*BSD News Article 97181


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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From: uhclem.ami@nemesis.lonestar.org (Frank Durda IV)
Subject: Re: Newsreaders
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Organization: The Big Blue Box
Message-ID: <EBA3vs.2G0@nemesis.lonestar.org>
References: <EB7xzw.L2w@nonexistent.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 01:23:51 GMT
Lines: 46
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42404

Nathan Dorfman (nathan@senate.org) wrote:
: I am using a 28.8 dialup connection to keep my box on the Internet,
: as a server. Everytime I start up a newsreader like trn, it wastes
: a half hour "Retrieving news active file" then some more time retrieving
: new newsgroups.

If it is like tin, you can disable the download of the newsgroups file,
which is where a lot of the time gets wasted (20+ minutes where I
browse).  As to the active file, tin seems to need it to be able
to cope.  If it can't find it, it promptly deletes all your
group subscriptions, which is very annoying.  Tin has a .rc parameter
that will keep it from getting the newsgroup file by default.

The other thing about tin is that it will reload the active file
(and the newsgroups file if enabled) each time you come out of a group
if more than 5 minutes has passed since the last download.  On a dial-up,
this action is insane, since it probably took 5 minutes to get the active
file (plus newsgroups file) and first overview file down in the first place.
A compilation change took care of that timer.  Perhaps trn has something
similar.

: Second of all, Netscape News,
: which I'm forced to use now, does not take a half an hour starting
: up, and does not take a half-hour if I use the Show All Newsgroups,
: it just takes like 2 minutes to list them all. Why doen't any of the
: other newsreaders work this way, and/or what can I do?

That's because Netscape keeps a local copy of the list of groups 
you are interested in and asks about those groups only.  It also only
downloads some number of headers for a selected group.  Netscape will
only pull the active file down if you hit the Check for New Groups
button.

Tin (and probably trn), pull the entire active file each time they are
started, and then the entire .overview list when a group is selected.
At least that is what they do by default.  Both programs appear to
have been designed assuming a local news server or lan-based access to
a news NNRP portal, which isn't the case for dial-up access.


Frank Durda IV - only these addresses work:|"The Knights who say "LETNi"
   <uhclem.pri%nemesis.lonestar.org>       | demand... A SEGMENT REGISTER!!!"
or <uhclem.pri%nemesis%rwsystr.nkn.net>    |"A what?"
These Anti-spam addresses expire in 27 days|"LETNi! LETNi! LETNi!" - 1983
(c) 1997, ask before reprinting.