Subject: Re: Writing news messages offline

From: Paul O Bartlett <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 07:48:34 -0400

On Fri, 18 Apr 1997, Peter Breitfeld wrote:

> Is it possible to compose a message to a newsgroup beeing offline?
> I would like to compose my message, then dial in an post it. But PINE
> complains: 
> 
>    Newsgroup field: No server defined for posting to newsgrpoups
> 
> I have a server in the newsgroup field so I suspect the error is because I
> am offline.

    Unfortunately you did not give details of your setup, which would
have been a big, big help.  (Many inquirers on this newsgroup
frequently fail to provide adequate technical data.)

    However, I can guess at this:

1)  Compose your message offline;
2)  Upload (move) it to whatever system you use Pine from;
3)  Logon to that system;
4)  Make sure that the server Pine talks to is itself "online";
5)  Start Pine;
6)  Compose your message in Pine, reading in the uploaded message;
7)  Post the message as normally.

However you compose the message, it must be read in (or attached) to
Pine, which itself must be able to talk to a server itself in some
sense "online."  You cannot merely compose a message in a system which
is not connected to the Internet somehow and expect your message to go
anywhere.  However, as you did not provide technical details, it's a
little like shooting at bats in a cave.

Paul                             <[email-masked]>
----------------------------------------------------------
Paul O. Bartlett, P.O. Box 857, Vienna, VA 22183-0857, USA
Finger, keyserver, or WWW for PGP 2.6.2 public key
Home Page:  http://www.access.digex.net/~pobart

---

From: Zsolt Gere-Kiss <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 20:34:45 +0200

On Fri, 18 Apr 1997, Peter Breitfeld wrote:

> Any ideas out there?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>       _/_/_/_/_/   _/_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/_/     Peter Breitfeld
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>     _/       _/  _/      _/  _/               88348 Saulgau
>    _/_/_/_/_/   _/_/_/_/    _/_/_/_/          Germany
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>  _/        _/ _/      _/  _/           eMail:
> _/_/_/_/_/   _/       _/ _/            [email-masked]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

It is possible !

That was my question too some days ago and, due to answers from several
parts, I have now the solution (for me). 

I have a SLIP connection to the mail and news servers via a telephone
line, which means that I am connected to the net only for the
duration of the telephone call. I have Linux in the computer. 

To compose a news posting offline, you may need to set on the
news-post-without-validation option in the setup's feature-list
(Main | Setup | Config menupoint), otherwise pine will try to 'validate'
your newsgroup recipient, which it can do only being online, of course.

Other useful trick may be to use Ctrl-R when in the message header, thus
getting all the fields there. Previously (before having the above option
set) I never got the 'Newsgrp' field in the (short) header (when offline),
probably because pine didn't find the wanted server...  

After writing the message you can postpone it, and send only when you have
the net connection. At least this is the way I choose.

Many thanks for all who helped me (and us)..

Have fun,

Zsolt