipt of a channel list the application provides notification of the
appearance of any new channels, which are then available for subscription.
The application reads a list of news for every subscribed channel and provides
notification of the arrival of any fresh news.
Notification is provided by the application icon in the system tray, which starts
blinking. Additional methods of notification can be specified within the General
tab (see Fig. 4) of the application's Options dialog window.
The application's main window (see Fig. 1), which can be opened by rightclicking the application icon in the system tray, displays the status of each
6 Kaspersky Lab News Agent
available channel. Having selected a channel in that window you can open a
Channel window (see Fig. 2) and read the news, which may contain links to web
pages with details, indicated by hyperlinks in a news article. Click these
underlined text to open the corresponding web page.
You can navigate between the application's main window and the Channel news
window using the same methods as in your web browser.
In the application's Options window the following application parameters can be
specified:
• frequency of server polling;
• automatic application launch at system startup;
• the method used for notification of appearance of new channels or arrival
of news for subscribed channels;
• settings necessary for Internet connection through proxy servers.
CHAPTER 3. GETTING STARTED
When Kaspersky Lab News Agent is launched for the first time it retrieves the
list of available news channels and the current "virus weather" status. The
application's icon appears in the system tray, and its appearance indicates the
current "virus weather" status.
Clicking the News Agent application's icon opens Kaspersky Lab News Agent's
main window (see Fig. 1), which lists all available channels.
Figure 1. Kaspersky Lab News Agent dialog window
The leftmost column in the list reflects channel subscription status; the middle
column displays the channel's status, and the last column shows the channel's
name.
Subscription status initially may be either "unsubscribed" or "obligatory
subscription". You can modify subscription status by clicking the subscription
Status icon. The "obligatory subscription" status will not change after clicking on
its icon.
Kaspersky Lab News Agent updates news for all subscribed and obligatory
channels whenever the list of available channels is updated, and provides
notification when a new channel appears, or fresh news arrives for a subscribed
channel.
8 Kaspersky Lab News Agent
The user can select and combine the notification methods used (see section
3.12, page 15), however, the News Agent icon in the system tray will start
blinking irrespective of the methods you have selected.
Channel status icon reflects the current channel status:
Icon Meaning
The channel has just been added to the list of available
Channel inaccessible – there may be no connection to the Internet
Channel contains fresh news
Channel contains unread news
channels
No subscription to the channel
The channel is currently being read
Channel contains read news only
Table 2. Channel status icons
Clicking a channel name opens a Channel window (see Fig. 2) that contains
news.
Each news article includes a line with the date and time of its publication and a
short extract from the item. This line serves as a link to a page with the detailed
text of the article. The short text contains underlined links, clicking any of which
will open the corresponding web page in your browser.
All application windows have a toolbar similar to a browser toolbar that is used
for navigation between the channel list and the channel windows. Links to visited
and opened channels are highlighted with in a different colour from those to
unvisited channels.
Getting started 9
Figure 2. Channel dialog window
This toolbar also contains buttons that serve to open the application's Options
window, and to exit the application.
3.1. "Virus weather"
"Virus weather" is a term used to describe the world situation regarding computer
viruses. While Kaspersky Lab News Agent is running, the "virus weather"
status is indicated by the application icon in the system tray, and by the icon in all
its application windows and by the application icon. You are advised to exercise
due caution when the "virus weather" icon shows "danger".
The range of states for "virus weather" are shown in Table 1.
Attention! Changes in "virus weather" do not trigger a notification!
3.2. Channels
Kaspersky Lab News Agent works with news channels. The channel's name
reflects its source and specialization.
Channel content is represented by a list of news downloaded from a server.
10 Kaspersky Lab News Agent
You can:
• subscribe to a channel; Kaspersky Lab News Agent will read news from
that channel and inform you of the arrival of fresh news;
• unsubscribe from a channel to which you are subscribed; the application
will discontinue reading news from that channel;
• refrain from subscribing to a channel.
There are some channels, which are obligatory for subscription. Subscription
status is displayed in the channel list within the application's man window (see
Fig. 1).
The application reads all subscribed channels at the interval specified in the
General tab of the Options window (see Fig. 4). Arrival of fresh news for a
channel changes its status and initiates a corresponding notification.
Clicking any channel name in the Kaspersky Lab News Agent window opens a
Channel window containing the channel's news.
3.3. News
"News" means a published description of an event. Each piece of news has a
date, publication time and a brief text description.
"Fresh news" means news which a channel has not contained before but does
contain now. The time at which news appears on a channel is independent of the
publication date and time. Fresh news may have been published quite a long
time ago but appeared on a channel only recently.
A brief extract of the news item is generated by the news source in hypertext
format, so that the text contains links to other web pages. Usually the extract is a
summary of the information described in detail in the hyperlinked web pages.
3.4. Subscription
The application's main window (see Fig. 1) displays all the channels which are
available as news sources.
News channels which are of interest can be individually selected. Additionally the
obligatory channels are always selected.
Subscription means that the news stream of a selected channel has been
switched on. Kaspersky Lab News Agent delivers news, and notifications about
fresh news, from subscribed channels only.
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