From: MERC::"uunet!VM1.NoDak.EDU!ANU-NEWS" 1-JUN-1992 08:15:30.74 To: Multiple recipients of list ANU-NEWS CC: Subj: FAQ: news.software.anu-news FAQ for NEWS.SOFTWARE.ANU-NEWS This monthly posting is edited by Billy Barron, University of North Texas. Please send any suggestions for improvement to billy@unt.edu. Acknowledgments to Geoff Huston, Bob Sloane, and Reg Quinton for portions of the content. 1. What is ANU News? ANU NEWS is a computer-based conferencing system for VAX/VMS systems. ANU NEWS can be connected into the Global USENET news network and/or any other news network. ANU NEWS supports both DECnet and TCP/IP (Multinet, WIN/TCP, Ultrix Connection, EXCELAN TCP, and CMU) as transports. The current version of ANU NEWS is 6.0-3 with the Bill Glass patches. 2. Purpose of News.software.anu-news The purpose of news.software.anu-news is to discuss any and all ANU NEWS related issues. It is the primary support channel for ANU NEWS users. New versions, fixes, workarounds, etc are posted to the newsgroup. Bug reports/fixes and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Please always RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual) before posting. 3. How to subscribe On USENET, news.software.anu-news is a regularly available newsgroup. In general, it is preferable to read the newsgroup instead of the mailing list. To subscribe to this list BITNET/EARN/NetNorth Users may be able to send an interactive message to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 (via SEND or TELL). For example: SEND LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 SUB ANU-NEWS Jane Doe (your first/last name) Internet/BITNET/EARN/NetNorth/UUCP users may send MAIL to LISTSERV@VM1.NoDak.EDU or LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 with the first line of the TEXT or BODY of mail being: SUB ANU-NEWS firstname lastname (e.g. SUB ANU-NEWS John Doe ). 4. Frequently Asked Questions: Q: How do I acquire a copy of ANU News? A: ANU News is available for anonymous FTP on sao.aarnet.edu.au (Australia) and kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kansas, USA). Other sites may also have it available. Please use the site closest to you. There are two versions available: a normal backup saveset and a LZW compressed version of the backup savesets. VMS LZW programs are available on kuhub.cc.ukans.edu also and through DECUS. For network load reasons, it is preferable if you acquire LZW and the compressed version of ANU NEWS. The Glass patch was posted to the newsgroup after V6.0-2 was released. The archives for the newsgroup are accessable from listserv@vm1.nodak.edu. here's an example of what you should send to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu: //ListSrch JOB Echo=No,Reply-via=mail Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * Select glass v6.0-3 patch in anu-news since 1-jan-1991 print /* i believe you can send mail there with a subject (or is it body?) of "help", and it'll send help. there's also a news fileserver at fileserv@dayton.saic.com. commands are like: send news_v60-3_patch.19 send news_v60-3_patch.2% send news_v60-3_patch.18 and i imagine the help thing works there, too.. Q: Does anybody have documentation for ANU News? A: At the anonymous FTP sites, you will find another compressed backup saveset called something like news-v60-3_doc.bck_z. It contains the documentation for ANU News. The documentation is excellent. It comes in several formats. The news_sit.hqx is a BINHEXed Stuffit archive which contains the Microsoft Word version of the document. News.ps is the Postscript version designed for A4 papersize. Finally, there is an ASCII version called news.txt. By all means, use the Word or Postscript versions if possible. They include some screen dumps and are nicely formatted. For installation, there is an additional installation document found in the NEWS_DOC saveset in the version on KUHUB. A newer version of this installation document can be found via anonymous FTP to FTP.UNT.EDU in the VMS directory. It is called ANU.INSTALL. The major difference between the two version is that the newer one has information on using NNTP over DECnet. FYI: several people have asked me about the UNT documentation on ANU News. All it is an edited form of the original documentation reprinted with Geoff Huston's permission on the UNT campus. I do not redistribute it off-campus as the original documentation is more complete and more global than my edited version. Q: I'm having problems printing the Postscript documentation on my printer. A: The Postscript file is setup for A4 page size. In the US, a different page size is commonly used. In this case, you will need to use the Microsoft Word version of the document and print it via Word. Q: NEWS is sending everything I get back to my feed system. What do I do? A: Make sure that the system name in NEWS.SYS matches what your feed system puts in the Path: header. Q: Why do I sometimes fall into newsgroups when using the arrow keys? A: DEC's SMG routines have a bug in which they return the wrong value on 44th attempt and at other times. The discussion and workarounds for the problem are available via anonymous FTP on ftp.unt.edu in the vms directory filename NEWS-SMG.PATCH. This is an UNOFFICIAL patch and is a "use at your own risk" program. Q: ANU is not sending my local posts to other sites. A: There are many possible causes. One possible problem and work around is described in the file ANU.UCX-NNTP-FIX on ftp.unt.edu in the vms directory. This file describes a problem and workaround for a problem with the UCX NNTP code. It may or may not be valid for other NNTP drivers. Q: I am remote reading (diskless client) with ANU from a Cnews site and my users regularly crash due to memory problems. A: Verify that NNTP on the Cnews side is returning the correct message numbers on the list command. If not, then a patch exists somewhere on the net for Cnews to take care of this. (where?) Nothing is wrong with ANU. Q: How do I connect to an NNTP server? A: Try "news/netsever=newshost/netproto=tcp" where "newshost" is the name of the NNTP server. Note this connects over a TCP/IP network and requires that News was built to support to support that service. Also requires that the server accept a connection from your system. Q: News is awfully slow to start up. Especially for NNTP connections. A: News> set profile/fastload Will configure news to only load those newsgroup in which you are registered. This makes the start up considerably faster but you don't have access to groups you're not registered in. However, if you try and access a group that you are not registered to, ANU will access load all the groups off the NNTP server at that point. Q: News is still slow to start up to an NNTP server. A: News> set profile/display=(unseenstack,nolines,nopost) Will configure news to only show you new articles and will not retrieve the line count or posting date. This is especially useful if you're running off of an NNTP server that doesn't support ANU extensions to NNTP. Retrieving line counts and posting dates is notoriously time consuming. Q: How do I get a signature file appended to my articles? A: News> set profile/signature=file.name Note you should keep your signature file brief -- no more than three lines. Q: How do I get my full name into my return address? A: News> set profile/personal_name="Your Name" Q: I want to use emacs as my editor. A: News> set profile/editor=emacs Note this requires, of course, that you have emacs installed on your system. Q: Command recall doesn't work. A: Of course it does -- use CTRL-B to go back a command. The arrow keys have been bound to other commands. Q: Do I need this big newsrc. file? A: News> set profile/rcfilter Will store only the registered groups in your newsrc. file, this makes rewritting the file quicker. Not required if you have /fastload set in your profile. Q: I want to display groups in a different order. A: News> set profile/rcorder Will display newsgroups in the order they are listed in your newsrc. file -- edit the file to order things accordingly. Q. I have just installed the NEWS server software. When I ran it the first time, I got the message: RMS-E-FNF, file not found RMS-F-IFI, invalid internal file identifier A> Either there is some problem with your NEWS logicals, the NEWS executable is not properly installed, or the account that you started NEWS from the first time doesn't have the NEWS manager id granted to it. -- Billy Barron, VAX/UNIX Systems Manager, University of North Texas Pres., League Against Salivating Monsters billy@unt.edu, billy@untvax.bitnet, THENET: NTVAX::BILLY