Before writing technical support, please look through the FAQ below. You may be having
a common problem with Internet Rex, in which case the solution is likely listed somewhere
below. Common problems can also be solved by writing a message in the Fidonet echo IREX.
If you aren't running the most recent version, you may want to try upgrading to see
if it fixes your problem.
If you can't find the solution to your problem below, technical support for Internet
Rex can be reached by sending mail to the support address listed in the user manual or by
sending netmail to 1:342/806.
General questions
When I try to connect to a machine on the net, Rex gives the error "<machine name> doesn't exist, or DNS setup incorrectly". I know the machine is there, what gives?
I downloaded some mail for Internet Rex and deleted it from the mail server. How do I get Rex to process it now?
Internet Rex keeps downloading mail saying it's from person A when I know it's from person B. Why?
OS/2 questions
Win95/WinNT questions
General questions
When I try to connect to a machine on the net, Rex gives
the error "<machine name> doesn't exist, or DNS setup incorrectly". I know
the machine is there, what gives?
The first thing to do would be to check the machine name for typos. If
the machine's name is correct, check the address you've given for your nameserver. (DOS
users can find this in Internet Setup -> Configure SLIP/PPP. OS/2 users with a fixed
link to the net should run TCPCFG and check the nameserver there. (OS/2 users using dialup
shouldn't have this problem.) Win95 users can find the nameserver address in My
Computer -> Control Panel -> Networking -> TCP/IP -> Properties -> DNS.)
DOS users should further check that they have their IP address set
correctly: if you are being assigned an address dynamically and you've given a static
address in Rex's setup, connections to machines will fail. Try setting your IP
address to 0.0.0.0 and see if this solves the problem.
What's happening is that Rex is trying to map the machine name you've
given into an IP address, but it either can't find the nameserver on the network, or the
nameserver can't map the machine name to an IP address.
I downloaded some mail for Internet Rex and deleted it
from the mail server. How do I get Rex to process it now?
If you're using a mail program supported by Internet Rex
(such as Eudora, PMMail, Nettamer, or Postroad mailer), go to the email
setup screen and configure a new email address. Use the same
username and domainname you did for your previous address, but
this time, set Rex to download through the mail spool type for
your mail program. Configure the directories and add the new
email address to the Download via field of the Toss From Mail
screen of the nodes you downloaded mail for. Run rex -f m and
it will process the mail. You can delete the new email address
from Rex's configuration when you're done. If you're not using
a mail program supported by Rex, things get a little more
complicated.
Write down, or remember, the settings for your mail server in
Email Setup -> Configure. Now change your mail spool type to KA9Q type
SMTP spool. Setup some inbound and outbound directories (temporary directories
will do).
For each message you want Rex to process, save the text and headers of
the message to a file called #####.txt, where ##### is some number. (Note: if you
can't save the headers of the message, edit the message after you've saved it and put a
blank line at the top. Messages without the headers saved may not be processed
correctly.) Move that .txt file to the SMTP inbound directory you setup. In
that same directory, create a file called #####.wrk (where the #####s match), and in the
.wrk file put:
From: sender's address
To: username@domainname
where sender's address is the email address of the person who sent the mail,
username is the username you gave in Email setup, and domainname
is the domainname you gave there.
When you've saved all the messages you want to process, run rex -f m and the
mail will be processed as normal.
When you're done, remember to change the mail spool type back!
Internet Rex keeps downloading mail saying it's from person A when
I know it's from person B. Why?
The cause of this and other similar problems is usually incorrectly setup
matching rules. Matching rules must be specific enough to identify mail from only one
person, yet not so specific that they start to exclude mail they shouldn't. In this case,
either person A's rules are too general (so they're matching mail from other people), or
person B's rules are too specific. Change the matching rules appropriately.
A good rule of thumb for developing matching rules for a node is to
start with the line From contains username@domain.com (where username@domain.com
is the user's email address) and go from there. This will keep the node from downloading
other people's mail by mistake. If you think you might receive email from this person
which you want to leave in your mailbox, but still want to download mail packets and
so on, have the other person choose a specific subject for the emails they send which
contain mail packets (eg. "My net's mail") and add a rule to match subjects accordingly.
Internet Rex keeps sending the FREQ help file back in response to
email messages it shouldn't care about. Why? How can I stop this?
Rex is sending back the FREQ help file because you've added the email
address these messages are downloaded through to the All messages through field
of the file request menu. Read the online help for this field: for any email address
given here, if Rex can't otherwise identify the message, it will assume it is an email
file request. If the message doesn't have the subject FREQ (as it probably won't)
Rex sends back the FREQ help file to help the user specify a correct file request next time.
You can prevent this from happening again by removing all the email
addresses you've put in the All messages through field of the FREQ menu. This
won't disable email FREQ processing: any email FREQ received through an email address
specified in the Matching only through field will still be processed correctly.
This merely prevents Rex from assuming that even messages which don't have FREQ
as the subject are email FREQs.
OS/2 questions
Win95/WinNT questions