GuerrillaBrowser is not a normal web browser. Your big, conventional browser may do any of the following: render web pages, automatically download embedded content (images, programs, whatever), run script, automatically invoke plug-ins, exchange "cookies" with web servers, and connect to servers on the Internet without your explicit command. That's an ambitious list, and the security track record of conventional browsers reflects that.
GuerrillaBrowser only does 2 things: download ("grab") the resources you specifically tell it to, and scan ("scrub") downloaded HTML for possible links. You operate GuerrillaBrowser using toolbar buttons, keystrokes, and/or its menu, but also using a set of text files as explained in the appendix to this tutorial. GuerrillaBrowser has no built-in text editor or file manager, so you'll want to bring yours to the party. (Please read this important security note.)
The GB Cache is a work area. If you use it to permanently store downloaded files, you can create a new one when it fills up. If you transfer downloaded files out of the GB Cache into your own archiving setup, you can just reuse the current GB Cache over and over and never need to change it. The Cache Index spinner gives you up to 100 subfolders in the current GB Cache, which is also the maximum number of indexes per batch in Batch Mode.
This tutorial gives you a rapid-fire tour through most of GuerrillaBrowser's features. To see GuerrillaBrowser in action, check out this demo. The cheat sheet shows GuerrillaBrowser operation at a glance, and here is the Summary of Commands chart from the GuerrillaBrowser "User Guide". For more information, see the "Links" page on the www.guerrillabrowser.biz website.
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| The GuerrillaBrowser, GuerrillaViewer and DeChunk programs in action on a typical Windows desktop. |
| 1. | Use your conventional browser to download the ZIP archive file containing the GuerrillaBrowser program suite to your PC's hard drive. |
| 2. | Switch to Windows Explorer and create a home folder for the
GuerrillaBrowser program files (e.g. C:\Program Files\GuerrillaBrowser). |
| 3. | Locate the ZIP file, right-click it and choose "Extract All..." to start the Extract Wizard. |
| 4. | In the Extract Wizard, use the "Browse..." button to locate the folder you made in Step 2, and the "Next >" and "Finish" buttons to complete the extraction. |
| 5. | In Windows Explorer, right-click each of the 3 executables (GB.exe,
GV.exe, DeChunk.exe) in the GuerrillaBrowser home folder and choose
"Create Shortcut" to create shortcut icons. |
| 6. | Select these 3 icons and drag them to the "Desktop" folder or
to a "Start Menu\Programs\GuerrillaBrowser" folder or wherever you like. |
| 1. | Run the GuerrillaBrowser program (GB.exe). Click the "OK"
button when you see the "4001: New GB Cache started." pop-up message. |
| 2. | Resize and reposition GB's window to suit you. The
"Window Size :" line in the Document View's status display tracks the size of
the window's client area (white background). The "Cache Path :" line is
grayed to show that the current GB Cache has never been used. |
| 3. | Press Shift+F6 a few times to toggle between Results View and Document View. Leave GB in Document View. |
| 4. | Click the 'B' button a few times to toggle between Batch Mode and
Single-Index Mode. The "Batch Mode :" line changes to match the
state of the 'B' button. Leave Batch Mode off. |
| 5. | Press the tab key a few times slowly to cycle the blinking keyboard cursor ("caret") between the Cache Index spinner, the URL edit box, and GB's main window (where it will not be visible because no document is currently open). You can also click the mouse on any of these 3 "child" windows to select it for keyboard input. |
| 6. | Right-click GB's client area to see the main (pop-up) menu, and choose the Options... menu item. Make sure the "Smart Mode" and "Novice Mode" boxes are checked for now, and close the GuerrillaBrowser Options dialog. |
| 7. | Run the GuerrillaViewer (GV.exe) and DeChunk (DeChunk.exe)
programs, and resize their windows. Right-click each of their client areas to see
their main menus. |
| 8. | Use DeChunk's Open... command to bring up the Open dialog and choose any file on your PC. Notice that the display is a hexadecimal dump of the beginning of that file. Choose Close to clear the display. |
| 9. | Use GV's Open List... command to choose any folder containing
some image files (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP). Type the keyword "auto" in the
"File name:" box and click the "Open" button. Use the spacebar to cycle
through the list of images. |
| 1. | Use Windows Explorer to create a new GB Cache folder (e.g.
C:\download\GB\A). |
| 2. | Start the GB program and use the Open Cache... menu item to
locate the folder you made in Step 1, then click the "Open" button. Click the
"OK" button to close the "4001: New GB Cache started." message box. |
| 3. | Choose Single-Index Mode ('B' button is up). Click the
Auto Scrub menu item so that it is checked (enabled). Choose Cache Index
"00" in the spinner. |
| 4. | Pick a website that has links to other sites (one that uses thumbnail images) and type or paste its complete URL into the URL edit box (same as your conventional browser's "Address" bar). |
| 5. | Choose the Grab HTML command ('H' button). Click the "OK" button
when you see the "Index 00 Grab HTML" message box. GB automatically switches
to Results View, and displays the Index and URL you gave it in gray,
changing to black when the download completes. |
| 6. | In Windows Explorer, click on the newly-created "C:\download\GB\A\00"
folder to see the work files that the Scrub HTML (Auto Scrub) produced. |
| 7. | Use GB's Grab Thumbs command ('T' button) to download the thumbnail images for Cache Index 00 (still displayed in the spinner). The process is similar to that in Step 5. |
| 8. | Use the Open Map command ('O' button) to load the $4.map
file for Cache Index 00. GB automatically switches back to Document View.
Scroll down to see some thumbnails (left margin), and click on one to
bring up the GuerrillaViewer program with the same $4.map file loaded as
its Image List. |
| 9. | Click on one of the URLs in GB's main window, and press Shift+F8 a few times to toggle between Replace Mode (contiguous selection) and Add Mode (disjoint selection). The blinking caret changes color as an indicator. Experiment some with the selection mechanism, then switch to GV and try double-clicking in its window to (de-)select URLs in GB. |
| 1. | In Replace Mode, click on one of the URLs (corresponding to a website with downloadable pictures) in the Cache Index 00 document created above to select it, and copy it to the Windows Clipboard (e.g. using Ctrl+C). |
| 2. | Set the spinner to Cache Index "01" and paste the URL you chose
into the URL edit box. Choose the Grab HTML command. You should see a $6P.txt
file in the newly-created "C:\download\GB\A\01" folder. |
| 3. | Use the Grab Pics command ('P' button) to download the entire set of pictures from that web page. |
| 4. | To see the pictures in GV, use the Open List... command to select
the same 01\$6P.txt file. |
| 1. | In GB, use the Back command ('<' button) to navigate back to the
00\$4.map document (still in the session-history list). |
| 2. | Press Shift+F8 to switch to Add Mode, and select ten URLs corresponding
to websites with downloadable resources. Copy them to the Windows
Clipboard and paste them into your text editor, then save the list as $URLs.txt
in the main folder for the current GB Cache (C:\download\GB\A). |
| 3. | Set the spinner to Index "02" and use the Autonumber
menu item to automatically create $Batch.txt, with the URLs you chose assigned to
Indexes 02 through 11. |
| 4. | Choose Batch Mode ('B' button is down), then choose the Grab HTML
command. Use Windows Explorer to view the newly-created "02" through
"11" subfolders, and if $ErrLog.txt appears in the main GB Cache folder study
it for possible problems. You may want to use Single-Index Mode to do
any individual follow-up. |
| 5. | Edit $Batch.txt if necessary to reflect the Indexes that produced a
$5T.txt file during the Scrub. In Batch Mode, use the Grab Thumbs
command to download their thumbnail images. |
| 1. | Use the spinner and Open Map command to load each of the Map files
(02\$4.map through 11\$4.map) created above in turn, selecting pictures,
movies, etc of your choice. |
| 2. | For each Map file, use the Save List menu item to create the $9L.txt
list for each of the Indexes you want to include in the Batch, and edit
$Batch.txt to reflect those Indexes. |
| 3. | In Batch Mode, use the Grab List command ('L' button) to download
the URLs listed in the $9L.txt files for all of the Indexes in the Batch. |
$Cache.txt, $URLs.txt, and $Batch.txt
live in the main folder for the current GB Cache (along with $ErrLog.txt)
and are shared by all Cache Indexes. Each Cache Index has its own copy of
$0.raw through $9L.txt. You create $URLs.txt;
the rest are created and used as indicated below. So, to see the list of
URLs that GuerrillaBrowser will request for the Grab Pics command,
you can just view $6P.txt in that Cache Index's subfolder.
The GuerrillaViewer companion program can use $4.map, $5T.txt,
$6P.txt or $9L.txt as its image list (Open List... command).
| Open Map | use $4.map, $5T.txt |
| Save List | create $9L.txt |
| Batch Mode | enable/disable the use of $Batch.txt |
| Autonumber | use $URLs.txt, create $Batch.txt |
| Grab HTML | create $0.raw |
| Scrub HTML | use $0.raw, create $1.gz thru $8O.txt |
| Thumb Scout | extend $4.map, $5T.txt |
| Grab Thumbs | use $5T.txt |
| Grab Pics | use $6P.txt |
| Grab Movies | use $7M.txt |
| Grab List | use $9L.txt |
| Open Cache... | update/use $Cache.txt |
| Write Cache | update $Cache.txt |
GuerrillaBrowser uses no Internet Explorer components and only a bare minimum of the Microsoft runtime code. However, you should assume that applications from most vendors do not take such strong security precautions, and that Microsoft applications trust each other implicitly.
Windows Explorer's "Thumbnails" View is a case in point. You may have noticed that it shows a miniature view of web pages saved to your hard drive. Does it use Internet Explorer to render those pages? Will it use IE even if you set another browser as your default? Will it run script even if you have that disabled in your IE options settings? Who knows.
That's just one example of how the tradeoff between gimmicky "features" and your computer's security has been badly managed in the bloatware arena. Being proactive about security means being aware of situations where your programs may be leaving you open to attack. If you use a program like Windows Explorer as a file manager, consider taking the following steps:
Block its access to the Internet using a firewall like ZoneAlarm.
Don't use "Thumbnails" View within any GB Cache folders. Use something like "Details" View as shown in the GuerrillaBrowser "Beginner's Guide".
Leave GuerrillaBrowser's "Delete Intermediate Workfiles" option enabled and its "Create 'Detoxed' HTML" option disabled.