NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

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 is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15


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.
• Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
• 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

• AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
• Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to 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.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

• Provided option of not importing attachments
• Provided option of pause between messages
• Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
• Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
• Provided "Default Footer" option
• Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
  (written originally by KevinM)
• Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
• Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
• Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
  (use prefix)
• Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
  as vB3.0.3
• Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
• Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

• Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
• Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
  each group.
• Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
• Scheduled task log is now working
• Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
• Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

[allan grossman]

Originally Posted by cyo

i am talking about newsgroup users that i don't want to display on my messageboard.

I'd like to weigh in here if folks don't mind.

Except for the .moderated newsgroups, Usenet is completely unmoderated - you can certainly do whatever you like with your forum, but IM frequently less than HO moderating an unmoderated newsgroup goes pretty much against what Usenet is all about.

What I do is run a disclaimer as an announcement at the top of the Usenet forums that reads like this -

==========

Folks -

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Usenet, the best description I've seen is at

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part1

and

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part2

No one "owns" Usenet and the groups that are gatewayed into ebassist are completely unmoderated. The feed that we provide is a service to ebassist users, and is just a gateway into another discussion area. You're liable to see flaming, links to ads and porn sites and a whole bunch of really objectionable stuff if you look hard enough.

But, as you continue to look, you'll see some real gems of information and some *very* knowledgeable folks.

Once again, ebassist doesn't own Usenet, has no control over its content and the feeds are provided without any interference (or moderation) from the folks on ebassist dot com.

Usenet can be harsh at times - and it's definitely not for the fainthearted, but I think providing an uncensored newsfeed provides more of a service to the ebassist community than filtering content would.

To sum things up, internal forums on ebassist dot com are moderated. External feeds like Usenet are not. Read at your own risk

the management

==========

But - it's your board and your call

[KevinM]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Sorry for my ignorance, where is this option located? are we talking about outgoing or incoming.

In the 'attachments' menu on the control panel there is an 'attachments storage type' option, which enables you to store the attachments as files rather than in the db.

When this option is used, the link to the attachment in the post breaks (although the file still gets downloaded to the db, the script is searching for the file in folder ont eh server). Hope this makes sense.

Originally Posted by lierduh

I am feeling lazy after working on the AdminCP interfaces.

No problem, have some sleep first.... :nervous: !

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by cyo

i am getting this error below

Fatal error</b>:  Maximum execution time of 1800 seconds exceeded in <b>/home/forum2/public_html/forum/includes/functions_databuild.php</b> on line <b>477</b><br />

[1]+  Done

More information please. Is this the first time you run? how many posts roughly are we talking about importing? I have set the script maximum run time to 1800 seconds. If you can not import the whole lot, restart again, it will pick up where the last run left off. This is one of the features this new version has. Also how is your server load. Can it handle a lot of posts to be imported in one go? With each post imported, the server needs to build search index and it is resource intensive.

[mcncyo]

Originally Posted by lierduh

More information please. Is this the first time you run? how many posts roughly are we talking about importing? I have set the script maximum run time to 1800 seconds. If you can not import the whole lot, restart again, it will pick up where the last run left off. This is one of the features this new version has. Also how is your server load. Can it handle a lot of posts to be imported in one go? With each post imported, the server needs to build search index and it is resource intensive.

i have to run the script about 3 times and to get all of the information. I am still planning on adding more newsgroups to the site.


by the way i used the script to import about 30,487 post and it work fine. The only probem i had is everytime it did it is i have to change the "Is Gateway Running" option to 0 each time. My server load only went up to 2.0 which is 100% on both cpu.

[Erwin]

lierduh, you've released 2 updates already. Did you make any changes to gateway.php, or are the updates purely for the AdminCP?

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Erwin

lierduh, you've released 2 updates already. Did you make any changes to gateway.php, or are the updates purely for the AdminCP?

The two beta files are only the AdminCP interfaces. The main script has been not updated since the ___b.zip .

I will do something tonight to add the signature option routine and may be others.

[Sanjiyan]

A few questions....

I am still running vb2.3.0, and gilby's version of this hack, the reason for staying with vb2.3.0 is because of the lack of a 'suitable' nntp hack addon, which you have now provided, so as long as it works with what I am about to ask, I shall update my forums to vb3.0.1

WIll this allow/import/whatever gilby's database modifications? as is from gilby's own version for vb2

Also as gilby's version allows me to pull from both NNTP and a pop3 mail box (downloads posts etc from a mailing list), will this version also allow it?

I do not use the pop3 to post from the forums to the mailing list, but to pull from the mail server the posts and then put them into the forums.

If you want to know what I mean about pulling posts from a pop3 mail box, please go here, and view the subforums, I have and the comments below explaining what they are:

http://www.sanjiyan.co.uk/forums/for...php?forumid=35

Many thanks...

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Sanjiyan

A few questions....

WIll this allow/import/whatever gilby's database modifications? as is from gilby's own version for vb2

There is one extra field in the post table needed. The first time you open the AdminCP interface, it will detect what needs to be done and upgrade for you. This will also be the way it works with future upgrade.

Also as gilby's version allows me to pull from both NNTP and a pop3 mail box (downloads posts etc from a mailing list), will this version also allow it?
Many thanks...

I have disabled this because I have not checked whether it will work. Also no one else has mentioned the need to use this. I will have a look at it in the next few days and enable it in the next minor version. It is something pretty simple.

[Sanjiyan]

Thanks, because the pop3 function is something I rely very heavily on with this hack, as 40% of my need for this hack is for the pop3 mail pulling ability.

EDIT:

Also which file do I need to download? the nntp_gateway_v2.0.zip or vb3_NNTP_Gateway_May16b.zip

[Sanjiyan]

Originally Posted by lierduh

I have disabled this because I have not checked whether it will work. Also no one else has mentioned the need to use this. I will have a look at it in the next few days and enable it in the next minor version. It is something pretty simple.

Not trying to be big headed here, but the reason this option was put into the Gilby hack, was mainly because I asked it to be, I think to date no one else uses that function in the hack bar me, but it is a very nice function to have.

Anyway, can not wait for you to get this option working again, THEN I will upgrade my boards.