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NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists · **Released**: 05-14-2004

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

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 is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

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

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.
Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
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

AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to 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.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

Provided option of not importing attachments
Provided option of pause between messages
Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
Provided "Default Footer" option
Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
(written originally by KevinM)
Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
(use prefix)
Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
as vB3.0.3
Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
each group.
Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
Scheduled task log is now working
Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

Intex · #2 05-15-2004, 08:29 PM

Very nice work - I'm yet to install, but I'm sure many members will find it useful as with the first version.

lierduh · #3 05-16-2004, 12:27 AM

I reserve this post position for support FAQ. This way it will be easily found and referred to.

If you have problem retrieving and posting messages, please make sure your web server can access the NNTP server.

If you have shell access to your web server either by telnet or ssh. You can test the server access using:

=============================
First, ssh or telnet to your web server.

Then telnet the news server from your web server. For example:

[ns@mb eyoforums]$ telnet msnews.microsoft.com 119
Trying 207.46.248.16...
Connected to msnews.microsoft.com (207.46.248.16).
Escape character is '^]'.
200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.1146 Version: 6.0.3790.1146 Posting Allowed
GROUP microsoft.public.access
211 13988 1 86055 microsoft.public.access
ARTICLE 86054
==============================
ie. after telnet to the NNTP server by using "telnet msnews.microsoft.com 119"
type
GROUP group.name
then type
ARTICLE xxxxx

(xxxx is the post number)

You should get the whole article including the header. If the telnet does not even work. There is no point trying to fix the gateway.

You can do other things while you are under the telnet session. Type "help" will get a list of the commands you can use. To quit a telnet session, type push Ctrl key together with "]" without the quotes.

Server Crashed during the creation of gateway tables, now I am getting MySQL errors when open AdminCP interfaces

The best way to do when this happens is to delete both nntp_groups and nntp_settings tables. Open the AdminCP interfaces. These tables will be recreated by the AdminCP interfaces. Tables will also be upgraded to the latest version automatically.

It tries to download instead of displaying the contents on the screen when I run it manually

Please fix the Windows registry following the instruction here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=ie600

The gateway retrieves the messages our forums sent

This usually happens if the news server rewrite your Organization header, eg. to insert advertising etc.

Please set the "No Organization Check" to '0' without the quotes.

Which newsgroup providers do other forum owners use?

Please check out this thread:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=75232

Erwin · #4 05-16-2004, 04:05 AM

To upgrade from the beta vB3 version in the vB2 hack thread to this new vB3 version, you need to upload the new files here, and then run these queries before running the new gateway to add the new nntp settings variables:

PHP Code:


			
INSERT INTO `nntp_settings` VALUES (NULL, 'Is Gateway Running', 'is_running', '0', 'Check if another instance of gateway.php is running', NULL, 0, 0);
INSERT INTO `nntp_settings` VALUES (NULL, 'Last Time Run', 'last_run', '1084316100', 'Last time the gateway.php was run', NULL, 0, 0);
INSERT INTO `nntp_settings` VALUES (NULL, 'Honour No-Archive', 'honor_no-archive', '0', 'Do not import the message if the message has the X-No-Archive header set to yes. Google Group honours this Non-standard header.', NULL, 0, 0);
INSERT INTO `nntp_settings` VALUES (NULL, 'Last Max postid', 'last_postid', '0', 'The max postid in post table when the script was last run', NULL, 0, 0);

Otherwise, this new gateway.php won't work with the old settings.

Cap'n Steve · #5 05-16-2004, 08:53 PM

Cool. Anything's better than google's interface.

Majik? · #6 05-16-2004, 11:32 PM

What exactly do I need to be abl to run this? I use SSH to connec tto my Web server and while in the SSH session I tried the command telnet news.swiftel.com.au 119, but got the error bash: telnet: command not found.

lierduh · #7 05-17-2004, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majik?

What exactly do I need to be abl to run this? I use SSH to connec tto my Web server and while in the SSH session I tried the command telnet news.swiftel.com.au 119, but got the error bash: telnet: command not found.

That means your host has removed telnet program from your server, or disallowed the users to use telnet.

Above steps are only for fault finding. No need to try if you have no problem.

By the way, in the example, I used my own news server. You need to use your own.

Erwin · #8 05-17-2004, 10:33 AM

lierduh's upgraded USENET hack seems to work a whole lot better than the old ones.

No more blank threads, it actually works faster, and there is less load on the server. Thanks!

allan grossman · #9 05-17-2004, 12:24 PM

Hey, lierduh -

Suggestion for a future release:

I've commented out the entire signature routine in gateway.php to keep my users from being flamed hard by real Usenet users - since you have to be pretty durned old to remember when a signature was

<dash><dash><space><cr>
No more than
four
lines of
text

Setting a database field to skip the whole signature routine to keep Usenet neophytes from getting their feelings hurt might be kinda cool - but commenting out the routine doesn't take a whole lot of technical expertise.

Just a thought

lierduh · #10 05-17-2004, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allan grossman

Hey, lierduh -

Suggestion for a future release:

I've commented out the entire signature routine in gateway.php to keep my users from being flamed hard by real Usenet users - since you have to be pretty durned old to remember when a signature was
Just a thought

That should be quite easy to implement. At the moment, the users can uncheck the "Show your signature" when post. I can have a "disable signature" option in the settings table to disable the signature altogether.

Another thing I have on mind is to create a posting interface which behaves just like a news reader. ie. No BB codes available, just the "> > " for quoted text. It will be kind like WYSIWG of a news reader. This way, it will be much easier to trim the quoted text, and it will reduce the chance of forum news posts getting flamed. :devious:

Right now, I just want to get the second part of the Admin CP interface finished.

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