Manual Control Settings
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Certain settings are enabled by default as a convenience for the average user. This section lists certain options and settings that can disabled if you have a slow connection or read offline. With these settings you can minimize online activity or just have manual control.
Server Settings (Server - Properties)
Server - Properties: Operation Tab
Automatic Retrieval Options: Uncheck all the Automatic retrieval options that you do not want. You will have to retrieve headers and tagged articles manually.
Subscribing: Retrieve Headers after subscribe is enabled by default, so if you do not disable it, Gravity will automatically fetch articles when you subscribe to a new group.
Getting Headers - On the same tab, set a limit to Limit Headers. This a safety net so that you do not get stuck downloading more articles than you intended. You can tweak this server limit for individual groups in Newsgroup - Properties (less or greater).
(Cross-post Data and Verify Local Headers, are useful, but incur on-line activity)
Cross-Post Data - Cross post data will enable Gravity to mark articles read in all cross-posted groups after they are read, but it has to download additional headers. You will have to decide if the benefit is worth the online cost. If you read normal size text groups, the effect may not be significant.
Verify Local Headers - Verify local headers has a manual command in the group pane right-click menu, so you can disable it and do this manually. If you leave it enabled, Gravity downloads the group article numbers after fetching the article headers *every* time you retrieve headers. If you read small or normal size text groups, the effect may not be significant. In large binary groups the effects can be significant.
Server - Properties: The Group Tab
Check for New Groups. You can manually check for new newsgroups from the Newsgroup menu at any time, so this can be disabled.
Update Server Counts: If you select "upon connecting" Gravity will update the counts every time it connects or reconnects. This can be annoying and take some time, so it may be better to set this to "once per session" or even "manually" for the Spartan user.
Server - Properties: The Connect Tab
Connect at Startup and Keep Alives - By default, Gravity is set to connect to the server on startup. Off line users may want to disable these and connect manually.
Subscribing to Newsgroups
The option in Server - properties - operations sets whether Gravity will automatically fetch headers on subscribing (see above). If Gravity is set to automatically fetch headers, be aware of the limit of how many headers to fetch initially. This is set in the Subscribe window (the default is 1,000, which may be too many for dialup).
Tip: Fetch Limited Numbers of Headers - Command
Use the right click menu command in the group pane to retrieve a limited number (more or less than other set limits) and fetch exactly how many articles you want. This command takes precedence and overrides ANY other set limit.
Tip: Work with Single Groups or just a Few Groups
Rather than work on all groups, you can perform certain online operations (fetch headers, verify headers, fetch tagged articles) on selected groups only, or one group at a time, with the Newsgroup menu commands (also in the Right Click menu, which is usually more convenient).