Options

The General settings of the Program is to be found under the Options tab in the accordion menu:


The following options are available in the General settings of the Program:

• Autostart of the Program at OS boot. When this function is active, the Program will start automatically upon the user logging in.
• Start the monitoring of auto sites at the Program start. When this function is active, the monitoring of auto sites/car ads will start automatically upon starting up the Program.
• Hide the Program into the taskbar, instead of exiting the Program. When this function is active, the Program, upon closing its window, will minimize itself to the taskbar, but its function will not terminate.
• Enable continuous monitoring of auto sites. This option allows you to ensure a continuous functioning of the Program. For example, on receiving an update for sites or when a failure/crash occurs, the Program will restart automatically.
  
  Note:
  It is recommended to enable this function when you are going to sync your search requests to mobile agents und would like to receive always only new car ads. The continuous functioning of the Cars HotSurf program is controlled by a separate app, namely HotSurfWatcher.
• Send error reports automatically. When this function is active, an error report about the Program functioning will be automatically sent to the developers tech support. This function is available only when the continual monitoring mode is on.
• Disable "sleep mode" of your computer. When this function is active, your computer will not go into sleep mode and, as a result, cause an unintended cessation of the online car ads monitoring. This function is available only when the continual monitoring mode is on.

To edit search options, select the Options item in the accordion menu, and then select Search. To set main parameters, you need to perform the following steps:

Step 1. Choose a search mode. The software tool supports several modes of vehicle ad search, the modes having an effect on the quality and speed of the search:

• Fast search. First only a brief description is downloaded. Full information on a concrete ad will be downloaded by request;
• Full search. Car offer will be downloaded completely. This method reduces the speed of receiving car ads;
• Download car photos. This allows you to disable or enable downloading car pictures. This mode will heighten the speed of receiving ads.

Step 2. Define the search request more precisely through additional settings:

Step 3. Choose a mode of the ad monitoring speed or set values manually, see the Step 4:

Step 4. Having chosen Set manually, you get access to the manual assigning of values that have an influence on the speed:

• Maximum number of primary search requests (the maximum number of primary search requests to a car sale site at each instant of time);
• Maximum number of auxiliary search requests (the maximum number of service requests to a site at each instant of time);
• Maximum number of simultaneously downloaded car ads (the maximum number of simultaneously processed car ads at every instant);
• Maximum number of simultaneously processed car pictures (the maximum number of simultaneously downloaded car photos at every instant);
• Maximum number of simultaneously processed cars.

Step 5. Click ОК to close the manual settings window and apply your parameters defined, or click Cancel to cancel your changes

Step 6. Click Save to confirm the settings made, or click Cancel to cancel your changes.

The software can inform you about the new car offer in several ways:

• Play a sound file.
• Show pop-up window with the message:
  
• Send information about found new cars to your e-mail.

To set up user notification, follow these steps:

Step 1. In the accordion menu, click the item "Preferences":

Step 2. In the "Preferences", select the sub item "Telephony and alert".

Step 3. In the new window in the section "Alerts and e-mail notification settings" set the user notification mode:

Step 4. Click “OK” button if you want to save your settings or "Cancel" to cancel your changes.

Cars HotSurf supports automatic currency conversion for found car ads. Exchange rates are to be downloaded automatically from official exchange rate sources, or set up/updated by you manually.

To set up Cars HotSurf for working with a specific currency, follow these steps:

Step 1. Click the item "Options" in the accordion menu:

Step 2. Select the "Localization Settings" subitem in the item "Options":

Step 3. In the appeared window, in the "Basic currency" of the "Advanced Settings", specify the currency in which you want to display prices for found car ads:

Step 4.Click "Exchange rates", to set the rates.

Step 5. In the new appeared window, you will get these settings:

• "Currency rates provider" - sources from which currency exchange rates are downloaded: currency exchange websites, or the manual setting up of exchange rates.
• "Update currency rates every, sec." - a time interval for an automatic download of exchange rates from currency exchange rate websites.
• "Exchange rates" - currency exchange rates against a base currency.

Step 6. Click "Ок" to confirm your settings for exchange rates, or click "Cancel" to undo your changes.

Step 7. Click "Save" to save all your settings for currencies, or click "Cancel" to undo all your changes.

Cars HotSurf supports automatic car parameters conversion in the downloaded car offers for different measurement systems, e.g. inch or metric.

To set up Cars HotSurf to work with a certain measurement system, follow these steps:

Step 1. In the accordion menu, click the item "Options".

Step 2. In the item "Options", select the sub item "Localization settings":

Step 3. In the new window, in the "Measure units" set your measurement system:

Step 4. Click "Save" if you want to save the measurement units settings or "Cancel" to cancel all of your changes.

Settings for mobile agents are to be found under the Call and notifications sub-item of the Options item in the accordion menu. Here you can register new or remove available Cars HotSurf mobile agents:

You can greatly save your time if you first configure the default settings for new search requests.

To set default values options for new search requests, select the Options item in the Program accordion/side menu, and then select Search. The options needed for you are to be found in the Default values for new search request section.

The program configuration wizard allows you to quickly set up the Program main parameters so that they meet your needs. When getting the Program started, the wizard will start automatically. Further, you can get access to it from the Option item in the accordion menu by selecting Wizard.

To set main parameters, you need to perform the following actions:

Step 1. Set options that exert influence on the search speed and on the level of detail of ads downloaded, and then click Next:
Step 2. Set the options on the subject of the found ad notification and those of telephony apps:
Step 3. Specify settings for the continuous monitoring of auto sites, and that for mobile agents:
Step 4. Set a currency and the needed units of measurement for car performance data, and then click Done: