Why is this necessary?
News places a tremendous load on system resources. In order to minimize this load, the ICS news server does not carry the alt.* hierarchy.Here is a list of programs and instructions to assist you in reading the alt.* hierarchy from the campus-wide news server.
- Reading the alt groups with trn or rn
- Reading the alt groups with nn
- Reading the alt groups with Netscape News
- If newsgroups are missing
Reading the alt groups with trn or rn
If your preferred newsreader is trn or rn you should run the altrn script. The first time this script is run, it will create a .newsrc-alt subdirectory from your home directory. It will also create a .newsrc file in that subdirectory containing all of the alt groups available at campus that were in your original .newsrc file. Each time this script is run, it will point trn or rn to campus' news server, and access .newsrc-alt/.newsrc for your subscribed newsgroups.
Reading the alt groups with nn
If your preferred newsreader is nn you should run the altnn script. The first time this script is run, it will create a .newsrc-alt subdirectory from your home directory. It will also create a .newsrc file in that subdirectory containing all of the alt groups available at campus that were in your original .newsrc. Each time this script is run, it will point nn to campus's news server, and access .newsrc-alt/.newsrc for your subscribed newsgroups.
Reading the alt groups with Netscape News
Netscape under UNIXIf you are using Netscape under UNIX, run the following command (just cut and paste to any of your windows):
grep '^alt\.' ~/.newsrc > ~/.newsrc-news.service.uci.eduThis will cause your .newsrc file for campus to be created, and to contain all of the alt groups that you currently read.
Netscape on all other Platforms
Open the News browser in Netscape (menu bar, Windows, news) as normal. Then, under the file menu, click on Open News Host. A popup will appear, fill in news.service.uci.edu and click OK. That will cause an icon (looks like a monitor and keyboard) to appear in the leftmost column of the Newsgroups box, with a yellow arrow pointing to it (there should already be one of these; it represents the ICS news server). Clicking on the new icon will cause the yellow arrow to point downward, and the alt groups to which you are subscribed will appear.
If you are not on a UNIX system (or didn't do the step under "Netscape under Unix"), you will need to re-subscribe to the alt groups you want to read. A list of newsgroups available on the campus server should appear; mark those to which you wish to subscribe. Otherwise, under file, click on Add newsgroup and in the popup, type in the name of the group to which you wish to subscribe.
If newsgroups are missing:
If there are alt.* groups that you wish to read that are not available from the campus news server, write to news@news.service.uci.edu and request that group. You can expect a one week delay, according to their news administrator.
