NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

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.

[AWS]

Originally Posted by kall

*nods*

That's what happened, because I ended up doing the upgrade by installing afresh and importing all of the posts etc using Impex..obviously losing the columns that denoted the threads as being 'old'.

OOPs. I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the mail you are going to receive.

[kall]

*nods*

I think I got most of it last night....a lot of it Spam itself, ironically.

Posting a public apology in the newsgroup and on my homepage is about all I can do tho unfortunately.

[Cluster One]

I installed the script, tried running gateway.php and it keeps asking my newserver for more permission, it gets my username, but for some reason will not get my password. I've checked the SQL database and the password is there, but when I check in the admincp panel, its not displayed.

Am I doing something wrong? I followed the installation instructions completely.

[Cluster One]

Okay I fixed my own problem, apparently an SQL error the field PASSWORD was in capitals and i altered it to lowercase now it accepts my password and is now retrieving messages as we speak.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by chopperp1

+OK Microsoft Exchange 2000 POP3 server version 6.0.6249.0 (dl360mail3.yamner.co
m) ready.
+OK
USER <domain>\<user>
PASS <password>
+OK User successfully logged on.
+OK 21 32830

I also tried forward slash or user@domain.com - didn't work

I noticed you have an extra +OK there before the USER command. Do you need to type a Return?

Also try this:

In pop.php around line 108, find:

fwrite($this->pop_connect, $message . "\n");

Change the "\n" to "\r\n"

[trackpads]

Has anyone figured a way to completely stop attachments from being imported? I just want my regular users to be able to post but not pull in any from the newsgroups at all.

Thanks!

-Jason

[kmike]

Originally Posted by trackpads

Has anyone figured a way to completely stop attachments from being imported? I just want my regular users to be able to post but not pull in any from the newsgroups at all.

Thanks!

-Jason

Just comment out "process_attachments()" call, or add "return;" just after "function process_attachments(...) {" line.

[trackpads]

Originally Posted by kmike

Just comment out "process_attachments()" call, or add "return;" just after "function process_attachments(...) {" line.

Thanks but can you tell me which line and what exactly to do? I found three different areas that I think you mean but I am not sure.

Thanks again for the help!

-Jason

[chopperp1]

Originally Posted by lierduh

I noticed you have an extra +OK there before the USER command. Do you need to type a Return?

Also try this:

In pop.php around line 108, find:

fwrite($this->pop_connect, $message . "\n");

Change the "\n" to "\r\n"

GREAT it works!
One more question, How can I make all messages pulled from pop to appear as posts in the thread, not as threads in the forum?
Thanks,

[fourflush]

I implemented the gateway on my forums and it is working well, except that many messages are not threaded. There was a fix posted earlier, but I believe that it can only be used for mailing lists. Can it also be used to correct the problem for USENET? You can see it here: http://www.theaudioforum.com

Thanks!!