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.

[kkiely]

OK, i deleted the table and re-made it. Now I am getting this error in my logs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<!--
Database error in vBulletin 3.0.0:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT * FROM style
WHERE (styleid = 1 AND userselect = 1)
OR styleid = 1
ORDER BY styleid ASC
LIMIT 1

mysql error: Unknown MySQL error

mysql error number: 2000

Date: Wednesday 12th of January 2005 08:05:04 PM
Script: http://
Referer:
Username: Unregistered
IP Address:
-->

</body></html>X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.9
Content-Type: text/plain
Cache-Control: private

<br />
<b>Warning</b>: mysql_query(): Unable to save result set in <b>/www/k/kkiely/htdocs/vbforum/includes/db_mysql.php</b> on line <b>212</b><br />
<html><head><title>Forums Database Error</title><style type="text/css"><!--.error { font: 11px tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; }--></style></head>
<body></table></td></tr></table></form>
<blockquote><p class="error">&nbsp;</p><p class="error"><b>There seems to have been a slight problem with the Forums database.</b><br />
Please try again by pressing the <a href="javascript:window.location=window.location;">refresh</a> button in your browser.</p><p class="error">An E-Mail has been dispatched to our <a href="mailto:email">Technical Staff</a>, who you can also contact if the problem persists.</p><p class="error">We apologise for any inconvenience.</p></blockquote>

<!--
Database error in vBulletin 3.0.0:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT languageid,
phrasegroup_global AS phrasegroup_global,
options AS lang_options,
languagecode AS lang_code,
charset AS lang_charset,
locale AS lang_locale,
imagesoverride AS lang_imagesoverride,
dateoverride AS lang_dateoverride,
timeoverride AS lang_timeoverride,
registereddateoverride AS lang_registereddateoverride,
calformat1override AS lang_calformat1override,
calformat2override AS lang_calformat2override,
logdateoverride AS lang_logdateoverride,
decimalsep AS lang_decimalsep,
thousandsep AS lang_thousandsep
FROM language
WHERE languageid = 1

mysql error: Unknown MySQL error

mysql error number: 2000

Date: Wednesday 12th of January 2005 08:10:05 PM
Script: http://
Referer:
IP Address:
-->

</body></html>

[Tradjick]

I installed and it´s absolutely great!

Just a few questions:

I have 2 columns, 1 for the thread starter and 1 for the last poster and long e-mail addresses, that have not set a name, are destroying the layout. Is there a workaround for this problem already been posted? I read the thread until page 27.
Is it probably because i set the table for the mailaccount from 32 to 64?

How do i make to download an archive from a mailing list?

[Torqued]

Originally Posted by Tradjick

Wow! Just found out this hack but that?s such a useful hack, especially for new forums like mine to create some quick content!

I would be interested in integrating MailingLists and have two questions:

1.) Is it possible...
to use e-mail address x for creating threads in forum x
and
to use e-mail address y for creating threads in forum y
???

Yes. I am using it to pull from multiple email accts and publishing to several different forums.

[SaN-DeeP]

1. Messages are getting imported twice.. in all forums.

2. Username appears weird in many imported messages.

(*Check attachment for more details)

Regards,

[Tradjick]

PLEASE, can someone help me as soon as possible.

I read the entire Thread, but couldn´t find the answers to my questions.

I´ ve got a problem with very long e-mail addresses or long thread names. The vbulletin settings don´t match.

How is it possible to dl an entire archive?

I can´t download the same mails again. How do you do that?

[Tradjick]

*Bump.

[esfron]

I am using vb 3.0.3 with BB code enabled.

I just noticed that there is no chariot return between quotes and messages posted on Usenet. I got the following:

>quotemessage

My question is: How to insert (in the code) a chariot return after the quote ? Members can do it manually but it's not the best way.

Thanks

[krohnathlonman]

Just to make it clear, I talked to a couple of microsoft representatives about the microsoft groups and they told me that its public property so we can do what we want with it

[infiniterb]

I'm currently testing this hack with the following newsgroups:

24hoursupport.helpdesk
alt.privacy.spyware
microsoft.public.security
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser
microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin

The first three are working successfully with my account at news hosting. The last ones do not populate the forums. I've also tried the msnews.microsoft.com account and still cannot get the forums to show the posts. Is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

[Odoin]

I upgraded from older version and I get this...

Please open 'NNTP Gateway Newsgroups' in AdminCP once to complete DB upgrade first

I ran the upgrade and still doing this....

Thank you