NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V3.5.0Alpha 1 (21 Jul 2005)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack was originally coded by Gilby for vB2. I modified the hack to work with vB3 and have been maintaining and improving the hack. I have now done the modification for this to work with vB3.5.

The very original hack by Gilby can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15

The vB3 version can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65152

Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files.
No need to manually run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

It is not a must to click "INSTALL" for this hack if you use it, I do try better answering the questions from people who do.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the second post within this thread first. It may be surprising, but it is possible your question is answered in the adminCP NNTP settings.

Please always provide more details about your problem. Examples and debug messages will certainly help. Well, if you don't even try to have some effort to compose your question, the answer you get may also not include much effort.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 21 2005 (release version 3.5.0 Alpha 1)

AdminCP xml file is written by Kadence.

• Ported to work with vB3.5.
• Existing bug fixes.
• Debug message can be sent by email or logged in vB Tast Scheduler.
• Known problem: image attachment thumb nail creation still needs work.
• Needs to be done: Documentation.

Quick installation instruction:
1) Upload files to their correct directory
2) Enter AdminCP, click on NNTP Settings once to install/upgrade. Change settings to your like.
3) Click on NNTP Groups once to install/upgrade.
3a) For new install. Run once
http://www.yourdomain.com/setlastmsg.php

Delete this file afterwards.
If you are upgrading from an older version. There is no need to upload this file. Actually this file should not be there except brand new install.

4)
Manually run in debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

[AWS]

Originally Posted by thedvs

this not working for me in 3.5.3, yet was fine in 3.5.1

I upgraded to 3.5.3 and it still works for me. Maybe you deleted the files needed to run it when you did the upgrade.

[thedvs]

@aws no files were deleted or changed

are you sure yours is working properly? im getting no upgdates and this error...
Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /forums/includes/functions_image.php on line 224

[AWS]

Originally Posted by thedvs

@aws no files were deleted or changed

are you sure yours is working properly? im getting no upgdates and this error...
Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /forums/includes/functions_image.php on line 224

Look at my site http://ms-os.com. You can see new threads and posts. Those are all usenet forums.
That error happens when there is a problem with an image attachment in a usenet post. I get it from time to time. Go to newsgroup settings and dit each groups message id number. Increment it by one.

[bogene2020]

AWS or Anybody else using this hack, I would like to know if it uses a lot of space on your server. How much space are you using up now ? Are the Usenet messages stored in your database or are they stored somewhere else ? Can you set older messages to auto delete ? Thanks

[thedvs]

@aws thanks that did the trick, its all working now.

however now with a fresh new import im getting this txt as the posters username on certain usenet new posts...

<topic>
=?Utf-8?B?Zm9ydHdpbGxpYW0=?=

any idea how to combat this?

[volarium]

How can I mask all email addresses that come through? I like the fact that it converts an email address to:
name (AT) domain (DOT) com.

But what if I want to completely eliminate the address? There are two places it shows up:

1. Within the post, if someone posted their email address.
2. In the "from" field, if they used a full email address for their sender name.

Can anyone tell me where in the code I can do this?
Thanks.

[brisk]

hi, I have tw problems:

1: installed it, run gateway.php?debug=1, it hangs for 20 minutes, I have to kill it (click stop button of firefox). However, it seems posts are created in db

2: attachements are not created, instead, they are treated as text posts.

can anyone help me?

btw, the firefox never came back, and I don't see any output from the server, it's all blank.

thanks

[brisk]

same here!!! can anyone help?

Originally Posted by kadafi_alive

I have managed to fix it however, it's WAY too slow.

To download 100 messages, it takes atleast 10 minutes even though I am using a premium pay usenet server.

[volarium]

Here's how I resolved my issue of masking email addresses, in case anyone else is interested.

Find:

$message['text'] = preg_replace('/([-_.\\w]+)@([\\w]+[-\\w]+)\\./', '\\1 (AT) \\2 (DOT) ', $message['text']);

Replace with:

$message['text'] = preg_replace('/([-_.\\w]+)@([a-zA-Z0-9\.]+)/', '\\1@xxxxxx', $message['text']);

Find:

$from_name = from_name($message['from']);

Replace with:

$sender_name = from_name($message['from']);
$from_name = preg_replace('/([-_.\\w]+)@([a-zA-Z0-9\.]+)/', '\\1', $sender_name);

I'm sure it's not the most efficient want to do it, but it seems to work for me.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/vf-vfr-mailing-list/

[sensimilla]

Installed fine but I get this message:

This forum does not allow attachments, therefore attachment ignored.

1. How should i setup permissions?

2. Is there anyway to merge similar threads that the engine dont start 100 same lookin topics?

3. Videos posts looks like this :

M634XG[7"1N!@%&PD0(%EV5SB[:AZ:RU8*>[B#K;'8X6:`/-3"9ZD8G30?8-%

Thanks in advance for any help