The MILWEB Guide to RSS

What is an RSS feed?

RSS feeds keep you updated when a website adds fresh content -so you don't have to miss the latest adverts on MILWEB - you can set up an RSS feed on your PC, lap top, mobile phone or Blackberry - and keep up with MILWEB anywhere in the world.

And in case you wondered - RSS stands for Really Simple Synchcronisation.

How does an RSS feed help my advert on MILWEB?

Because MILWEB offers its visitors an RSS feed it means that buyers looking for particular vehicles or military items are alerted as new adverts appear. RSS also offers an even wider audience for MILWEB as subscribers to other related RSS feeds are offered a feed from MILWEB. To make things easy, Internet Explorer will display this symbol on its toolbar and if you click on it you will be offered a list of subscription options. Firefox 2 is similar but the RSS icon will appear in the address control.

What do I need to view an RSS feed?

You will need an RSS reader or news reader. There are lots of different news readers. The easiest way is to use Google Reader, a free web-based reader. There are other web-based RSS readers as well and web-based readers are really useful if you use several different computers as all your settings will be saved on a central computer.

There are also RSS readers that are free standing programs like FeedDemon (see below for more details) and some email programs (e.g. Outlook) can read news feeds.
If you are using a reader such as Outlook that asks you to enter the MILWEB RSS Feed URL,
please enter http://www.milweb.net/rss/class_feed_main.php - you may need to type this as some readers dont allow pasting.

Once you have decided on a news reader it is very easy to set it up to read the MILWEB feed. The next sections give step-by-step instructions on how to get started with two popular news readers.

Tip:
Generally feed readers offer a search option and if you enter MILWEB Classifieds in the Search box the RSS reader will find the MILWEB feed.

How to use Google Reader to view the MILWEB Classifieds Feed

This is an easy RSS reader to set up and is free. Just click on any of the Add to Google links you will find around the MILWEB site – like this one …

… and choose the Add to Google Reader button.

If you do not have a Google account you will be given an option to create one.

Once you have set up a Google Reader account you will be able to access it from any computer with an up to date browser and an internet connection and of course you will be able to subscribe to all sorts of other feeds.

How to use FeedDemon to view the MILWEB Classifieds Feed

Newsgator FeedDemon is a free stand-alone application that runs on Windows (any version starting from Windows 98). FeedDemon offers features that Google Reader does not have such as keeping a watch on classified adverts containing certain keywords. It also has a synchronisation option so you can use the program on more than one computer and access your feeds via a web-based interface.

Follow this link and follow Newsgator's instructions to install the progam. This will involve downloading the installation program to your hard disk. You then run the installation program and follow the instructions.

Keeping a Watch for Particular Vehicles

If, for instance, you are a specialist dealer in Bedford military vehicles you can set up a watch to catch all classified adverts which contain the word Bedford and be able to browse these items at your leisure.

To set up a watch click on the Watches icon in the left pane. Then the select the New Watch… option in the top right of the right pane.