I have completed the work on the nntp portion of the gate. Reworking 20 years old software has been somewhat sadistically satisfying.
Over the next week or so, I will be making the SciNet NNTP server publicly available. This NNTP server will be hosting all of the SciNet echos along with echos from a few other networks that have agreed to
have their stuff carried on our server.
Here is the value add: I am in the middle of finishing up a few pairing agreements with some commercial nntp providers and I will be offering a full usenet feed for anyone who wants it. This feed will be sans binary newsgroups, but everything else that is publicly available on usenet
will be carried on SciNet's news server. Best of all, it will be free
for anyone who wants to use it.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
What software are you using to run the NNTP side of things?
Are you planning on offering a NNTP peering or a gated feed?
From: Netsurge <netsurge@scinet-ftn.org>
On 2019-08-05 07:45:01 +0000, Avon said:
I'm running InterNewNews (INN) which has been around since 1990, a
heavy weight in the NNTP games.
I will have it setup in a 3 fold setup.
1. It can be used as a feed for SciNet itself. I have updated the old Fidogate software to use the more modern RFC's MSGID format of <#.basename@77:1/1 ID>. That in conjunction with the first.last@bbsname.scinet-ftn.org email gateway will allow NNTP to be used as a full featured platform for offering feeds to SciNet.
2. I am currently peering most of the news group hierarchy (with the exception of any binary groups) with 2 major usenet providers, GigaNews and EasyNews with plans to add a third. This way I can offer full nntp feeds to whoever wants them, free of charge. I did this back when I ran bbs-scene.org
3. Standard reader config, which will allow users of a bbs to login an use an NNTP client to read and post messages. I know that most modern
bbs software like Mystic and Synchronet already have NNTP servers built in, so this won't be as appealing unless people also want full access
to the UseNet firehose (alt., soc., etc..). I currently have a script that converts users from Mystic's user file to a comparable format that INN can use to authenticate users. It should be fairly easy for other
bbs software like Synchronet as well.
So the server would offer the scinet groups as local groups to read/post to or are you looking at feeding those to other INN style peers?
Yes I do this also (minus binaries) but offer news via gated FTN. Is this what you're planning? I'd be happy to offer you another peering at the
INN level if you want that :)
The Mystic NNTP server offers access to the Mystic echomail etc. bases
but news would need to be gated in/out of Mystic for a user to benefit from using the NNTP server in MIS.
But if I understand you correctly this is more of a tool for an online
BBS user to remotely login to INN as a reader with read/write privs and doing so in an authenticated login style? If yes, that sounds cool and
if the script is available? I would be interested in playing with it to see if I could do the same at Agency BBS with news.bbs.nz
I use a perl script and that php library to parse the username and password of users on the Diskshop. I then use that perl script in readers.conf to authenticate users. You must have compiled INN with perl support for this to work. Personally it is a bit of a hack, but I do
plan on building a similar library for perl so that I'm not calling out
to php to get the info.
As soon as I work out the kinks, I will gladly share it with you.
I have no plans to gate scinet.* publicly. To me, SciNet is still an FTN focused network, the nntp thing is just an additional way to access it. I also don't want to deal with the spam.
I might take you up on that offer.
But if I understand you correctly this is more of a tool for an onlin BBS user to remotely login to INN as a reader with read/write privs a doing so in an authenticated login style? If yes, that sounds cool an if the script is available? I would be interested in playing with it see if I could do the same at Agency BBS with news.bbs.nz
It will be a tool for users of The Diskshop and for nodes of SciNet.
Users will have access to everything I carry where nodes will be able to use NNTP to feed SciNet. Since the gate will be doing news and netmail/email, netmail routing will be accomplished via the gate.
Not following 100% so to clarify the BBS users of Diskshop would have a authenticated login to the NNTP to read / post?
..and SciNet nodes would use their BBS software that plays nice with NNTP to connect to the server to send/recieve posts?
Not following 100% so to clarify the BBS users of Diskshop would have a authenticated login to the NNTP to read / post?
Yes. Instead of using Mystic's built in NNTP server which would then
have to gate any message out across the gate to the NNTP server, users would be able to authenticate with INN using their bbs username and password.
..and SciNet nodes would use their BBS software that plays nice with NNT connect to the server to send/recieve posts?
Yes, as an option. I've taken a deep dive into the RFC's for both NNTP and Fido messaging. I'm toying with the idea of writing a mailer that would use the NNTP server as a hub, a fidogate lite. It would convert
FTN .pkt's to RFC'd NNTP messages and vice versa. This is still pie in the sky at the moment, but an idea never-the-less.
Gotcha... and this is/will be something you want to just offer as a proprietary thing for your BBS users? Sorry I can't remember what is/is not possibly open for others to use.. I need to have more fish oil in
the diet :)
That sounds very interesting, if you ever do build it, and opt to open
it up for wider BBS community use I'd be interested in helping test it
out / debug etc. using news.bbs.nz etc. with you and others.
method for users to connect. I just have to figure out g00r00's
encryption method as passwords in the users.dat file are now encrypted.
You are now on the list. Thank!
Anyone can use it, I just plan on using the BBS as the authentication method for users to connect. I just have to figure out g00r00's
encryption method as passwords in the users.dat file are now encrypted.
Anyone can use it, I just plan on using the BBS as the authentication method for users to connect. I just have to figure out g00r00's
encryption method as passwords in the users.dat file are now encrypted.
I believe you can specify encryption method in the mystic config, so presumably that should indicate which encryption method is already being
I had the same problem with my Mystic's Web Interface. Under
Configuration - User Password Policy is the option to maintain the old ClearText Insensitive method.
If you wants to maintain the new encrypted method, the password is
hashed using PBKDF2 (Password based key derivation function 2).
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