READ NEWS TUTORIAL ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The "Read News Tutorial" is a sample session where 2 Gif files are retrieved using the "rn" (Read News) program and downloaded to a Macintosh. This tutorial was created in response to many questions from Mac users on the internet who don't know where to begin when downloading Pictures. Many of these users have no trouble downloading files from their favorite BBS. Hopefully this section will help. This is not intended to be a manual for Read News. This only covers the basic features required to download uuencoded pictures. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS TUTORIAL: - Text appearing between caret lines are narrative descriptions or comments on the session. Example: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is a description ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - Text enclosed in curly braces is a comment not actually occurring in the session. Example: {this is a comment} - Text that is enclosed in brackets "< >" is text that was actually typed by the user. It's important to note that the brackets themselves were not typed by the user in the actual online session. Example: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The session begins below. The user has just used his/her telecommunications software to dial up a public access Internet node. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CONNECT 9600 Welcome to THE BOARD Public Access UNIX Login as 'new' if you do not have an account login: Password: < > {password is not displayed} Last login: Wed Jan 22 08:29:02 on tty01 SunOS Release 4.0.3 (CREATION) #5: Wed Oct 11 20:55:28 EDT 1989 The Board welcomes you TERM = (vt100) Erase is Backspace No new messages. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Read News program is started up with the command "rn." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% Unread news in general 13 articles Unread news in blocal.general 4 articles Unread news in blocal.jokes 2 articles Unread news in blocal.mail.com-priv 133 articles Unread news in blocal.mail.peacenet 100 articles etc. ******** 13 unread articles in general--read now? [ynq] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We have just asked rn to search for any sections that fit the pattern "pict*misc". The "*" is a wild card and will match any number of occurrences of any characters. For instance the following article headers would match: alt.binaries.pictures.misc alt.pictures.misc comp.binaries.pictures.misc comp.graphics.pictures.misc ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Searching... ******** 6 unread articles in alt.binaries.pictures.misc--read now? [ynq] <=> {"=" was typed. This lists all the articles in this section by number.} 1980 homers01.gif (1/3) 1981 homers01.gif (2/3) 1982 homers01.gif (3/3) 1998 Kirk and Spock, from Star Trek VI (2/3) 1999 Kirk and Spock, from Star Trek VI (3/3) 2000 Kirk and Spock, from Star Trek VI (1/3) What next? [npq] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We have decided to get both of these pictures. Remember, we want to retrieve the articles in the correct sequence: homers01.gif (1/3) homers01.gif (2/3) homers01.gif (3/3) Star Trek VI (1/3) Star Trek VI (2/3) Star Trek VI (3/3) This means that we want to get the articles in this order: 1980 1981 1982 2000 1998 1999 Since these are out of sequence, we will request each one by its article number. We will save the article to our own personal "News" directory maintained on the UNIX machine. This is why that directory exists. You may think of a directory as being similar to a Mac folder. The command to save to this directory is: S ./ChooseAFileName ...where ChooseAFileName is a file name that we want this picture to be saved to. If the file name already exists, our new article will be appended to the end of it. This is very useful since we will be saving both of our gifs (all 6 parts) to the same file. We will name our file - "WedPics." We can use a dash "-" to select a range of articles and a comma "," as an article separator in our save command. The save command listed below then means: - Select articles 1980 thru 1982 - Also select articles 2000, 1998 and 1999 (ordered as listed here) - Save them all to the file "WedPics" in my "News" directory. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What next? [npq] <1980-1982,2000,1998,1999 S ./WedPics> {Here's the save command} 1980 File /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics doesn't exist-- use mailbox format? [ynq] {no, we won't use mailbox format} Saved to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics 1981 Appended to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics 1982 Appended to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics 2000 Appended to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics 1998 Appended to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics 1999 Appended to file /usr2/jstrobel/News/./WedPics What next? [npq] {quit} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We have just quit (exited) the alt.binaries.pictures.misc section ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ******** 4 unread articles in alt.books.technical--read now? [ynq] {quit} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We just ended our Read News session. We should now have 1 file called "WedPics" in our "News" directory. First we will find out which directory we are in. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% {"pwd" will show us our path to our current working directory} /usr2/jstrobel ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Each "/" is a change to a lower nested directory. We are in the directory - "jstrobel" "ls" will give us a short listing of the items in our directory. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% Mail News mbox ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We will now change our directory to our "News" directory so that we can see our file and download it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "ls -l" will give us a long listing of the items in our directory with sizes. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% total 265 -rw------- 1 jstrobel 265833 Jan 22 08:42 WedPics ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We will download our file first with zmodem. Zmodem is by far the best protocol to use if both you and the board you are calling support it. The command to use to invoke zmodem is "sz filename" (no quotes). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% sz: 1 file requested: WedPics **B00000000000000 {file has been received} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since you might not have access to zmodem, we will try xmodem. The command to use to invoke xmodem is "sx filename" (no quotes). After typing the xmodem command, you will have to issue a command to your local telecommunications program (Microphone or White Knight, etc.) by selecting the menu item "Receive File xmodem" (or something like that). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% sending WedPics, 412 blocks: Give your local XMODEM receive command now. {file has been received} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ To hang up issue the command "logout." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ board% NO CARRIER