For the alias problem, try changing the # to the actual channel name. If the channel name is going to vary, then you'll have to pass the channel name to the alias, then reference it using $1, $2, $3, ... (or whatever happens to be the appropriate identifier)
Regarding the INI file question, I'm sorry, but I think the only way to do that would be to write the values that you want to stay the same to the ini file, then read the ini file.
