
Web Browser Intelligence Agent Information
==============================================================================

IBM Intelligent Agent development and IBM Research is proud to introduce a
personal web browsing agent.  The IBM Web Browser Intelligence (WBI) agent
will enhance your ability to use the World Wide Web.  The WBI agent
will be your personal assistant when using the WWW.   Your WBI agent will:

 - Remember everywhere you have been
 - Allow you to search through the information you have seen
 - Notice patterns in your web browsing and suggest shortcuts
 - Watch your favorite web pages for changes
 - Test the speed of links from pages to let you know if they are fast or slow
 - Provide you with both Proxy and Socks connectivity independent of your
   browser
 - Make you "browser independent" so you can switch browsers and not lose
   information
 - Let you look back in "web time" to see how you have visited pages in the
   past
 - Improve your productivity in using the WWW

==============================================================================

System Requirements

Operating Systems:  IBM OS/2 or  Microsoft Windows 95

Disk Space: Requires 5 megabytes to install the WBI agent.  Once running, your
            agent will require space to store information about your
            travels on the web.  It is recommended that you allocate at least
            10 megabytes of disk space for both the agent and its data.

Connectivity: Requires a direct TCP/IP connection via TCP/IP, PPP, or SLIP.
              Your machine must be able to directly access the internet (or
              intranet).  Many on-line services cannot be used by your WBI
              agent, as they do not provide your machine with a direct
              internet connection.  Some services, such as Advantis, provide
              direct connections.  Special configuration instructions are
              included below in case your machine's internet address is not
              the same every time you connect.

              The WBI agent can be configured to use an HTTP Proxy, Socks
              connection, or local direct connection to the internet.

Browser: Your WBI agent "speaks" to your browser using the standard HTML 2.0
         language.  For best performance, your browser should support tables.

         WBI has been tested with OS/2 WebExplorer, NetScape
         Navigator 2.0, and MicroSoft Internet Explorer.

==============================================================================

Installing Your WBI Agent

Before you continue with the installation, please read these
instructions in their entirety.  You will need about 5 megabytes
of free space to install WBI.

There are minor differences in the installation procedure
between OS/2 and Windows 95.

  OS/2 Instructions
  -----------------

   A self-extracting file, WBI11OS2.EXE, is provided.  Execute
   this program from an OS/2 command line in a temporary 
   directory.  Then type "install".

   The installation will lead you through a series of questions
   as it attempts to configure WBI on your machine.  In
   particular, it will configure WBI using settings from a
   previous installation of WBI, or by extracting the necessary
   information from Web Explorer (if it exists).  In addition,
   it will attempt to configure Web Explorer to use WBI by
   default.  If WBI does not configure itself or the browser
   correctly, refer to the instructions for manual configuration
   provided below.

   The installation will copy files to the proper directories
   and create a WBI folder on your desktop.

   After installation is complete, you can erase the WBI11OS2.EXE
   file -- if you want to save about 5 megabytes of disk space.

   If installation  was successful, you will now be able to
   start WBI by double clicking on the "Web Browser
   Intelligence" icon in the "WBI" folder on the desktop.  Once
   WBI is running, start up Web Explorer as you normally do.

   If configuration was successful, WBI's annotations will be
   apparent on the first web page you visit.  There will be a
   toolbar at the top of the page, and "web traffic lights"
   highlights links on the page as well.  To modify WBI's
   configuration, go to the setup screen by clicking on "Setup" in
   WBI's toolbar.

   If WBI does not work right out of the box, consult the
   instructions below for manually configuring WBI.

 Windows 95 Instructions
 -----------------------

   A self-extracting file, WBI11W95.EXE, is provided.  Execute
   this file from an MS-DOS command line, or via RUN from the
   Start menu.

   The installation will lead you through a series of questions
   as it attempts to configure WBI on your machine.  In
   particular, it will configure WBI using settings from a
   previous installation of WBI, or by extracting the necessary
   information from Netscape or Internet Explorer (if these
   exist).  In addition, it will attempt to configure these
   browsers to use WBI by default.  If you use a different
   browser, or if WBI does not configure itself or the browser
   correctly, refer to the instructions for manual configuration
   provided below.

   The installation will copy files to the correct directories
   and create a WBI icon on the Start menu under "Programs".

   After instalation is complete you can erase the WBI11W95.EXE --
   if you want to save about 5 megabytes of disk space.

   If installation  was successful, you should now be able to
   start WBI using the "Web Browser Intelligence" item under the
   "Programs" folder of the "Start" menu.  Once WBI is running,
   start up your browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) as you
   normally do.

   If configuration was successful, WBI's annotations will be
   apparent on the first web page you visit.  There will be a
   toolbar at the top of the page, and "web traffic lights"
   highlights links on the page as well.  To modify WBI's
   configuration, go to the setup screen by clicking on "Setup" in
   WBI's toolbar.

   If WBI does not work right out of the box, consult the
   instructions in the next section for manually configuring WBI.

==============================================================================

Manually Configuring WBI

If the WBI installation does not configure itself and/or your
browser correctly, then you can try to configure these manually.
You must configure WBI to work with both your browser and the
Web.  Follow these steps.

    1. Establish how your browser communicates with WBI.

       The WBI agent sits between your browser and the Web.  You must
       configure your browser to talk to WBI and you must configure
       WBI to talk to the Web.

       Your browser talks to WBI the same way your browser talks to
       a HTTP Proxy server on the Web.

       Before you can tell your broswer about WBI you must first
       find the internet address (or IP number) your agent can use.

       There are two ways to communicate with WBI:

             a. Using localhost.

                If you are using Windows 95, you can use the special
                hostname "localhost" to communicate with WBI.  Proceed
                to step 2 below.

                If you are using OS/2, you might also be
                able to use the special hostname "localhost" to
                communicate with WBI.  To determine whether you are
                already configured to use localhost under OS/2, issue
                the command

                      netstat -a

                in a command window.  There should be 1 or more response
                lines.  If one of the lines shows the following:

                      addr   127.0.0.1  interface 0 mask ff000000 boradcast

                then you are configured to use localhost (the 127.0.0.1 is
                the important thing here.  If this line is not present
                you can configure TCP/IP to enable localhost.  To do this,

                       - Double-click on the TCP/IP icon on the OS/2 desktop
                         or in the OS/2 System folder.

                       - Double-click on the TCP/IP Configuration icon.

                       - If the notebook page that appears is titled
                         "Configure Network Interface Parameters", then

                           - Select "loopback interface" under
                             "Interface to Configure"

                           - Check the "Enable Interface" checkbox

                           - Verify that the "IP Address" is 127.0.0.1

                           - Exit TCP/IP Configuration and TCP/IP, and
                             restart TCP/IP using the "tcpstart" command in OS/2

                If you do not have a TCP/IP Configuration icon, your
                version of OS/2 might not have this function.  To try to
                enable the localhost interface, issue the command

                              ifconfig  lo 127.0.0.1

                in an OS/2 command window.  Be advised that this is not
                remembered by OS/2 when you reboot, so you will need to
                issue this command each time your machine is
                booted.

                Alternatively, you can specify "localhost" using
                the special IP address 127.0.0.1 -- that is,
                whenever the directions below ask for a
                hostname, use the number 127.0.0.1 instead.

                Otherwise, you probably have an older version of TCP/IP
                for OS/2.  Refer to your documentation for enabling the
                loopback interface.


             b. Using your machine's hostname.

                If you cannot (or do not want to) use localhost, you can
                use the hostname of your machine instead.

                For OS/2, issue the

                         HOSTNAME

                command in a a command window.  This will tell you the
                name of your machine.

                For Windows 95, the hostname can be found through the
                Network Control Panel icon.  From the Start menu, select
                Settings, then Control Panel, then double click on the
                Network icon.  Under the Configuration tab, double click
                on TCP/IP.  Select the DNS Configuraton tab.  Your
                hostname is listed in the Host field.

        Now you have what you need to tell your browser how to talk to your
        WBI agent.

     2. Configure your browser to talk to WBI.

        Your browser can talk to an HTTP Proxy server.  You must change
        your browser configuration so that the browser talks directly to
        WBI rather than to the Web.

        NetScape Navigator 2.0 instructions:

           a. "Options" from the toolbar

           b. "Network Preferences"

           c. "Proxies" tab

           d. "Manual Proxy Configuration" and "View"

           e. Check to see if there is information already filled into the
              HTTP Proxy and SOCKS Host areas.  If so, record this information!
              You will need this to configure WBI in Step 4.

           f. Under HTTP, enter either:
                       localhost     or
                       hostname      where hostname was determined
                                       in Step 1 above

           g. Enter 8088 as the Port number next to HTTP Proxy.  This is the
              port your agent will be "listening" on.

           h. Click ok to return to the Proxies screen and ok again to return
              to the main screen

        Turn off browser caching in Netscape Navigator.  WBI needs to see
        all your Web activityb to best determine usage patterns.  If the
        browser caches web pages, the WBI agent will not see everything you do.
        WBI will do caching itself so you will see little difference in performance.
        To turn off caching,

           i. "Options" from the toolbar

           j. "Network Preferences"

           k. "Caching" tab

           l.  Set both Memory Size and Disk Size to zero

           m.  Click on ok to return to the main screen

        -----------------------------------------------------------------------

        Microsoft Internet Explorer

           a. Get to the "Internet Properties" screen by either:

              - Right clicking on Internet Explorer icon and select "Properties"
                                or
              - Double clicking on "My Computer", Select "Control Panel", Select
                "Internet"

           b. "Connection" tab

           c. Check "Connect to the Internet through a proxy server"

           d. "Change Proxy settings..."

           e. Check and see if there is information already filled into the
              HTTP Proxy and SOCKS Host areas.  If so, record this information!
              You will need this to tell your agent how to talk to the
              internet in Step 4.

           f. Enter under HTTP either:
                       localhost     or
                       hostname      where hostname was determined
                                      from Step 1 above

           g. Enter 8088 as the Port number next to HTTP Proxy.  This is the
              port your agent will be "listening" on.

           h. "OK"

        Turn off browser caching.  As of this writing there is no way to
        disable all browser caching in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
        Because of this, there will be times when the information
        returned from the WBI agent will seem out of date.  In these cases
        you will need to click on "Refresh" on the menubar to see the latest
        information from the agent.  We recommend that you reduce the amount
        of browser caching to 1%, the lowest setting possible.

           h. "Advanced" tab

           i. Move slider arrow until 1% appears

           j. "Empty Folder..."

           k. "OK"

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------

        IBM OS/2 WebExplorer:

           a. "Configure" from main screen

           b. "Servers..."

           c. Check "Enable Proxy?"

           d. Make sure "Enable Socks Server?" is unchecked.  You will fill
              in a SOCKS server name (if needed) later when configuring your
              WBI agent.

           e. Check and see if there is information already filled into the
              HTTP Proxy and SOCKS Server areas.  If so, record this
              information!  You will need this to  tell your agent how to talk
              to the internet in Step 4.

              Enter  either
                       http://localhost:8088/   or
                       http://hostname:8088/    where hostname was determined
                                                from Step 1 above in HTTP Proxy

           f. "OK"

           NOTE: It is important to make sure that the Proxy name ends with a
                   slash "/".  Failure to do this will result in WBI
                   returning an error (invalid protocol) when you try to
                   use it from Web Explorer.

                 Older versions of WebExplorer (before version 1.1)
                  require you to quit and then restart WebExplorer
                  for configuration changes to take effect.

        Turn off browser caching.  The WBI agent needs to see all of your
        Web activity to best determine usage patterns.  If the browser caches
        web pages, WBI will not see everything you do.  WBI will do caching
        itself so you will see little difference in performance.

           g. "Configure" from main screen

           h. "Caching..."

           i. Check "Disable all caching"

           j. "OK"

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------

     3. Start the WBI agent.

        In OS/2, double click on the "WBI" program icon on the
        desktop.

        In Windows 95, select "Web Browser Intelligence" in the Start
        menu's "Programs" folder.

        Once the agent is running, start your browser as usual.

           - If your browser automatically loads a web page, then wait a moment
                                       otherwise
           - Select a web page


     4. Configure WBI.

        If WBI has not been configured, WBI will display a
        configuration screen the first time your browser tries
        to get to a web page.  You must fill in some information
        so that your agent can to talk to the Web on behalf of
        your browser.

        The configuration (or Setup) screen contains following settings:

          a. Socks Server: is the name of a Socks server if one is available.

             Fill in the name of the socks server and the port if necessary.
             Typically socks servers use port 1080.  If you were previously
             using a socks server, this information was available in the
             "configure" or "connections" section of your browser settings.
             If your current browser does not support a socks server but
             your network does, you can use your WBI agent to connect you
             to a socks server!

             This field can be left blank if no Socks server is being used.


          b. Proxy Server: is the name of your HTTP proxy server.

             Fill in the name of the proxy server and the port if necessary.
             Typically proxy servers use port 80.  If you were previously using
             a proxy server, this information was available in the "configure"
             or "connections" section of your browser.

             This field can be left blank if no Proxy server is being used.

             When specifying a proxy for WBI, use ONLY the server name.
             For example,

                   good:     myproxy.server.company.com
                   bad:      http://myproxy.server.company.com/

             Note: If you are behind a firewall and you want to access pages
                   outside of your local site, then you will need to fill in
                   one of SOCKS or PROXY.


          c. No Proxy field allows you to specify domains that should be treated
             as local if you are behind a firewall, that is, domains that do not
             require going through SOCKS or PROXY servers.

             No Proxy entries are of the form 'domain:port', and domains can be
             specified using '*' as a wildcard.  For instance, to say that
             access to machines in the domain 'almaden.ibm.com' should not go
             through a proxy or socks server, you would list '*.almaden.ibm.com:80'
             in the NO PROXY field.  List as many NO PROXY entries as you like
             separated by spaces.

             This field can be left blank.


          d. Cache Size: The number of pages that your agent will remember
                         in your machine.  This is used to keep you from going
                         out to the web every time you want to visit a web
                         page that you have already seen.

          e. Index Size: The amount of disk space (in megabytes) that will be
                         set aside by your agent to remember information
                         about web pages.  It is very important to set this
                         value correctly now.  It CANNOT be changed in
                         the future.  The larger the number, the more your
                         agent will be able to remember.  A recommended
                         value is 10MB but the size should be determined
                         by your available disk space.

          f. Web Traffic Lights: This function will place a green, yellow or
                                 red light next to the links on each web page
                                 to indicate the speed of the link.
                                 This can be turned on or off from this page.

          g. Short Cuts: This function allows your agent to look for
                         patterns in your web browsing and put links on web
                         page that it has determined is a shortcut.
                         This function can be turned on or off from this page.

          h. Graphical WBI Toolbar: When checked will provide a graphical
                          toolbar at the top of each web page.  This allows the
                          user to "talk" to the agent.  When this is unchecked,
                          a row of words are provided rather than an image.  This
                          should be done for browsers that handle text only.

           i. Show WBI Background Image: When checked, WBI generated screens
                          will have it's own background.  When unchecked the 
                          default browser background is used.


        When you have entered all the information, use the "Yes" button to
        send the data to your agent.  From here, your agent will now
        take you to the page you originally asked for at the beginning of
        Step 4.

        NOTE: There are 4 ways to get to the WBI Setup page:

           - On your first connect to the agent from the browser
              (if you used manual configuration)
           - Following links from the "Help" button on the WBI Toolbar
           - Clicking on "SETUP" on the WBI Toolbar
           - Using the url  http://_wbi/setup

==============================================================================

Using your WBI Agent

You can now use your WBI agent to assist you in browsing the
web.  When you visit a web page, your agent will add information
to that page.  A WBI agent "toolbar" is added to the top of each
page.  From here you can select one of several agent functions.
You can:

   - Use "History" to search for information you have previously seen
   - Use "Watch" to find out when specific web pages change
   - Use "Look Here" (if available) to see which pages have changed
   - Use "Path" to show trails you have previously followed from a
      specific page

If you have turned on the "Web Traffic Lights" function, green, yellow or
red bars will be placed next to the links on each page.

If you have turned on the "ShortCuts" function, your agent will
tell you about web pages that you have OFTEN visited shortly
after visiting the page you are currently on.  WBI adds shortcut
links in the upper left hand corner of the page, to the left of
the toolbar.

WBI has three command line arguments that can be used at start
up: -? lists the options, -m starts the program minimized (i.e.,
without the graphical interface), and -v pops up a window that
shows verbose details of all sorts of WBI activity.  You can
both start it minimized and verbose, but the options must be
listed separately (as in "wbi -m -v").

For more information, use the online help provided under the "Help"
button on the WBI toolbar.

For information on some "undocumented" features and settings,
see the file "UnDoc.txt".

==============================================================================

Feedback to IBM

The Web Browser Intelligence agent is currently a technology
demonstration of an intelligent agent.  If you have problems,
comments, or suggestions for improvements please send e-mail to
wbiagent@vnet.ibm.com.

==============================================================================

Changes & Fixes from Alpha 1.0 to 1.1
-------------------------------------

Several cases of index corruption have been eliminated.

Corrupted index does not grow infinitely, but is automatically erased and
re-created.

WBI error pages explain the cause of the error in much greater detail and also
have a link to the WBI setup page.

The DOS window (under Win95) that comes up and says "File not found" has been
removed.

MANY small access violation fixes (generally more stable code).

After a fresh install, if the first page you request ends in .html, .gif, or
.jpg then you didn't go to the setup page but instead received an error
screen.

WBIBG doesn't die right away when CTRL-C is hit, but allows a little time for
cleanup.  A time out was also added to avoid waiting forever in case a rogue
thread refuses to finish.  This fix also makes normal shutdown of WBI or by
the WBI 'Quit' button more graceful.

Setup screen has instructions and slightly modified layout.

Watch function only reports a page has changed if the server responds 200
Document OK, thus if the server is down it won't tell you that the page has
changed.

On the setup screen, the second time you hit submit the index size was changed
to 2MB.  Now it stays at the originally selected value.

"No proxy" support.  The setup has a field for bypass proxy on.  The format of
this field is "dotted.host.address:port host:port ...".
Note that the host can begin or end with an '*' as a wildcard and the :port is
optional.  Also, the list is seperated by spaces.  All of the following are
valid:
    w3.almaden.ibm.com 
    w3.* *.almaden.* 
    *.ibm.com:8080

The priority of servers is changed.  Now, if both proxy and socks are set
then the proxy server is reached through the socks machine.

"Traffic Lights" now does head requests instead of pings.  Thus it also works
with proxies, where before if you had a proxy set testlink would automatically
turn off.

Timeouts were added to the link checker, so that if a document is not
received in ten minutes then the request is aborted.

The watch list now has a "Mark all as read" button (Check latest build for
actual text).  This button has the effect of going and looking at all the
changed documents.  Thus you won't be renotified until the document changes
again.

The bug of getting old files from the cache after hitting the "Reload" button
(i.e. you look at a page, go away, come back, know it is out of date, hit
reload, see the new page, go away, come back and get the old page) has been
fixed.

The Win95 installation automatically configures itself when either Netscape
Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer are installed.

The OS/2 installation automatically configures itself when Web Explorer is
installed.

Added a "Setup" button to the WBI toolbar.

Default index size changed from 10 MB to 5 MB.

Moved the Win95 WBI executable to the root of the Start Menu.

Shortcuts were not appearing when histories got long.

Shortcuts were being turned on automatically after being turned off
manually.

WBI now prevents multiple copies of itself from being run simultaneously.

Added the '-m' option to WBI to automatically minimize its window.

Added the '-v' option to WBI to display verbose output on what it is doing.

Added 'text only' and 'no background image' switches for low-performance
browsers.  (See the undoc.txt file for how to turn them on through the
WBI.INI file.)



