Subject: FAQ: news.software.anu-news
Date: 16 Mar 96 00:02:51 CST
Summary: frequently asked questions for news.software.anu-news


FAQ for NEWS.SOFTWARE.ANU-NEWS. Last update 8-Mar-1995.



This monthly posting is edited by Bob Sloane, University of Kansas.
Please send any suggestions for improvement to sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu.

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.
V6.1b9 is currently available, and is resonably stable, but lacks
current documentation. V6.1b10 was released in late April, 1995.
Efforts are being made to bring the documentation up to date, and once
the documentation is available, V6.2 will be released as the
productional version.

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 from kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kansas, USA).  Other sites may
   also have it available..

   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 body of "help", and it'll
   send help. 
   
   Patches for V6.1b9 are available via anonymous ftp from
   genetics.upenn.edu.

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.

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: 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 ask the remote system's news
   administrator to run upact on a regular basis to update the number in
   the active file.

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.  There have been reports of problems
   such as access violations and hangs when using this feature.

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.  If you would prefer to use the arrow
   keys for command recall, then do: News> set profile/line_editing

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. Note that this will prevent you from
   accessing any groups not in your newsrc. file.

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.

Q: I am having problems getting KILL filters to work.
A: In some versions of NEWS there is a bug in KILL/FROM.  Just do
   MODIFY KILL n where n is the number of the kill filter that isn't
   working and delete the from: from the beginning of the filter.
-- 
USmail: Bob Sloane, University of Kansas Computer Center, Lawrence, KS, 66045
E-mail: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu, sloane@ukanvax.bitnet, AT&T: (913)864-0444 

