Please help Cannot commence XPAT search with newly purchased

aida · Post by **aida** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 9:17 pm

Please help. I am a new customer. I just bought my NewsPro today. I apoligise. I am exasperated. I have spent hours reading all of the Web Sites that focus on the XPAT feature of NewsPro. I have not been successful at all at making it work, Please help me. I have been over the web page (XPAT) searching over and over and over and over and over for hour upon hour upon hour. Everytime I run the XPAT search I see nothing happening. There is no indication at all that I have successfully initiated the XPAT search. Please help me. Thank you

Can you send me the screenshot of the xpat dialog?
Do you see any errors in task manager, errors pane to the right of the header pane.
You posted also on forum but we'll try to resolve it through email first.
A few servers don't support the xpat command at all, there are limited servers that won't always download articles but they still download headers.

To make xpat work:

Create newsgroup with the name:

#<some name> e.g. #search

Then define the header field to search, search pattern and newsgroups to search in - all in corresponding edit fields.

Then press 'start', if there are any errors you'll see them in the error pane in the task manager.

Please bear with me. This is extremely confusing to me. My newserver is Newsfeeds.com I "think" I have sucessfully configured it to work with NewsPro. I am not absolutely sure. If any of these links don't work please let me know. 1st link;
http://www..newsfeeds.com/software/newspro/newspro.htm

I have followed these instructions as accurately as I possibly could. My chief and sole purpose for purchasing NewsPro was to be able to utilise the XPAT feature. I had Outlook Express working already with Newsfeeds. I have transferred the .srv successfully. You asked about errors? I saw some authentication errors. These probably mean that Newsfeeds is still not successfully configured yet with NewsPro. I apoligise. I do not understand how to copy NewsPro to send it to you. Anyways basically ok what is happening is when I initiate an XPAT search nothing is happening. Its like I haven't "turned something on yet" in a sense. I believe my problem is that I am seeing activity from Newspro and I am mistakenly thinking it is coming from the correctly configured Newsfeeds.com configured accurately with NewsPro when what I am probably seeing is perhaps the public server. I don't know how to distinguish.In Step 4 of the diagram I sent you, you see the standard servers of Newsfeeds (Goliath-east,Goliath-west etc.) This part is DONE. I was sucessful. They popped up automatically. Next step under that was checking those numbers (in that diagram underneath that) that's all correct. My password and username I put in there as well. That's all kosher. Yet something is STILL badly wrong. I cannot do an XPAT search EITHER on Newsfeeds OR the Public Server.

I appreciate your help. I am mighty grateful for that. Everybody learns differently. The easiest way for me to understand what you might explain to me about this is if you explain stuff in steps: Like this:

Step1. Do This

Step2. Do this

Step3. Do this.

Dear Sir;
Thank you so ever,ever much for all of your counsel up to this point.
Yesterday,I did as you had directed me. I was finally able to figure
out how to make a copy of the program as you requested. I sent this
to the support@usenetopia address because I was unable to send it
directly to your address here.The reason being the files were too large
I created a zip file with everything in there. I named the zip file "Jim".,
I am simply writing you to inquire if you had had a chance to scrutinise
these files? Of course my primary concern still is that I am unable to com-
mence an XPAT search on Newsfeeds or the Public Server. The documents
you sent me were indeed the original references for which I used to figure
out how to commence an XPAT search. Even with this help I am still un-
successful at my endeavour. Please help me. I thank you again so very much!

blackdog56 · Post by **blackdog56** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 10:01 pm

I use the XPAT functionality quite a bit, but not sure if I can effectively explain it to you. To initiate the search I

1. create a new group beginning with a #, to indicate that it is a search, such as #zeppelin.
2. upon trying to get new headers for the #zeppelin group, the search criteria dialog will pop up. I enter the groups to search in the newsgroups field.
3. then I enter other search criteria. For this search I would probably look for subject containing zeppelin.
4. I then click start and I usually bring up the task manager and click to the headers to watch the progress.

I don't use newsfeeds, so don't know if they support the XPAT command, I only use free servers and have great success with them. Post more details on the problems you are having and someone will try and help you.

aida · Post by **aida** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:26 pm

Yes I have been doing that very thing as you described. It simply is not working. I certainly hope that someone will eventually write to me here that can explain to me what is configured incorrectly or perhaps what is not configured as of yet. I thank you so much,here!

aida · Post by **aida** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:35 pm

Hi I would like to send someone here this zip file I created with the diagrams (picture) of the NewsPro program as it is appearing on my computer. I believe someone may be able to then tell me what setting I need to change to fix this problem. Is there anyone here that can help me with this?

blackdog56 · Post by **blackdog56** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:36 am

You can mail it to me at blackdog1056@yahoo.com and I will see if I see a problem. Have you tried mailing it to Alex at support@usenetopia.com?

bruce73 · Post by **bruce73** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 2:01 pm

I use XPAT with Newsfeeds all the time with no problems. If you would like a second opinion you can send me the zip as well at bruce7373@yahoo.com.

Can you pull headers normally from any newsgroup using the Newsfeeds servers? The only times I can recall when nothing happens is when I have disabled a server by giving it a MaxTasks=0 value under Properties>Servers for some reason and then forgotten about it.

aida · Post by **aida** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 4:32 pm

Hi I thank all of you so very much,here. Yes I e-mailed support at usenetopia. I sent them the zip. That was several days ago. I never got a response back. So,if you please, I reckon I will start with Blackdog. I will send you the zip file,ok? Um yes I can pull headers. Bye the Bye that Newsfeeds link I posted here is very helpful for anyone who wishes to help me. Once again thank you SO much all of you!!! Oh wait a minute *scratches head* I'm not sure this zip will fit in a yahoo mail address. I'll try anyways If it doesn't I'll send it to bruce,ok? ok

bruce73 · Post by **bruce73** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:34 am

Received your zip file, aida. Now, I don't use a proxy, so I'm not familiar enough with that to know, but, I would suspect, since your are getting Authenication Errors, that Newsfeeds isn't getting your user/pass somehow (?). The user/pass you have listed there, is that for the proxy or is that your Newsfeeds info? And what about the "Relay thru local proxy"option? Have you tried enabling that and filling in your Newfeeds User/Pass in the lower right corner for each server?

bruce73 · Post by **bruce73** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:35 am

Received your zip file, aida. Now, I don't use a proxy, so I'm not familiar enough with that to know, but, I would suspect, since your are getting Authenication Errors, that Newsfeeds isn't getting your user/pass somehow (?). The user/pass you have listed there, is that for the proxy or is that your Newsfeeds info? And what about the "Relay thru local proxy"option? Have you tried enabling that and filling in your Newfeeds User/Pass in the lower right corner for each server?

aida · Post by **aida** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 5:07 am

Hi Everything is operational now with the entire network of servers available to me as a premium plus customer of Newsfeeds. My problem is that I still cannot do an XPAT search on any of them even though Newsfeeds told me this afternoon that their servers were capable of doing an XPAT search with NewsPro. Is there anyone out there that can still help me? I really need help baaaaaad. I appreciate it so much here. Aida
609.695.0993
elikas1@comcast.net

blackdog56 · Post by **blackdog56** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 10:59 am

authentication error means your user id or password is bad..... Have you been able to do a 'get headers' on a group without XPAT??

bassie · Post by **bassie** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:49 pm

Try to select "case sensitive"

I have newscene and if i don't select "case sensitive" then newscene servers don't even do xpat search.

Also try the following:

when people say they will post with file names like: "Fietsbel.rar"
then start xpat search with "ietsbel" without the first letter. Also check "case sensitive". If all this does not work, get rid of your news provider. Chose another one.

alex · Post by **alex** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 2:45 pm

with newsfeeds should be no such problem.

does usual getting headers work normally?

authentication error means userid/password is wrong.

to set the same userid password on all newsfeeds servers - in properties->servers select all newsfeeds servers, type userid/password and press 'set' under the userid/password edit fields.

aida · Post by **aida** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:20 pm

Hi I got this reply today from the Newsfeeds. Can anyone tell me what it means? Does anyone know if it is truthful or not? I still need help from anyone here. Please help me,here. Does anyone here know of any Usenet Newsservers who offer XPAT with their service? Thank you so much,here
Aida
elikas1@comcast.net*This is an automated message. Please do not reply directly*

Below is the response our technical support team has issued regarding your earlier inquiry.
If this response resolves your issue no further action on your part is necessary.
If you require further assistance please use the link at the bottom of this message or go to the members area.

In answer to your question:

Hello,

I have spoken with my News Administrator and right now the feature is not setup on our servers. We plan on turning on this feature but it will take a little while for us to get to this as we have a few more concerning issues at this time. We will get this taken care of though, just be patient with us please.

Thank you,
Tech Support

Your original message text:

Dear Sir,Today I was assisted by your Technical Assistance Counsel. My issue is being able to commence an XPAT search utilising Newspro correctly configured with Newsfeeds.Together,we made a great deal of progress. I am most grateful and appreciative of your help. At this time I am,perhaps,one or two steps away from successfully configuring Newsfeeds to commence an XPAT search with Newspro. These one or two steps,however, are still impregnable. I spent close to an hour on the telephone with y'all today. I really need y'alls help. I still cannot make the XPAT work with Newspro. Please contact me either by e-mail or telephone so that I can complete this configuration. Thank you again so very much!

Subscription #
Transcation #
elikas1@comcast.net

To view or add to what you just submitted, please follow the link below.

http://members.newsfeeds.com/supportcas ... D=13058469

bruce73 · Post by **bruce73** » Sun Sep 14, 2003 12:50 am

Well, Michael, I don't want to add to your stress level, but I don't know what servers they're talking about, because I just did a successful XPAT for multimedia files and got headers from: cache, multimedia-east/west, goliath-east/west, spamkiller, and anonymous (didn't bother with the text, adult or images servers).

Sounds as if they're feeding you some BS here. I don't understand why their TechSupport would say it's not supported, when clearly it is.

Sorry, bro', I know you must be ready to scream right about now.