mindspring.help FAQ

Last modified: 3/10/97

This document was created in hopes of reducing the redundancy in the mindspring.help group. Please send questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this FAQ to:

checkit@mindspring.com

-David
MindSpring Technical Support

Table of Contents:

Part 1- Ways to get support

1.0 World Wide Web

1.01 MindSpring help pages

1.02 Other useful links

1.03 Search engines

1.1 Phone support

1.11 Phone numbers and hours of operation

1.12 Structure of the phone support system

1.13 Do not contact Support if...

1.2 eMail support

1.21 General information

1.22 eMail responsiveness

1.3 The mindspring.help newsgroup

Part 2- MindSpring installation, connection, and network issues

2.0 System requirements

2.1 "MindSpring version 2.04 spontaneously reboots"

2.2 MindSpring version 2.5-32

2.3 MindSpring version 2.6 Pipeline+

2.4 Setting up Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking (DUN)

2.5 Connection issues

2.51 "My true connect speed is lower than my modem's potential speed"

2.52 How do I detect my true connect speed

2.53 Busy signals and other network issues

2.54 "Does MindSpring recommend any specific modem?"

Part 3- Application issues

3.0 32-bit application incompatibilities in Win95

3.1 Netscape

3.11 Problems with Java script or with Java applets

3.12 Netscape has General Protection Faults (GPFs) or locks up the system

3.121 If you are using MindSpring software version 2.5 32-bit

3.122 Version Incompatibilities

3.123 Conflict with Cirrus video drivers

3.124 Corrupted cache

3.125 What Netscape says

3.13 Netscape has crazy symbols instead of letters

3.14 Other sources of Netscape help

3.2 eMail

3.21 General information

3.22 Additional mailboxes

3.23 The difference between a mailbox and an alias

3.24 Checking email with telnet

3.25 Configuring Eudora

3.26 Eudora freezes after getting new mail

3.27 Other sources of Eudora help

3.28 Mailing lists/listservers

3.3 Usenet News

3.31 News and authentication

3.32 Accessing the news server from outside MindSpring

3.33 How to configure Free Agent for authentication

3.34 How to create newsgroups

3.35 Configuring a viewer to work with Free Agent

3.36 Other sources of Free Agent help

3.4 IRC

3.41 Banned or klined

3.42 Server down or busy

3.43 "What is IdentD?"

3.44 Other sources of IRC help

3.5 WinTalk

Part 1 - Ways to get support

1.0 World Wide Web

1.01 MindSpring help pages

This is probably the best place to begin if you need Support. It is readily accessible and fairly comprehensive. Using a web browser (like Netscape), you can access our help pages at:

http://help.mindspring.com

There is useful information here regarding:

This site is constantly evolving. Please check it frequently.

1.02 Other useful links

These are URLs that I find myself using now and then. These are my personal choices and are not officially endorsed or anything of that nature. If you have any that you think would be beneficial, please send them to me at:

checkit@mindspring.com

Search Engines (see Section 1.03):

http://altavista.digital.com/

http://webcrawler.com/

http://www.search.com/

http://www.mckinley.com/

http://www.excite.com/

Unofficial Netscape FAQ:

http://www.communique.net/~jgarcia/

Netiquette:

http://rs6000.adm.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/index.htm

Eudora:

http://www.amherst.edu/~atstarr/eudora/

http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/techsup.html

Web authoring:

http://home.netscape.com/home/how-to-create-web-services.html

http://oneworld.wa.com/htmldev/devpage/dev-page.html

Windows software archives:

http://www.uoknor.edu/mirrors/tucows/index.html

http://www.tucows.com

http://www.fedcenter.com/fedcenter/fw95l4.html

http://www.shareware.com/

Mac software archives:

http://www.pht.com/info-mac/

http://www.umich.edu/~archive/mac/

http://www.shareware.com/

http://www.tucows.com

http://www.usp.com.au/cult_of_mac/swarchives.html

Jargon/terminology/acronyms:

http://www.access.digex.net/~ikind/babel.html

http://locke.ccil.org:80/jargon/jargon_toc.html

http://www.monmouth.com/~jshahom/jargon/

http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html

http://www.mother.com/~osherry/acronyms.html

Webster's dictionary:

http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster?

File extension guide:

http://world.std.com/~walthowe/extguide.html

Mac file extensions:

http://www.madison-web.com/ext/

RFC index:

http://www.neda.com/ds/rfc-index.html

Win95

http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/win95ann5.html

IRC servers:

http://www.astraweb.com/jayr/

Newsgroup hierarchies:

http://home.magmacom.com/~leisen/master_list.html

FAQs:

http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/newfaqs/

http://www.nda.com/service/FAQ.html

FreeAgent:

http://www.forteinc.com/agsup/csfaq.htm

RealAudio:

http://www.realaudio.com/help/

Mailing list:

http://www.pobox.com/p3/other.html

Modem Manufacturers, Models, and FAQs:

http://www.carabelli.com/dentist/lore/usrincident.html

http://www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG/Products/bitsurfr_pro/

http://www.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq.html

http://www.teleport.com/~curt/modems.html

Modems initialization strings:

http://www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG/Service_Support

http://www6.servtech.com/help/mac/modeminit.html

http://www.citilink.com/~kae/clink_faq/connecting/general/initstrings.html

http://www.freespace.net/~glipp/allmodem.html

http://mug.welch.jhu.edu/mirrors/InfoAlley/1095/02/modem.html

http://freenet.actein.edu.au/Help/modeminit.html

ISPs:

http://thelist.iworld.com/

 

1.03 Search engines

These are what they sound like. They are search tools for looking for key words or phrases on the Web or in the newsgroups. They are web pages that can be accessed with a web browser like Netscape. Used correctly, these can be your best friend. I find myself using AltaVista more than others but this may be because it is at the top of my bookmark list. There is help for AltaVista at:

http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=h&what=web

Here are examples of ways to use AltaVista:

problem: "I am getting error message 10060!!"

search for "error 10060" and select usenet.

problem: "I am trying to filter email. Help."

search for "email with filters" and select the Web.

 

Here are some other search engines:

http://www.search.com/

http://webcrawler.com/

http://www.mckinley.com/

http://www.excite.com/

1.1 Phone Support

1.11 Phone numbers and hours of operation

We currently provide technical support at: 800-719-4660

This is offered 24 hours/day 7 days/week with the exception of some holidays. Here are the holidays we observe:

1.12 Structure of the phone support system

We are always evolving and looking for ways to streamline our operation. Currently, we have two groups for technical support. The first is for: directing calls to the proper location- accounting, business services, service, etc. solving simple technical issues- connectivity, wrong password, wrong username, general application configuration/setup, etc. If a problem is a more complex technical issue and cannot be resolved by our representative within a 15 minutes or so, the caller is transferred to the second group to speak with a technician ASAP.

1.13 Do not contact Support if...

...you have questions that should be directed to other departments. We answer TECHNICAL questions regarding connecting to MindSpring and using the software we provide (http://www.mindspring.com/prod-svc/apps.html). Within this framework, we provide support for the Macintosh, Windows 3.x, and Win95. For more details about policy and system requirements take a look at:

http://www.mindspring.com/prod-svc/sysreq.html

Questions regarding establishment of new accounts should be directed to Sales:

404-815-0082 or 800-719-4332

sales@mindspring.com

 

Questions regarding changes to an existing account or billing of an existing account should be directed to Service:

800-719-4660

service@mindspring.com

1.2 Email support

1.21 General information

Phone support and email support function somewhat independently. If you email us, we will email you back :) If you cannot receive email, please call us. Some issues require more correspondence than others. Please provide as much detail as possible when emailing us and please use the "reply" option so that previous messages will remain quoted in the body of the message. Also, please see section 1.13 of this FAQ

1.22 eMail responsiveness1.22 eMail responsiveness

Here is a statement from Dave Lerch issued on 12/02/96:

Generally, our email response time is less than 24 hours, but there are
situations when our response can take longer. While you wait
for a response from support, there are a couple things you can do to help us:

1) If you require a more immediate response, try the following resources
first:

Try looking for the answer in your User's Guide.

Look for an answer to your question in our online MindSpring Help Desk

http://help.mindspring.com

Post your question to the mindspring.help newsgroup.

2) If you send a question to support, and find an answer before you receive
a response from us, please email

itsfixed@mindspring.com

to let us know.

If you've been waiting longer than 48 hours for a response from tech support,
please email me personally. I'll find out what is happening, and make sure you
get a response to your query.

Thanks for your patience.

lerch
Support Email Coordinator
lerch@mindspring.com

1.3 The mindspring.help newsgroup

We provide technical support within the mindspring.help newsgroup. This help system is relatively undeveloped compared to the phone and email support systems. Currently the system for newsgroups is this: I read through the posts and answer what I can. If I cannot answer the question and it seems to fall in the realm of Things We Support, I try to find the answer or get some sort of official statement regarding the issue. I am pleased to say that there are a number of extremely knowledgeable users who regularly answer questions in the group as well (Thank you).

Part 2- MindSpring installation, connection, and network issues

2.0 System requirements

from http://www.mindspring.com/prod-svc/sysreq.html

If you will be using our software package for Windows 3.1, 3.11, or Win95, you'll need a 486 processor or better and 8MB RAM or better. You will also need a serial port with a 16550 UART chip.

Users of our Macintosh package will need System 7.1 or higher, and 8MB RAM. You will also need a hardware handshaking cable for your modem.

Anyone using the service needs a working modem of 14.4 baud or faster modem capable of hardware handshaking.

Harddrive space required varies greatly depending on the version of our software and what components already exist on you your system. The installation process initially requires almost double the drivespace because the files need to be decompressed onto the drive prior to actual installation of the software. 50 megabytes should be more than enough for a full installation of any version of our software we are currently distributing.

2.1 "MindSpring version 2.04 spontaneously reboots"

If you have recently received MindSpring software version 2.04 and you are having spontaneous reboots, we believe we may have a solution.

1. First, go into your MSPRING2 directory (c:\mspring2) and type:

COPY CONNECT.EXE CONNECT.OLD

2. Get the file connect.exe from:

ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/users/ronin/connect.exe
or
ftp.mindspring.com/users/zohar/connect.exe

3. Copy CONNECT.EXE into c:\mspring2, overwriting the previous version (don't worry, you made a backup earlier).

4. For your version of Windows, follow the appropriate instructions...

Windows 3.X users: Next, exit completely out of Windows and run SCANDISK and tell it to automatically fix any errors it finds. Then run DEFRAG and do a Full Optimize on your drive. These programs will fix any errors on your drive as a result of rebooting while still in Windows.

Windows95 users: Next, run SCANDISK and DEFRAG while in Windows. (Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools) These programs will fix any errors on your drive as a result of rebooting while still in Windows.

5. Then connect to MindSpring and see if that solves the problem.

***Note: If you do encounter reboots afterwards (which is unlikely), go into your config.sys and set files=50, buffers=40 and disable Smartdrive in the config.sys and autoexec.bat (if it's active). Also, try disabling your screen saver in Windows.

As always, if this does not fix the problem, please call us.

2.2 MindSpring version 2.5-32

A few users of our v2.5 32-bit software have experienced Trouble with Netscape and Eudora. The problem involves Netscape locking up or having a GPF in module kernel32.dll or wsock32.dll. Eudora will check for new mail and then freeze. This has been traced to a conflict with the NTSI winsock. We have developed MindSpring v2.6 software that uses the Win95 Dialup Networking winsock instead. Any customers still experiencing this problem can upgrade via our National Upgrade page in the MindSpring Member's Section linked to our homepage.

2.3 MindSpring version 2.6 Pipeline+

Windows 95:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/w95/gen/pipeplus.htm

Windows 3.x

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/win/gen/pipeplus.htm

Brad's Mindspring Pipeline + Install Error Fixes, Tips and Information:

http://www.mindspring.com/~d7dot/Help.htm

2.4 Setting up Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking (DUN)

Window 95 comes with a native dialer that can be used to dial in to MindSpring. This would be used in place of the MindSpring dialer (except for version 2.6-32 which already uses DUN as the dialer). There is a guide on how to set this up at:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/w95/cfg/dun.htm

Text-only version at:

http://help.mindspring.com/newsgroups/faq/win95txt.htm

Once you have successfully dialed in with DUN and have a connection open, you can open your applications such as Netscape or Eudora through your Start menu, through your Explorer, or through a shortcut. You can drag shortcuts for these programs onto your desktop by opening File Explorer, going to the Mspring folder, going to the folder for the program of interest, and dragging the program file out to the desktop.

2.5 Connection issues

Please see:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/gen/gen/connections.htm

2.51 "My true connect speed is lower than my modem's potential speed"

Please see:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/gen/faq/connections.htm

http://web.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq.html#Connect28800

2.52 How do I detect my true connect speed

http://www.windows95.com/drivers/faxmodem.html

If you know of any other ways, please let me know:

checkit@mindspring.com

2.53 Busy signals and other network issues

Here are the steps to follow if you suspect you are experiencing
POP-specific connection problems.

1. Check the mindspring.alerts newsgroup and these webpages to see if
we are already aware of the problem

http://help-cgi.mindspring.com/netstatus/
http://help.mindspring.com/netstatus/psicap.html

Even if you find your POP listed, still fill out the connection
problem form so we can track the trouble:

http://nmc.mindspring.com/poorconns/connect.shtml


2. Try dialing into another POP to see if you can replicate the
problem.


3. Try dialing the local POP with a regular phone. If you get a busy
signal, make sure that you dialed the correct number. If you did, you
need to fill out the rapid busy form at:

http://nmc.mindspring.com/poorconns/fconnect.shtml

(we can do this for you if you cannot get online- just call us)

Listen for hissing or popping on the line.


**IMPORTANT**
If you want to post or mail Technical Support about the problem, we
need to know:

a) The results of the 3 steps above

b) A *detailed* description of the problem you are experiencing (click
by click, sights, sounds, smells, etc <g>) If you are getting an
error message, please tell us what steps lead up to it. Please quote
the full text of the error message to us.

c) Details about your computer: operating system, processor, speed,
RAM

d) Your method of connecting: which dialer you use- click by click
description please

e) make and model of your modem. Internal or external? If external,
are you using a 16550 UART?

f) Which modem initialization string are you using?

g) Which access number are you using? Which ones have you tried?


Ultimately, POP-specific problems will have to be referred to the
Network Operations Center (NOC). Only they can have these fixed (Support cannot). The way to
notify the NOC is to fill out the Poor Connections Form at:

http://nmc.mindspring.com/poorconns/connect.shtml

2.54 "Does MindSpring recommend any specific modem?"

We have had good experiences with USR Sportsters (straight Sportsters- not VI or Winmodem) and Global Village Platinums.

For Win95, our software will use any modem that Win95 will recognize (if using MindSpring v2.6-32, otherwise the below holds true for Win95 as well).

For Win3.x, the stack queries the UART directly so problems can arise with software driven modems- virtual modems, RPI modems, winmodems. I have yet to see a modem pool work with our Win3.x or Mac software.

Part 3- Application issues

3.0 32-bit application incompatibilities in Win95

If you are using any MindSpring software besides v2.5 or 2.6 for Windows 95 (32-bit) than you are using a 16-bit dialer with a 16-bit winsock. This means that you can't use 32-bit applications with it. Not all applications specify 16 or 32-bit. Some like Netscape will simply specify a platform. Often, the Win95 version of this software will be 32-bit. If you upgraded to a Win95 version of an application and it is not working, try the Win3.x (16-bit) version. Other choices are to call Sales and order the Win95 version of our software or to configure a 32-bit dialer such as DUN. There is information on how to setup DUN in section 2.4 of this FAQ.

3.1 Netscape

3.11 Problems with Java script or with Java applets

Java script works with Netscape version 2.0 and beyond. Java applets work with Netscape version 2.0 and 3.0 for Win95/NT (32-bit) and Netscape version 3.0 for Macintosh (that is, of the platforms that we support- I don't know about the other platforms).

3.12 Netscape has General Protection Faults (GPFs) or locks up the system

There are a few possible causes for this (see below).

3.121 If you are using MindSpring software version 2.5 32-bit

A few users of our v2.5 32-bit software have experienced Trouble with Netscape and Eudora. The problem involves Netscape locking up or having a GPF in module kernel32.dll or wsock32.dll. Eudora will check for new mail and then freeze. This has been traced to a conflict with the NTSI winsock. We have developed MindSpring v2.6 software that uses the Win95 Dialup Networking winsock instead. Any customers still experiencing this problem can upgrade via our National Upgrade page in the MindSpring Member's Section linked to our homepage. 

3.122 Version Incompatibilities

See section 3.0 of this FAQ.

3.123 Conflict with Cirrus video drivers

Netscape appears to have an incompatibility with some older Cirrus Logic video drivers. If Netscape is crashing or having general protection faults and you have a Cirrus video card you may want to get more information and download the updated drivers at:

http://www.cirrus.com/support/

3.124 Corrupted cache

Sometime having a corrupted cache file can crash Netscape. Try going to the Netscape folder/directory and then to the cache folder/directory. Delete the files in the Netscape cache folder/directory (or move them if you don't like to delete). You can move or delete the entire cache folder and create a new one if you prefer.

3.125 What Netscape says

The URL I got this from is:

http://help.netscape.com/kb/client/970203-1.html

Below we will discuss some troubleshooting steps that can help you to troubleshoot Windows General Protection fault errors or other Windows system errors - Segment Load Failure, Invalid Page Fault, Illegal Operation, Exception Error, Violation of System Integrity. While there are numerous reasons why a computer system might unexpectedly crash, the troubleshooting steps below are pertinent for most common causes of such failures.

Please make sure to document every troubleshooting step! You will need this information to restore your system to its original status after you determine and eliminate the case of the problem. If you are experiencing frequent system crashes, it will be a good idea to back up your system, or at least your important files. In fact, regular backups is a good idea under any circumstances.

  1. Make sure your system is as clean as possible.

    1. Try to eliminate all TSRs. TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) is a program that loads into memory at startup and stays resident while the system is running. An example of a TSR is anti-virus software. Make sure anti-virus software is not resident in memory while you install Navigator or any other program, for that matter.

    2. Disable screen savers.

    3. Run Scandisk (or Chkdsk ) on your hard drive to check for any errors.

    4. Set your Windows Swap file to Permanent not Temporary.

    5. Prevent any applications from running at startup:

      1. Move everything away from your Windows startup folder - copy to some other location.

      2. Edit your win.ini file in Notepad and put a semi- colon (;) in front of Run= and Load= lines

      3. In system.ini, make sure the shell= line reads shell=progman.exe (for Win3x) or Explorer.exe (for Win95). If your shell is something else, it means that you are using some external third-party Windows shell. Consult the documentation for this program to find out how to disable it (temporarily, for troubleshooting purposes), and restore Window default shell.

    6. To eliminate a possibility of conflict with your video driver, change your Windows video driver to plain VGA.

      1. In Windows 3.x: Locate Windows Setup icon, click on Options, Change System Settings, and next to Video select VGA from the list. Restart Windows.

      2. In Windows 95: Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel. Double-click on Display icon, choose Settings tab, then select Change Display Type. Make note of what is listed under Adapter Type , then click on Change, and select Show All devices. In the left box, locate and select Standard Display Type, and on the left, choose VGA. Restart Windows.

      3. In Windows NT: During startup, choose VGA option. If the problem goes away in VGA mode, contact your video card manufacturer for updated drivers.

      4. To eliminate a possibility of conflict with your video driver, change your default Windows printer driver to Generic/Text only. You might have to install this printer driver first. If the problem goes away, contact your printer manufacturer for updated drivers.

    7. Make sure Windows is not run from a menu system. A menu system is a way to launch applications, including Windows, from some kind of an ordered list you will see when your computer starts up. For example, you might see a blue screen that says “Press 1 to go into Windows, Press 2 to launch MLS, press 3 to exit to DOS” or something to that effect.

    8. Make sure you have adequate amount of free disk space - at least 25 MB.

    9. Make sure you have a valid temporary directory listed under Options, general Preferences, Temp Directory - make sure the directory specified is actually there and there is enough free disk space.

    10. At the c:\ prompt, type DIR *.TMP /s. This will search for temp files on your entire hard drive. Make a note of where these files are located, and delete them. Repeat for any additional local drives. The do the same for the files starting with a “~” symbol: DIR ~*.* /s. Eliminate those files as well. Normally, temporary files created by an application are deleted when the application closes, but sometimes these files are left behind and are cluttering the hard disk.

    11. Make sure you are using the correct mouse driver - do not use Logitech driver for Microsoft mouse. Refer to your mouse documentation.

    12. To eliminate possible memory conflicts, edit your config.sys file, find a line referencing EMM386 and modify it to look like this: device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems x=A000- EFFF, where c:\windows is your actual Windows directory.

  2. Try starting Windows with the special “debug” switches.

    1. For Windows 3.x, type win /d:svxf

    2. For Windows 95, type win /d: fmsvx

    3. Try each of the switches separately. If one of them eliminates the problems, adjust your system for this change permanently. At command prompt, type win/? to see all options, or consult Microsoft Support.

  3. For Windows 3.x: Using Windows Notepad, edit your NETSCAPE.INI (located in Netscape directory) and change the "Use Asynch DNS" line to "No". This sometimes works magic in getting things to work with some Windows networking. Also, if you do this, make sure you set "Max Connections" to "1". (Both of these settings are in the "[Network]" section of the INI file.)

  4. If this does not work, write down all settings you have under Options, Preferences in Navigator, exit Navigator and rename your NETSCAPE.INI to Netscape.old. Restart Navigator, you will have to fill in the Preferences again.

  5. Clean up your Cache and History files: Using File Manager or Windows Explorer, locate the file NETSCAPE.HST (is should be in your Navigator subdirectory) and delete this file. Then locate the directory called Cache (it should be one level below the Navigator subdirectory) and delete all the files in this directory.

  6. If your problem occurs while accessing mail, read the following article in our Knowledge Base: Invalid Page Fault in Navigator mail. Issue: 970113-1

  7. If the error occurs when you are initiating modem connection, you should troubleshoot your connectivity hardware and software. Refer to your modem documentation.

  8. If all these steps fail to eliminate the problem, uninstall Navigator, clean up the system by following the steps above and then reinstall Navigator.

  9. If all the steps above still did not resolve the problem, try this: Reinstall Windows into a separate directory, not on top of the existing Windows (For example, call the new directory WinNew). Install your connectivity software and then install Navigator. If the problem is eliminated, it means that some core Windows files were corrupted. You should back up your important data, reformat your hard drive and reload all applications. Consult your computer documentation or your hardware vendor.

Note: A General Protection Fault (GPF) in Windows environment occurs when Windows encounters an unexpected condition that might cause damage to the software system. It is a way of the system to protect itself from danger, which is often caused by improper memory access - for example, one Windows application attempts to write over memory space that has been allocated to another application. It can be caused by a number of factors: conflict with older video or printer drivers, conflict with other applications, hardware problems, and so on. Sometimes the error itself will give an indication of what caused the problem - for example, a message “A General Protection Fault in module PSCRIPT.DRV” indicates that the problem was caused by a PostScript printer driver, and A General Protection Fault in module SVGA.DRV” means that the culprit is SuperVGA video driver;

For more detais on Windows system errors, please refer to the following Microsoft application notes available from Microsoft web site or by calling Microsoft support:

3.13 Netscape has crazy symbols instead of letters

This is from:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/w95/fix/navigator.htm

There are three reasons that Netscape Navigator might display some text in an unreadable symbol (usually Greek) font under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95:

If you have a font named "Monotype Sorts" on your system, then remove it (via the Fonts control panel) and see if that solves the problem. Some software which installs this font (such as Lotus SmartSuite) might put a corrupt copy of the font file ("mtsorts_.ttf") onto your system, which could interfere with the other fonts that you use.

If you have Adobe Type Manager running, turn it off and reboot. That will sometimes solve the problem.

If you're seeing the wrong font appear on your printouts, then possibly your printer doesn't support the font you've chosen for Netscape Navigator to use. Select "Preferences" from the Options menu, go to the "Fonts" section, and try selecting different proportional and fixed fonts.

There is more info on this at:

http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~oliver/faq/badfonts.htm

3.14 Other sources of Netscape help

The links found on the Help menu within Netscape are very useful.

Netscape support:

http://help.netscape.com

There are links to the Netscape news groups from:

http://help.netscape.com/nuggies/

Netscape FAQs:

http://help.netscape.com/faqs.html

Unofficial Netscape FAQ:

http://www.communique.net/~jgarcia/

or

http://www.sousystems.com/faq/

The Release notes for 3.0 have links to FAQs for CoolTalk and Live3D

http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/relnotes/windows-3.0.html

3.2 eMail

3.21 General information

The MindSpring settings you will need are:

You do not need to include anything in your email address besides your mailbox name@ mindspring.com or pipeline.com (again, depending on which one you selected initially).

Including the city nodes such as @atl.mindspring.com or @ral.mindspring.com will still work but these are unnecessary and may cause unneccesary slowness. The same with @usa.pipeline.com and @nyc.pipeline.com- both can be abbreviated to @pipeline.com

3.22 Additional mailboxes

If you have an account that allows for additional mailboxes, you can have them set up on our system at:

http://www.mindspring.com/acct-mgmt/addmail.html

or by calling Customer Service:

800-719-4660

There are detailed instructions regarding setup of your system at:

For Macs:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/mac/tip/eudora.htm

For Win 3.1x:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/win/tip/eudora.htm

For Win95:

http://help.mindspring.com/modules/w95/tip/eudora.htm

3.23 The difference between a mailbox and an alias

A mailbox is an established space on our mailserver where your mail will be stored when people send it to the specific email address. When you check the mail with a mail client on your computer (like Eudora) and you specify the box, it checks that space. An alias is a nickname pointing to the same space. Here is an example:

Imagine you have the mailboxes: box1@mindspring.com and box2@mindspring.com

and you setup an alias for box1 called workbox@mindspring.com

When you check your email and specify to check box1@mindspring.com you will get the mail sent to both of the addresses-

box1@mindspring.com and workbox@mindspring.com

When you check box2@mindspring.com then you will get the mail sent to the address at box2@mindspring.com only.

3.24 Checking email with telnet

If necessary, you can telnet to the POP server:

pop.[your domain].com 110

Where [your domain] is mindspring or pipeline. 110 is the port

You will need to know the pop3 commands.

from: http://www.freesoft.org/Connected/RFC/1725/index.html

POP3 Command Summary

Minimal POP3 Commands:

USER name valid in the AUTHORIZATION state
PASS string
QUIT

STAT valid in the TRANSACTION state
LIST [msg]
RETR msg
DELE msg
NOOP
RSET

QUIT valid in the UPDATE state

Optional POP3 Commands:

APOP name digest valid in the AUTHORIZATION state

TOP msg n valid in the TRANSACTION state
UIDL [msg]

POP3 Replies:

+OK
-ERR

Note that with the exception of the STAT, LIST, and UIDL commands, the reply given by the POP3 server to any
command is significant only to "+OK" and "-ERR". Any text occurring after this reply may be ignored by the client.

3.25 Configuring Eudora

At the top of the Eudora window you have either a "Tools" menu with an "Options" submenu or a "Special" menu with a "Settings" submenu, depending on the version you are using. Click on the submenu to open it. Within the submenu, there is a left-hand "categories" column.

1) Within the "getting started" category, make sure the POP account shows:

[mailbox name]@pop.[domain].com

Where [domain] is either mindspring or pipeline, depending on what you selected. Only customers who transitioned from Pipeline were able to select pipeline.com as their domain.

For example, if my mailbox name was cdarwin and I had selected to use the mindspring.com domain, my POP account should be:

cdarwin@pop.mindspring.com

**Make sure all characters are lowercase**

2)The "real name" category is optional. This is what will show up in the "who" area of the email others receive from you.

3)Within the "personal information" category, make sure that your return address is your actual email address as this is what people will reply to when you send them email. Continuing with the previous example, it would be:

cdarwin@mindspring.com

**Make sure all characters are lowercase**

4)Within the "hosts" category, make sure that the SMTP box shows:

mail.mindspring.com

(or mail.pipeline.com if that is the domain in your email address)

**Make sure all characters are lowercase**

That should do it.

3.26 Eudora freezes after getting new mail

One thing to try would be going to:

Eudora | special or tools (depending on the version) | settings or options(again, depending) | getting attention

Here you can remove the check from the "play a sound" box if it is checked. This may fix the trouble.

Are you running Win95?

A few users of our v2.5 32-bit software have experienced Trouble with Netscape and Eudora. The problem involves Netscape locking up or having a GPF in module kernel32.dll or wsock32.dll. Eudora will check for new mail and then freeze. This has been traced to a conflict with the NTSI winsock. We have developed MindSpring v2.6 software that uses the Win95 Dialup Networking winsock instead. Any customers still experiencing this problem can upgrade via our National Upgrade page in the MindSpring Member's Section linked to our homepage.

3.27 Other sources of Eudora help

The manual:

http://network1.net/support/eud8.html

Eudora Tech Support:

http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/techsup.html

The Eudora FAQ:

http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/faqs.html

Eudora news groups:

3.28 Mailing lists/listservers

"We don't offer lists, listserv, and majordomo services so we can concentrate on offering superior dialup service. Offering these services would divert resources from our customer dialup accounts. It's a matter of product focus and resource allocation. Therefore, we do not feel that we can offer a MindSpring quality mailing list product at this time."

-Fred Nixon, V.P. of MindSpring Engineering

Here is a page that discusses listserv/majordomo:

http://bcpub.com/rtfm/manual.cgi?menu=server&info=majordomo

Pobox.com offers mailing lists.

http://www.pobox.com/p3/other.html

3.3 Usenet News

3.31 News and authentication

The PSI POPs use dynamic IP assignment and are being shared with other ISPs. To prevent non-MindSpring customers from passing through the IP filtering setup for Usenet access, mailbox name and password authentication were added. It is not in effect for pre-transition customers using the MindSpring POPs yet. Free Agent allows you to enter authentication info and save it. Other news readers may or may not. The Netscape News Reader will require a manual login each time (the save password option only applies to mail).

3.32 Accessing the news server from outside MindSpring

MindSpring does not allow access to the news servers from outside the MindSpring/PSINet network. There are several reasons for this which are explained quite well in this post from one of our chief engineers. 

Newsgroups: pipeline.mindspring.transition
Subject: Re: Good news/Bad news
References: 
	<54mpbd$lh5@news1.t1.usa.pipeline.com>
From: jnixon@arcturus.mindspring.com (John F. Nixon)
Date: 24 Oct 1996 11:17:30 -0400
Message-ID: 

braincel@nyc.pipeline.com(Jaldhar H. Vyas) writes:

| Naturally, I'm not exactly impartial here but I dare say Curt has made an
| important point here.  It can't be in Mindsprings interests to put all its
| eggs in one basket.  Especially if that basket belongs to PSI. 
| Seeing as you'll be sharing PSINet POPs with Earthlink and God knows who
| else it would lessen the burden for everyone if people could use their own
| connections.  And in the future more and more people will have their own
| connections. 

There's several problems with this scheme.  

1.  We don't charge for news access, but for logged in access.  That
means there is no penalty for sharing your mailbox/password combo.  If
you want to do that for your mailbox, no problem.  The most you can
read is the content on the mailbox.  But you can read tons of data
from the newsserver.  In fact, on our demo setup, we have people who
attempt to read the entire news spool!  If this were to happen on a
$6.95 account from a dedicated connection, we'd lose Big Time.

2.  Allowing arbitrary connections to the newsserver permits an
essentially infinite load on the newsserver.  You might be connected
via a T-1 or T-3.  Just one T-3 customer with a multiple connection
newsreader can load down the newsserver to the point that it is slow for
everyone.  We can't allow that to happen, so arbitrary access via
username/password is right out.

3.  We can scale our news system by knowing how many ports have access
(assuming the standard mix of 28.8, 33.6, and ISDN connections).
Allowing connections that aren't dialup would introduce large
variations in the load, and make scaling the system extremely
difficult.  That would translate into expensive, since we want to have
slack in the system, even at peak load.  We'd need to err on the high
load side of the equation.

4.  We don't have an administrative or billing scheme in place to
allow people to purchase news reading privilege for a nondialup
account.  We are really focusing on the dialup market, and at the
present, that would be a real diversion from our target.  It isn't
simple to do this properly.

The simple answer is that our accounts include news service via the
dialup access account.  We haven't planned or built the system to
handle news access by any other means.

| I see Mindsprings side of the issue too.  You don't want freeloaders
| leeching off your news server.  But I'm sure an agreeable middle way could
| be found 

OK.  Suggestions on how we can handle the problems mentioned above?

-- 
cheers, Fred

3.33 How to configure Free Agent for authentication

  1. Go to Free Agent
  2. Go to Options
  3. Go to Preferences
  4. Go to User Profile
  5. Check the box that says, "Server requires authorization login"
  6. Enter your mailbox name
  7. Enter your password
  8. Select "Remember password..." if you do not wish to enter it each time
  9. Go to System Profile

Make sure that the news server is: news.[your domain].com where [your domain] is pipeline or mindspring. This will depend on which you selected when you transitioned (if you transitioned from pipeline).

If problems still occur, try running mssetup.exe and make sure that all the data you enter is the same as that on the sheet you were sent with your MindSpring kit.

If you have questions regarding your password, please call Customer Service:

800-719-4660

3.34 How to create newsgroups

Take a look at:

http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/usenet/creating-newsgroups/part1.html

OR if you want to create an ALT. newsgroup:

http://www.math.psu.edu/barr/alt-creation-guide.html

3.35 Configuring a viewer to work with Free Agent

Free Agent will launch the application that Windows associates with the file type you are trying to view. You can change the associations in

program manager (or winfile if win95) | file | associate...

3.36 Other Sources of Free Agent help

from http://www.forteinc.com/agsup/

Agent and Free Agent FAQ:

http://www.forteinc.com/agsup/csfaq.htm

News groups:

alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent
comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.news

3.4 IRC

3.41 Banned or klined

If you have been unjustly banned or klined from an IRC server, let us know the following:

Please send this information to:

ircabuse@mindspring.com

We will do what we can.

3.42 Server down or busy

Please try using MindSpring's IRC server. The address is irc.mindspring.com

3.43 "What is IdentD?"

IdentD is an IRC function which allows a server to verify a user's IP address, providing added security. Many IRC servers require it now. Not all IRC clients support IdentD.

mIRC can act as an ident server and sends the specified User ID and System as identification. This server will be more useful to some people than others. In general it is better to leave it active as some systems might refuse a connection if there is no reply to an ident request.

User ID can be your account or user name on your system. For most people this will be the User ID portion of their email address (the text before the @ sign).

System identifies your operating system. For all intents and purposes, replying with a value other than UNIX would not be very useful for most people.

Port should usually be 113.

NOTE: This server will reply to ALL ident queries sent to the specified port ie. it is not limited to replying to an IRC server for mIRC. If you have turned on the identd server and it isn't replying to identd queries then it is probable that the type of internet account you have is preventing mIRC from replying, or that another program is running which has control of the identd port.

3.44 Other sources of IRC help

3.5 WinTalk

check out: