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Find answers to Frequently Asked Questions for First Generation Firebirds that have been asked on First Generation Firebird-L mailing list. Special thanks needs to be given to all the Firebird-L owners that took the time to respond to other subscribers questions. These pages are continuously updated as new information is posted on the mailing list.
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| Q: | Reasons for Firebird-L mailing list |
| Why did you start the Firebird-L mailing list? | |
| A: | I started this mailing list because I found it hard to find answers about my first generation Firebird. I kept getting a number of email messages a month from people who seemed to have similar problems and from people that knew a lot about the first generations. My goal was to bring these people together but not have unrelated messages that are found on other mailing lists and news groups. |
| Q: | Message Post Delay |
| When I send a mail message to Firebird-L mailing list, it takes awhile to receive the message back. What gives? | |
| A: | I run the mail server from my home computer to keep costs and administration time down to a minimum. The server is on a part time connection which logs into a couple of POP mail accounts. This is one reason for the time delay from when you post a message till you get it. Right now this is not a big problem since message traffic is very low. The time lag should only be 2 hours since I have the mail server set up to connect every 2 hours to check for messages. In the evenings I sometimes have a problem connecting to my ISP so the 2 hour gap could be 4 hours. I want to eventually get a dedicated connections to eliminate the lag time. |
| Q: | AOL 6.0 HTML Problem |
| The new AOL 6.0 can not send plain text messages. How do I correct this problem so I can send messages to the list? | |
| A: |
When communicating with Internet recipients who are not using an email
program capable of selecting which MIME section to view, an AOL 6.0 user
can turn off the HTML using the following steps:
Note that changing the text to normal will eliminate the "blue bar" quoted text indicator, but will not remove some HTML elements of the quoted text. The entire quoted section must be deleted (or simply not quoted in the first place), followed by the re-entry of the text quoted manually, prior to changing the text to normal. Changing the text to normal will also eliminate any styled text that would have been seen by AOL recipients of the message, which cannot be re-added. Testing also suggests that messages with hyperlinks cannot be converted to normal text, requiring the prior removal of the link. |
| Q: | Replying to a Message Error |
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I was replying to a message but my message got bounced back to me with the following message:
Unfortunately your message was rejected by our mail list server for the following reason: Contained the list footers. Please only copy a small part of the previous message you are responding. Also, do not copy the list footers since they will be added again when the message is processed. This should cut down on the amount of unnecessary text. Reference from the Welcome File: (1.09) - When responding to a message on First Generation Firebird-L, be sure to make clear to which message you're responding, either by excerpting part of the earlier message or summarizing/paraphrasing the applicable content. Also, when you're responding to a post of more than a few sentences, please do not include the entire text of the message to which you're responding so bandwidth is not wasted. Instead, excerpt a small part of the original message so that we know what message you are replying. | |
| A: |
To fix this, "copy" and "paste" only a SMALL portion of the message you are replying to so we know what you are answering or commenting about in the new message.
Some mail software programs allow you to do this automatically by highlighting the portion of text in the current message and then clicking on the reply button. This opens up a new outgoing mail message ready for you to type your reply. In the new message, the important text you had highlighted is quoted which shows what you are responding to for others to follow. |
| Q: | Sending a Messages Error |
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I was sending a message to the list but my message got bounced back to me with the following message:
Unfortunately your message was rejected by our mail list server for the following reason: Did not use 'test/plain' only. To help make the First Generation Firebird-L list enjoyable for Digest Subscribers and all older email software subscribers, I am asking for all messages to be sent in 'text/plain' only. If 'text/html', Rich Text, etc. is used, older email software is receiving extra text which is shown at the bottom of this message. Reference from the Welcome File: (2.02) - Sending attachments or files along with email messages is not allowed. Turn MIME html coding off in your mail preferences when sending messages to the list. Use ascii/plain text only. Older browsers do not support html MIME formatting, and these attachments and MIME html coding show up as garbage or extra text. | |
| A: | To fix this, turn off the HTML encoding for the current message in your settings for all messages or in your settings for messages for the mailing list. See below, "How to turn HTML coding off," for further instructions. |
| Q: | How to turn HTML coding off |
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How do I comply with the following instructions: * ..turn off MIME html coding in your mail preferences when sending messages to the list. Use ascii/plain text only. Older software do not support html MIME formatting. These attachments and MIME html coding show up as garbage or extra text. | |
| A: |
If your email client has different steps, send them using the 'Report a Problem or Suggestion' button found at the bottom of this page so I can add it to the FAQs.
------------- Tips to get you started: **To turn HTML off in Internet Mail Under the Mail|Options|send menu, you can select "Mail sending format" as "HTML" or "Plain Test". Click beside "Plain Text". All messages go out in plain text. ------ **To turn HTML off in Outlook 98 Go into the address book and select the properties of the list (Firebird-L) you send the messages to. In the properties dialog, select the "SEND E-MAIL USING PLAIN TEXT ONLY". ------ **To turn HTML off in Outlook Express From the main menu, select Tools|Options|Send, and click "Plain Text" under "Mail sending format". ------ **To send the current message in plain text (Internet Mail OR Outlook Express) When editing a message in either Internet Mail or Outlook Express, one of the top menu items is "Format". One of the selections is "Plain Text". Click that - only the message you are editing will be sent in plain text. If you normally want HTML as the default, this option is the best PROVIDED YOU REMEMBER TO SELECT PLAIN TEXT. ------ **To turn HTML off in Outlook for Macintosh If you are using Outlook and you are on a Macintosh, try going into 'preferences' and select 'message composition' and in that pane, select 'plain text' and 'use internet quoting'. |
| Q: | WINMAIL.DAT files / turn off |
| How do you turn off WINMAIL.DAT files / turn off so people on the list do not receive these attachments. | |
| A: |
If your email client has different steps, send them using the 'Report a Problem or Suggestion' button found at the bottom of this page so I can add it to the FAQs.
------------- Doing the two things below *should* stop the problem we've been having with your email program's appending large blocks of code to your posts. You need to configure your mail reader (Microsoft Outlook OR Explorer) as follows: 1) Modify the Internet addresses in a your personal address book (PAB) to NOT send rich-text information by clearing the "Always Send To This Recipient In Microsoft Exchange Rich-Text Format" check box in the 'SMTP-Address' property page of the Internet address in the PAB. To obtain the properties of an entry in a PAB, select the entry and choose Properties from the File menu. 2) Configure the Internet Mail Connector (IMC) to NOT send rich-text information by following the steps below: a. Bring up the properties of the Internet Mail Connector. b. Select the General property page. The 'Send Microsoft Exchange Rich Text' list box controls the sending of rich-text data. There are three values to choose from: - If the value is set to USER, the recipient properties are used to determine whether or not to send rich-text information. - If the value is set to ALWAYS, rich-text information is always sent, regardless of the recipient properties. - If the value is set to NEVER, rich-text information is never sent. YOURS should be set to USER or to NEVER. (You can also configure whether or not to send rich-text information on a per-domain basis. To define e-mail domains and the message settings for each domain, click the E-Mail Domain button and set the domain of our list address to NOT have rich-text info sent to it.) |
| Q: | Unsubscribe |
| How do I unsubscribe from the First Generation Firebird-L mailing list? | |
| A: |
Using the email address you subscribed with, send a message to: Firebird-L-off@oakmediacreations.com Make sure you send the message as 'plain text' and not 'HTML' encoded. |
| Q: | Switch Email Address |
| I just switched email account and would like to use my new account for receiving mail from the mailing list. How do I switch email accounts subscribed to the mailing list? | |
| A: |
I have taken care of this for you but anyone else wondering how this is done....
All you need to do is send a message using your old email account which unsubscribes the old address to: Firebird-L-off@oakmediacreations.com Then send a message with the new email account which subscribes the new address to: Firebird-L-on@oakmediacreations.com If you no longer have access to your old email address: 1. Feeling brave and comfortable with your software, you sometimes can fake it with your new provider by setting up a dummy email account in your software with some of your old settings (Old: email address; New: email account, SMTP Send). This is what I did in your case. 2. Send me your information (what you want, digest or regular, old email address, new email address) privately using my email address or use the web Question and Answer link. |
| Q: | Virus/Worms |
| Has the list administrators taken steps to prevent Viruses and Worms? These guys have gotten really slick you don't even have to open a file attachment to get the worm virus. You can now get it just by opening an email and reading it. | |
| A: |
Currently, viruses and worms can be distributed by email through attached
files and html encoded messages. Not the original reason but a nice
benefit for the list to reject html encoded messages and messages
containing normal file attachments. I agree, it is a pain to get around
these filters but necessary for administration of this list and security
of the subscribers.
As an additional security, messages larger than ~12 K, a normal text message is less than this, are not allowed to be sent to the list. Since most attachments which are meant to do bad things to your computer contain a large amount of additional coding or K, they will be bounced if they make it by our filters. Any questions, ask me directly using my private email address - Geoff |
| Q: | Archives |
| Where can I find an archive of past Firebird-L mailing list messages? | |
| A: |
You can find these at the following web address: http://FirstGenFirebird.org/firebird/digests/ These archives are not always currently since I only periodically upload the old archives. |
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