1. Download the software
2. Install the software
3. How to run the software
4. Create an Expert user account
5. Create a BCKS Ad Plus
6. Change or delete the ad
7. Seller's use of BCKS from behind a firewall
8. Buyer's use of BCKS from behind a firewall
9. Make my additional BCKS Ad Plus material visible to buyers
10. I have problems with getting photos in my ad
11. Using BCKS Ad Plus with dial up connections
12. Using BCKS Ad Plus with cable or dsl connections
13. Use a computer for BCKS Ad Plus that I do not own
14. Update my BCKS Ad Plus software
15. Uninstall the BCKS software
16. Share a file
17. Share a file with older browsers

The software downloads a little differently depending on whether the browser is Netscape or Internet Explorer. With Netscape or the Save option in Internet Explorer, the file is saved to your hard drive first. It will ask for a directory in which to place the file. You can use an existing directory such as "My Downloads" or create a unique directory to receive the file.

The file can be opened in Internet Explorer without first saving it to the hard drive. Below is the Internet Explorer screen showing a choice of opening or saving the file. If the choice is Open, the installation will begin immediately as described in the next section.

Sometimes it will appear that the browser might not be downloading the latest version. If you think this is happening, make sure that the cache is cleared in the browser. In Netscape, the cache is found in "Edit", "Preferences", then "Advanced" as shown below,

Once the file has been downloaded into your computer, locate the directory. This can be done using Windows Explorer. In the directory locate the file named "bcksap20.msi". Click on the name of the file to open it.

Once the bcksap20.msi installation is completed, locate the directory C:\BCKS. This can be done using Windows Explorer. In the directory locate the file named "bcksap20.exe". Click on the name of the file to open it.

The screen below will appear for a choice of language.

The box below starts or aborts the installation.

The next screen is the license agreement for the use of the BCKS software.

The next screen asks that any versions of BCKS Ad Plus must be stopped before the installation can proceed.

The screens below show installation and completion of the installation. A BCKS directory will have been created on the hard drive and an icon placed on the desktop

Use Windows Explorer to locate C:\BCKS\bin\ApacheMonitor.exe, then double click on the file name to run it

Click on "Create Ad" in the Apache Monitor box. A "Create Account" page will appear. If you have never had a BCKS account, fill in the information to create one. If you are an "Advanced" user, you can reenter the same information from registering for the advanced features. Your account will be upgraded to an "Expert" level account.

Items with the “*” are required. The "Create Account" page will not reappear after you register or upgrade.

Once registered or upgraded to "Expert" user, go back and click on "Create Ad" from the Apache Monitor. This takes the user to the "Create BCKS Ad Plus" page. Please note that if you should login to the "MyBCKS" page there is a link at the top titled "Create Ad". A BCKS Ad Plus cannot be created from that page.

The user must be connected to the internet to create a BCKS Ad Plus. If not, the following message will appear.

"Ad title" is a short 80 character maximum description of your product or service.

“Ad description” is the information that will appear when a prospective buyer searches for a product or service. This information will be uploaded and stored in the BCKS servers. It is limited to 180 characters.

“Price”. Enter the price in US dollars.

“Region”, “Postal zipcode”, and “Telephone” are optional but it may interest buyers who are near your location or wish to talk by telephone for details or to complete a transaction.

“More ad description on ad page” is information that will reside in your computer. It is the detailed information you think a buyer might like. Photographs of the product may be included at this time. This information and the photographs will be available for potential buyers to view when you are online.

Click on "Change Ad" in Apache Monitor. The "Change Ad" page will appear where all ads can be changed or deleted.

Login takes the user to the MyBCKS page which has a "Change Ad" link at the top. This link is for changing BCKS Ads not BCKS Ad Plus ads.

Firewalls do not affect the standard "BCKS Ad" and ad title and description of "BCKS Ad Plus" ads on BCKS web site.

The "More ad description on ad page", images, and files of a "BCKS Ad Plus" ad will not be visible to prospective buyers if the your computer is behind some kinds of firewall. The BCKS Ad Plus software can detect the presence of a firewall. The following message will appear during installation.

Yes, if you are behind a firewall, you may view any of the ad types, as long as the computer which has the "BCKS Ad Plus" ad pages is not behind a firewall.

The online ad title will change to a green link which the buyer can click on to view your ad material.

The photo file must be copied into the directory c:\bcks\htdocs\images\. The name of the image file must match what was inserted in the create "BACK Ad Plus" page. Do not use spaces in the name of the image like desk lamp.jpg, use desk_lamp.jpg or something similar instead. Extensions like .jpg are not case dependent but .jpg is not the same as .jpeg. Use of common image formats like jpeg or gif will make it easier for more buyers to be able to view them.

The upload speed of a 56Kbs modem connection is slow compared to cable or dsl connections so one needs to be more careful about using large photo files with the ad

Cable and dsl connections typically have upload speeds of 128Kbs to 256Kbs. This is better than dial up connection speeds which allow larger files to be viewed in a reasonable time by the buyer. Many cable modems and dsl modems have a firewall internal to them which can be enabled by the user. If the firewall is enabled, buyers will not be able to view the BCKS Ad Plus material which resides on your computer.

BCKS Ad Plus requires that you have access to a computer that can host the details of your ad.

Please backup your data files, then download the latest installation file, use Apache Monitor or Windows service control panel to shutdown Apache service, and exit Apache Monitor from Apache Monitor, follow "Uninstall the BCKS Ad Plus software" procedures, install the new version as if there were no pre-existing version.

Please backup your data files, then download the latest installation file, use Apache Monitor or Windows service control panel to shutdown Apache service, and exit Apache Monitor from Apache Monitor. Use Windows Explorer to locate C:\BCKS.msi, double click on "Uninstall BCKS Ad Plus", Press "Start", "All Programs", "BCKS", "BCKS Ad Plus", "Uninstall BCKS Ad Plus" from the desktop. The uninstall procedure preserves ads and images created after the initial installation in the event you intend to install a new version of the software. Use Windows Explorer to locate bcksap20.msi, double click on it, choose "Remove" to remove Apache software. Do not delete the C:\BCKS directory manually. If you have to do that, please backup files in C:\BCKS\htdocs and C:\BCKS\system to preserve ads and images you have created.

The file to be shared must be placed in the proper location. Using Windows Explorer, locate the C:\BCKS directory on your hard drive. Open this directory. It should contain the the subdirectories shown below. Locate the "share" subdirectory under "htdocs"

Place the file to be shared in this directory. Our example will be a picture file named "photo.jpg". Next create a BCKS Ad Plus ad as you normally would. The difference is in the "More ad description on ad page" area shown below.

Type some text into the box. For our example, we will use "Here is my photo file". To make some of these words a link, hold down the left mouse button and drag over the text which will now be highlighted in blue as shown.

Once this has been done, the "link" icon in the tool bar will no longer be grayed out.

Click on the link icon to get the following dialog box.

In the empty box labelled "URL" type in the path "/share/photo.jpg". Protocol will change to "other" automatically.

Click on "OK" button when you are finished to close this dialog box. The words that were highlighted in blue in the "More ad description on ad page" area will now be underlined and the text blue to indicate a link has been successfully created.

Submit the ad. It will appear like this on the BCKS web site.

Click on the "File share test 1" link in green for the next screen.

Click on the "photo file" link for the photo.

Please read the full description about how to "Share a file" first. Older browsers such as Internet Explorer 5.5 will not show the tool bars in the "More ad description on ad page" box. This prevents the creation of the link as described in the "Share a file" description above. For these older browsers, type the text below to identify the location of the file ( /share/photo.jpg ) and the name of the link ( Here is my photo file ). This will create the same ad described above for more recent browsers.