[news.misc] Help

alsip@leadsv.UUCP (Mark Alsip) (07/09/88)

is there any CLEARLY WRITTEN documentation that would be useful to a
new user of this network?  I've been trying (unsuccessfully) for days
to mail messages to people in different parts of the country, but they
all appear to be 'sucked up' in a black hole, or returned with cryptic
status codes.

I'm particularly interested in proper formats for network addresses,
how much information I need about a destination node in order to get
messages to it, what happens to a message once it gets into DEC's 
internal network (via decwrl...), and general information about USENET
itself.

Yes, I've looked at what's available online, and if it's considered
complete and meaningful by everyone but me, I apologize.

Thanks, in advance, for your help.

darcic@midas.STS.TEK.COM (Darci Chapman) (01/31/89)

First let me apologize in advance if I've got the wrong news group (<your-
farvorite-diety> forbid) but I have made an honest effort to figure this
stuff out on my own and have gotten nowhere.

I would like to understand how to use the environment variables: NEWSPOSTER,
NEWSHEADER, MAILPOSTER, and MAILHEADER. I have read and re-read our man
page on rn, experimented, and have failed miserably. I would like to set
up my own header format so that I don't have to manually edit my Reply-To:
line that doesn't use the correct address. If there's an easier way, then
please, tell me. As it is, mail isn't always getting to me...

Some info that may (or may not) help: rn v4.3, on Unix 4.3 BSD, using csh.

Thanks in advance!

Darci Chapman

darcic@midas.sts.tek.com      -or    ...uunet!tektronix!midas.sts.tek.com!darcic