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

[ThePimp]

I can't seem to get the UUEncoded messages parsed out to be added as attachments. I get a bunch of garbage posts of random strings. I would also like a way to skip over certain file types when scanning for new messages, such as I don't really want to be importing from the alt.binaries_____ groups EVERYTHING that's on them.

Is there some way to do this? Your "Features" says it handles UUEncoded messages, however, I can't find any documentation on this feature anywhere, nor can I get it to decode the messages.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Cyburbia]

Originally Posted by lierduh

You have not turned on the do_cron_log in the settings. So the log does not show the details.

How about post one new message in the forums, then run the gateway in debug mode and post the entire debug message here.

Also post the SMTP setting here from phpinfo (you can run it from AdminCP).

do_chron_log is on (set to "1").

Changed the "Newsgroup/Mailing list E-mail" for the group to my personal e-mail address.

Ran the gateway in debug mode (http://(my domain)/forums/gateway.php?debug=1).

Nothing was sent to my personal e-mail address. The NNTP gateway debug message that was e-mailed to the forum administration address just read:

Gateway version 2.3.2 1 group(s) gatewayed.
Successfully connected to the '(my domain)' pop3 server.
Retrieving 0 E-mails from the '(my domain)' pop3 server.

That's the entire message. Same as before. Nothing else.

Here's the SMTP settings on the PHP server.

SMTP localhost localhost
smtp_port 25 25

Again, that's all that's there.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Cyburbia

do_chron_log is on (set to "1").

Changed the "Newsgroup/Mailing list E-mail" for the group to my personal e-mail address.

Ran the gateway in debug mode (http://(my domain)/forums/gateway.php?debug=1).

This may be silly, but have you made a new post in that forum before you ran the gateway in debug mode?

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by ThePimp

I can't seem to get the UUEncoded messages parsed out to be added as attachments. I get a bunch of garbage posts of random strings. I would also like a way to skip over certain file types when scanning for new messages, such as I don't really want to be importing from the alt.binaries_____ groups EVERYTHING that's on them.

Is there some way to do this? Your "Features" says it handles UUEncoded messages, however, I can't find any documentation on this feature anywhere, nor can I get it to decode the messages.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Thumbnail creation needs work.
UUEncode is supported. Are you sure the attachment is UUEncoded? Please post a sample of the attachment header and what was imported.

[ThePimp]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Thumbnail creation needs work.
UUEncode is supported. Are you sure the attachment is UUEncoded? Please post a sample of the attachment header and what was imported.

No, I'm not 100% sure it's UUEncoded. It could be a MIME type also. It's just a bunch of garbage characters that the post is like a mile long. I would give you the URL, but a certain word in my URL is censored here. So, let me go dig up a portion of the thread I'm referring to so you can see.

[Cyburbia]

Originally Posted by lierduh

This may be silly, but have you made a new post in that forum before you ran the gateway in debug mode?

Yes, I did. In fact, I'll do it again. Watch.

8:18 PM


8:20 PM


8:22 PM


8:23 PM


8:24 PM


That's it. Nothing about sending messages. No errors. That's all there is. Really.

No e-mail recieved at the NNTP/list address, either. Really.

[lierduh]

Ok, please post all your NNTP_settings. Mark out the ones you don't want to show.

[ThePimp]

Ok, I think I have it partially figured out re: attachments... But I'm getting this debug message, and have set everything to allow attachments...

Getting message number 971197:
This forum does not allow attachments, therefore attachment ignored.

Any idea for what I might be missing?

[Cyburbia]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Ok, please post all your NNTP_settings. Mark out the ones you don't want to show.

There are no NNTP settings shown in the PHP information. Here's everything from NNTP Gateway settings, if you mean that.

Organization organization Cyburbia Forums gateway [Edit]
User Agent useragent vBulletin USENET gateway
View profile URL profileurl http://www.(domain)/forums/member.php [Edit]
http://www.(domain)/forums/showthread.php?t= [Edit]
Email address domain email cyburbia.org [Edit]
Make TinyURL at Length tinyurl 70 [Edit]
View attachment URL attachmenturl http://www.(domain)/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=
Honour No-Archive honor_no-archive 1 [Edit]
is_running 0 [Edit]
Last Max postid last_postid 243556 [Edit]
Last Time Run last_run 1123207512 [Edit]
Send no signature nosignature 0 [Edit]
Send no footer nofooter 0 [Edit]
No Organization Check organization_check 1 [Edit]
Use Post Time use_post_time 0 [Edit]
Skip attachments no_attach 0 [Edit]
Pause Between messages pause_seconds 0 [Edit]
Send message to USENET send_message 0 [Edit]
Default Footer default_footer [Edit]
Strip Footer strip_footer [Edit]
Find Thread by Subject thread_by_subject 1 [Edit]
Global Killfile killfile_setting [Edit]
Generate Debug Message do_cron_log 0

(I reset that last one, so I stop getting logs.)

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Cyburbia

Send message to USENET send_message 0

Can't believe you have not checked/tried this.

Change this to 1 !!!