Questions about using 'rn' on USENET

[Y. Tony Lin of Ivysoft]

I am a new USENET user using SCO XENIX 386 version of rn.  Although I can 
receive news just fine, I seem to have several problems that I don't 
know how to fix.  Please forward your comment to me or post news.  Thanks.


Question 1: A lot of Warning messages using 'rn'. 

I have captured the messages that I encountered when I started 'rn' command.
When I typed  
     rn [Enter]               the screen shows:

Warning!  Somebody reset tn.flame--assuming nothing read.
Warning!  Somebody reset tn.msdos--assuming nothing read.
Warning!  Somebody reset tn.talk--assuming nothing read.
... a lot of these ... 

Warning!  Somebody reset comp.os.eunice--assuming nothing read.
Warning!  Somebody reset comp.sys.atari.8bit--assuming nothing read.
Unread news in comp.sys.att             1 article
Warning!  Somebody reset comp.sys.m6809--assuming nothing read.
... a lot of these ...

Warning!  Somebody reset news.config--assuming nothing read.
Warning!  Somebody reset rec.autos.tech--assuming nothing read.
Unread news in rec.games.trivia         1 article
Unread news in rec.games.video          1 article
Unread news in rec.gardens              1 article
Unread news in rec.ham-radio           58 articles
etc.
Warning!  Somebody reset rec.mag--assuming nothing read.
Warning!  Somebody reset soc.culture.misc--assuming nothing read.
... a lot of these ...

********   1 unread article  in comp.sys.att--read now? [ynq] 
... I started to read my mail here... 

I found I can read mails just fine, but these messages just show up too
many time.  If I go from one group of news to another, these message will repeatagain like a loop.  

When I want to delete files, I use 'expire' command.  I also use rm command to 
delete some news in the /usr/spool/news/  subdirectories if I urgently need
some space.  I found doing so will cause 'file not available-skip' type of 
message, but it does not bother me.  Right now I want to avoid these
annoying warning messages. 


Question 2: Can't read some news group.
There are several news groups that I subscribe to cannot be read from rn for 
some reasons.  For example, when I started rn, the screen will say
1 unread article  in mem.general-- read now? [ynq] 
When I say 'y', nothing happens -- it just rolls on to the next news group. 
In fact this file is available in the /usr/spool/news/mem/general directory
and I can read it from the command line, but not from rn.  Also I have to 
comment that I have rearranged the sequence of the .newsrc file so the reading
sequence can fit my interest.  If next time I come in 'rn' command again, 
the screen will show the same file to be read, but rn does not allow me to read.
I suspect that there may be a pointer missing or changed.  So far, the .newsrc
file is the pointer file I know that shows the files that I can read.  What
else are the pointers? How do I fix this problem

All help will be greatly appreciated.
 
-- 
Y. Tony Lin	Phone: (901)763-2956  Fax: (901)683-8099
Ivysoft International, Inc., Memphis, Tennessee
UUCP: {fedeva,chromc,rutgers}!dynasys!ivysoft!tonyl