In this step we will test if we can use MyNews on our computer - BEFORE we install it. And you will read some things about the Internet and its debugging tools - just in case that you have trouble.
This chapter has two reasons:
First I want to avoid that _you_ have trouble, and second that _I_ (or the MyNews-support) have trouble :-)
If you try to run MyNews and your Internet-connection does not allow it, then we should not start looking for software bugs.
Oh, I forgot to mention: About 90% of you will have no problems at all :-) Again this is just a list of all possible obstacles...
And those of you who are already using a pay-new-provider or a "free" news-server (perhaps my free longterm-server) with a normal news-server (or MS-Outlook/News or Netscape News/Messenger) will also have no problems. It is very seldom that news-access is allowed and www-access is denied. (We need the www-access for Login-Logout).
If you are lazy or not interested in "this stuff",
then skip it. If MyNews works nice after installation, then this
chapter is not necessary for you. In kind of trouble, please try
these hints before complaining.
You need a _true_ Internet-connection to run MyNews. A 'true' connection allows you much more specific actions than a 'cheap' or 'protected' connection.
With a true Internet-connection you can receive or send
information to the internet without obstacles. Your computer is
'visible' for other computers in the net (and not hidden behind a
firewall).
Such a connection-type is offered by providers who are very
cheap (or free). While you can normally access the WWW (World
Wide Web) with your WebBrowser, you cannot use Third Party
News-Services or other special services. The provider normally
gives you _detailed_ instructions how to configure your
system: You have to enter PROXY-server-addresses for your
browser. Without proper use of these proxy-servers you cannot
access the net. Cheap providers have a good reason why they dont
offer a 'true' connection: If they force the users to use their
proxy-servers, then they can reduce their traffic _enormously_.
When you've seen a webpage - and a second user wants to see it
also, then it is delivered from the proxy-server. Specialists
say: It is a "caching" proxy-server.
Cheap providers are cheap (or free), because they dont let you do
what you want. They pay for the traffic - not you. SO dont be
angry about them. They are nice for accessing the WWW (and other
services), but not for MyNews. (Of course there are also cheap
providers who offer a true connection :-)
If your computer is located in your company and you have a good net-admin, then your computer is usually well protected against attacks from the outside world. (If you have your own modem, then you will have no problems). Usually your computer is connected through your local area network to an internet-router which allows you to contact Internet-servers. Your admin has set up this 'router'. But he gave it some special instructions. One might be that access to 'the newsgroups' is locked out. Perhaps even the WWW is locked out - or special other services (like Chat or Telnet). Then you can perhaps access the WWW - but not other services. Such 'routers' which 'lock out' special things are _good_. They protect your computer against attacks from the outside world. Hackers are almost searching for "holes" in the router (=firewall, =proxy) and try to bypass them. Sometimes they are successful. What is nice for your data on your PC (being protected) can be ugly if you want to use MyNews. Perhaps you just need to contact your admin - when he is a friendly one. When he allows access through his router, then we are ok.
If your computer has a local IP-adress which looks like: 176.16.*.* or 224.*.*.* or 192.168.*.*, or 10.*.*.*, then you have no "true" IP-address. You can check your IP-address in the network-configuration. Such IP-addresses are usually a part of a local network - and again you cannot access the Internet directly: All your requests are sent to a special server in your network. This 'central' server fetches your requests, converts it and sends it to the internet itself. The reply is again 'converted' and sent back to you. This process is called "IP-masquerading". The host you called thinks, that the "special" server made the request - not you. And if you have ten users in your company, then all requests seems to come just from this one computer. Nobody can locate you. Again this is nice. A central server (which is often a caching proxy) reduces bandwidth and protects. It CAN be an obstacle to use MyNews. It must not be one.
All Internet-applications are using the "WinSock.dll" on your computer (or Wsock32.dll) to access the Internet. This is a "true" internet-connection. Some providers deliver a special setup which replaces this "winsock.dll" by any kind of proprietary internet-connection-interface. Some internet-tools might work then, others will not! Sometimes a provider delivers special web-browsers which work together with their 'funsocks' - but normal web-browsers do not. Then MyNews will have also problems. If you have got a special package for your provider, then the probability is high, that your Internet-connection is just "simulated" by such a FunSock.
If you are running with a trumpet winsock, then you should have no problems. This is a good and powerful interface (if you have the 32-bit-version). The 16-bit-versions (which still runs on Win95/98) are NOT suitable for MyNews. We need the 32-bit-version.
Please go online with your computer now. We will make some online-tests now:
Now open a Dos-Box. (MsDos-Prompt). DONT click to - Start -
terminate Windows -
Restart in Dos-Mode!
Use the Start - Programs - MsDos-Prompt.
Either a black Dos-Window appears or your monitor turns black. In
both cases you will see:
c:\windows> (Or the name of your
windows-directory)
Now we try to make the easiest possible internet-connection to
a host - we ask it, if it is there:
You type: PING www.uu.net
You should see now:
>Pinging www.uu.net [208.229.230.133] with 32 bytes of data:
>Reply from 208.229.230.133: bytes=32 time=170ms TTL=242
>Reply from 208.229.230.133: bytes=32 time=152ms TTL=242
>Request timed out.
>Reply from 208.229.230.133: bytes=32 time=154ms TTL=242
Your computer found the computer "www.uu.net" in the internet. This computer has the IP-Address: 208.229.230.133. (The only reason for the name is, that you dont have to memorize this ugly number - but the number is ENOUGH). Your computer has sent out 4 times 32 bytes of data to this www.uu.net-computer. And in the example that host has answered three times. One request was "lost" (or did not come back fast enough). The "answers" came pretty fast: 152-170 milli-seconds were the delay.
If you look to your own screen, then it should be pretty similar. The TIME will tell you how good your connection is. (200-500 are good, 500-1000 are fair).
Your screen does not look like this? Ok. Lets see:
If you have four times: "Request timed out.",
then perhaps your connection is very slow. You can try:
PING -w 5000 www.uu.net
Now your computer will wait up to five seconds for an answer.
This does not work either ? Bad luck - we are doomed! It seems that you cannot use MyNews.
You have other error-messages? Perhaps: Bad IP address wwww.uu.net Then you have written the wrong name.
Perhaps: "No route to host"? Very bad.
Perhaps: "Destination net unreachable"? Very bad.
Perhaps: "Destination host unreachable"? Very
bad.
All these messages indicate, that you cannot access other servers as you want.
Of course you can try to 'ping' other hosts. Sometimes www.uu.net is not reachable (but this is really seldom!).
Now if the PING-test works for you, then continue with the next step. If it does NOT work, then your chances to use MyNews are pretty bad. However feel free to contact me. Include the results from the PING-message to your mail. I cannot help you without it!
You can always (as long as you are online) use PING with an IP-address instead of a name: PING 195.214.82.230
This is a ping to one of my WWW-Servers. It should work. If
the timing is bad (just time-outs) then try: PING
-w 5000 195.214.82.230
If my host is busy, then the times can be long.
Later - when MyNews runs - you will have contact to other MyNews-users. You will see their IP-Numbers in your status-windows. You can always (and should really try it) use the PING on their IP-address. It shows you, how busy a particular MyNews-Server is (MyNews does not measure it).
If the PING-times are high (slow connection), then you can
test why it is so bad. You can check the 'path' (or route) which
is used between you and the 'other' computer. Again you use the
DOS-Window. Now you type:
TRACERT 208.229.230.133
The result should be something like:
>Tracing route to www.uu.net [208.229.230.133] over a
maximum of 30 hops:
> 1 2 ms 2
ms 2 ms gateway.i3w.com
[195.214.82.193]
> 2 348 ms 316 ms 394
ms mgate13.de.tbone.net [195.214.0.8]
> 3 46 ms 32
ms 32 ms mgate01.de.tbone.net
[195.214.0.3]
> 4 40 ms 37
ms 39 ms ebone.de.tbone.net
[192.121.158.130]
> 5 40 ms 43
ms 37 ms munich-ebs2-s1-0-0.ebone.net
[192.121.158.129]
> 6 135 ms 132 ms 133
ms newyork-ebs1-s5-0-0.ebone.net [195.158.224.21]
> 7 146 ms 144 ms 134
ms serial0-0-1.br1.nyc4.ALTER.NET [137.39.23.81]
> 8 354 ms 505 ms 387
ms 134.ATM2-0.XR2.NYC4.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.186]
> 9 340 ms 505 ms 368
ms 188.ATM3-0.TR2.EWR1.ALTER.NET [146.188.179.70]
>10 432 ms 388 ms 387
ms 105.ATM4-0.TR2.DCA1.ALTER.NET [146.188.136.189]
>11 464 ms 387 ms 387
ms 198.ATM7-0.XR2.DCA1.ALTER.NET [146.188.161.149]
>12 463 ms 399 ms 396
ms 194.ATM10-0-0.GW1.DCA1.ALTER.NET [146.188.161.21]
>13 357 ms 505 ms 387
ms 260.GW1.TCO3.customer.ALTER.NET [157.130.33.222]
>14 166 ms 320 ms 392
ms www.uu.net [208.229.230.133] Trace complete.
There is a _wonderful_ thing: The first line:
> Tracing route to www.uu.net [208.229.230.133]
We gave the TRACERT-Program just an IP-Number, and it delivers us the NAME of host. (This is called "Reverse DNS lookup).
You can see in the table that it takes 13 (!) computers until our messages arrives at the host "www.uu.net". (Yes, your internet-messages uses sometimes long and weird paths). The times (### ms) are the times which are necessary to contact the host in every line. (This is the next host). That host 'sends' the message further - and further.... Times are growing. Finally your message reaches www.uu.net. (The three times are minimum, maximum and average, * = TimeOut!).
You can use the TRACERT ( = Trace Route) to find the location of a host (there are names like munich, newyork...) and to find the 'provider' of a site. This is a good spy-tool. You can use it to hunt spammers - and those who abuse our MyNews-network.
If TRACERT does not work, then it will become HARD to get MyNews running :-((
You can now try to access my Root-Server:
PING root.winews.net
or
PING 195.214.1.17
or
PING -w 5000 195.214.82.201
or
TRACERT root.winews.net
or
TRACERT 195.214.1.17
(If root.winews.net does not work, then use the IP-address directly - this works).
The times are not so important - but you should get an answer! If you dont get an answer, then we are in trouble. You NEED this host to become effective with MyNews.
While it is often possible to PING or TRACE a server, it is
NOT always possible to contact it! These are different services.
So now it becomes really interesting: We will now talk
directly to the Root-Server: Again we use the DOS-Box. You type:
TELNET 195.214.1.17 119
Windows will open a window. Telnet is another test-tool which
helps us. NO Danger here!
Here what you SHOULD see:
Window-Headline: Telnet - 195.214.1.18
Text in the Window: 200 MyNews <root> Posting OK
If you see this "200 MyNews <root> Posting
OK" then you have WON !!!! You will be able to
run MyNews !
You can now press some keys. Perhaps: abc
The result will be:
>500 Command not recognized (a)
>500 Command not recognized (b)
>500 Command not recognized (c)
You CANNOT talk "manually" to the MyNews-Server. It
is protected against 'manual hacking' :-)
But you can close the TELNET-Window now - we dont need it.
If this does not work, then TELNET will try to contact the
server for one minute. Then an error appears:
"No connection" - "Hostname: 195.214.1.17"
Perhaps the address or the name of the root-server has changed
since this document was written. Try the actual address - or the
address from Third Party!
You can also "telnet" other servers. Perhaps the
NewsServer of your provider?
Try: TELNET news.myprovider.com 119
(Replace myprovider.com by your providers name). Normally you
will get an answer. Type help or
quit
Or close the window again.....
You may ask what the "119" is in the TELNET-command.
Imagine that the server with the IP-Number 195.214.1.17 has
a lot of doors. The "119" is the door you use for
entrance. The "door" (we say: PORT) with number
119 is the door to the News-Server (if a news-server is running
on this computer). The "door" (port) 80 is the
Web-Server (www-server). The port 6666 is the IRC-Chat.
And if a server does not offer a specific service, then the
"door" is closed. You cannot connect. (However you can
always 'knock').
We did use the PING previously. PING is another port. We say the
"Echo"-Port. Whatever you send to this port will be
sent back 1 by 1 to you. This shows you
that a server is existing. And there is also a kind of
TRACERT-Port.
You want to learn more? Please get a good book - or search the Internet. There are GigaBytes to read..... :-)
When you are online, then your computer has an IP-address. As
mentioned in "Step-3", this IP-address changes usually
(is dynamic) every time you dial in again.
MyNews has one way to find out the IP-address of your computer.
But you can do this already now manually:
Use the Dos-Box and type WINIPCFG (on a
Win95/98-PC). Windows will show you your TCP/IP-configuration.
Really important is here the section: IP-Address. This is
the actual IP-address of your PC. If it is 0.0.0.0, then your not
yet online.
At the beginning of the Window you find a combo-box with the Adapter-Type. Usually there is an adapter "PPP-adapter". Sometimes "AOL-adapter" or any other provider-specific adapter. You can try them all (if there are more than one). One will hopefully have your actual IP-address.
If the IP-address you find there starts with 176.16.*.*
or 224.*.*.* or 192.168.*.*, then things becomes difficult !!
These are "local addresses" !
Perhaps your PC has a network-card PLUS a PPP-connection. Then both adapters can have a different IP-address. Then "routing" becomes a topic. But I will not discuss this here. There are good books about rooting in the net. Let's hope that at least one of your Internet-Connections will work. It is possible that MyNews chooses the WRONG IP-Address. If you dial-up but have an additional network-card with TCP/IP-running, then MyNews can perhaps use the wrong address. But MyNews should work then also. The Root-Server will recognize the correct IP-Address (and other MyNews-Hosts will see also the correct address). So dont worry.
Before you get the next step (5: Installation) you may want to clean up your harddisk. 100 MegaBytes free diskspace are nice. With less than 10 MegaBytes of free disk space MyNews will not start at all. MyNews requires just about 2-3 Megabyte for itself. But the DATA, Bags and Logfiles need some space. So be prepared and have some "megs" free :-))
The next step (5) will be the installation. I will try to
explain it again very extensive. In fact it is just starting an
EXE file ;-)
95% of you will have no problems with it.
Juergen, <InfStar>
All rights reserved. Document contains mistakes in spelling,
grammar and terms.