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

[donnacha]

Originally Posted by oldengine

Has anyone successfully implemented posting? If so, what usenet provider do you use and at what cost?

I spent quite a while checking out the free servers but couldn't find any that allow posting and there seem to be questions of reliability, so, I started comparison-shopping among the most highly recommended pay services.

Under the assumption that our usage won't need as much download-allowance as the average usenet user downloading gig after gig of warez and pron, I decided that the best option was to buy 25gigs, non-expiring, from http://www.news.astraweb.com/ for a once-off payment of $10.

So far, the intensive initial sent up (involving downloading 10,000+ posts stretching back a month or so) and few days of updating, has used up about 6k of my 25G. At this rate, that $10 should cover me for several years!

One important thing to note is that I haven't actually experimented with posting although I can confirm that their server is sending back headers indicating that my account is allowed to post.

[trancetopia]

Originally Posted by oldengine

Has anyone successfully implemented posting? If so, what usenet provider do you use and at what cost?

Posts on my forums have been sucessful and it's great to see my domain being picked up by google because of it

I use newshosting.com and it's $15 a month for unlimited bandwidth. If you use newhosting, you'll need to enable posting via their online CP but after that, it works a treat.

Good luck.

[donnacha]

Originally Posted by trancetopia

Posts on my forums have been sucessful and it's great to see my domain being picked up by google because of it

Interesting, how did you realize that google had picked you up? Do you use some sort of tool to check your google-ranking?

Originally Posted by trancetopia

I use newshosting.com and it's $15 a month for unlimited bandwidth. If you use newhosting, you'll need to enable posting via their online CP but after that, it works a treat.

They were one of the companies I heard good things about, I think it was down to them, Giganews and a handful of others. If I was also using Usenet to download binaries etc I would probably consider an unlimited monthly account but, for NNTP Gateway alone, I think a one-off payment of $10 is enough.

These one-off accounts are also said to be pretty handy as a "fill-in" server, for when a few parts of something you're trying to download from your unlimited server are missing.

[David_R]

is this addon working fine ?
i have vb 3.0.7 installed, will upgrade today, need to confirm if there are any problems with 3.5 version in advance ?

thank you

[Atsuko]

Hello!

My bord is in Japanese, and using S_JIS encoding,
and I can use original vbllutein,
but can not your module.

Would you please give advice for using this module in Japanese?

[oldengine]

Originally Posted by donnacha

Under the assumption that our usage won't need as much download-allowance as the average usenet user downloading gig after gig of warez and pron, I decided that the best option was to buy 25gigs, non-expiring, from http://www.news.astraweb.com/ for a once-off payment of $10.

I was all set to go with this until I saw "personal use only" in the terms of service.

I've got to do something. My freebie dried up:
Gateway version 2.3.2 2 group(s) gatewayed.
Could not connect to NNTP-server. (Connection refused (111))

[donnacha]

Originally Posted by oldengine

I was all set to go with this until I saw "personal use only" in the terms of service.

Oh c'mon, that's just standard contract copperplate, doesn't mean anything other than they'd prefer you not to run your own ISP off any of their accounts. With an account of this kind, downloading miniscule amounts of text-only posts, you are, literally, the least of their worries.

For God's sake, we're talking about $10!!! If, in a sudden fit of insanity, Astraweb decide to mobilise their legal department, go elsewhere.

[donnacha]

BTW, I'm astonished that you bothered to read the terms of service, what's the point? Isn't your time worth anything?

[oldengine]

Yikes! Sorry I violated internet protocol by reading a terms of service page.

Question: on a particular newsgroup, are message numbers the same on ALL providers? In other words, without changing the "last message number" The board should pick up again where it left off?

[donnacha]

Originally Posted by oldengine

Question: on a particular newsgroup, are message numbers the same on ALL providers? In other words, without changing the "last message number" The board should pick up again where it left off?

No, numbering depends on the retention of each service: the first first (free but no-posting) service I used had 10,000+ posts for a particular newsgroup whereas the second (paid and posting-allowed) only had 1,000+.

I cheated by changing the "start from" number to 1000, probably causing some overlap but the aim, successfully achieved, was to keep the 10,000 posts but continue to add new posts via the paid, posting-allowed service.