M2

FAQ
FAQ



This is from the Agent help file, and answers some very common questions.






This topic answers some of the most common questions users have about Agent.  It also explains possible problems and error messages you might encounter.

QUESTIONS

Can I run multiple copies of Agent?

Agent will allow multiple instances of itself to run, provided each instance is using a different directory.  If you try an instance of Agent on a directory that is already in use, it switches the focus to the already-running instance and exits.
Running multiple instances of Agent is useful if, for example, you wish to have two separate configurations of Agent, one for email and one for Usenet, each in its own startup directory.


Can I configure Agent for multiple users and servers?


Agent stores its settings and data files in the "Start in" folder specified in its shortcut.  This allows a single copy of the program's common files (such as, the .exe, help, spell check files) to be used by several users or with several news servers.

To set up Agent for multiple users or servers:

1.	Create a folder for the program files, including agent.exe, agent.hlp, *.csm, main*.clx, and main*.tlx.  (See Agent's Directories and Files.)
2.	Create a separate folder for each user or news server (e.g., c:\agent\his and c:\agent\hers).

3.	Create a shortcut for each user or news server with the program (e.g., c:\agent\agent.exe) specified as the Target, and the user's or news user's or news server's folder (e.g., c:\agent\his and c:\agent\hers) in the "Start in" field.


How do I re-send a failed message?

When you first start using a new program, you probably want to make sure it's doing what you told it to do.  To make sure your messages have been successfully sent, choose Open Outbox from the Window menu.  By default, all the messages you send with Agent appear in this window (see the Post tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box for details).  The icons next to each message tell you the status of that message:

	Meaning

The message was successfully sent.  Note: If you have filed this message automatically in a folder, look in the folder for a record of the message.
	A problem occurred sending this message.  Double-click on the message to make sure all the fields are filled in correctly and then press Send Now or Send Later to re-send the message.
	The message is queued for uploading (you pressed the Send Later button after creating the message).  To send the message now, choose Post Usenet and Email Messages from the Online menu.

The message is in the process of being sent.

Messages you send can be saved in the Outbox or a folder (see Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box for details).  The process of re-sending a message you created is slightly different based on where the message is located.

To re-send a message from a folder:

1.	Highlight the message in the Message List pane.
2.	Choose New Copy of Message from the Post menu.
3.	(Optional) Change the message as required (e.g., change the recipient).

4.	Press either Send Now or Send Later to transmit the message to the Internet.

To re-send a message from the Outbox:

1.	Highlight the message in the Outbox.
2.	Choose Open from the Message menu.
3.	(Optional) Change the message as required (e.g., change the recipient).

4.	Press either Send Now or Send Later to transmit the message to the Internet.




Is there an easy way to change from MIME to uuencoded format?

The easiest way to change the message format from MIME to uuencoded (or vice versa) while you are in the message composition window is to bring up the Message Properties dialog box (Message menu).  This overrides the default format settings specified on the Group Properties Sending Files tab (Group menu).

How do I restore a deleted group?

Select Refresh Groups List from the Online menu.  This will rebuild your groups list without affecting the unread counters for your remaining groups.  You won't lose any information by performing this action.


What if Agent failed to decode a multi-part attachment?

If Agent is unable to find all the parts of a multi-part attachment you are attempting to launch, it inserts an incomplete attachment icon  in front of the message header.
You can have Agent automatically save incomplete attachments to file by selecting the "Save attachments automatically" option on the Receiving Files tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, then selecting one of the options under "If a Decoding error occurs."  The options are "Save and leave in message", "Save and remove from message", and "Do not save (leave in message)."  If you attempt to manually save an attachment to a file and a decoding error occurs, the option selected for this field will be the initial value in the Save Attachment - Encoding Error dialog box which appears.


What if Agent miscategorizes message as incomplete 
multi-part?

In general, Agent is very good at finding the various parts of a multi-part message.  (You'd be surprised at the various ways messages are posted!)  However, there may be times when Agent incorrectly identify something as a multi-part message.  If this happens, simply select the message and use the Join Sections command on the Message menu.  This tells Agent to assume that the message is complete (which it really is).  If you are reading a group in which you don't expect to get multi-part messages, you can turn off the auto-combining of messages for this group. (See the Receive Files tab of the Group Properties menu item, "Join multi-part messages automatically".)
There is also a Split command on the Message menu.  You can use this command to unjoin a message that Agent (or you) incorrectly joined.  You can also use this command to get the individual sections of an incomplete multi-part message.  Simply split the message and retrieve the sections one-by-one.  (For this latter case, you can also use the Join Sections to tell Agent to assume that the message is complete.  Once you do that, the incomplete message icon disappears and you can retrieve the available message sections.)

NOTE: Because the process of joining messages necessarily loses some information about the original sections, if you split a message that has a body, Agent does not split the body.  It simply leaves the body in the first section, with the other sections body-less.



What is the Log window?

Agent's Log window is for debugging problems with Agent, Winsock, and your servers.  Under normal circumstances, you should never have to open it.



Why are quoted lines treated as one long line?

What does it mean, for example, if you receive a reply which quotes the message you originally sent, but treats the quoted lines as one long line?
It means that the quoted text was sent in "quoted-printable" format.  If you want quoted-printable messages to word-wrap, you need to check the option "Word-wrap quoted-printable messages" on the Posting Preferences General tab (Options menu).


Why can't I View the End of Some Messages?

If a message contains uuencoded data, followed by text, Agent's new auto uuencode-detector sees the binary data and makes the assumption that the rest of the message is binary data, also.  One group where this is likely to occur is news.admin.net-abuse.misc, where people talk about binaries and include partial binary fragments.  One solution to this problem is to uncheck "Detect uuencoded files automatically" on the Group Properties Receiving Files tab.


Why doesn't Agent Burst Some Digests?

In order for Agent to burst a message or message section, it has to be of type "multipart/digest".  A text message which happens to contain other messages is not a digest and, thus, won't be burst by Agent.


ERRORS



Agent forgets settings or loses all its data

Agent expects to find its setting and data files in the directory in which it runs.  If it can't find them, it assumes it is being run for the first time and displays the license screen. It will also "forget" any preferences, properties, and subscribed groups you have saved.
To correct this problem, select (single click) the Agent icon on your Program Manager desktop.  On the Program Manager menu, select Properties from the File menu.  You will be presented with the Program Item Properties dialog box.  Make sure the Working Directory is set to the directory where Agent stored its data files (usually the same directory where Agent is installed).
If you run Agent from a program that doesn't allow you to specify the working directory, you can pass this information to Agent on its command line.  For example, the command to run Agent may look like this:

c:\agent\agent.exe c:\agent


Common POP generated error

Below is a common error that can occur, under certain conditions, when logging into a POP server.  This error is generated if the mail server thinks that you (or another user) are already connected to your mailbox.  A POP server allows only one user at a time to access a particular mailbox.  For example, if you aborted an earlier session, the POP server might not have noticed that you disconnected.  So, if you try to reconnect, the server will refuse the attempt.  When this error occurs, you should terminate the ISP session and start again.

Error Text:

Sorry!   An online error occurred.

When:	Logging into POP server.

Reason:	Error reported by Server: ERR Maildrop lock busy!  Is another session active?



Errors reported by the news server


This topic will help you track down errors reported by your news server and detected by Agent.

441 400 Bad file number Writing history file - Throttling
441 400 loadav [innwatch.load] 305 gt 300
441 Can't send connect request to server, No such File or Directory

These errors all mean that the news server has an internal problem unrelated to anything you are doing.  Contact your service provider to have it fixed.  When this happens, Agent saves the message you were trying to post in its Outbox  (Window | Open Outbox), so that you can try to send it again later, after your news server is working properly.

441 Can't generate Message-ID Error 0

The error is generated internally by the server if either the server is unable to obtain the current date and time (from itself), or if it is unable to find out its own host name.  All of this happens after Agent has posted the message to the server.  We recommend that you contact your service provider and tell them about the error, since it indicates a problem with their server.

441 Posted in the Future

This error means the date/time on the message, as sent by Agent, is more than 24 hours later than the current date/time on the news server.  You should double-check your PC's date and time. 

480 Authentication required for command error trying to post

This error means that your news server requires you to provide authentication before you can post.  You need to check with your service provider to find out exactly what is required.  In most cases, you need to supply the server a user name and password.  Once you get this information from your provider, you can enter it on the User tab of the User and System Profile dialog box.

500 Command not Recognized

Your news server is not configured to handle a command issued by Agent (usually the XOVER or the XHDR commands for retrieving information about messages). Agent requires that the server accept one of these commands.  You will need to contact your service provider and see if they can provide a server that honors these commands.

500 Error trying to connect to server

This error  means that Agent is attempting to log you into your news server, but your server doesn't actually require a login.  Go to the User tab of the User and System Profile dialog box and uncheck the "Server requires authorization login" box.

502 Authentication Error

Check to see if your news server really requires authentication.  If it doesn't or if you are not sure, open the User and System Profile dialog box (Options menu), go to the User tab, and uncheck the "Server requires authorization login" option.  If you know that your server does require authentication, double-check your User Name and Password on this dialog box.

502 You are not in my access file
502 You only have permission to transfer
502 You have no permission to talk

These all indicate that you are not properly set up as an authorized user of the news server.  You will have to contact your service provider or news administrator to get this corrected.

550 Addressee unknown

Usually, this means you tried to send an email to someone whose email address was unknown to the email server, and the server refused to try to forward the mail to another server.


Errors reported by Winsock

This topic will help you track down errors reported by your Winsock driver and detected by Agent.

10055 WSAENOBUFS

There is not enough memory available for WINSOCK.DLL to create any buffers for Agent.  The problem is with low memory (memory below 640k), not overall memory.  Try to free up more conventional memory.

10060 WSAETIMEOUT

This may be a case where Agent loads the WINSOCK.DLL, but the winsock driver fails to load.  Try loading the driver prior to Agent.  If this works, then make sure the winsock driver is in the DOS path.  You may also need to free more conventional memory.

10061 Connection refused by server

This error means that the server is either too busy to accept more connections, or possibly has been taken down for maintenance.

11004 Host Name not Found

This error means that the Winsock driver was unable to find the host name for your news (NNTP) or mail (SMTP) server.  Double-check the names of these servers in the System tab of the User and System Profile dialog box.  Usually, they will be something like "news.company.com" and "mail.company.com", where "company.com" is your provider's domain name.  As a workaround, try entering the numeric (IP) address for the servers.

11004 No Data of Requested type

An error occurred during initialization of the Winsock driver. Check your Winsock driver setup.


Expand Threads doesn't always work

There are two options on the Message List tab of the General Preferences dialog box (Options menu) that determine whether threads are displayed in expanded or collapsed form:

Show threads initially Collapsed
When checked, all threads will be shown collapsed when you first open a newsgroup. When unchecked, they will all be shown expanded.

Automatically expand threads containing new messages
When checked, threads will be expanded when you jump into them with the Skip to/View Next Unread Message commands.

 Note: They are expanded only if you've already retrieved and read the first message in the thread.


Headers/Messages are marked as read after performing an online task

By default, Agent automatically marks unwanted messages read whenever you retrieve message headers or bodies.  This makes it easy for you to find the new messages because they will be the only ones that are unread.  To change this behavior, uncheck the appropriate box on the Marking Read tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.






Pressing any buttons while offline causes Agent to hang

Agent is designed to make online and offline newsreading as convenient as possible.  When configured for offline use it will automatically connect to your service provider when it needs to go online and disconnect as soon as it is through.  To make this process as efficient as possible, you should have only one copy of the file WINSOCK.DLL on your drive.  Also, it's best to keep all of the Winsock files (e.g., WINSOCK.DLL, TCPMAN.EXE, etc.) in the same directory, and to make sure that this directory is in the PATH= statement of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.



Pressing (M)ark or (I)gnore causes Agent to jump around

Agent automatically skips to the next unread message when you mark a message for retrieval or ignore a thread.  If you don't like this behavior, you can disable it from the Navigation tab of the General Preferences dialog box by unchecking the "Marking or ignoring a message skips to the next unread message" box.

This text was gathered from Agents help file, and is copyright by Forte Inc.



