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

[bigtime]

Anyone try this on 3.7.2?

[HappyAndyK]

Originally Posted by bigtime

Anyone try this on 3.7.2?

It seems to work as one way communication as I see with my board running 3.7.2... It is importing data from NNTP however it is unable to send it, errors like,

[quote="error"]Result: 441 (629) Article Rejected -- Ill-formed message id '<User.Name.3bzrtn@nntp@mydomain.com>'</quote>

can any one help as how can the post posted in the forum can also be sent to the NNTP news group ??

[AWS]

Running on 2 3.7.2 installs with no problems.

[mrrijo]

Does this use Akismet moderation? I wanted to avoid spams getting downloaded from nntp servers.

Will this work along with Akismet module or any other spam blocking modules?

[t3nt3tion]

Unfortunately no. I`m still tweaking it for my own board, added alot of changes, and the akismet one is probably one that I will need to look into.

[mrrijo]

eagerly waiting....i hate spammers.

[onlinecc]

Wow, these are quite complicated installation instructions.. No possibility of using the otherwise nice "Upload Plugins" tool from the vbulletin adminCP? All this editing of index.php makes me uneasy.. Also, I don't see any mention of the /XML filder located in the includes folder - if it should be uploaded or not..

[t3nt3tion]

Well, you just upload files and that`s what. The xml you upload adds the menus required in admincp. What`s hard about that ?

[onlinecc]

Hehe, well if it's just that then... Just thought I saw some instructions telling me to edit code in files etc.. But ok, if it's just uploading files I'll stop being a cry-baby

[Rik Brown]

If you aren't already using it, I thought I'd mention that the new Automatic Thread Tagger mod works great in conjunction with the NNTP Gateway mod and vb's tagging system.

The mod can go back and tag all of your prior Usenet messages plus automatically tag new incoming Usenet messages using vb's cron (not to mention RSS feeds as well).

Check it out as all your Usenet forums can now be auto tagged! -- Rik