The Best Internet Programs/BESTINTERNET.bin/internet/winvn/winvnfaq.txt

Text File | 1995-02-14 | 35KB | 806 lines

Frequently Ask Questions about the WinVN Newsreader
    Version:        1.0
    Last Update:    Oct 3, 1994

I.  General Information
    1.  About the FAQ (i.e. Administrivia)
    2.  What is WinVN?
    3.  What do I need to run WinVN?
    4.  What can it do?
    5.  What can't it do?
    6.  How do I get it?
    7.  How do I install WinVN?
    8.  I've got the software, how do I use it?
    9.  Who wrote this wonderful software?
    10. What is WinVN's licensing status?
    11. 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, 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?

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 connection error.

V.   Commonly asked for features (stuff on the to-do list/why it's hard).
    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.  How about some button bars?

======================================================================
I.  General Information

I-1.  About the FAQ. (I.e. Administrivia)

This FAQ has been co-written by Sam Rushing ([e-mail])
and Greg Monroe([e-mail]).  It is edited and maintained by Greg
Monroe (see below about submissions).  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 <[e-mail]>.  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
(a.k.a. Windows 4.0 or Chicago) and Windows/NT (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.  What do I need to run WinVN?

Obviously, a PC with Windows or Windows/NT installed.  In addition, 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-4. 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 Multi-Window, point and click user interface.
o Threading capability
o Integrated mail (MAPI or SMTP)
o Background operation during list/article retrieval (useful for SLIP/PPP
     users)
o Powerful encoding/decoding capability (useful for those binaries
     newsgroups)
o It's free.
o The source code is readily available.
o Fully configurable fonts and colors in the various windows
o Nicely formatted article printing
o Ability to connect/disconnect to news server at will.
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,
which is over a year old