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.

[SaN-DeeP]

Feel good to see the hack is now working for me
I tried to reply to 3 posts using quickreply, small reply button and large reply buttons and it worked perfect with all of them, my replies got posted in the same thread/post on NTTP Server. this is the log

 Ran NNTP Gateway
Gateway version 2.3.1 5 group(s) gatewayed.
Connecting to server, server says: 200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.206 Version: 6.0.3790.206 Posting Allowed 
Info for microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware at msnews.microsoft.com: 211 14593 1 237311 microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware 
Can we post? server responded: 340 Continue posting - terminate with period
Posting Message 'Re: Sounds hardware not working' from SaN-DeeP. Result: 240 Article Posted OK
Can we post? server responded: 340 Continue posting - terminate with period
Posting Message 'Re: The Format Did Not Complete Successfully :(' from SaN-DeeP. Result: 240 Article Posted OK
Can we post? server responded: 340 Continue posting - terminate with period
Posting Message 'Re: Battery Life' from SaN-DeeP. Result: 240 Article Posted OK
Getting message number 237299: 
'Re: error message-1720' from sidney. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237300: 
'Re: 2 USB External Drives' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237301: 
'Re: Fast Sound after hibernation' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237302: 
'Re: SIIG Firewire 800 cardbus slow in XP' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237303: 
'Re: 2 sound cards, 2 apps' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237304: 
'Re: dvd/cdrw drive won't read cds but will read dvds' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237305: 
'Re: Sounds hardware not working' from Test User. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237306: 
'Re: Hard Drive Incorrect Report' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237307: 
'Re: MS Precision Wheel problem' from Jason Tsang. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237308: 
'Re: MS Precision Wheel problem' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237309: 
'Hard drive format compatibility - what am I missing?' from Brian Meadows. New thread.
Getting message number 237310: 
'Re: MS Precision Wheel problem' from Nathan McNulty. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 237311: 
'RE: Hard Drive Incorrect Report' from tfw48079. Thread found by References.

However i noticed a few things now -
My username - newthread[username]
appears that on all the 3 posts i made.

Also i am still waiting for your comments on 1 thing.
I noted that degugging messages are only inserted when the task is ran manually else it just adds up entries in admincp like:

8632 Gateway Messages Import 01:45, 26th Oct 2004 Ran NNTP Gateway

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

However i noticed a few things now -
My username - newthread[username]
appears that on all the 3 posts i made.

Also i am still waiting for your comments on 1 thing.
I noted that degugging messages are only inserted when the task is ran manually else it just adds up entries in admincp like:

8632 Gateway Messages Import 01:45, 26th Oct 2004 Ran NNTP Gateway

Found another bug, at line 1083. I missed another "$".
Change
$from_header = "newthread[username] <$msgid>";

To
$from_header = "$newthread[username] <$msgid>";

(notice the $ before newthread)

I will check the debug/log thing later. I do not use the Scheduled Tasks makes it a little harder.

[The Prince]

Hi all,

I'm having problems getting my website hosted with a gateway hack. Can anyone point me towards a host that you use and that lets you use a gateway?

thanks

[SaN-DeeP]

1 most important part lierduh
Please also add some customized security to gateway.php file (should only be able to execute via usergroup id 6 or some user ids which can be added to that file) coz @ the moment any damn user is able to run that file (this may create server load problems or other issues).. or possibly taking the gatway.php under admincp folder.

Regards,

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

1 most important part lierduh
Please also add some customized security to gateway.php file (should only be able to execute via usergroup id 6 or some user ids which can be added to that file) coz @ the moment any damn user is able to run that file (this may create server load problems or other issues).. or possibly taking the gatway.php under admincp folder.


Regards,

No, you don't need to worry about this (server load etc.), trust me.

[rex_b]

What would one put in the server block for alt.religion ?

[esfron]

OK, I run it once more (scripts reloaded + forum re-installed with empty databse). I got nio more MySQL error. Posts are correctly imported and threaded but bad news: the forum displays again wrong statistics, it doubles the amount of posts (see screenshot). I have to update counters and Rebuild Forum Information to correct problem at every cron job.

Gateway version 2.3.1  1 group(s) gatewayed.

Connecting to server, server says: 200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.206 Version: 6.0.3790.206 Posting Allowed 

Info for microsoft.public.netiquette at msnews.microsoft.com: 211 9 5350 5429 microsoft.public.netiquette

Getting message number 5351: 
'OT > Re: Linux registered as DC in WINS' from Ace Fekay [MVP]. New thread.
Getting message number 5366: 
'8-30-04' from rosie. New thread.
Getting message number 5367: 
'Re: 8-30-04' from John Eddy [MSFT]. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 5368: 
'Re: 8-30-04' from rosie. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 5369: 
'Re: 8-30-04' from John Eddy [MSFT]. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 5425: 
'Newsgroup postings' from Joan. New thread.
Getting message number 5426: 
'Re: Newsgroup postings' from John Eddy [MSFT]. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 5429: 
'Re: Newsgroup postings' from Joan. Thread found by References.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by esfron

OK, I run it once more (scripts reloaded + forum re-installed with empty databse). I got nio more MySQL error. Posts are correctly imported and threaded but bad news: the forum displays again wrong statistics, it doubles the amount of posts (see screenshot). I have to update counters and Rebuild Forum Information to correct problem at every cron job.

Didn't I mentioned the script will give error when you have empty post table? I am not sure why you insist on empty database.

I counted you have 8 posts imported and the forum shows 8 posts in there. If you had errors, then the counter could be out.

[James T Brock]

Ok, with all of these newer versions of the script my posts are finally showing up in usenet. And with the latest bug fix, the correct username is also showing. However, I still have one little hurdle. My post *only* show up in usenet when I run the gateway myself in debug mode. When the gateway script is auto-run via a scheduled task it downloads post into the forum at the correct time, but doesn't upload any local post to usenet. Very weird! Can you think of any reason why it would do that?

Another question; if I were to change the URL in the cronjobs to say gateway.php?debug=1 instead of just gateway.php, do you think that would work for me? Or would it cause any additional problems?

[esfron]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Didn't I mentioned the script will give error when you have empty post table? I am not sure why you insist on empty database.

You're right :squareeyed:

I counted you have 8 posts imported and the forum shows 8 posts in there. If you had errors, then the counter could be out.

Weird! You're so right. I only take a look to Forum Statistics, 7 Threads/18 posts. I'll check the counter.

Thanks.

Click Install.