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]

Hi amaarvell,

It is not normal to get few messages in days or even hours.

You can try the following free usenet server : freetext.usenetserver.com ( posting not allowed) no need for username or password to start importing usenet messages.

I thing the gateway.php script is not consistent in it's behavior and it's results.

Right now one of my usenet groups is not updated since May 2nd ,2007 without any known reason from teranews.com or VB.

From admin Control Panel go maintenance and open update counters and rebuild some items there, it might help!.

Also, from admin Control Panel go maintenance and open repair/ optimize tables and repair some tables there, it might help!.

As I told you I am not a coder or programer I am a networking man!

Good Luck!

[amaarvell]

oh crap .. lol
nightmares upon night mares

it downloaded a lot of posts but 2 and 3 duplicates of each one .. how do i stop it doing that
as i now have to find a way to delete 40,000 duplicate posts

hehehe aint i the lucky one
insodently i used msnews.microsoft.com as a server

[panda1]

Don't panic my friend!

You can do duplicate deletion from VB control Panel - Maintenance- update counters- Delete Duplicate Threads.

This will solve the duplication problem, i guess!

If worked with this freetext.usenetserver.com server then you might have problems with teranews.com.

good luck!

[fenris]

Hy,

ich hoffe hier kann jemand Deutsch und mir weiterhelfen.

habe den Hack installiert und es klappt so weit alles sehr gut. Wenn ich aber nun z.B. a.b.mom auslesen lasse und dann im Forum auf den entsprechenden Beitrag klicke, versucht das Forum z.B. eine gepostetet Datei zu öffnen - was natürlich nicht klappt. Wie kann ich das den einstellen, das z.B. nur die Header ausgelesen werden und nicht die ganzen Dateien ? Oder gibt es z.B. nur die Möglichkeit neue Posts mit der Dateiendeung txt anzeigen zu lassen ?

Gruß

Fenris

[TMM-TT]

Originally Posted by bkaul

Attachment 63669

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?

I also had this problem until I changed the code in includes/functions_nntp.php

Somewhere around line 591 there should be something like this:

PHP Code:

        //So that thread preview works
        $db->query("
                UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread
                SET firstpostid = $postid
                WHERE threadid = $threadid
        "); 


... was changed to ...

PHP Code:

        //So that thread preview works
        $db->query("
                UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread
                SET firstpostid = $postid,
                        lastpostid = $postid
                WHERE threadid = $threadid
        "); 


After this I didn't have any trouble with it... I'm not sure it's a correct way to fix it, but it at least removes the zero.

[digital3]

As someone who has never used USENET at all, let alone attempted to find a good newsgroup or set a forum up to run it I am at a loss here. Installing the mod was simple, of course, but configuring it to actually work is another matter. There are a lot of settings in this thing under Gateway Newsgroups Management and I have no clue where to get the information I need to place in these fields. I found a newsgroup that I want to join but where do I get the info I need to connect to it? I can't find these details anywhere on their site. Do I need to create a sticky thread for this Newsgroup "before" I try adding it? There should really be a guide somewhere on how to set this thing up from ground zero. Not everyone has used USENET before and this readme makes a lot of assumptions that the end user already knows certain basic things.

[itdevil]

Originally Posted by digital3

As someone who has never used USENET at all, let alone attempted to find a good newsgroup or set a forum up to run it I am at a loss here. Installing the mod was simple, of course, but configuring it to actually work is another matter. There are a lot of settings in this thing under Gateway Newsgroups Management and I have no clue where to get the information I need to place in these fields. I found a newsgroup that I want to join but where do I get the info I need to connect to it? I can't find these details anywhere on their site. Do I need to create a sticky thread for this Newsgroup "before" I try adding it? There should really be a guide somewhere on how to set this thing up from ground zero. Not everyone has used USENET before and this readme makes a lot of assumptions that the end user already knows certain basic things.

Same here... Looking for public accessible Usenet server, but unable to find any. There a few paid one i found, alas none free...

Anyone have any server were they could share to use with this great mod ?

[Geraldm]

Hi,

I've installed everything as instructed in the readme text file. I have setup a new forum and added a NNTP newsgroup. But when I run the gateway.php I get the following error:

Gateway version 2.3.2 1 group(s) gatewayed.
Could not connect to NNTP-server. (Connection refused (111))

Not connected
Not connected

The NNTP server address is correct as well as the username and password. The details have been checked with the NNTP reader called Agent and it works fine.

Does anyone know why I am getting this error when using the gateway?

Regards,
Gerald.

[Geraldm]

Ok, I found what was going on ...... My host (hostgator) was blocking port 119 (NNTP). I've spoken to them and they have now unblocked that port and the script now works perfectly.

Thank you!

Cheers ....
Gerald.

Originally Posted by Geraldm

Hi,

I've installed everything as instructed in the readme text file. I have setup a new forum and added a NNTP newsgroup. But when I run the gateway.php I get the following error:




The NNTP server address is correct as well as the username and password. The details have been checked with the NNTP reader called Agent and it works fine.

Does anyone know why I am getting this error when using the gateway?

Regards,
Gerald.

[Geraldm]

Hi,

I have another question. When importing USENET messages, is there a way to set the maximum length of the original posters username?

My board is set to only accept usernames with a maximum length of 25 characters, but when importing USENET messages this setting is overwritten. How can I tunicate the usernames?

Regards,
Gerald.