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

[kjhkjh]

ok I have my news server that I'm paying for: news.tigerusenet.com
I have a username and password for it.

I setup the forum and the nntp settings
I've uploaded the files but when I run the debug, I get the msg:

Gateway version 2.3.2 1 group(s) gatewayed.
Could not connect to NNTP-server. (Permission denied (13))

Not connected
Not connected

Now i thought that this might be because my hosting company is blocking the ports.
I spoke to them and they wanted the ip and port so that they can open it up.

Now I'm guessing that the IP is what news.tigerusenet.com translates to (66.250.146.196). Is this correct?

Then I told them port 119, and they said that they cannot open this up on shared hosting plans...

Can anyone help me get this up and running?

All I'm after is to be able to fill my forum up a little more with posts. So I don't even need forum members to be able to post to usenet.

It's so frustrating.

Please help

[KW802]

Originally Posted by kjhkjh

...
Now i thought that this might be because my hosting company is blocking the ports.
I spoke to them and they wanted the ip and port so that they can open it up.
...
Then I told them port 119, and they said that they cannot open this up on shared hosting plans...
...

Wait... your hosting will or won't open up port 119 for you? If they won't open up port 119 then you'll need to see if your NNTP provider offers feeds on other ports like port 80 (and then you'll need to change the port # hard-coded in the PHP file but one step at a time).

[kjhkjh]

Thanks for your reply.

My host won't open up port 119.

I checked tigerusenet.com (the company I'm using to subscribe to the news server) and it says:

Port(s): 119, 80, 3128, 23, 7000, 8000, 9000

Now it doesn't say if I need to change options or anything there. These numbers are just in the corner so I guess that I can connect on any.

Do you know which is the best port to use there? port 80?

Do I just need to go through each of the php files and change 119 to, say 80?

Thanks for your help...

[kjhkjh]

Originally Posted by KW802

...you'll need to see if your NNTP provider offers feeds on other ports like port 80 (and then you'll need to change the port # hard-coded in the PHP file but one step at a time).

I just changed the details in the php files from 119 to 80. ran the gateway.php script and got the same error message.


This is really strange.
I feel like this is an amazing hack and I'm so close just can't get it to work and am lost about the reason?!

Is it the files? Is it the news server (tigerusenet)? is it my hosting company? Is it me?

I have no idea...

[bashy]

If all you want to do is fill ya forum with posts, perhaps using the free Microsoft account, no user or pass required, theres a good few groups as well, This is what i have done for now

[kjhkjh]

I think the problem is my hosting company blocking port 119.

So even the microsoft news forums wouldn't work at this time. Unless I can get the hack to work on a different port.

Has anyone else had this same problem with their host? Any work around changing the ports in this script. I've kinda tried changin every occurance of 119 with 80 in the php files, but it still doesnt work?

Any advice

[KW802]

Originally Posted by kjhkjh

I think the problem is my hosting company blocking port 119.

So even the microsoft news forums wouldn't work at this time. Unless I can get the hack to work on a different port.

Has anyone else had this same problem with their host? Any work around changing the ports in this script. I've kinda tried changin every occurance of 119 with 80 in the php files, but it still doesnt work?

Any advice

It's a double edged sword you're fighting here... on one side you have your hosting company who won't open up port 119 which is the standard NNTP port while on the other hand you have to find a NNTP provider who supports different ports like 80.

Not every NNTP provider supports port 80 so you need to find out from them what other ports, if any, they offer connections on and then you need to take that list to your hosting company to see which ports they have open. You may or may not find any common ports. You just can't blindly change the PHP file to different port numbers because (a) your hosting company may be blocking it but even if they aren't then (b) your NNTP provider may not offer that port as an option.

Take a step back with this...

- Go to your NNTP provider and tell them that your hosting company is blocking port 119 and then ask if they (the NNTP provider) offer connections on port 80 since that port is open for just about every hosting company.

- If your NNTP provider offer connections on port 80 then try to get the software up & running with a test newgroup first.

- If your NNTP provider does not offer connections on port 80 then try to find a free open access NNTP provider that offers connections on port 80. Most likely the newsgroup you want won't be available but at leat you can get the software up & running as a proof of concept and go from. After you have it up & running then you can shop around for a different NNTP provider.

[bashy]

What i meant was try the msnews.microsoft.com server not your hosting server, add that one as a new server and then add microsoft.public.pocketpc as a group and see if that works..

My newshosting account didnt work for me either so i tried the default server and forun a decent group in that server and hey presto it works...

I am referring to the server that you changed to yours when you 1st set it up, itshould be a microsoft one im sure, but anyway, use them details i have given you and it will work, let me know please, if ya dont quite understand what i mean let me know also and i will try to explain better

Originally Posted by kjhkjh

I think the problem is my hosting company blocking port 119.

So even the microsoft news forums wouldn't work at this time. Unless I can get the hack to work on a different port.

Has anyone else had this same problem with their host? Any work around changing the ports in this script. I've kinda tried changin every occurance of 119 with 80 in the php files, but it still doesnt work?

Any advice

[familyhistory]

I have exactly the same problem! My host will not allow NNTP ports to be open and block all ports!

As I can get them with a newsreader (outlook or others), could there be away of downloading them all every so often then exporting them somehow into mysql??!!

OR,
Maybe I could run a copy of Vb locally on my pc using WAMP, then copying the relevant database onto the live website??? Need to do this a lot though!

What do you reckon?

Thanks,
Dave

[kjhkjh]

Originally Posted by KW802

It's a double edged sword you're fighting here... on one side you have your hosting company who won't open up port 119 which is the standard NNTP port while on the other hand you have to find a NNTP provider who supports different ports like 80.

Thanks KW802, I appreciate your help and comments... I'm well on my way with this now and think that when I have more time I can get it to work how I want.

Originally Posted by bashy

What i meant was try the msnews.microsoft.com server not your hosting server, add that one as a new server and then add microsoft.public.pocketpc as a group and see if that works..

Thanks Bashy. I have found another way to get this working at the moment. I'm just not sure that what you suggest would work either though. Basically I'm guessing that this is the problem in easy terms (someone let me know if I'm wrong)... The script is being run from a php file on my website, it requests access to ports on a newsserver (that could be a free one or a pay for account), so long as it gets a connection (and authenticates - if its a pay for newsserver with login) then the messages are posted in the forum.

With my original problem being my web hosting not allowing connection to be opened for outgoing requests on port 119, this would affect the free and pay for newsservers connecting to usenet groups.

Originally Posted by familyhistory

I have exactly the same problem! My host will not allow NNTP ports to be open and block all ports!

As I can get them with a newsreader (outlook or others), could there be away of downloading them all every so often then exporting them somehow into mysql??!!

OR,
Maybe I could run a copy of Vb locally on my pc using WAMP, then copying the relevant database onto the live website??? Need to do this a lot though!

What do you reckon?

Thanks,
Dave

Dave, I was trying to figure out a way to do exactly that - download the messages locally, then upload them to my forums. I'm not all that bothered with forum members interacting with usenet - I just want to fill my board with more posts. But I couldn't find a way to do this.

I did solve the problem of getting the connection working on a different port, and have managed to import messages. Only problem is with some of the titles, and also the links on the forumhome to the last message in each forum isn't working.

Anyways, 1 problem at a time. Here's how I got my web hosting company to open ports and connect to my newsserver. (as KW802 suggested):

I'm registered with http://www.tigerusenet.com/ (I think it's $7.50 a month - for 15GB / month)
This newsserver allows access on ports: 119, 80, 3128, 23, 7000, 8000, 9000

I had to then keep pushing my hosting company to open port 7000 (because they wouldn't open port 119 on a shared hosting plan) eventually they did it. It took 24 hours for them to process this change. They needed to know the ip address of the where the open port was connecting to so I did an ip lookup for news.tigerusenet.com

I then went through each of the installation files and replaced all instances of "119" with "7000" (only about 3 files needed changing, but i went through them all to make sure - use the easy edit>find>replace funtions of your text editor)

then after running the script (after putting in the settings) and it sucked the messages to my forum.

I still have some issues with it. (Like I haven't been able to repeat the task of sucking in the messages, but I haven't spent time trying to figure this out yet, plus I guess this has something to do with schedul tasks - just getting error messages) I will read through the posts here again.

But I'm optimistic because I sucked them in.

Give it ago, I'm not too sure how good tigerusenet is, but there is no contract, so if they end up being bad, I will cancel and change.

I know that if I was to allow 2 way posting to usenet, then I would probably have problems with this newsserver (maybe most are the same) - because each post to usenet would be from my account. And each instance of my account spamming usenet over tigernet is gonna get me a fine... so I disabled my forum members post from going on usenet (someone earlier in the thread suggested this).

Give it a go by seeing which ports you can use your newsserver on (eg. 7000?) then go to your webhost and ask to open port 7000 for ip (of your newsserver), then change all instances of 119 with 7000 in the install files (port 119 is the default).

Let me know how you go, good luck!