How To Use This Utility First,
set up a 'new caches' pocket query. I cleverly named mine "New
Caches". You only have to do these three options:
 Also, change
the number of caches requested from 500 to 20.  The program only checks the first page of your query, so
20 is the maximum number of new caches that can be listed at any one time.
But, there's not likely to be more than 20 caches within your "rush to" it range. If you ask for more
caches it takes the geocaching.com website more time and
resources to do the query. This wastes their resources, slows down the check, and the additional caches are not used. It
will accept all other defaults. If you want to tweak other options,
such as seeing only regular caches or only certain difficulty levels or
only new caches with travel bugs you can do that too and you'll only be
notified of new caches of the types you are interested in rushing out to
find. Once your query is
created, run "Preview" in the left column of the list of queries.
When you get the new caches preview page, copy the URL/Address in the box at the
top of your browser. Start the First To Find program.
A box will come up asking for your query URL, paste it in by
pressing Ctrl-V (The Control key and the V key at the same time).
You can type it in manually, of course, but that makes it more likely
you'll make a mistake and it won't work.
Note: You must have an Internet
Explorer logon cookie from geocaching.com. If you use another
browser, such as Netscape, FireFox, or Mozilla you will have to
logon to geocaching.com one time using Internet Explorer, and check
the box that says 'Remember me'. This will create a logon
cookie.
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Sending Emails to Your Cell Phone
To activate this option, click on the Email Check Box on
the Setup screen ( The second screen shown above, on this page), and fill
in the required information. You will need to know at least three things to
make the email option work:
-
You must know your email SMTP
(outgoing/sending) address. To find typical SMTP addresses
Click Here.
-
If a password is required to use your SMTP
server you must know what your username & password are. If you
don't know whether one is required, try it without first, and if it
doesn't work add the username & password.
-
You must know the text messaging address of your cell
phone. To find typical cell phone addresses
Click Here.
TIP: The first two of these can be found
somewhere in your email program (Outlook, Eudora, etc.), and the password had
to be supplied to the email program at some point.
IF you later need to edit/change any of this information,
click on the Email Check Box again.
Cell phone text messages are severely limited in size.
To deal with this problem, the information is tightly packed and may be a
little difficult to read/understand.
The Subject will look something like this:
GC10YR8 D1/T1.5 45miNW MICR-T
GC10YR8 = geocaching.com's identifying number
D1/T1.5 = Difficulty 1 & Terrain 1.5
45miNW = 45 miles North West of your home
MICR = container size, Micro
-T = cache type, Traditional
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Container Size |
Cache Type |
| MICR = Micro |
T = Traditional |
| SMAL = Small |
? = Puzzle/Mystery |
| RGLR = Regular |
M = Multi/Offset |
| LARG = Large |
L = Letterbox |
| NoSZ = No Size Given |
ERTH = Earthcache |
The body of the message contains as much of the cache name
and hints as space permits. You have the option of compressing the
cache name and hint, when they will exceed the available space. The
compression option gives preference to the hints, so the title will be
reduced or deleted if there's not room for all of the hints. Here's an
example of what an uncompressed message might look like:
| Skating Mystery
Pretty obvious were
it is, but coor |
Here's the same message compressed:
| Sktng Mystry
Prtty bvs wre t is, bt cords r neded. |
Here's what the cache page really
says:
Title: Skating Mystery
Hint: Pretty obvious where it is, but coordinates are needed.
If you choose the compression option
it's only used if
necessary. That is, if the title and hint will fit without
compression they will not be compressed.
Events and caches that have already been found are not
emailed.
Here are some tips when you first set up the email
option:
- Send to your computer email address until you know it's working.
- You can force it to get new caches by increasing the Pocket
Query radius/distance to reach out . [Remember to set it back to
your preferred distance when testing is complete.]
- While testing, you can force it to send 'new cache' emails over-and-over by
- check the block to turn on error messages,
- terminate the program,
- delete the 'NewCache.lst' file and
- restart the program.
- Turning on error messages causes it to send caches, even if
found and also issues error messages that may help you figure out what's wrong. But,
be
sure to turn this feature off when you get email working.
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the entire cache description
(uncompressed) is included at the end of the message just in case you're
able to receive large amounts of text. Normally this will be chopped
off the message you get.
Note: Sometimes due to changes at gc.com or your ISP the email
feature will start failing in a way that won't let you start the
program. If this happens there is a utility named "StopEmail"
in the program folder, run this utility and it will disable the
email feature. |
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Some Additional Notes
For some strange reason, occasionally (rarely) when you go to a new
cache it will say:
Sorry, you cannot view
this cache listing until it has been approved
It's some sort of glitch at geocaching.com, but when this
happens you should select/highlight the cache on the FTF listing and press
the Del/delete key to remove it from the list. If you don't do this
the program assumes you already know about it, and won't signal you when
it really becomes available.
This program may or may not work with Windows 95,98,
and Me
It works for more than half the people who try it.
Try it instead of assuming it won't work on your computer.
If it doesn't work, download and install
this file then try again.
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appears in your
SysTray (The area on your taskbar where the time and speaker are --
normally located on the bottom right of your desktop.). To retrieve
from silent watching double click on the icon. 'Go To Query Page' takes you to the your
new-cache query page at geocaching.com. 'Show All Caches' lists all caches
currently in the new-cache query.