Subject: Re: Microsoft "Internet Explorer" problem with THIS n

From: [email-masked] (James Kirkpatrick)
Date: 25 Sep 96 11:39:09 MDT

In article <[email-masked]>, "w.j.ward" <[email-masked]> writes:
|>I don't get it.  I'm using Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" to read the
|>postings on this news group.  But unlike any other group I read, ALL of the
|>messages are flagged as "read", even though I haven't!  Any ideas about
|>what is up?

It certainly can't be anything with the newsgroup itself, it would have to
be with your news server and/or your PC.  What usually happens is that a
news reader will remember what newsgroups exist, which you've registered
an interest in ("subscribed" though I dislike the term), and which articles
you have read.  In the Unix world this is done with a "resource file" called
".newsrc".  If the resource file says you've already read articles
1 through 1234, then any article with a number less than 1234 will either
not be displayed at all, or will be displayed as "already been read."

It sounds like your resource file (or whatever "Internet Explorer" uses
to do the same thing) is out of sync with your news server.  This could
happen if you switch news servers.  For example if you used to read news
via the server here at UW (no, you can't!), your article is number 34712.
If you switch to a different news server, one that hasn't carried r.c.m.
>from  the beginning, the most recent article on *that* server might be
number 5874.  But your resource file still thinks that you've read everything
between 1 and 34712!

Another possibility is that at one point in time the server was fouled, and
accidentally listed lots of articles that were later retracted, causing a
"regression" of the article numbers.  This would simply be bad management
of a news server.  Or maybe they crashed, lost lots of news, and picked up
at the point of the last backup, renumbering articles with old numbers.

If this speculation (resource file out of sync with server) is correct perhaps
there's a way to reset IE's "memory".  Or, the typical knee-jerk PC-world
reaction to any problem, "re-install your software!"

I hope this helps!  While not metalworking, I thought this might be of some
interest to the group.

Jim

---

From: Mike Rehmus <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Sep 1996 04:57:29 GMT

Microsoft Explorer has a number of serious bugs at this time.  I'd go back to Netscape 
for a while if I were you.  

Best regards,

Mike Rehmus

---

From: "w.j.ward" <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Sep 1996 02:52:56 GMT

I don't get it.  I'm using Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" to read the
postings on this news group.  But unlike any other group I read, ALL of the
messages are flagged as "read", even though I haven't!  Any ideas about
what is up?
-- 
(Remember..if it doesn't work,  Microsoft doesn't care.
And Compaq charges $35 to ask "why?".)
W.J.Ward