spaf@gatech.UUCP (03/24/87)
Every two weeks I post a "checkgroups" control message with an "na"
distribution. News at versions 2.10.2 and beyond recognize the
"checkgroups" message and use it to advise the local news admin about
possible inconsistencies in the news setup. My last "checkgroups"
posting was March 16. The header of that posting specified a
"Reply-To:" of "nobody". The sites listed below not only are running
ancient news that did not recognize the "checkgroups" message, they
ignored the "Reply-To" header and sent mail directly back to me.
There are some problems with running old news. Besides the fact that
numerous bug fixes and speed enhancements have been added to the
software since these old releases, these versions are violating the
standard for news interchange (as defined in the RFCs) by ignoring the
checkgroups and by ignoring the Reply-To header line (at least). What
is worse, these ancient versions of news will *not* correctly handle
the new organization of moderated groups. In particular, some of the
header lines in postings to moderated groups may be mangled by the
software at these sites, leading to incomplete distribution and
incorrect poster information. As we switch more groups from the
"mod.*" naming format, this problem will become more pronounced.
If you are a user at one of these sites, strongly encourage the system
administrator to upgrade the software to 2.11.5. If you exchange news
with one of these sites, you would be well advised to *immediately*
switch to a site running correct software or you stand a chance of
missing articles in moderated groups, or receiving mangled copies of
those articles. If you are the news admin of one of these sites,
sources for copies of news 2.11.5 are listed in the article on news
software posted in news.admin.
Following is the list of sites incorrectly responding to the last
"checkgroups" message. Note that some of these sites are running news
that is as much as 5 YEARS out-of-date. Further note that the absence
of a site from this list does *not* indicate that it is running current
software -- merely that I did not get mail back about an "unrecognized
control message". To check out the current version of news on your
machine, type the "v" command to "readnews"; version 2.11.5 has a date
of March 1987.
akgub is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
akguc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
akgud is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
akguf is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
allegra is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
arrow is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
bearcat is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
bentley is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
bocar is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
calay is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 SMI.
cepu is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
cord is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
culler is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 SMI.
cuuxb is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
daimler is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
drutx is currently running version B 2.10.1 (Denver Mods 7/26/84) 6/24/83.
edsel is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
endot is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
gamma is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
hcr is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
kaiser is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
lambda is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
lcuxa is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
lcuxb is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
lcuxc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
logico is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
mruxc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
mruxe is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
ohgua is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
ohguc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
oscvax is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
packard is currently running version B 2.10.1 ggr 10/10/85.
petsd is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
phuxa is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
phuxc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
pyuxgg is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
pyuxh is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
pyuxss is currently running version B 2.10 5/3/83.
pyuxv is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
pyuxww is currently running version B 2.10 5/3/83.
pyuxz is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
pyuxzz is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxa is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxc is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxd is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxg is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxo is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxp is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxqq is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
rruxu is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
sb6 is currently running version @(#) defs.h 2.9 6/26/82.
scherzo is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
suvax1 is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
u1100s is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
uottawa is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
utx1 is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
utzoo is currently running version B 2.10 5/3/83.
vax135 is currently running version B 2.10.1 6/24/83.
xios is currently running version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83.
--
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf@gatech.EDU
uucp: ...!{akgua,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf