This item is for system problems.  If something on Grex isn't working 
right (line noise on a modem, weird behavior from a program, etc.), 
this is the place to announce it.  Except for security holes.  If you 
find a hole in system security, mail information about it to "staff".

283 responses total.

I have noticed that I see a different MOTD when I log in via backtalk 
than what I see when I login via telnet.

huh? the formatting is a little off in backtalk...but i never noticed
different content...

there are some messages in the telnet version (like the ICNET message) 
that aren't in the BT version

Once again, the net connection is dead.  What's been happening with it?  This
is becoming awfully frequent.

   It was down from about 5:22a to 9:37a today.  I believe that things
are being tested; Christmas morning is one of those prime times to test
things out.
   I wouldn't say they're awfully frequent, just noticeable enough that
we can remember them from one outage to another.  Given the donation of
the ISDN link, I'm willing to accept these occaisonal outages as a part
of the package.  Most of them have been at off-peak times for us local
folks.

I am unable to connect via compuserve. I get a login prompt, but that is
quickly dropped with a message that the connection was closed by the host.
I am now connected via a double telnet via Michnet.

Re resp:3:

  Grex actually has three MOTD files - the one with the ICNET message,
  the one with the birthday announcments, and the one with everything
  else.  I think Backtalk doesn't do the ICNET one, which is kind of
  OK, since we no longer use ICNET's connection.  Other than this, and
  formatting, they should always be the same.

   Grex ran out of space on the "/a" partition at 3:54am today.  An
idiot was FTPing an entire OS here (beos) but ran out of Grex before
it ran out of beos to FTP.  Removed it.

STeve, when do you sleep?

   At those various off times when 1) kids 2) work 3) grex allows it.

that should have been 
when {kids, work, grex} allows it

   Hey, the kids encourage grex work--or they can't get on maybe.

I've been unable to dial in for the last couple of hours; the modem connects,
but then I don't get any text.  I'm telnetted in now.

I just dialed in okay, shortly before you telnetted in.

There is apparently one evil modem that is doing that "connect but no message"
bit.

Request to all:  To help keep track of what response goes with which 
msg., please try to remember to put the original msg. # in your 
response.  Some of these confs. have a rapid turnover, which means it's 
possible to come into a conf and read msgs. that have no apparent 
meaning, unless you know which msg. was the origin.

Those that are already doing this, it's appreciated.

(This announcement is getting as bad as that $24,000 for $6 thing...:) )

At least it was well meant.  I always read confs from the beginning and have
not found it a problem to figure out what was being referred to.

put "b n" in your .cfrc

Got busy signals ~1 hour ago.  Then could only get through on a too-noisy-
to-use line.  (Dialed elsewhere & telnetted some, so probably not my stuff
or line.)  I'm in on a good dial-in now.

Re. 17:  Since not everybody reads all confs., this seemed like the logical
course of action.  If you have a viable alternative that accomplishes the same
thing, let me know.

(But that doesn't explain why you put it in multiple items in the *same*
conference.)

Re. 22:  Wrong wording on my part.  I should have said "item," though my
previous statement still applies.

I think just about everyone reads the first couple of items.

There is a problem with sz; it appears to fail on longer files due
to some problem with flow control.  It starts dying at about 5K,
and will transmit files up to about 7k but not 10k.

Am having trouble "forgetting" items in Backtalk.  (I'm using Pistachio, 
and of course am registered.)  I just checked a quite a list of Agora 
items to forget, and when I clicked the "Forget selected items" button 
only about half of the items ended up being forgotten.  I have tried 
re-forgetting the remaining items several times with no effect.

Suggestions?

Hmm, I don't use backtalk a lot, but you might want to query srw and janc -
the designers I believe.

I have a problem that may or may not be related to jshafer's - I use picospan,
and every once in a while it will forget that I've forgotten an item. THat
is, it'll show me the item again as new, even though I've forgotten it.

Mic:  I thought of mailing janc about it, but I thought I'd mention it here in
case anyone else was having trouble...

All I've been getting on my screen is gibberish when I've been dialing in the
last few days. I'm not sure this is getting through.
 .

Re: # 29 - John, that's cool - that's what this conference item is for (:

Update:  I quit backtalk, telnetted in and forgot about 7 items.
Upon my return to agora via backtalk later this morning, 4 of those 
items were still on my "current items" list!  

I tried going into one of the items and using that forget button, but 
it just reset the current page without even attempting to connect to 
grex.  (I did, later, succeed in forgetting that particular item.)

Did I somehow get a corrupted config file?  It didn't seem to loose 
track of which responses I've read.

Perhaps your agora participation file is corrupt.

I don't know off hand what happens if you close your telnet session without
either exiting Picospan or at least going to another conference, but it seems
possible that your participation file doesn't get updated.  

(There is a command - I think it's "set autosave" which, for your current
session, causes Picospan to update your participation file as you deal with
each item.  That might fix your problem.)

That sounds like it might be what's happening to me, since I usually don't
quit picospan before I quit. Hmm...

This response has been erased.

The official address for reporting Backtalk problems is 
backtalk@hvcn.org .

Re. 24:  That's an assumption, not a fact.  And you know what they say about
assuming...  8-)

I got busy signals for a few minutes at a time three times with week, at 4
and 7 pm on a weekday and about 6 last night (Sunday).  This is tolerable,
but I would not want to see another phone line dropped.  It took only about
5 minutes wait to finally get connected.  How long do telnetters wait?

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss