Installer changes: New community: bettie (is for Bettie Page fans ;-) New manual file: DoubleAutoPost.htm This describes the new feature "double posting" - to two providers ! New manual file: f-root.htm This describes some features and functions of a root-server version ########### > New MyNews Verison 2.1 (Build 2012) 22.Jan.2003 Root-Servers: User's Request Root Server can now add their own header lines to messages which are received by "post" commands: Add this section to your MYNEWS.INI file: [root] headerlines=3 hd1=X-Complaints-To: abuse@mydomain.com hd2=Organisation: This is my organisation hd3=User-Agent: MyNews Root Server The header-lines (amount is 0->20, limited to 20) are fetched from the MYNEWS.INI file and added 1-1 to the posts as the last headers. The header lines ar just checked for Colon+Space :_ and for being longer than 3 chars. There is NO other plausibility made ! The really used header lines are visible for debugging at boot time with AllDebug display.... These parameters are updated also with "StatusWin->Config->Reload Server Paramaters" You can change them without rebooting MyNews. Posts which are made with the INTERNAL newsreader of MyNews do NOT contain these header lines ! Host does not deliver articles: If a host is answering to "article" commands with response codes 500-599 (which are unrecoverable errors, usually access not permitted) Then the download is stopped from that host and the host is disabled. Such host appear with a "red" background of the hostnumber in the HostList. It is necessary to activate them manually again. This behavior was seen on newsfeeds.com servers. They deliver: 505 already connect to (hostname) or (ip-address) This fix prevents MyNews from creating endless error lists. Xover: "Show file & icon followups as 'read' (black) (Reader-Config-Option) A tiny but perhaps important reader-option: If file+icon followups are not hidden, then they show up as "unread" (read) making operations longer (because they must be marked as read). These lines are almost informative (do I have the binary already?) (what is inside?) - so it is not necessary to read them one by one. Activating this option (which is now ON by DEFAULT) will show these followups black (read) always. Everything works still as usual. They can be downloaded and ordered and deleted and everything else. Added community to the "community default setup": [bettie] adult=1 1=mynews.bettie-page.discussion 2=alt.fan.bettie-page 3=alt.binaries.bettie-page ############## > 22.03.2003 All retries to resync after "unknown answers" (.) removed. It does not make any sense to continue in such cases. (Almost group selection or replies after XHDR... perhaps illegal crlf.crlf inside ! ############## > 21.01.2003 Display: The socket window shows now expliciently per socket what it does during asyncheader download: AX-List - Fetch Grouplist from any MyNews AX-Xover - Fetch full Xover from either Mynews or Usenet AX-xHdr - Fetch HDR (article-# + msgid) - for fillers AX-Range - Fetch ranges for Xovers (fillers) Article - Fetch articles Hosts fetching headers asynchrnously are having a BLUE background now (in sock#). Bugfixes aSync Header fetch: Also MyNews downloads are new resetting the host counters If StartXhdr for Usenet hosts fails, then the regular error routine is executed. All StartXhdr for Usenet host are now setting the host to the mode HDM_XHDR Internal renames: StartXoverHDR --> StartXhdr NextXoverHdr --> NextXhdr Display: Timeouts are not only showing the internal connection number (1..30) but also the logical WinSock # [#176] This permits easier identification of subsequent unrecognized messages from sockets. ############ > 20.01.2003: Text (aDsp): NextXover(%d): Skip group (not subscribed here): %s\r\n - now only visible for root servers. Really not necessary for users. Text for WinSock-Error: 11004: DNS - WSANO_DATA - Valid name no data record of request type Texts "All Xover done" --> All Xover fetched, ## messages wating or ## for analysis Text "DraColumns(#) --> only allDebugDsp ############ > 19.01.2003 Feeding subject control messages: --------------------------------- Root servers have now a flag in the ROOT Config which permits to feed mynews subject control messages upstream to the upstream or and/or also to the MultiFeeds. I'll try to feed icons to some Usenet groups on newsreader.com now. Warning for the manual: ----------------------- Fetching "only headers" does not work for the news async xover. If a group is configured for fetching messages - or the filter indicates that message msut be fetched - then the download IS started ! Even if "just headers" was used for retrieval! "Stop download": This function now stops also the async analysis of ALL headers. The headers are not lsot - but analysed the next time the group is used for fetching new headers (if new headers are there). It does also stop the fetching of XHDRs and XOVERs. Many "stopped by users request" appear in the log window. It is possible that some headers are lost because the high watermarks are already written - and the data is not yet evaluated and possibly lost. Overload protection: If more than 25 files are open, then incoming connections are automatically rejected with a 400-message. The Log Window shows: Maximum number of used files (%d). Incoming connection rejected.\r\n Notifying request to try on a few seconds.\r\n",open_files); 400 MyNews-NNTP-Server: Too busy. Try later. If more than 25 files are open, then no more downloads are started by QueueNext(). In AllDebugDisplay this text appears: "QueueNext: >25 files (%d) in use. Download delayed.\r\m",open_files); If more than 30 files are open, then the log window shows always: "QueueNext: > 30 files (%d) in use. Download delayed.\r\n",open_files); The "good old" runtime system of Borland C++ 4.52 does not permit more than 34 open files. And changing the config did not work. So this "protection" is now necessary before hundreds (or more) users are flooding MyNews. I urgently need a new compiler (Borland C++ 5.0 ;-) This "overload protection" can cause malfunctions of async header download. It would be possible that server-farms are no longer retrieved properly then. But I am not sure. I cannot check this condition properly. Sorry. Overload tests are subject to public beta tests..... High watermark warnings: Whenever a host delivers "high watermarks" which should only GROW but do descend (go down) then MyNews issues a warning. This shows that the host was usually reorganized. Now these warnings also contain the groupname. This makes it easier to identify the causes. Xover: Confirmation for XoverWindow overflow: Whenever a newsgroup begins to "skip lines" or "truncates too many lines" then a warning (Confirmation Box) appears now. This should warn users that they dont see the full group any more. In such cases it is recommended to expire the grouü - or to delete some headers manually. Actually the XOVER Window is limitd to 150.000 headers. This are 50 MB of memory used - and things are getting significantly slower. Please keep in mid that you can set expiry differently for non-database groups ! FullAuto: Waiting for "Download End": It happened that all sockets were closed but MyNews still stayed in this mode. Now another check for "socket is used" has been implemented. Now "Download End" should be properly detected. Note: MyNews does not start another "full automatic" until the LAST download is fully finished. So the slowest host determines the time. Setting the "period" counetr to one hours does NOT mean that MyNews starts a download every hour, but that there is a DELAY between the ending of the last downlaod and the start of the next ! Exact downloads at determined times are started with the SCHEDULER only. Guide - Config: The small dialog "BASIC & Details" has been removed. Instead the "full dialog" appears. BASIC setup is there a giantic button at the bottom. "Apps" and "Server" config have not been there. There are added now. This permits FAR easier description of the Config-Functions in the manual. I personally hate myself too many click. And "StatusWindow->Config->Parameter Setup-> Filter" can now be reached with: "Configure->Filter"..... This is one step back from the philosopy to hide features and setup from the newbie user. But because they NEED it also (and the config dialogs are now more transparent) this should be acceptable. ############ > 18.01.2003 The default installation contains now also one file: feed1.ini as example for multi feeds. Root->Full version change: Posting feed now also possible for full version. This is necessary for secondary autoposting. Until now this was only permitted to root servers. It is not recommended to use feed_routing together with this option. Full feedding by POSTING is always a bad idea. Even with a host as MyNews which verifies whether the msgid is already known at the target before POSTing. New QuickButton: "Feed" This is StatWindow->Output->Multifeed Start This helps autoposting Multifeeders to easily start the secondary psot. New config-option: (full & trial version only) "Apps" -> "AutoPoster": "Activate Multifeed for Autopost" This addds the autoposted binaries to the multifeeds. This permits to re-post the same messages later to a secondary fill server. This is just an alfa test - but could make life FAR easier for contributors - and it could imporve completeness on Usenet. This does ONLY work if the option "Create own headers" is activated in the Upstream dialog. Else the feed files are NOT written! (If the receiving host genertes its own msgids, then the method will NOT work). CAUTION: This method CANNOT be used if your upstream server (ISP,NSP) does IGNORE the message-ids. This happens not very often, but it CAN (and WILL) happen. So please verify the function FIRST with some shorter msgs (before you apply it to a huge video). In worst case you will spent a lot of time psoting everything TWICE ! Bugfix STAT-command: The STAT command did not recognize properly that an article was in the large database file. It did check only for articles as single files. So it reported that the article would not be there. But it IS there ! Bugfixes autoposter: The filecounter did count up to the total files in the directory. Not just up to the files which had to be posted. Now the counter counts the really posted files. The time did not count the seconds backwards properly. Because the autoposter does not know the final amount of messages (especially during splits) it is not possible to calculate backwards peroperly. Now the autoposter creates GROWING seconds. The start of the autopost itself creates the base date. Then every msg adds exactly one second. (Localposts to MyNews are very fast - so there MUST be second-offset to guarantee proper sorting by date). This date goes to the future - but this is not too bad because the upstream sending would be slow enough to guarantee that we are not psoting too far into the future ! The event that a file could not be move to the DONE directory is still shown - but it does not stop the autoposting. Bugfix Xover-Window: Clicking the are between the last line and the bottom of window. did set the actual line number to an illegal value. This could cause GPF with some functions. Fixed now. The actual line marker stays where it is. Bugfix: Duplicate keys in XoverWindow->View->Sort menu: From (f) is now: Autor (a) Filenames (n) is now (f) None (n) works now properly with n Servers (s) is now (e) Bugfix: [Download] Indicator Dialog & Guide: 'View' for marked and missing messages did not REFRESH the group. It a download was done and the VIEW was called again (and the previously watched group WAS the ~missbox or ~downbox or ~outbox) then it was necessary to use Xover->REFRESH to get the updated display. Now these viewer functions are ALWAYS refreshing the display and show the actual status. This also applies to "MainWnd->Output->Edit Feedfile" BugFix: Ordering messages directly from the XOVER window did NOT update the data window after the message arrived if this was a crossposted msg to another group. Now also crossposted msgs are displayed in this case. Fixed. "Read news" disables automatic downloads: While clicking the WinBox "Read news" did already disable the start of scheduled jobs and Full Automatic it does now ALSO stop all the HOST_Timers. So no automatic "getback" and "verify" and other activities are no longer automatically started while "Read news" is active. This is to prevent MyNews from disturbing the user who is currently reading newsgroups. If you want to read news WITHOUT stopping all the automatic functions (and accept the longer delays for some keystrokes and clicks because MyNews is heavily downloading soemthing) then please click the WinBox: "Reader". This one does NOT affect the automatic operations. You can watch the effect if you use the WinBox [Hosts] after using [Read News]. The timers are no longer changed. (These are NOT the timeout timers, but just the timers used to start contacts to these hosts initiated by MyNews itself as a client). Severe bugfix: Storing articles in the Article-Database (mynews\base) caused sometimes an update to the wrong history entry. This is a very rare effect and was very hard find. It explains why sometimes articles are added to the wrong newsgroup: The MyNews host did then deliver a wrong article. Should be fixed now. ############# > 17.01.2003 ############ > Build 2011 - 16.01.2003 Severe Bugfix: "Freeware setup".... Activating the community "Usenet" registered to "MyNews". Activating the community "MyNews" registered to "Usenet". The both were swapped. This is fixed now. An additional plausibility refuses now to continue the setup without selecting ANY community at all (one IS necessary). The previous versions did regsiter to an empty community then. Date Bugfix: Special dates-formats as: Tue, 21.Nov.2003 13:45 - 0500 The offset (-0500) was wrongly calculated (subtarcted instead of added) This resulted in replies ewarlier than the original message (in Xover). Fixed now. Time+Date should be OK now. Optics: "Dark blue background" (Xover-Joined multipart) has been lightened up. The old colour was too dark to see the digits or symbols inside. Old limitation: The Xover Window did not check filenames during a running header download. (The same acess path was used concurrently). This was possible since Build 2000 - and the limit has been finally removed for the public. Manual: The updated HELP pages for the HOST configuration has been updated in the manual. Adding a new group: Better defaut values and plausibilities: Adding a mynews.* group does now automatically propose USENET download to be OFF. Adding folders (no dot in the groupname) does propose Downloads and Sharing OFF. If the user sets the values differently (or type the name manually) then the conditions are checked after OK - and warnings appear. "Yes" will switch off the non-matching options. "No" will kepp them. "Cancel" will go back to the dialog. It happened to myself again that I've set a mynews group for Usenet download (which does usually is jsut a waste of time :-) So I've implemented this security finally. New community: "latex" (adult) has been added to the default setup. with abpefl abpefl.repost with mynews.latex.discussion with mynews.latex.vids.repost MyNews Subject Cancels: The are now sent (as originally intended) with the FROM which includes the MyNews name: From: cancel@MYNAME.winews.net This permits users to download Cancel-Subjects just from specific neticens (GoodList) and to reject such messages from Trolls ! The Subject Cancels could be a great chance to eliminate Spam finally on Usenet - by the users themselves. You send such a cancel message yourself with: SHIFT+C MessageSize-Display in Xover: The size is now displayed in kBytes WITHOUT a deciaml fraction. 1 means: 0...999 bytes. 1 means: 1000...1999 bytes. This makes it VERY easy to distiguish small text msgs from large binaries. The preious method was exact, but confusing. And this is jsut an overview - such details dont belong here. NOBODY really cares if a msg id 262.155 or 262.154 bytes. This permits also to make the "kByte" display smaller. And it is a part f the "final goodbye" to the old "Lines" Display. The default installation has been changed also to display ONLY the kBYtes (SIZE) from now on ! Type value in the MYNEWS.INI file are: [xcolor] xs_size=30 xs_lines=0 (old: xs_size=0 xs_lines=40) If course you can restore the old column layout by clicking the title of the columns with the right mouse button. Hidden replies to multipart-followups: A reply to a message with (7/27) in the subject was treated as a multipart. So it was hidden. Now such replies are always treated as normal messages - and should no longer disappear (as long as they are shorter than 10.000 bytes. The detection limit for "text-reply & Multipart has been lowered to 10 kBytes everywhere. Root-Server-Fix: Backsharing hosts are now removed from the list of available hosts if they cannot be contacted from the root. The previous method did collect all backsharing hosts which caused an overflow of the root's host list. Backsharing hosts cannot be contacted at all, so they are superfluous in the Root's actual hostlist. Four additional quick-buttons: dFull: StatusWin->Input->Full Speed dNorm: StatusWin->Input->Normal Speed This permits easy and fast switching of the Download Speed. uFull: StatusWin->Output->Full Speed (upstream) uNorm: StatusWin->Output->Normal speed (upstream) Two newly available functions: StatusWin->Output->Full Speed (upstream) StatusWin->Output->Normal speed (upstream) These functions permit the user to temporarily set the UPLOAD speed for posts to Usenet, AutoPosts, Feeds and MultiFeeds to the highest possible speed (1 MBytes/sec) - and is usually only limited by your Internet connection. This permits to speed up uploading without changing the config whenever you want to make an upload as fast as possible. The status is NOT stored to the harddisk. It goes back to "normal speed" with the menu-function - or after the next start. Root Server are using such functions to feed each others with full speed. There is no reason to hide it from the users any more. (Confirmations and Hints have been updated) Downgrade event -> warning: Some timeout messages have been changed. This happens often enough - so a warning is enough. The "Anort sending Xover" and "Abort sending Article" is no longer an event, but also a warning. This happens also frequently. Most users are just confused by such "events". I am trying to reduce the "event log" down to just the serious problems. All the things which happen all the time (and do not affect the proper operation of MyNews) are downgraded to Warnings. I am seeing these "false events" in the logs of my own hosts. So I know pretty good which one can be "downgraded". The final staus should be that a "magenta (E) indicator" REALLY requires attention. ############ > 16.01.2003: Data Window: The multipart information for incomplete msgs is now at the TOP of the DATA-window, not at the bottom. Event messages: Contacting a host might result in error code 4xx (try later). These are now just warnings - and all three log lines are just written to the warning log. Default Install: Filetype: ASX is now also a critical type. Guide Button: "First Aid" has been replaced by "Help (manual)" It accesses now directly the manual - and no longer just a tiny "first aid" page with some tips.... The old page is now visible as an "FAQ-trouble shooting-first aid" page. Final bugfix: Good/Bad/Skill: These flags were NOT checked correctly while scanning forward (seeking). The previous names of non hidden messages were not updated. So the good/bad check was done on a wrong name. This caused the malfunction (in both directions). Finally found and done (I hope) Bugfix: Reading of FileTypes moved behind creation of windows. MyNews could not start with too many filetypes (>500)... at AllDebugDisplay A fatal exception occured: Fixed. Default installation: These newsgroups have been added to the "global grouplist" mynews.abuse y mynews.announce y mynews.config y mynews.de.allgemein y mynews.erotica.config y mynews.erotica.test y mynews.general y mynews.hello y mynews.server.questions y mynews.server.tips y mynews.startrek.discussion y mynews.talk y Older bugfix: Priorities: The default priority for all MyNews hosts is now 6. All hosts which include a DOT in the name (or the IP) have now 5. This will make sure that users who have priorities active will by default fetch everything possible FIRST from USENET hosts before they are trying slower MyNews hosts. Users who dont want this MUST specify '6' as priority for their Usenet hosts - or switch off priorities entirely. Old bugfix: The security options "Dont contact trolls" and "Contact only friends" did work for some cases, but the most important one (Starting a download of headers and/or msgs) did not work. Now ths security option is also used for this function. It was simply forgotten there. Fixed. Old bugfix: Unexpected queue entries (h:2049 b:2,3) are now just a warning. The async header fetch is done and the marked/missing bodies are NOT fetched ! ########### > 15.01.2003 Bugfix of Bugfix: The HELP system is permitted to call external HTML files again. Adding HTM & HTML to the 'critical extensions' caused that also the help system was not permitted to lauch own local help files. Now the HELP system disables the "extension" security for its own calls. But it only permits this for its own HTM files in its own HELP directory. (Ask why Microsoft has had the same problem with WinXP ;-) Protecting a HELP system is a bad idea - but also a good idea. The help files of MyNews do NOT contain external links. They are just linked locally within the help directory. Bugfix of Bugfix: Filename detection works now also in XOVER with (Re:) and > 100.000 byte msgs Bugfix of Bugfix: GOOD, KILL & SKILL status are no longer fetched from the XOVER file. The status there is sometimes not in sync with the actual list. Bugfix of Bugfix: JOIN on hidden multiparts failed ! Older bugfix: No more posting to ~watchbox and other System Folders (starting with '~'). This does not work at all - and did issue just an event. Now a dialog-box is shown that this is not possible. Older bugfix: Online detection MyNews will no longer assume that it is online if OnlineDetection is active but there are only local IP-addresses reported by the WinSock (127.0.0.1, 0.0.0.0, 192.168.*.*, 172.16.*.*) However the LAN addresses (192,172,...) will still be display in the "Get my own local IP-Address function". Older Bugfix: Xover -> Post -> Autopost Binaries The target server is now automatically set to "localhost" if one of these conditions is true: * The groupname starts with mynews.* * The groupname does not include a dot (is a folder) * The group is not labelled as "download from Usenet" This is done BEFORE you can edit the "Details". You an still change the target host afterwards (and before posting) if MyNews does something wrong. Event->Warning downrating: Crosspost: "Cant find group code"... If a group is deleted and then a crosspost is downloaded for it (or a ReadBag finds such messages) then MyNews did issue an event. Now this is just a warning - and has no further consequences. Older bugfix: Event: "XoverNext(#): Unepxected line in delivered." This happens on some hosts if a folder is marked for Usenet Download (perhaps: 'nogo') for a filler server. Then the host was set to IDLE and the sync was lost. Fetching articles and XOVERs was mixed up. Should be fixed now - extremely rare case. Event->Warning downrating: cOut events (could not send data) Such events happen all the time when the other side (another MyNews client - or a USenet hosts) disconnects from his side. This is now an event - and there is more info (Hostname, Errorcode-explanantion). Such warnings dont affect the operation of MyNews - but should be notified. Massive problems with Usenet hosts should be taken care about. Other MyNews can disappear whenever they want. Minor optical change: "Size" column in the GROUPS window. The column was too small to display size of more than 10 Gigs (10000.000 MB) properly. Now it was extended by 10 pixels. I am having myself some groups which have > 10 Gigs on the harddisks. (Time to expire ;-) Another "Are you sure ?": Xover: Add to GOOD, KILL & SERVER-KILL lists: In all cases a dialog box appears and asks if the displayed text should be added to the good/kill/skill file. This will help newbies not to add things too quickly to these lists. Abuse Prevention: The attempt to set the FullAuto Period lower than 900 sec (15 Minutes) results in a warning dialog. It is still possible to use IGNORE to get lower values. RETRY will show the setup again - with a value of 3600 . ABORT shows the setup again - the value is not changed. Minor optical change: Host-Config Root & Hidden have been moved to the right column Disable is now the last item - directly above [OK] (easy to find) ########## > 14.01.2002 Installer Updates and Changes for Build 2010 13.Jan.2002 --------------------------------------------- [...] ############ > Build 2010 - 13.Jan.2003 [...] ############# >>>> Version 1.7 Build 1073 16-06-2001