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Apple II Email and Usenet News Suite

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Setup and Configuration for Usenet

Configuration File NEWS.CFG

The news configuration file is called NEWS.CFG. It is a straightforward ProDOS text file, with one parameter per line. You may edit this file using the provided editor, EDIT.SYSTEM (or any other ProDOS text editor). When editing the file be careful not to add or delete any lines - this file has no grammar and the lines must appear in the expected order.

To edit the file using EDIT.SYSTEM:

  • Run EDIT.SYSTEM using Bitsy Bye or your usual ProDOS launcher.
  • Press Open Apple-O to open a file, then enter NEWS.CFG at the prompt, followed by return.
  • Editing is fairly intuitive. Use the arrow keys to move around and type to insert text. Open Apple-Delete deletes to the right.
  • When you are satisfied, save the file using Open Apple-S.
  • Quit the editor using Open Apple-Q.

All three of the programs that handle news: EMAIL.SYSTEM, NNTP65.SYSTEM and NNTP65UP.SYSTEM share this configuration file.

Here is an example config file (with passwords replaced with **** for obvious reasons):

144.76.35.198:119
Bobbi
****
/H1/IP65
/H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL
bobbi.8bit@gmail.com

The lines are as follows, in order:

  1. IP address of the NNTP server, optionally followed by a colon and then the TCP port number. If the colon and port number are omitted, port 119 is the default.
  2. Username to use when connecting to NNTP. If your NNTP server does not need authentication then use '-' for the username and password.
  3. Password to use when connecting to NNTP.
  4. ProDOS path of the directory where the email executables are installed.
  5. ProDOS path to the root of the email folder tree. Mailboxes will be created and managed under this root path.
  6. Your email address. Used as the sender's address in outgoing messages.

Configuration file NEWSGROUPS.CFG

This configuration file is found in the email root directory (/H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL in our example). This file records the list of Usenet news groups to which emai//er is subscribed. NNTP65.SYSTEM will automatically update this file each time news articles are downloaded from the server in order to record the most recent article received.

An example may look as follows:

comp.sys.apple2 CSA2 60260
comp.sys.apple2.programmer CSA2P 7740
comp.emulators.apple2 CEA2 4300
comp.os.cpm COC 15964

Each line contains the following three fields, separated by a space:

  1. Name of newsgroup
  2. Name of Emai//er mailbox which will be used for this newsgroup
  3. Most recent message number downloaded

Note: When you first create this file (or when you add an additional newsgroup you wish to subscribe to) you will not know the number corresponding to the most recent message. Emai//er has a way to help you out here. If you use the value 0, Emai//er will fetch the most recent 100 messages from the newsgroup, and will record the most recent article number so that subsequent runs of NNTP65.SYSTEM will retrieve just the new articles. So, for the initial setup, the file may look like this:

comp.sys.apple2 CSA2 0
comp.sys.apple2.programmer CSA2P 0
comp.emulators.apple2 CEA2 0
comp.os.cpm COC 0

Creating Directories

A number of additional subdirectories are required within the email root directory for handling Usenet news articles. The email root directory is assumed to be /H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL in this example. Special news directories are as follows:

  • The NEWS.SPOOL directory is used by NNTP65.SYSTEM as a staging area for incoming news articles before they are copied to the mailbox which is configured for the newsgroup in question. This will be /H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL/NEWS.SPOOL in our example.
  • The NEWS.OUTBOX directory is used by EMAIL.SYSTEM for composing outgoing news articles. NNTP65UP.SYSTEM takes outgoing articles from this directory. In our example this will be /H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL/NEWS.OUTBOX.

You can create these directories in ProDOS BASIC.SYSTEM as follows:

] CREATE /H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL/NEWS.SPOOL
] CREATE /H1/DOCUMENTS/EMAIL/NEWS.OUTBOX

Creating Mailboxes

You must set up a NEWS.SENT mailbox, otherwise NNTP65UP.SYSTEM will be unable to complete the sending of messages and will give an error. You will also need to create a mailbox for each newsgroup you wish to subscribe to. The name of the newsgroup mailboxes must match that given in NEWSGROUPS.CFG or NNTP65.SYSTEM will give an error when downloading news articles.

To create these mailboxes, run EMAIL.SYSTEM and press N for new mailbox. At the prompt, enter the name of the mailbox to be created: NEWS.SENT, and press return. Repeat this to create a mailbox for each newsgroup you are subscribed to (matching the values in the NEWSGROUPS.CFG file.)

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