NewsRC Problems: Disappearing Newsgroups
Applies to: Navigator and Communicator (all versions)Operating Systems: Windows 3.x, Windows95, and Windows NT.
Problem Symptoms:
"When I quit Netscape,the newsgroups that I subscribed to disappear from the news hostfolder. The next time I run Netscape, I'm back to the three which seemto be there by default, all the time, -- news.announce.newusers, news.newusers.questions,and news.answers."
Solution:
This is usually due to an incorrect path preventing Netscape from finding the file where it stores the information about subscribed newsgroups and the messages you have read.
Look in Options | Mail and News | Servers and make sure that News RC Directory is correct,- it probably is something like "C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\News" but modified for your particular installation path. This entry tells Navigatorwhere to find its News Directory.
In Communicator, the News Directoryis specified in:
Edit | Preferences | Mail & Groups | Groups server | Discussiongroups (news) folder.Close Navigator.
Look in that News Directory and you should find a .rcg and a .rc filefor each news host you access, along with a file named "fat". The .rcg files hold the complete list of the newsgroups on that server, and the .rc files hold the information about subscribed newsgroups and which messages you have read.
The file named "fat" tells Navigator where to find the .rc and .rcg files for each server. This is where the path usually gets messed up.
Open "fat" with Notepad and you will find a list of news hosts and paths to their .rcg and .rc files. All the paths usually should lead to the News directory. If they do not, change them carefully, without disturbing anything else. The fields are separated with a single TAB ... that's important,so don't disturb it.
Here is an example of a news "fat" file where Navigator was installedto C:\Netscape\Navigator :
netscape-newsrc-map-file snewsrc-secnews.netscape.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\ssecnews.rcg TRUE snewsrc-secnews.netscape.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\ssecnews.rc FALSE newsrc-msnews.microsoft.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\msnews.rcg TRUE newsrc-msnews.microsoft.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\msnews.rc FALSE newsrc-news.concentric.net C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\news.rcg TRUE newsrc-news.concentric.net C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\news.rc FALSE newsrc-nntp.ix.netcom.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\nntp.rc FALSE newsrc-nntp.ix.netcom.com C:\Netscape\Navigator\News\nntp.rcg TRUE
