hi Alex...Please help,here. I'm mighty worried. Please help

[aida]

Hi Alex. Since we last communicated, I have opened the zip file you sent me. I have also
executed the file as you directed. Unfortunately, this has not helped my problem. I still
cannot successfully execute an XPAT. My latest attempt was in cache.newsfeeds.com
Now I have a new error which appears. I am sending you a picture of the newest error.
I am writing this so I can also hopefully utilise the help in the forum as well. Thank you
so very much. Someone mentioned to me about searching in ALL the newsgroups on one
single server. I apoligise I did not answer this earlier. It is critical and essential that XPAT
perform this particular function for me. Why? Because many times I may want to look
for.....(let's say example,) a particular poster. I wish to know what newsgroups the poster
posts in. Since the names of newsgroups,in many cases, have nothing to do with the partic-
ular topic (there are a WHOLE bunch like this) I have to be able to do a full thorough
search of every group on the particular server in order to get the complete information I
need
Thanks
aida

[aida]

*looks about and does a dance* hi alex I'm here. Did you get my last
e-mail?
Much consideration and gratitude
aida

[aida]

*lights a fire and heats some bread and butter pudding in a pan* please help me,here this is mighty important

Hi Michael,

It was a temporary error, probably newsfeeds were changing dns record of the server at the time.
You can just invoke "cmd" from the "run" windows dialog and then invoke ping cache.newsfeeds.com, here I get an ip address, if you see it there newspro will be able to get it and there will be no such error.
As I mentioned earlier the news protocol doesn't have a command to look on all server, newspro makes it easier to search in a number of newsgroups but it still works within the standard protocol.
For text groups you can search google and for binary groups there is www.binaries.nl

Cheers,
Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael
To: Alex Birj
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 6:13 PM
Subject: Please help


Ok I did the ping..everything showed up. As far as this www.binaries.nl....ok I respect the tool (software) but that isn't going to help me at all. The reason being there are just a scant number of newsgroups in that list there that are offered for a person to commence their XPAT. Now, keeping in mind my same original goal which is ONE server-ALL newsgroups (and I explained why I needed to commence my XPAT like that) I simply need to know this.......well actually I need to determine this...Ok if Newsfeeds.com isn't going to be compatible with an XPAT search (and they CLAIM they don't support it) even though Newsfeeds touts a FULL web-page showing configuring Newsfeeds with Newspro......isn't that something? unbelievable if you asked me! Well the one lesson that I have learned through this awful ordeal (and it's vital) is this

Newsfeeds does N-O-T support XPAT in A-N-Y way period.
Ok, took me all this time to figure it out....So hopefully the next Newsfeeds customer will not have to go through the same hell I have
been through.
Now to my vital important question
Can anyone tell me if http://www.newscene.com supports XPAT?
Yes,I read all the FAQ and everything else there at the site.
No mention of XPAT in the negative or positive. Please help me.
Does anyone know if newscene supports XPAT? I need your help baaaad.

[aida]

hi Is there anybody here that can help me with this question? Thank you so much,here

[murgoob]

Newsfeeds does N-O-T support XPAT in A-N-Y way period.
Ok, took me all this time to figure it out....So hopefully the next Newsfeeds customer will not have to go through the same hell I have
been through.

I'm a subscriber to newsfeeds. I do XPAT searches all the time.

I make a new group and start it with a # sign and open it up.
Then I put in the search requirements, newsgroups to search, click start, and WHOOSH.. after a minute or two, search results start appearing.

What errors (if any) are you getting??
Can you connect to the newsfeeds servers ok and download normal headers? (Not from an XPAT search)

[aida]

Oh my lord have mercy *pounds head against the wall several times* I've been working on this problem now here in the forum for several weeks. It just has not worked for me so far. I do exactly what you just said and it never works. I am utilising just one server whilst doing my XPAT but I must be able to utilise ALL newsgroups within that one server whilst I am doing my XPAT. I have typed in e-mail after e-mail from alex. I follow his directions to the tea. It still is not working. Every time I do an XPAT I get a new error message which stops the XPAT in its tracks.

[murgoob]

One server and every newsgroup on that server? Oh my! That would result in lots and lots of server side processing. From what I understand with XPAT searches, is that the server only searches one group at a time. When you type in several groups in the XPAT dialog box, its just telling newspro to issue multiple search requests to the server.
Are you saying you're having an XPAT search 1000s of groups?

That could take a very long time depending on the retention the server gives. Is newspro timing out with errors? or the server? Possibly both dont like the idea of 1000s of XPAT requests.

Any problems with XPAT on single group searching?

Looking back at your previous posts, you have one server set up in newspro.
Goliath-East.newsfeeds.com.
First of all, the goliath servers have like 8000 groups on them. And they're all pretty much large binary groups with decent retention. It would take hours of waiting to finish even the simplest XPAT search for every group on goliath.

Also, you're getting an 'Connection Refused' error from the server.
Does this happen with everything to do with that server? Getting headers, Posting, etc? Last month, the goliath-west server was handing out "Connection Refused" errors for no good reason. The newsfeeds tech people said it was a problem with the server and they fixed it. Perhaps the east server had problems too and could now be fixed?

The big questions are:
Are you able to retrieve headers normally from the goliath-east server?
Have you tried an XPAT search only on one group?

I would suggest:
1. Pick a small-medium sized group
2. Subscribe to it
3 Download all headers
4. Pick a header you like -> write down a key word from the subject line
5. Create a new group -> name it #testing
6. In the XPAT search dialog, put in that key word to search and put just that group.
7. Start the XPAT search
8. Let us know the results. Any error msgs, etc.

[bassie]

newscene supports XPAT, i am a newscene users for about a year.

The next sentences are related to xpat search in newscene:
In an xpat search you must select "case sensitive" otherwise the search does not work.
So if you don't select "case sensitive" then it won't find it even when you exactly got the case right.

So for example the file is called "Cataloque" and you are looking for substring "Cat" it will be found only when you select "case sensitive".
When "case sensitive" is not checked, nothing will be found.

Next sentences are related to searching in the servers of my ISP: it rocks!! I don't have to select "case sensitive". I just type in the word i am looking for and then it is found! So cat or Cat does not make a difference.

[aida]

Well,firstly I stopped utilising Goliath server for XPAT after someone here told
me the problem with Goliath and XPAT.
I have been utilising Cache since then. It does appear to be functioning much better.Secondly, I explained earlier why my necessity for searching every group was necessary. I gave an example. I will give another one herewith:
If (for instance) I know a poster's nick.
I shall call him or her "Dodobird". Now as
everyone knows, many newsgroup titles have NOTHING to do with the topic contained therein. Therefore,if I wish to locate EVERY newsgroup "Dodobird" posts in,I must search in every newsgroup currently available on that server. Indeed this does take time. Time I have always alotted,whether it is days OR even more. Now,also as I indicated the the web site (search site) "nl" (i apoligise I cant recall the entire URL) but I DID go there. I DID look at it. That site is useless to me. It offers a tiny fragment of newsgroups which does not serve my purpose at all.... So now I'm looking at a search I copmmenced yesterday. It is still going on now. I am curious though.Alright, now. It's found about a thousand headers so far. How do I know when its finished? Both lights on the server and the XPAT group are still lighted up green. Lastly,my original question is one I still need help with. Does anyone know if Newsceene supports XPAT? I can find nothing in the negative or positive on the site saying it does or does not. I really wish to change Usenet providers if they do offer it.

Aida
elikas1@comcast.net

[Kirstie]

wow -- you said " ...be able to utilise ALL newsgroups within that one server " that's a pretty tall order isn't it? - how would you get all the newsgroup names into the box? lol

anyway, for what it's worth, I use EasyNews - XPAT works fine on there and, for someone like you, EasyNews have a members "Advanced Search" engine on their site that allows you to search ALL groups for particular things - I can't show the page but these are the option fields you can fill in to search on:

Subject/Poster > Use the advanced query language help
Newsgroup (blank for all)
Files of type > All Image Movie Audio Archive Document Misc Parity Executable
Output Mode > Standard Thumbnails Hybrid Mode
Files at least > Any size 1K 256K 512K 1M 5M
Posted in the last > Anytime 30 Days29 Days28 Days27 Days26 Days25 Days24 Days23 Days22 Days21 Days20 Days19 Days18 Days17 Days16 Days15 Days14 Days13 Days12 Days11 Days10 Days9 Days8 Days7 Days6 Days5 Days4 Days3 Days2 Days1 Day

etc etc....

[aida]

I apoligise. I think I mis-communicated.
When I commenced my search I did not
mean to say that I wanted to subscribe and utilise every newsgroup XPAT pulled up within its search. Many of them are indeed
irrelevant to me. And, in most cases (at least so far) the XPAT pulls up like...1000 headers and 800 of them are in the same group. The group I already knew about to start with. Now, I suppose my issue is well:

Here I am since yesterday morning...Ok, like I said it very quickly pulled up about 1000 headers and for the last eight hours or so it continues to work (both green lights on) but no more headers. I just wonder if there was anyway that the client (me in this case) could in some way look "within" the XPAT search itself...(my word for this, I know it sounds ridiculous) and see precisely WHAT the XPAT is doing internally WHILST it is functioning my XPAT search.Also I must say ..with ALL of your help from everyone here it's working MUCH better!!! Yaaaaaaaaa!!!! Thank you. Thank you Alex. Thank you all of you.Alright...I'm posing a question to a response I got just above. Ok now this last search I am within commening now:

I did not check case-sensitive. However it still pulled up already 1000 headers. I'm not disputing anyone here but why was I able so far to pull up this many headers with case sensitive unchecked? And is the fact that it was unchecked originally the reason why I currently have 1000 headers and since the last eight hours no more headers even though the green lights are still on? Lastly if the client pulls up one of the message and right clicks;
"reply" in order to see what newsgroup it is coming from, what if all the other fields are blank? I mean what is the best way (I have no idea how to utilise this) to utilise organisation or reference id? I believe these would help me narrow down but theres nothing ever in the field but white space when you click on reply?

[bassie]

He Aida,

don't you read the replies? You asked if newscene supports xpat.

Well i already gave a lengthy reply, read that please.