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

[SaN-DeeP]

I am looking for an immediate fix unable to post/export messages to newsgroups, I am able to receive/import messages properly .

Here is additional information, this was working fine 20 days back and now stopped, I am unable to fix/debug the issue.

Connecting to server, server says: 200 Text.GigaNews.Com
Server responded after user name: 381 more authentication required
Server responded after password: 281 News.GigaNews.Com
Info for microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware at text.giganews.com: 211 19459 1927 21385 microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware

Can we post? server responded: 440 posting not allowed
Posting Message 'Why would one decide to cool a computer with water instead of air ?' from Watercooling. Result: 500 syntax error or unknown command

[Alfa1]

Would it be possible to promote your forum on usenet with this hack? i.e. have each post by a forum member include a reference to your site? If so, then this may yield quite some new members.
Is there a 3.6 port of this hack? I couldn't find it.

[Eccentricity]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

I am looking for an immediate fix unable to post/export messages to newsgroups, I am able to receive/import messages properly .

Here is additional information, this was working fine 20 days back and now stopped, I am unable to fix/debug the issue.

Connecting to server, server says: 200 Text.GigaNews.Com
Server responded after user name: 381 more authentication required
Server responded after password: 281 News.GigaNews.Com
Info for microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware at text.giganews.com: 211 19459 1927 21385 microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware

Can we post? server responded: 440 posting not allowed
Posting Message 'Why would one decide to cool a computer with water instead of air ?' from Watercooling. Result: 500 syntax error or unknown command

This isn't a problem with your code. The server you are using isn't liking your login credentials (381 more authentication required) and isn't allowing posting.

Use this free server here and you will be able to post: nntp.aioe.org (Or get your credentials sorted out with giganews).

Also, if that Microsoft feed is your only one, just use one of the Microsoft Public Access servers. They all allow posting and they are free also. msnews.microsoft.com is one such server.

[Eccentricity]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Would it be possible to promote your forum on usenet with this hack? i.e. have each post by a forum member include a reference to your site? If so, then this may yield quite some new members.
Is there a 3.6 port of this hack? I couldn't find it.

Each post includes a link to your thread and the member's profile in the footer of the post. You just need to add your domain name in place of the default one in the Gateway Settings menu.

There is no 3.6 port and I doubt there will be as long as this one works. There are a few bug fixes scattered out inside this thread so it might be worth doing a page by page scan to see what all is here. The hack, in it's original forum, is quite buggy but the fixes donated by members in this thread make it bearable.

[Alfa1]

Many thanks for your helpful answer. You write that after the fixes are applied, it becomes bearable. What bugs remain?

With this being such a interesting and useful add-on, I do hope that someone will try to port this, include the listed fixes and straighten out the rest of the bugs.

[Eccentricity]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Many thanks for your helpful answer. You write that after the fixes are applied, it becomes bearable. What bugs remain?

With this being such a interesting and useful add-on, I do hope that someone will try to port this, include the listed fixes and straighten out the rest of the bugs.

The last bug I have is that all imported posts are dated December 31, 1969 in postbit view. That is annoying the crap out of me. I am here looking for a fix for this now.

[TMM-TT]

I don't know yet, if anyone has reported this bug - i neither don't know if I've mentioned this earlier. But there is actually a problem with usenet-servers that are configured as peer-servers, especially if the forum-usenet-gateway is spotted on the same server as there are outgoing peers. I've got a mail that made me realize this. I'm quoting myself here:

I think you've just discovered some very strange bug here. For a time ago, I moved the usenet-server to another one, internally because the main server got too high loaded with the service. By moving it to another server that only takes care of the usenet everything started to work again. The problem here seem to be the firewall that forwards traffic to my internal server. It can't handle the NAT correct so instead of taking the connection as a news-reader, all traffic are handled like they were newspeers. This is normally, by regular news-readers fixed by itself, since they are sending the string "MODE READER" as a handshake-command. The nntp-gateway don't do this, so instead of work properly some permissions are wrong on connection.

I've just tested this, and it may be fixed by adding a line into includes/nntp.php - I tried this before but something happened after that and the gateway didn't work as good as I thought. I think it works this time, but I can't confirm... (this part is quite important /TMM)

Find the lines for the handshake part. It should be around line 80 or so. You are looking for:

PHP Code:

                fputs($fp, "AUTHINFO user $username\r\n"); 


Above this line, add:

PHP Code:

                fputs($fp, "MODE READER\r\n");
                $response = fgets($fp, 128); 


By patching like this, you're telling the server that you are a client and not a server.

[KidCharlemane]

This fix did not work for me but I emailed you directly about it.

[TMM-TT]

Originally Posted by KidCharlemane

This fix did not work for me but I emailed you directly about it.

I think that part is just a lastread-issue. Because of the local change of servers the lastread data is probably mismatching with yours. When the gateway connects to the server it reads (I think) the firstpost-lastpost-information from the server (211*) and compares it with the data stored in the database. At least it's something like that. If your value is larger than the lastpost-data sent by server (which it probably is what happened here**), the gateway won't download any new articles, since it thinks that you already have them. Resetting that value in the database might help, with a small risk that there will pop up some dupes.


**) I run a larger server and a smaller, and currently, traffic are forwarded (with a shitty NAT-rule) to the smaller due too high load on the larger. The smaller, unfortunately, have other data stored, that makes the counters differ a bit (and that is bad too)

*) When fetching posts from usenet this command is sent to the server
GROUP news.software.nntp
The server answers with
211 41 63 103 news.software.nntp

Where the data received stands for (from the example):
41 = estimated number of articles in group, 63 = first article number in the group, 103 = last article number in the group

I'm not sure if the gateway does like this, because I didn't find anything about it in the source, but since there is a lastread-field in the admincp, some similar calculations are made, that for the moment prevents new posts to reach you... And yes, that is probably my fault..

[vze2yqtm]

I've added most of the hacks that were added to this thread and then installed it.. It actually took me a couple of hours to go through all the posts. Now I have a problem. I didn't install all the files that came with the original files like the setlastmsg.php, mime.php, pop.php, the XML file (cpnav_nntp_gateway.xml) because it didn't specify it in the Read Me as far as I can tell I used option 2 for installation because it was mentioned earlier in this thread. Now when I try to run mysite.com/gateway.php?debug=1 I get this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ELSE in /home/username/public_html/gateway.php on line 385

I'm running 3.6.7.

Anyone knows what the problem could be? It looks to me like it could be some kind of error with the code DKendall supplied only because the error seems to be coming from that line, but I'm no PHP expert and I'm not really sure.