Subject: Multiple nntp servers?

From: "Alan J. Flavell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 18:36:28 GMT

As far as I understand it, I can configure PINE to access several
news-collections on multiple news servers, but it only supports
posting to the one nntp server that's configured in the nntp-server
configuration.  The other collections are effectively "read-only".

Obviously(?), one cannot post to a group that isn't supported by the
particular server that one has configured, even if it would otherwise
accept the posting.

Also, when the news collections are displayed in the menu, under each
news server it lists the entire menu of groups subscribed to, regardless
of whether they are really available on that server.  When you try to
access a group that the particular server does not support, it gives
error 411 No such group.

Have I understood the supported options correctly, or is there some
feature that I've missed?

As you may guess, I have read+post access to some limited-distribution
groups on a remote server, but need to access the rest of the normal
usenet groups repertoire via my normal server.

thanks for any suggestions

---

From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 10:11:11 +0000 (GMT)

Your precis of the situation is, as far as I understand things, correct.

The one slight other snippet of information is that if IMAP is used to
_read_ the newsgroups (instead of NNTP) then each server lists only its
own newsgroups that you've subscribed to, not all of them.  This is
because an IMAP news connection keeps its state information on the IMAP
server machine (hence per-server), whereas an NNTP connection keeps its
state info at the client (Pine) end.

Cheers,

-- 
Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Tel: +44-1904-433811  FAX: +44-1904-433740  http://www.york.ac.uk/~pmb1/

---

From: "Alan J. Flavell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 12:06:24 GMT

On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, Bruce Ramsay wrote:

(helpful explanation omitted)

> The reason you get all the newsgroups in the first nntp server folder is
> because you havn't set up the filters correctly. If this is done both
> receiving and sending to newsgroups on a particulat server can be done.
            ^^^^^^^^^^^
(see later **)

> *{nntplocal.foo.com/nntp}[foo.*]
> *{nntpremote.foo.com/nntp}[comp.*]

Ah!  Thanks.  I understand that now, and it tidies up the groups
lists nicely.

> o Each time you add a new one of there lines you get a new folder.

OK.

So, reading the groups is more convenient when configured in
the way you describe; but I still haven't been able to post to
the groups that aren't on the default server (the one configured
in the nntp-server field).

**) Is there really a way to post to the other server(s) from PINE? I
haven't found it yet.  When I attempt it with what (I believe) to be
the configuration you're suggesting, using an older version of PINE,
I get a strange error message

    error posting message: 421 SMTP server went away!

With recent versions of PINE it won't let me even try to post - it says
"validating newsgroups" (evidently validating them with my default
nntp-server) and then reports "Unknown news group"  and won't let me
move the cursor out of the newsgrps field. 

I am, however, able to post to this group if I reconfigure the second
server to be my default nntp-server.  But then I can't post to groups on
the first server. 

> o If you have the original value in this fiels *{nntpremote.foo.com/nntp}
>   pine will again try to pick up all the newsgroups using that server.

Yes, that's understood.  Thanks.  For reading it's a distinct
improvement, but, as I say, posting still seems to be a problem.

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 20:32:39 -0800

On 14 Feb 1997, Jungshik Shin wrote:
>   I wish  there would be a way to specify different "newsrc" files(as
> shown below) for different news servers in future version of Pine.

This feature has been discussed, but it's not as easy as it sounds.  Put
another way, the function is obvious, the precise details of how it should
work (the elusive "right thing") are not.  Some of the problems are a bit
hard to explain, since there are interactions with capabilities that are
new in 4.00/IMAP4.  What seems to be obvious from looking at 3.95 is much
less obvious in 4.00.

Necessary preliminary work has been started; internally, multiple .newsrc
files will be supported, there's just no way for users to get at the
feature.  I can't promise that it'll be in 4.00; but it would almost
certainly be in 4.01. 

-- Mark --	Read http://www.imap.org for the "best kept secret in email"

DoD #0105, R90/6 pilot, FAX: (206) 685-4045  ICBM: N 47 39'35" W 122 18'39"
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.