194 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
194 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!sloane
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Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news,news.answers
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Subject: FAQ: news.software.anu-news
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Message-ID: <1994Apr15.235205.62234@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
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From: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
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Date: 15 Apr 94 23:52:05 CDT
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Followup-To: news.software.anu-news
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Summary: frequently asked questions for news.software.anu-news
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Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
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Lines: 181
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Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu news.software.anu-news:2282 news.answers:18114
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Archive-name: anu-faq
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FAQ for NEWS.SOFTWARE.ANU-NEWS. Last update 10-AUG-1993.
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This monthly posting is edited by Bob Sloane, University of Kansas.
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Please send any suggestions for improvement to sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu.
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1. What is ANU News?
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ANU NEWS is a computer-based conferencing system for VAX/VMS systems. ANU NEWS
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can be connected into the Global USENET news network and/or any other news
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network. ANU NEWS supports both DECnet and TCP/IP (Multinet, WIN/TCP, Ultrix
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Connection, EXCELAN TCP, and CMU) as transports.
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The current version of ANU NEWS is 6.0-3 with the Bill Glass patches.
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2. Purpose of News.software.anu-news
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The purpose of news.software.anu-news is to discuss any and all ANU NEWS
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related issues. It is the primary support channel for ANU NEWS users.
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New versions, fixes, workarounds, etc are posted to the newsgroup. Bug
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reports/fixes and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Please
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always RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual) before posting.
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3. How to subscribe
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On USENET, news.software.anu-news is a regularly available newsgroup. In
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general, it is preferable to read the newsgroup instead of the mailing list.
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To subscribe to this list BITNET/EARN/NetNorth Users may be able to send an
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interactive message to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 (via SEND or TELL). For example:
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SEND LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 SUB ANU-NEWS Jane Doe (your first/last name)
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Internet/BITNET/EARN/NetNorth/UUCP users may send MAIL to
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LISTSERV@VM1.NoDak.EDU or LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 with the first line of the TEXT or
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BODY of mail being:
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SUB ANU-NEWS firstname lastname (e.g. SUB ANU-NEWS John Doe ).
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4. Frequently Asked Questions:
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Q: How do I acquire a copy of ANU News? A: ANU News is available for
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anonymous FTP from kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kansas, USA). Other sites may
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also have it available..
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The Glass patch was posted to the newsgroup after V6.0-2 was released. The
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archives for the newsgroup are accessable from listserv@vm1.nodak.edu.
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here's an example of what you should send to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu:
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//ListSrch JOB Echo=No,Reply-via=mail
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Database Search DD=Rules
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//Rules DD *
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Select glass v6.0-3 patch in anu-news since 1-jan-1991
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print
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/*
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I believe you can send mail there with body of "help", and it'll
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send help.
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Q: Does anybody have documentation for ANU News?
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A: At the anonymous FTP sites, you will find another compressed backup
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saveset called something like news_v60-3_doc.bck_z. It contains the
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documentation for ANU News. The documentation is excellent. It comes
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in several formats. The news_sit.hqx is a BINHEXed Stuffit archive
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which contains the Microsoft Word version of the document. News.ps
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is the Postscript version designed for A4 papersize. Finally, there
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is an ASCII version called news.txt. By all means, use the Word or
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Postscript versions if possible. They include some screen dumps and
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are nicely formatted.
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For installation, there is an additional installation document found in
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the NEWS_DOC saveset in the version on KUHUB. A newer version of this
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installation document can be found via anonymous FTP to FTP.UNT.EDU in
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the VMS directory. It is called ANU.INSTALL. The major difference
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between the two version is that the newer one has information on using
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NNTP over DECnet.
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FYI: several people have asked me about the UNT documentation on
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ANU News. All it is an edited form of the original documentation
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reprinted with Geoff Huston's permission on the UNT campus. I do
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not redistribute it off-campus as the original documentation is
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more complete and more global than my edited version.
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Q: I'm having problems printing the Postscript documentation on my printer.
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A: The Postscript file is setup for A4 page size. In the US, a different
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page size is commonly used. In this case, you will need to use the
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Microsoft Word version of the document and print it via Word.
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Q: NEWS is sending everything I get back to my feed system. What do I do?
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A: Make sure that the system name in NEWS.SYS matches what your feed
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system puts in the Path: header.
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Q: Why do I sometimes fall into newsgroups when using the arrow keys?
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A: DEC's SMG routines have a bug in which they return the wrong value
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on 44th attempt and at other times. The discussion and workarounds
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for the problem are available via anonymous FTP on ftp.unt.edu
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in the vms directory filename NEWS-SMG.PATCH. This is an UNOFFICIAL
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patch and is a "use at your own risk" program.
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Q: ANU is not sending my local posts to other sites.
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A: There are many possible causes. One possible problem and work around
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is described in the file ANU.UCX-NNTP-FIX on ftp.unt.edu in the vms
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directory. This file describes a problem and workaround for a problem
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with the UCX NNTP code. It may or may not be valid for other NNTP drivers.
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Q: I am remote reading (diskless client) with ANU from a Cnews site and
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my users regularly crash due to memory problems.
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A: Verify that NNTP on the Cnews side is returning the correct message
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numbers on the list command. If not, then ask the remote system's news
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administrator to run upact on a regular basis to update the number in
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the active file.
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Q: How do I connect to an NNTP server?
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A: Try "news/netsever=newshost/netproto=tcp" where "newshost" is the name
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of the NNTP server. Note this connects over a TCP/IP network and requires
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that News was built to support to support that service. Also requires
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that the server accept a connection from your system.
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Q: News is awfully slow to start up. Especially for NNTP connections.
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A: News> set profile/fastload
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Will configure news to only load those newsgroup in which you are registered.
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This makes the start up considerably faster but you don't have access to
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groups you're not registered in. There have been reports of problems
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such as access violations and hangs when using this feature.
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Q: News is still slow to start up to an NNTP server.
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A: News> set profile/display=(unseenstack,nolines,nopost)
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Will configure news to only show you new articles and will not retrieve
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the line count or posting date. This is especially useful if you're
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running off of an NNTP server that doesn't support ANU extensions to NNTP.
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Retrieving line counts and posting dates is notoriously time consuming.
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Q: How do I get a signature file appended to my articles?
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A: News> set profile/signature=file.name
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Note you should keep your signature file brief -- no more than three
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lines.
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Q: How do I get my full name into my return address?
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A: News> set profile/personal_name="Your Name"
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Q: I want to use emacs as my editor.
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A: News> set profile/editor=emacs
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Note this requires, of course, that you have emacs installed on your
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system.
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Q: Command recall doesn't work.
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A: Of course it does -- use CTRL-B to go back a command. The arrow keys
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have been bound to other commands. If you would prefer to use the arrow
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keys for command recall, then do: News> set profile/line_editing
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Q: Do I need this big newsrc. file?
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A: News> set profile/rcfilter
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Will store only the registered groups in your newsrc. file, this makes
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rewritting the file quicker. Note that this will prevent you from
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accessing any groups not in your newsrc. file.
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Q: I want to display groups in a different order.
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A: News> set profile/rcorder
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Will display newsgroups in the order they are listed in your newsrc.
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file -- edit the file to order things accordingly.
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Q: I have just installed the NEWS server software. When I ran it the first
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time, I got the message:
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RMS-E-FNF, file not found
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RMS-F-IFI, invalid internal file identifier
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A: Either there is some problem with your NEWS logicals, the NEWS
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executable is not properly installed, or the account that you started
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NEWS from the first time doesn't have the NEWS manager id granted to it.
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Q: I am having problems getting KILL filters to work.
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A: In some versions of NEWS there is a bug in KILL/FROM. Just do
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MODIFY KILL n where n is the number of the kill filter that isn't
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working and delete the from: from the beginning of the filter.
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--
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USmail: Bob Sloane, University of Kansas Computer Center, Lawrence, KS, 66045
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E-mail: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu, sloane@ukanvax.bitnet, AT&T: (913)864-0444
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