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- Frequently Ask Questions about the WinVN Newsreader
- FAQ Version: 2.0
- WinVN Version: .99-9
- Last Update: March 22, 1997
-
- I. General Information
- 1. About the FAQ (i.e. Administrivia)
- 2. What is WinVN?
- 3. Why people use WinVN over other News readers
- 4. What do I need to run WinVN?
- 5. What can it do?
- 6. What can't it do?
- 7. How do I get it?
- 8. How do I install WinVN?
- 9. I've got the software, how do I use it?
- 10. Who wrote this wonderful software?
- 11. What is WinVN's licensing status?
- 12. Is a commercially-supported version available?
-
- II. Contact information
- 1. How can I keep up-to-date on WinVN's progress?
- 2. How do I submit suggestions for WinVN?
- 3. How do I submit source changes?
- 4. What to do before asking for help.
- 5. Asking for help.
-
- III. Common questions/Problems
- 1. 16/32-bit issues.
- 2. What is 'gwinsock.dll'? ... 'pwksock.dll'?
- 3. I'm using SLIP or PPP, how can I use WinVN most effectively.
- 4. How do I choose between SMTP and MAPI?
- 5. I get a "Can't find MAPI.DLL" error message...
- 6. How can I do "X" from the keyboard, including Windows functions...
- 7. Why are some subject lines blank except for some weird character?
- 8. How do I install WinVN on a LAN Server?
- 9. How do I access multiple News Servers?
- 10. WinVn hangs when using a server with a large number of newsgroups
- 11. WinVN worked for a long time and then suddendly fails.
- 12. Can WinVN interact with my WWW browser
-
- IV. Common Non-WinVN problems that WinVN gets blamed for...
- 1. I can't post if I have more included text than my comments....
- 2. Error 502 Authentication error/NNTP Server has closed connection.
- 3. I'm getting a NNTP Server refused (4017) connection error.
-
- V. Commonly asked for features (stuff on the to-do list)
- 1. Why are articles I've read still displayed?
- 2. What happened to word wrapping in the compose windows?
- 3. Why can't I subscribe using a hierarchical type subscription
- like Trumpet?
- 4. Can't WinVN just read the article count of the groups I'm
- subscribed to?
- 5. Can the number of unread articles in a group be displayed?
- 6. Can I sort the news groups in the main window?
- 7. Add an Expires/Approved/...header to the dialog box?
- 8. How about some button bars?
-
- ======================================================================
- I. General Information
-
- I-1. About the FAQ. (I.e. Administrivia)
-
- The original WinVN FAQ was written by Greg Monroe (monroe@mail.duke.edu)
- and co-written by Sam Rushing (rushing@titan.ksc.nasa.gov). It has
- recently been updated by Jim Dumoulin (dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov) to
- include information about the latest releases of WinVN. Additional
- information has come from a wide range of other sources. These sources
- are quoted whenever known. Apologies to anyone misquoted or not cited.
-
- This document is available from WinVN's home ftp site, ftp.ksc.nasa.gov
- (See the section on getting WinVN). The full FAQ is posted monthly to
- several newsgroups which discuss WinVN. A "pointer" to the FAQ is posted
- on a biweekly (US definition of every two weeks) basis.
-
- Since WinVN is such a dynamic product, this document will probably always
- be "behind the times". The maintainer will try to keep up but just
- remember he's got a family that wants to see him occasionally 8^). See the
- section on keeping up with WinVN.
-
- Please send any submissions to Greg Monroe <monroe@mail.duke.edu> or
- Jim Dumoulin (dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov> or post them to the WinVN
- mailing list (winvn@news.ksc.nasa.gov). Include the words, WinVN FAQ
- in the subject. The preferred (but not required) format is as a
- MIME attachment in a word processor format which MS Word can easily
- import.
-
- I-2. What is WinVN?
-
- WinVN is a UseNet News reader for Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows/95,
- Windows/NT, Windows/NT-AXP or the Windows Emulator on Unix (WINE).
- (Note: NT compiled versions are available for most common variants,
- the source is generally easily transported to others). It's name
- stands for Windows Visual Newsreader. It can be used to select,
- view, write, sort, and print UseNet News articles. Articles can be
- saved locally, cut into the Windows Clipboard or forwarded to other
- individuals via E-mail.
-
- WinVN offers a more visual approach to reading News than most other news
- readers. WinVN allows the user to easily navigate between newsgroups and
- articles via its point and click interface. It allows the viewing of
- multiple articles simultaneously and on multitasking systems such as
- Windows/NT, it even allows multiple simultaneous news server connections.
-
- Best of all, it is absolutely free and has a large number of folks who
- spend a lot of their precious free time adding features and fixing bugs...
-
- What, it has BUGS!... Yes, most versions of WinVN have some problems. 99%
- of them are very minor. Also, the life span of any bug is on the order of
- 30 days (MUCH less if critical). You should understand that unlike
- commercial products which are fairly static and only have versions come out
- every 12 to 24 months or so, WinVN is a very dynamic program. Versions are
- being released with new features and fixes as rapidly as the code can be
- written, tested, and combined. To paraphrase an old weather saying: If
- you don't like WinVN's features, wait a month and it'll have changed.
-
- (For anyone who's lost about what UseNet News is, get the WinVN manual (See
- section I-8). It has a good discussion on this topic which is beyond the
- scope of this document.)
-
- [Paraphrased from the WinVN Users' Manual Overview section. Jim Dumoulin,
- Mark Riordan, et. al. with stuff from Sam Rushing and others thrown in]
-
- I-3. Why people use WinVN over other News readers
- When WinVN was created, it was the first Network News Reader written
- for the Microsoft Windows Platform and for 32 bit versions such as
- Windows/95 and Windows/NT. Since then, many Windows readers have
- been created, including Trumpet, Free Agent, NewsExpress and news
- readers built into popular WWW Browsers such as Netscape. Because
- it is noncommercial with a complete volunteer programming team, it
- cannot possibly compete with the current software trend and add
- every feature in the world. WinVN's design goal is to provide
- a small and easy to use News Reader that has all the necessary features
- of a news reader without consuming tons of memory or screen real estate.
- WinVn uses multiple overlapping Windows rather than a single large
- frame because WinVN users prefer to read information while using
- that information somewhere else on the screen. WinVN is also the
- only Windows News reader available with complete source code. This
- allows developers in various countries around the world to create
- language specific versions of WinVN.
-
- I-4. What do I need to run WinVN?
-
- Obviously, a PC with Windows, Windows/95 or Windows/NT installed. The
- Windows needs to support the TCP/IP networking protocol. This is
- built into all modern Windows programs (such as Windows/95 or Windows/NT)
- but for older Windows 3.1 systems, you will need one of the following
- TCP/IP Support software packages:
-
- For WINSOCK (v1.0 or higher) compliant TCP/IP stacks (called WINSOCK.DLL):
- A WINSOCK compliant TCP/IP product such as Trumpet, PC/TCP,
- NetManage TCP/IP, Microsoft LanManager 2.2, DEC Pathworks 5.0.
-
- *or*
-
- For NON-WINSOCK TCP/IP stacks:
- A DEC Pathworks v4.1 or Microsoft LanManager 2.1a compatible
- WSOCKETS.DLL Dynamic Link Library.
-
- Since reading news is no fun without a server to supply articles, you will
- need to know the address of a "News Server" that is accessible are
- available via your InterNet service supplier. The technical specs are that
- the server must be...
-
- An NNTP News Server. It *must* support one of the following
- NNTP extensions:
-
- XHDR (most news servers can do this)
- or
- XOVER (InternetNetNews is an example of a news server that
- does XOVER)
-
- WinVN will use XOVER if your server supports it.
-
- Most News Servers that you can connect to via TCP/IP meet this requirement.
- I suggest you just try connecting to your news server before
- bothering...er...asking your support folks.
-
- [Paraphrased from the Readme.txt file]
-
- I-5. What can it do?
-
- WinVN's list of features is constantly changing. Usually, new features are
- added. Occasionally, features will be taken away - like word wrap - but
- this is rare 8^).
-
- WinVN allows you to read UseNet News on-line, via NNTP, and to compose and
- send replies via news or email (SMTP or MAPI).
-
- For a complete list of features and configuration options, see the on-line
- help, or the printed user manual. Note that even these sources can be out
- of date, as there is usually a lag between the implementation of a feature,
- and the point where someone gets around to documenting it.
-
- Quickly, here are the whiz-bang features:
-
- o WinVN is usable on both high speed LAN or asynchronous connections,
- but is optimized for use on LANs. There is no local caching or
- o WinVN is public domain, available in compiled 16 or 32 bit versions or
- in source form. The main platform is Intel, but it has also been
- compiled for use on AXP/Alpha and MIPS.
- o WinVN is fully RFC 1036 compliant.
- o WinVN is somewhat more international than other readers. English and
- Japanese versions are currently available. Other languages including
- French, German and Russian are in the implementation stages.
- o WinVN uses less screen space than other readers, and windows can be
- overlapped (both WinVN and other application windows). It requires
- less memory than most other readers and works well on small machines.
- o WinVN uses the same newsrc file format as the original newsreaders on
- the unix platform, which are still in wide use.
- o WinVN is believed to be the fastest, highest performance newsreader
- for PCs (for LAN operation). A choice of sockets interfaces is
- available, mainly to optimize interfaces to different vendor TCP/IP
- stacks.
- o WinVN can sort articles by thread, date, author, subject, etc. It has
- catchup and 'mark unread' options, and can read back a referenced
- article with double click.
- o WinVN is easy to configure for multiple users or multiple newsfeeds
- from the same PC. Network installations are also easily set up.
- o WinVN is integrated with both MAPI and SMTP complient mail. This
- allows features such as CC by Mail to author with posts and article
- forwarding by mail with comments.
- o Background operation during list/article retrieval (useful for
- SLIP/PPP users)
- o Powerful encoding/decoding capability (useful for those binaries
- newsgroups) including MIME Support
- o Marks cross posted articles that have been read as read in all groups.
- o Many, many options and feature settings
-
- Due to the fast pace of WinVN's development, you should always check up on
- the latest version available. See 'How can I keep up-to-date on WinVN's
- progress?'. Sometimes a feature that you'd like to see has already been
- implemented, but you're not seeing it because you're using version 0.82
- (dated Sep. 1993) or some older version. Before asking for a new feature,
- check to make sure you are running the latest version.
-
- [ Sam Rushing, et. al.]
-
- I-6. What can't it do?
-
- There are many things that people would _love_ to have WinVN be able to do.
- We have been asked about these features several hundreds of times (or at
- least it seems like that many times). Many of these features are simply
- too difficult to add to WinVN, and are not worth the effort of
- implementing. Note, however, that this is my opinion. You may feel
- differently. Lucky for you, the WinVN sources are available to all, and if
- you _really_ want a feature, you are welcome to write it, and we hope that
- you will submit your changes back to the project for inclusion.
-
- The reason that some of these features are difficult to implement lies in
- WinVN's 'fragility'. It is a relatively old program, having been started
- in 1989. Many early implementation decisions are now practically 'carved
- in stone'. Changing these characteristics would require rewriting large
- portions of the code, which is simply not feasible for a project that
- has only a few volunteer programmers spending a few hours a month.
- Even the simplest change can lead to the complete failure of WinVN for
- some set of users.
-
- . WinVN cannot do 'off-line' news reading. (although it can be used
- in conjunction with other packages to provide offline capabilities)
- . WinVN can be frustratingly slow over a slow modem-based slip/ppp link.
- . WinVN does not allow me to totally ignore already-read articles.
-
- WinVN was originally designed with LANs (ethernet) in mind. Assumptions
- were made that certain operations were relatively 'cheap' in terms of user
- time and computer resources. For this reason, WinVN tends to grab as much
- information as possible about the set of articles you are reading.
- Changing this tendency would require modifying WinVN's network state
- machine, which is hopelessly tied together with WinVN's display code and
- user interface.
-
- . WinVN's editing capabilities are lacking
- WinVN does what it can with the standard windows edit object (the same used
- by 'notepad' - the 'Edit' class window). Writing a replacement editor is
- somewhat outside the scope of our project. Other editors can be used,
- however, with judicious use of the cut and paste capability. To our
- knowledge, there are no freely available editor DLL's that could be used in
- place of the edit class window. If you know differently, please contact
- us.
-
- . WinVN does not 'word-wrap' in the edit window.
- Although this capability is available with the edit windows, using it
- causes problems... the word wrap capability is not sufficiently flexible to
- allow us to avoid mangling long headers. This kind of mangling is
- unacceptable behavior on UseNet. We hope that eventually someone can
- 'split' the header and body of a new message into two separate windows, so
- that word-wrap can be turned on in the body portion and left off in the
- header.
-
- [from Sam Rushing]
-
- I-7. How do I get WinVN?
-
- The latest version of WinVN is always available from ftp.ksc.nasa.gov.
- the directory [/pub/winvn]. This network site should always be up
- but can get very slow anytime a shuttle is in orbit. All WinVN files
- on the site are zipped. If you don't have an Unzip utility, there
- is one kept in the WinVN directory on ftp.ksc.nasa.gov.
-
- The English version of WinVn:
- Maintained by Jim Dumoulin (dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov)
- WWW Page: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/software/winvn/winvn.html
- NNTP: news://news.ksc.nasa.gov/mail.winvn
- Main FTP: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/
- Mirror Sites: ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/pc/winvn
- ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/windows/winvn
-
- Other archives: ftp://ripem.msu.edu:/pub/pc/win/winvn/ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/
- ftp://shannon.mee.tcd.ie/WinVN
-
- The FTP directories are:
- pub\winvn\win3 16 bit for Windows and Windows For Workgroups
- (URL: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/win3/ )
-
- pub\winvn\nt 32 bit for Windows NT (Intel and Alpha)
- (URL: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/nt/ )
-
- pub\winvn\win95 32 bit for Windows 95 (same as Intel NT)
- (URL: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/win95/ )
-
- pub\winvn\beta Latest beta version
- (URL: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/beta/ )
-
- You can also get the userguide and FAQ in pub\winvn\docs, and the latest
- source in \pub\winvn\source\current\dist.
- (URL: ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/source/current/dist/ )
-
- The 'active source' that Jim is working on at NASA is at:
- ftp://ftp.ksc.nasa.gov/pub/winvn/source/current/winvn/
-
- The Japanese version of WinVn:
- Maintained by Masaki Ishido (ishidou@jpn.hp.com)
- FTP site: ftp://ken.aae.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/pub/WinVN/Japanese/
- NNTP site: news://ken.eng.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
-
- The German version of WinVn:
- Maintained by Peter Heirich (WINVN@HEIRICH.IN-BERLIN.DE)
- WWW Site: http://home.t-online.de/home/heirich/winvn.htm
- FTP Site: ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/pc/winvn/de/
-
- The plugin for WinVN that replaces WinVN Gensock.DLL interface with
- one that allows offline reading is available at:
-
- Maintained by Goh Tanaka
- FTP site: ftp://ken.eng.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/pub/WinVN/gwssoup/gsoup_a6.lzh
- After extracting, edit your WinVN.ini file and change
- GenSockDLL= to point to your GWSSOUP.DLL
-
- I-7. How do I install WinVN?
-
- Note: These instructions are valid for software obtained from the site
- listed in section I.6.
-
- First, make sure your system meets the requirements defined in Section I.3.
- Also, make sure that your WinSock or other supported TCP/IP support
- software is installed properly and is working. If you are running
- under Windows/95, use the 32bit WinVN and native Windows/95 TCP/IP
- networking stack. Don't try to run the same 16bit Winsock stack you
- used on Windows 3.1 Finally, make sure you have an address for your
- news server and optionally, your SMTP mail server (only needed if you
- want to send mail in WinVN). Don't fill out the authorization box
- in WinVN unless you are positively sure that your news server requires
- it.
-
- Create a directory in which WinVN is to be installed. Unzip the
- distribution files into this directory.
-
- Next, install the CTL3DV2.DLL (CTL3D32 for NT and Win95) file in your
- windows system directory, e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM for 3.1 or Win95 and
- C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 for NT. This is distributed as CTL3DV2.ZIP (CTL3D32.ZIP
- for NT). The best way to do this is to unzip it with the -n (new files
- only) option on the PKUNZIP command, e.g. pkunzip -n ctl3dv2.zip
- c:\windows\system. (Note: Change the last part to match your system
- directory). You may already have a version of this on your system as it is
- a common DLL file used by MS C programs.
-
- ***IMPORTANT NOTE*** There should only be one copy of CTL3DV2.DLL or
- CTL3D32.DLL on your system. THIS MUST BE IN THE WINDOWS DIRECTORY. Delete
- any other copies.
-
- If you are on Windows 3.1, edit your autoexec.bat file and add a
- TZ environment variable if needed (TimeZone). E.G., the statement:
-
- SET TZ=EST5EDT
-
- indicates the US Eastern Time Zone. If you don't know your TimeZone
- designation, look it up in the Timezone table in the WinVN Users Guide or
- ask a local programmer. S/he should know or be able to find out. You'll
- need to reboot your PC some time to make this effective, but it's not
- required to do it now.
-
- If you're using a standard WinSock TCP/IP implementation (99% of the people)
- , skip the next step.
-
- If you're using a supported non-WinSock TCP/IP software package (See I-4),
- edit the WINVN.INI file in the install directory. Locate the line that
- starts: GENSockDLL=... Replace the GWINSOCK.DLL with PWKSOCK.DLL. Save
- this change and exit.
-
-
- In Program Manager, add a WinVN Icon to a group. Then start WinVN. You
- will be prompted for your NNTP News Server address and some other
- information. The only required field is the NNTP Server name. If you
- don't have a MAPI mail system (e.g. MS Mail), you should select SMTP. You
- should do this even if you are not using SMTP mail. This prevents problems
- on some Windows installations that have MAPI support but no Mail client.
-
- Note: Fill in the userid/password fields only if required by your news
- provider.
-
- Next, you will be prompted for your personal information, such as name, e-
- mail address, and organization name (used in postings).
-
- Note: Both the communications and personal settings can be changed via
- WinVN menu options.
-
- That's it, you've installed it and are ready to take it for a spin....
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- I-9. I've got the software, how do I use it?
-
- Well, the best place to learn the major features of WinVN is to get the
- manual and read it or use the on-line help. However, be aware that since
- WinVN is a dynamic program (See I-1), the manual and help files are
- generally behind the current software version. Don't be afraid though,
- most of the new features are either self explanatory or can be ignored (if
- you want to) until documented.
-
- The manual is distributed in two formats, MS/Word and PostScript, at the
- same FTP location you got the software from. (See Section I-6)
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- I-10. Who wrote this wonderful program?
-
- WinVN was originally written by Mark Riordan (mrr@scss3.cl.msu.edu). The
- development of WinVN was then taken over by Sam Rushing and Jim Dumoulin
- with some major enhancements by John Cooper. Since then a number of
- other folks have contributed to WinVN's success by submitting new features
- and bug fixes.
-
- Here they are in alphabetical order:
-
- Matt Bretherton MBretherton@cmutual.com.au
- Harvey Brydon brydon@tulsa.dowell.slb.com
- John S. Cooper jcooper@planetz.com
- Michael Downs mdowns@eos.arc.nasa.gov
- Mike Downs downs@titan.ksc.nasa.gov
- Jim Dumoulin dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov
- Michael Finken finken@conware.de
- Don Gardner gardnerd@keystone.ksc.nasa.gov
- Jody Glasser jglas@tdycont.com
- Tanaka Goh goh@yamato.ibm.com.jp
- Peter Heirich peter@heirich.in-berlin.de
- Masaki Ishido ishidou@yhp.hp.com
- Jim Martin jim@noc.rutgers.edu
- Tom Menshik tmenshik@hpcvitlm.cv.hp.com
- Conor Nolan cnolan@tcd.ie
- Roger Pearse pearse_w_r@bt-web.bt.co.uk
- Mark Riordan mrr@scss3.cl.msu.edu
- Sam Rushing rushing@nightmare.com
- Mitsuo Shimomai sim@aae.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
- Vince Vielhaber vev@michvhf.com
-
- (Note: The WinVN Manual has a very good history of WinVN section if
- you're curious.)
-
- I-11. What is WinVN's licensing status?
-
- License to use WinVN
-
- The authors of WinVN have placed it in the public domain. This means you
- can use it free of charge for any purpose you like, with no conditions
- being placed on its use by us. The source code is also available free of
- charge, under the same [un]conditions.
-
- You have our permission to modify, redistribute, hoard, or even sell WinVN
- in its executable or source form. You don't have to pay us anything. If
- you do sell WinVN, though, we'd appreciate it if you'd provide your own
- support. The support load for WinVN is already quite substantial, and the
- WinVN developers work as unpaid volunteers (except in the case of
- supporting their own in-house users).
-
- I-12. Is a commercially-supported version available?
-
- As a U.S. government employee, the current maintainer of WinVN is not
- permitted to sell or in any way profit from WinVN. However, from time
- to time, some ex-members of the WinVN development team have provided
- commercial support for WinVN. This usually takes the form of a
- financial agreement between a large distributor of an integrated set
- of Internet applications and someone very familar with WinVN sources.
- They agree to perform specific bug fixes and help desk support over a
- given time for a fee. You may be able to contact Sam Rushing
- (rushing@nightmare.com), John Cooper (jcooper@planetz.com) or other
- WinVN authors if you have a need for this type of support. Also,a
- number of software vendors have used the WinVN sources and supported
- them under their own name.
-
-
- ======================================================================
- II. Contact information
-
- II-1. How can I keep up-to-date on WinVN's progress?
-
- If you are directly on the Internet, you can access the WinVN Newsgroup
- by pointing your newsreader at the host, news.ksc.nasa.gov. This is a
- gatewayed version of the developer's mailing list, and will keep you as up
- to date as we are. [you can do this in WinVN from the Config...Comm menu.]
- Most people that do this setup two desktop icons for WinVN, one pointing
- to their local News Server and the other pointing to the NASA server
- that has the one visible group "mail.winvn". (See the Multiple News
- Servers/Network section for info].
-
- If you prefer to monitor WinVN via E-mail instead of network news, there
- is a mailing list that you can automatically join. To join, send email
- to "domo@news.ksc.nasa.gov" with the words "Subscribe Winvn" in the
- body (not the subject) of the message.
-
-
- II-2. How do I submit suggestions for WinVN?
-
- You can submit suggestions for WinVN by sending email to the mailing list
- (or posting directly to the newsgroup). Note that most of the suggestions
- have already been thought of, and lay on our minds as a constant burden of
- the failings of WinVN. Be kind. 8^)
-
- See the 'What can't WinVN do?' question for more info.
-
- Suggestions are always appreciated. The likelihood of a suggestion being
- implemented depends on several factors:
-
- 1) how difficult it would be to implement
- 2) possible unwelcome interactions with other WinVN features
- 3) how badly the users want it
- 4) how many other (possibly more important) things are waiting to get done.
- 5) as useful as your suggestion may be, it's always possible that it will
- merely confuse or even irritate some users.
-
-
- II-3. How do I submit source changes?
-
- When working on WinVN source code, adhering to the following conventions
- will make everyone's life easier:
-
- 1) discuss your idea on the list, as it's quite possible that someone else
- is working the same thing.
-
- 2) always work with the absolute latest version of the sources. The
- development of WinVN usually takes place on the same server as
- FTP.KSC.NASA.GOV so you can look at the last edit date from the individual
- files on that server to see if it is under active development.
-
- 3) when editing, do not change unnecessarily code or comments unrelated to
- your work. This includes retabbing or reindenting code. We use a revision
- control system (GNU RCS) that is sensitive to these type of changes, and it
- is much more difficult to identify substantive changes from the cosmetic
- ones. Much of the source code has been reindented by others in the past
- using different editors... this has led to chaotic indentation in many of
- the source files that is very hard to read. Also, when editing a WinVN
- file, set your tab-width of your editor to 2 so that Tabs are expanded
- consistently by all WinVN developers.
-
-
- 4) don't add or change any of the RCS information at the head of the source
- files. This information is maintained automatically, and mucking with it
- can cause confusion and more work.
-
- 5) submit whole files, and only the files you have changed.
-
- 6) Please zip the sources (even if it's only one file), and send them to
- the maintainer (me, dumoulin@titan.ksc.nasa.gov) in an encoded format. You
- may use a MIME encoder (mpack, Eudora attach, ELM&PINE 'attach') or
- uuencode.
-
- Often when a feature is added, it is appropriate to implement it as a
- configurable option, in order to avoid confusing current users, and to
- satisfy the small number of people who may actually dislike it.
-
- For examples of configurable options, look at the .ini file maintenance
- code, and the 'Config/Misc' dialog box implementation.
-
- You should also keep in mind that WinVN is a public domain project, and the
- licensing terms (or lack of them) apply. We will not accept any changes
- that we are not allowed to freely redistribute. If you are unhappy with
- this - say, with the idea that just about anyone can take WinVN, including
- your code, and make a living (or even a killing), then you should not
- submit those changes.
-
- Note that (of course) you have the right to maintain a separate version of
- WinVN, and even collaborate with others if you don't like these
- [un]conditions. We don't encourage this, but you should be aware that it
- is an option.
-
-
- II-4. What to do before asking for help.
-
- Before asking for help you should try to do the following:
-
- Get the latest version of WinVN (see section I.7) and see if the problem
- still exists.
-
- Check the articles posted on the WinVN news group (see II.1). Often the
- problem has already been reported and either a solution or a notice of when
- it will be fixed has already been posted.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- II-5. Asking for help/Reporting problems.
-
- You can ask for help using the same methods described in "How do I making a
- suggestion?" above. However, when reporting a bug please include as much
- information as possible. E.g., What Operating system you are using,
- what WinSock stack are you using, what version(s) of WinVN you've tried,
- instructions on how to duplicate the problem, etc.
-
- Also, remember that WinVN is a free product and the folks answering
- questions are doing this gratis.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- ======================================================================
- III. Common questions
-
- III-1. 16/32-bit issues.
-
- WinVN is available in both a 16, 32-bit and DEC AXP versions.
- Note that even though some tcp/ip stacks (vxd-based ones like FTP's PC/TCP
- 3.0, and Microsoft's WFWG TCPIP32 product (wolverine)) are actually 32-bit
- stacks, they do not support the 32-bit WINSOCK interface (via
- 'wsock32.dll'). Using 32-bit WinVN on these stacks means that _another_
- layer of translation is added to WinVN's winsock calls (32bit -> 16bit ->
- 32bit).
-
- When you are running WinVN on a 32-bit operating system (such as Windows/95
- or Windows/NT) we suggest that you use the 32-bit version of
- WinVN. Binaries are available for the Intel and Alpha/AXP platforms. The
- NASA site doesn't have an NT/MIPS platform but others on the list have
- compiled for MIPS/NT.
-
-
- III-2. What is 'gwinsock.dll'? ... 'pwksock.dll'?
-
- The sockets code for winvn has been moved into a 'DLL' (dynamic link
- library). Such libraries can be changed 'on the fly', by renaming them or
- explicitly loading a particular one. This allows us to distribute one
- winvn executable, and have the user select a DLL in order to specify what
- networking stack they are using. It also allows us to update just the DLL,
- in case of sockets-specific problems. This also allows the library to
- be swapped out with WSSOUP.DLL so that WinVN can be used in an offline
- manner.
-
- Do not move either of these DLLs out of the directory where winvn.exe is
- kept. Consider them 'part' of winvn.exe. It is important to understand
- that these DLLs are NOT REPLACEMENTS for your regular sockets DLL
- (WINSOCK.DLL or WSOCKETS.DLL), they USE your regular sockets DLL.
-
-
- III-3. I'm using PPP or SLIP, how can I use WinVN most effectively.
-
- WInVN is a good online client to use with a 9600/14000/28800 BPS SLIP/PPP
- connection. This means that it is usable, but will have traits that may be
- frustrating to the user. If you are on a slow connection, you should
- configure WinVN so that the entire list of news groups are not downloaded
- each time you use WinVN.
-
- There have been and continue to be improvements to WinVN to better support
- PPP (and other environments). The best place to find out about these is
- the User Manual's section about Reading only UnRead Articles.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-4. How do I choose between SMTP and MAPI?
-
- The quick answer to this is that if your mail system is Microsoft Mail use
- MAPI. If it isn't use SMTP. The long answer to this is in the "MAPI vs.
- SMTP" section in the User's manual.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-5. I get a "Can't find MAPI.DLL" error message...
-
- You've chosen the wrong mail type in your setup. Use Config,
- Communications and change it. Contact your local support folks about what
- address to use with SMTP.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-6. How can I do "X" from the keyboard, including Windows functions?
-
- Unfortunately, not all of WinVN's functions can be done via the keyboard.
- Also, some WinVN windows don't support all the normal Windows key
- functions. This is because they are custom Windows instead of standard
- Windows. This means that code to do these functions must be included in
- WinVN.
-
- This is something that is on the 'to do' list (care to get the code and do
- it?). Each new release of WinVN tends to improve the keyboard function,
- but somethings get put on the "back burner" in favor of other features or
- actually requires some major rewriting. It doesn't hurt to ask for a
- keyboard function to be added. However, before asking, try the latest
- version, it may have already been added.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-7. Why are some subject lines blank except for some weird character?
-
- That character (which in some fonts is a neat little triangle) is the
- thread depth indicator. It looks better if you use a fixed font size.
-
- You can get rid of it by selecting 'show full subject...' in the
- config/misc menu, but it will clutter up the window some.
-
- [from Sam Rushing]
-
- III-8. How do I install WinVN on a LAN Server?
-
- WinVN can easily be installed on LAN Servers. Simply install the program
- in a server directory according to the installation instructions (see
- Section I-7). Then see Section III-9 for the methods you can use to point
- WinVN to alternate locations for individual user configuration files.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-9. How do I access multiple News Servers?
-
- WinVN has three methods that allow it to use alternate configuration files
- or newsrc files. FYI - The config file (winvn.ini is the default name)
- contains the information set under the "Config" menu in the main window.
- The newsrc file (newsrc is the default name) contains information about the
- groups and articles read.
-
- The first method is to use a WINVN environment variable. If this is set
- (prior to starting Windows and not from a DOS Window!), it tells WinVN what
- directory the winvn.ini and newsrc files can be found. The command format
- to set this variable is:
-
- SET WINVN=<directory to use> (e.g. C:\WINVN)
-
- Note: Create the directory and copy winvn.ini and newsrc into it first.
-
- The second method is to use a single command line parameter. WinVN assumes
- that this is a directory where a copy of winvn.ini and newsrc will exist.
- Create the directory to use, e.g. C:\WINVN\NEWS.KSC. Copy the winvn.ini
- and newsrc files into this directory. Next, create a duplicate WinVN icon
- in program manager (hold the ctrl key and drag with the mouse). Change the
- icon properties so that the command line has the directory path as a
- parameter, eg. C:\WINVN\WINVN C:\WINVN\NEWS.KSC.
-
- Start WinVN, use Config/Communications to change the news server field to
- your alternate news server, eg. news.ksc.nasa.gov.
-
- The third method is to use TWO parameters on the command line. The first
- is the FILE to use for the configuration file, eg. C:\WINVN\WINVNALT.INI.
- The second is the file to use for the newsrc file, eg. C:\WINVN\NEWSRC.KSC.
- You can set this up using the same basic process outlined for method two.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- III-10 WinVn hangs when using a server with a large number of newsgroups
-
- If you are using a version of WinVN older than .99-9, you need to
- upgrade to fix this problem. If you can't upgrade, here is a
- temporary fix and explanation.
-
- The problem may be caused by running out of swap-space. Go into Control
- Panel and double click on 386 Enhanced, then press the button labeled
- Virtual Memory. Increase the amount to something rather large
- (30-50MB) or even more if necessary. You'll need to re-start things,
- then go back into WinVN and download the list of newsgroups. After
- you have the list and save it, you can repeat the above and reset it
- to the original value. Try both permanent and temporary swap files.
-
- If Windows claims it won't use a swap file the size you're requesting,
- here's a tip about swap files from Pai Yili that should help:
- "If you experience difficulty, add the following line to the bottom
- of the [386 enh] section of system.ini:
-
- PageOverCommit=8
-
- Save the file, restart Windows, and then look to see how large a swap
- file Windows is now recommending. Increase the PageOverCommit value
- until the desired swap file sive is shown in the recommended size area
- of the Virtual mamory dialog. Without changing this setting, setting
- the swap file larger than the recommended size will not help. Windows
- will only use the amount recommended, no matter how big the file is.
-
- If for some reason this doesn't work, ftp over to ftp.ksc.nasa.gov and
- in the /pub/winvn/data you'll find a file called newsrc. It's a partial
- newsrc that should get you going. Put it in the directory that WinVN looks
- for the newsrc file (usually the same directory that WinVN is in). Then
- connect and get the latest group list.
-
-
- III-11. WinVN worked for a long time and then suddendly fails.
-
- If you are running a version older than .99-9, you should upgrade
- to fix the most likely cause of this problem. It is usually caused
- by a line in the newsrc that got too long. Odds are, when you
- finish reading a group you don't mark the remaining messages as read.
- When you do that, the newsrc file gets entries for seen articles like
- this:
-
- rec.food.cooking: s13355 1-297,306-388,400,455,501,677-689,732 and so on.
-
- What you need to do is edit the file with a GOOD editor and when you
- find any of the offending lines, clean it up by removing most of those
- entries so it would look more like this:
-
- rec.food.cooking: s13355 1-13000
-
- This will leave the last 355 available to read. If you don't want those
- you can just make it 1-13355.
-
- [from Vince Vielhaber]
-
-
- III-12. Can WinVN interact with my WWW browser
-
- WinVN can be configured so that you can click on anything in a
- News message that looks like a World Wide Web (WWW) Universal
- Resource Locator (URL). You need to setup your browser information
- in the Config/Execute menu.
-
- ======================================================================
- IV. Common Non-WinVN problems that WinVN gets blamed for...
-
- IV-1. I can't post if I have more included text than my comments....
-
- This is a "feature" of your News server not WinVN. Contact your News
- server maintainer about this.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- IV-2. Error 502 Authentication error/NNTP Server has closed connection.
-
- This means that the userid/password in the 'Configure comm..." is invalid
- for your news server. The common solution is that you have a userid and/or
- password configured and don't need one. Most servers don't require this.
- Of course, it could be that the server does require one and you didn't
- supply the proper information.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- IV-3. I'm getting a NNTP Server refused connection error.
-
- The most common is that the NNTP News Server address in your communications
- settings is not the proper server machine. E.g., ftp.ksc.nasa.gov is a
- valid machine but is not a news server, it should be news.ksc.nasa.gov.
- Change it to the correct machine name. If it's the correct name, try
- connecting in a few hours. Your news server may have suspended connections
- for a time to do some maintenance.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- ======================================================================
- V. Commonly asked for features (stuff on the to-do list/why it's hard).
-
- V-1. Why are articles I've read still displayed?
-
- Currently there is nothing in WinVN that would limit the display to only
- unread articles (I suppose you could change the color of Unread to match
- your background or something but that would be a kludge). With a threaded
- newsreader like WinVN it's difficult to do both threads and hide read
- messages. However, if you just want to read "Unread" articles in a group,
- pressing the SPACE bar while reading a message will scroll you thru the
- message. Once at the end of a message, it will jump you to the next unread
- message. Thus, once you start reading a group, pressing SPACE bar will
- move you thru all unread messages.
-
- [from Jim Dumoulin]
-
- Also see the "Reading only Unread Articles section in the User's Guide for
- how to limit the number of read articles displayed. There is also a new
- option under Config/Misc, Auto Latest Unread. This will automatically only
- retrieve all the (read and unread) articles from the last "catch up"
- article number.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- V-2. What happened to word wrapping in the compose windows?
-
- WinVN currently uses the standard Windows edit object and puts both headers
- (labels that the News Server uses) and text into it. If autowrap is turned
- on, it effects both the text and the headers. This is good for the text,
- but very bad for long headers. For this reason, WinVN currently does not
- use word wrap. Given that this is a commonly asked for feature it will be
- added in the future. However, it requires some significant coding to be
- done. So, be patient and it will come.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- V-3. Why can't I subscribe using a hierarchical type subscription like
- Trumpet?
-
- This feature is partially here. A similar hierarchical type subscription
- box has been added to WinVN to deal with new groups. Some folks are
- looking at using this as an alternate way of subscribing to groups from the
- main window.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- V-4. Can't WinVN just read the article count of the groups I'm subscribed
- to?
-
- The problem here is really with NNTP.
-
- NNTP was not designed in a fashion that makes this a reasonable thing to
- do. The only way to get this is to send a series of 'GROUP' commands,
- which are relatively expensive for the server. (For INN, it means going
- into the group directory, and counting the number of article files there).
-
- For those people who subscribe to over a hundred groups, this would take
- even longer than a list command.
-
- Over-the-modem users probably wouldn't notice how slow it was, because
- they're already trying to pump gallons through a straw.
-
- There's another problem... the 'clean' way to do it would be to send a
- whole series of group commands (not waiting for the answers), and then
- parsing the response to each in turn. This would not fit into WinVN's
- state-machine model easily.
-
- Summary: We'd love to do it, but it's not easy.
-
- p.s. I think I saw a post from Wayne Davison (maint. of trn) about a patch
- he'd made to INN to get around this very problem, but don't know the
- details. Maybe it'll make it into a future version of the NNTP
- spec.
-
- [from Sam Rushing]
-
- V-5. Can the number of unread articles in a group be displayed?
-
- This is one of the most frequently ask for features. There are several
- folks who have said they would look into it. One of the main problems is
- the method to use to determine this number in an efficient manner.
-
- WinVN does give you an indication of whether new articles have arrived
- since you last read a group. This is what the * means next to groups in
- the main window.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- V-6. Can I sort the news groups in the main window?
-
- You can select all groups and then use the Sort Selected option
- under the Group Menu. You can also sort the NewsRc file
- outside of WinVN to your liking and then turn off the automatic
- sorting features of WinVN via the Config Group List menu.
-
- To sort a Newsrc outside of WinVn, if WinVN is running, exit it. Next
- go to a DOS session and change into the same directory as your newsrc
- file (See III.9 for a description). Make a backup copy, just in case
- Murphy puts in an appearance using the comman:
-
- COPY NEWSRC NEWSRC.BAK.
-
- Extract and sort the subscribed groups into a new newsrc file by entering
- the command string:
-
- TYPE NEWSRC | FIND /V "! " | SORT > NEWSRC.NEW
-
- Sort the unsubscribed groups and add them to the new file by:
-
- TYPE NEWSRC | FIND "! " | SORT >> NEWSRC.NEW
-
- "Install" your sorted file by entering the command:
-
- COPY NEWSRC.NEW NEWSRC
-
- That's it, your news groups are sorted. BTW, you can put these command in
- a batch file to simplify the process.
-
- [from Greg Monroe]
-
- V-7. Add an Expires/Approved/...header to the dialog box?
-
- The header dialog box section would be enormous if every NNTP header had
- a field in it. So, there is a trick to adding not so common headers.
- Just between them and the article text.
-
- V-8. How about some button bars?
-
- WinVN has a tool bar and in versions later than .99-8, it supports
- the Windows/NT 4.0 and Windows/95 Common controls "tool-tips"
- popup help support.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-