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

[panda1]

Originally Posted by Rik Brown

I only use the newsgroup option but that part works fine for me with vb 3.6.5. -- Rik

Rik,

Every think went fine with me but when trying to run gateway.php i received the following error:
------------------------------------------------
Database error in vBulletin 3.6.5:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE nntp_settings
SET value = WHERE varname = 'last_postid';

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHERE varname = 'last_postid'' at line 2
Error Number : 1064
Date : Wednesday, April 18th 2007 @ 04:59:06 PM
Script : http://forums.networkingland.com/adm...cron&cronid=19
Referrer : http://forums.networkingland.com/admincp/index.php
IP Address : 212.35.77.232
Username : admin
Classname : vB_Database

--------------------------------------------------

any help to fix this

Panda

[manuelsechi]

hi all
what's happen if i have to change NNTP server?
I done it and I was not able to receive any new news message...

thanx a lot for any help

[manuelsechi]

please help

I was using a NNTP server and everything went fine
I decided to change server, and now I'm not able to receive any message.
The new NNTP server works well, because i use it for another service
so I think now it doesn't work because of the last message id number

I can reset that number but I don't want duplicate messages from usenet in my board...

any idea?

thank u

[Rik Brown]

Originally Posted by panda1

Rik,

Every think went fine with me but when trying to run gateway.php i received the following error:
------------------------------------------------
Database error in vBulletin 3.6.5:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE nntp_settings
SET value = WHERE varname = 'last_postid';

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHERE varname = 'last_postid'' at line 2
Error Number : 1064
Date : Wednesday, April 18th 2007 @ 04:59:06 PM
Script : http://forums.networkingland.com/adm...cron&cronid=19
Referrer : http://forums.networkingland.com/admincp/index.php
IP Address : 212.35.77.232
Username : admin
Classname : vB_Database

--------------------------------------------------

any help to fix this

Panda

Panda:

Sorry, I'm not much of help with mySQL. But it looks to me that a variable is not set since the
line "SET value = (some value should be here) WHERE varname = 'last_postid';" is missing a value which should be in your nntp settings. See the "Last Max postid" variable in your NNTP Gateway Settings.

I'd make sure you have the defaults all set there and leave nothing blank.

-- Rik

[panda1]

Originally Posted by Rik Brown

Panda:

Sorry, I'm not much of help with mySQL. But it looks to me that a variable is not set since the
line "SET value = (some value should be here) WHERE varname = 'last_postid';" is missing a value which should be in your nntp settings. See the "Last Max postid" variable in your NNTP Gateway Settings.

I'd make sure you have the defaults all set there and leave nothing blank.

-- Rik

Thanks Rik!

You are right, this is a testing forum and I have no messages yet and the 'last_postid' should be some thing greater than zero.

I did created one message in my testing board and the problem was fixed, but I still have a problem connecting to google Usenet groups servers.... and I don't know if I am providing the right newsgroups sever URL, username and password!!!

I keep getting the following error message:
----------------------------------------------------
Gateway version 2.3.2 4 group(s) gatewayed.
Could not connect to NNTP-servegoggler. (A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
(10060))

Not connected
----------------------------------------------------

Any help will be appreciated


Panda1

[panda1]

Originally Posted by mpascal

Just upgraded from 3.5.2 to 3.6.4

The instructions say:

That worked fine in 3.5.x but in 3.6 there is no such line.
I tried a couple of similar places but then the NNTP links would show up in every menu category.

Thanks
Marino

Marino,

Go to next installation option
---------------------------------------------------------
OPTION B (No need to edit php file)

Just run your AdminCP interface from:

http://forums.yourdomain.com/admincp/nntp_settings.php
http://fourms.yourdomain.com/admincp/nntp_groups.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It worked well with me, but don't forget to copy all hack files to your forum not only the ones in the readme file!!


good luck!

Panda1

[silurius]

Originally Posted by woodp

I'm running vB3.6.4 and Mailman 2.1.9 and using this script to provide gateways between vB and email.

vB->email: Took a while to figure out all the Mailman idiosyncrasies but this part of the script is running perfectly. I'm certain my users will love it.

email->vB: Struggling with this. I can send an email to MailMan's pop account and it will a) get properly reflected to all users, and b) show up in the MailMan archive. Or I can "reply" to an email from the gateway and it will also a) get properly reflected to all users, and b) show up in the MailMan archive.

What isn't working is vB reading the POP3 account and posting the "email" or "reply" into the message board thread. I'm not certain what might be going on except that MailMan is immediately reading the POP3 account, then clearing it and vB has nothing to import? What else could be going on?

Any ideas out there?

(Noob here - How do I click INSTALL to indicate I'm running this script?)

Did I miss any replies to this question? I'm also attempting to get Mailman->vB working.

[silurius]

Originally Posted by silurius

Did I miss any replies to this question? I'm also attempting to get Mailman->vB working.

Never mind. Just filling in a few more fields in the list management vB console and subscribing the appropriate address in Mailman seemed to take care of it.

[amaarvell]

Hi

when i do all the tests on the gateway they show as working and open, but when the cron does a scheduled start, I get n error message as below
.................................................. .................................................. .......
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, carl@whereinhull.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache (Secured-VIPER) Server at www.vistareadygames.com Port 80

.................................................. .................................................. ........

I have checked the logs and its ahowing p as

[Tue Apr 24 23:27:33 2007] [error] [client 83.100.189.61] Premature end of script headers: php-script, referer: http://www.vistareadygames.com/admincp/index.php

Can you shed any light on this

Cheers

[bkaul]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=63669&d=1177602990" target="_blank" title="Name: 1.jpgViews: 34Size: 40.0 KB">1.jpg</a>

The link is to showthread.php?p=0#post0 rather than the actual post number, when the post is one that is generated by the gateway. Any ideas on what modifications would be necessary to fix this bug?