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

[chris1979]

I've kind of got it working. Does anyone know how to customise the footer that goes on messages in the newsgroup when people from my forum reply?

[Domenico]

Well it stopped working for me after the upgrade from 3.5.4 to 3.6.2.

I now get the following error:

:/usr/bin/php -q /gateway.php

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 92160 bytes) in /includes/class_bbcode.php on line 1045
Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 0 bytes)

So any suggestions on how to fix this? Memory limit in php.ini is 48M

Thanks!

[deejayh]

damn, damn, damn!

Sorry that it is not working in 3.6+. Though it does look like a PHP memory problem!

[Domenico]

Please let someone pick it up. I would pay gladly for it!

Now it works but it keeps adding the same message over and over again.

[chris1979]

It's working fine for me in 3.6.2 now

[Domenico]

Originally Posted by chris1979

It's working fine for me in 3.6.2 now

How/what did you fix?

[chris1979]

I didn't change or fix anything - once I followed the instructions, it worked.

The only problem I'm having is getting the gateway.php script to run on schedule -- but I think that's a separate issue.

[ullo]

Originally Posted by chris1979

I didn't change or fix anything - once I followed the instructions, it worked.

The only problem I'm having is getting the gateway.php script to run on schedule -- but I think that's a separate issue.

Also for me the internal VBulletin Schedule system not work but if i use an external Scheduler (for example the scheduler of plesk) it seem to work.

[Domenico]

Originally Posted by chris1979

I didn't change or fix anything - once I followed the instructions, it worked.

The only problem I'm having is getting the gateway.php script to run on schedule -- but I think that's a separate issue.

What instructions?

[donnacha]

Okay, when people say that it's not working for them, can they please explain exactly what is and is not working.

I've had it installed for about 10 months and, in tests at that time, everything was working just fine with regard to both grabbing usenet groups AND posting. No, after upgrading to 3.6.4, a quick check reveals that posts made from within my forum are NOT actually getting posted to Usenet although they ARE appearing in my forum.

Is this a known problem with more recent versions of VB? For all I know, this might actually have started before I upgraded, I just don't know.

Anyone experiencing this particular problem?