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

[wattieuk]

can anyone help me by letting me know where i can get newsgroup access to configure this script. i have no newsgroup access through my isp.
thanks

[wattieuk]

All I ever get when I run this is:
Gateway version 2.3.2 1 group(s) gatewayed.
Could not connect to NNTP-server. (Connection timed out (110))

Not connected
Not connected

I could really do with some help as Id love to have this working on site.

[ThePimp]

Is there a way to only allow the importing of binary images, and display them as attachments? Skipping over .rar files and other garbage out there?

[Cyburbia]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Have you had any new posts in the forums before you run the gateway? Because your debug message does not mention about "Posting Message".

If you had, then the script must have crashed due to some reason. You can find the error from the web log.

You won't find smtp in the scripts. If you need more info about mail(), please check:

http://php.mirrors.ilisys.com.au/man...ction.mail.php

Last, is your web server Windows based, or *nix based? What is your smtp setting in the php.ini if it is windows based.

One new post. I tried posting a test message to the list, and it appeared in the Forum. It's a slow list.

Every time I run the script in debug mode, there's never anything about posting messages, even when I post several test messages -- but there's also no error emssages, either.

Here's the most recent excerpt vBulletin scheduled task log.

2179 Mailing list gateway 09:05, 4th Aug 2005 Ran NNTP Gateway
2178 Mailing list gateway 08:05, 4th Aug 2005 Ran NNTP Gateway
2177 Mailing list gateway 07:06, 4th Aug 2005 Ran NNTP Gateway
2176 Mailing list gateway 06:07, 4th Aug 2005 Ran NNTP Gateway
2175 Mailing list gateway 05:05, 4th Aug 2005 Ran NNTP Gateway

I don't know if there's another log where I should be looking. It's shared hosting.

The server is Linux based. Some php settings:

Linux *****.com 2.4.21-32.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Apr 15 21:17:59 EDT 2005 i686

sendmail_from no value no value
sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i

[wattieuk]

can anyone please help me to get this working? I need some info to see if it works on my site. I can access through the newsreader i have but not through the script.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Cyburbia

One new post. I tried posting a test message to the list, and it appeared in the Forum. It's a slow list.

Every time I run the script in debug mode, there's never anything about posting messages, even when I post several test messages -- but there's also no error emssages, either.

Here's the most recent excerpt vBulletin scheduled task log.



I don't know if there's another log where I should be looking. It's shared hosting.

The server is Linux based. Some php settings:

You have not turned on the do_cron_log in the settings. So the log does not show the details.

How about post one new message in the forums, then run the gateway in debug mode and post the entire debug message here.

Also post the SMTP setting here from phpinfo (you can run it from AdminCP).

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by wattieuk

can anyone please help me to get this working? I need some info to see if it works on my site. I can access through the newsreader i have but not through the script.

Check out the thread in the NNTP for the vB3.0.x.

[wattieuk]

Thanks - but having read 60 pages I am still none the wiser. What I did learn though is that it does work with A Small Orange who are my server hosts. Please can someone tell me settings which work so I can test it. So many of you have it working I am sure someone can help.

[wattieuk]

Tried uninstalling and reinstalling and got this message:
1 group(s) gatewayed. Could not connect to NNTP-server. (Connection timed out (110)) Logging in to msnews.microsoft.com, group microsoft.public.access: Not connectedNot connectedMax: Min: Not connected
The settings I used were:
Newsgroup/M-list E-mail : microsoft.public.access
Server: the NNTP server. msnews.microsoft.com
Username: enter only needed
Password: enter only needed
Sender:
Set to 'use_real_email':

as per instructions.

[wattieuk]

I have found out that 'A Small Orange' doesn't allow access to Port 119 on its servers, so is there any way to use this via another port?