Newsreader Access

Protocol Independent Participation
Why use a newsreader program?
Setting up newsreader access
Turning on the master switch for news services
Setting a conference folder for newsreader access
Troubleshooting
Resources

Protocol Independent Participation

The Web Crossing server can be accessed in several different ways. The most common way to access is with a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. However, it is also possible to participate in Web Crossing conferences via a mailing list and also by using a newsreader program, such as Netscape News, Microsoft Outlook or Newswatcher. Web Crossing refers to this as Protocol Independent Participation (PIP) (see Figure 1). Users can access using whichever method (protocol) they find most convenient, and still share a common conferencing content with other users.

Note that in addition to external email list servers, as shown in Figure 1, Web Crossing also has its own built-in email list server. For details on using the built-in email list server, please see the Email section.

Figure 1. Protocol Independent Participation

Why Would a User Want to Access Web Crossing Using a Newsreader Program?

There are two main reasons why a user would to access via a newsreader, rather than via the web:

Users can save money. In many locales outside the U.S. dialup Internet access is charged by the minute. Even inside the U.S. many providers allow only a limited amount of access time per month, charging users for additional online time. Most newsreader programs have an "off-line" feature, which allows users to read messages and compose new messages while disconnected from the network. This saves users money and online time.
Users can choose their own interface. The default Web Crossing interface lists many messages at once on a single page. This is efficient and convenient for web browsing. But some users may prefer a different interface - for example one in which messages titles are listed and where messages can be read one-at-a-time. Users can access using any standard newsreader program, thus giving the user more freedom of choice over user interface, while still sharing a common content with other users.

Note: Web Crossing newsreader access is fully authenticated. That is, user login names and passwords are recognized, and users are correctly handled according to their user groups and conference access lists. File attachments are also possible via newsreader access.

Note: For licensure purposes, email and newsgroup messages count as 10/100ths of a page view each. For more information on licensure, see the licensure section.

Setting up Web Crossing to Allow for Newsreader Access

This is is done in two parts:

Set the master switch to turn on news services and set the IP address and port number for the service.
Set each folder for news service.

The Master Switch

The master switch to turn on news services is located in Control Panel > News service (NNTP).

First check the item Provide news service (NNTP) from Web Crossing. This is the master on-off setting for all news services for Web Crossing. If this box is not checked, you will not be able to set news service settings in your conference folders.
Next, you must set the IP address and Port Number for news services in the TCP/IP Port for news service box. The format for this is nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:nn (a dotted IP address, a colon and a port number). For example, WebX Harbor has an IP address of 210.226.166.204 and we are using the standard NNTP Port Number of 119, so we have entered 210.226.166.204:119 in this box.

In most cases you can leave the remaining settings at their default values. The remaining values are mostly self-explanatory:

Maximum number of simultaneous connections: If you have limited bandwidth, it is best not to increase this number to a large value or it will result in slow serving to users.
Inactive timeout (minutes) for NNTP connections:
Use 8bit encoding for messages: If you are using certain European languages with extended characters you may find it useful to check this box. If you are using a Japanese system, you should not check this box.
Allow attachments to be posted (come in) through NNTP
Allow attachments to be sent (go out) through NNTP
Note that you can also allow or deny a specific list of IP addresses.
Maximum size of incoming posts, including attachments:

The rest of the settings in this panel are for when you use Web Crossing as a news server, receiving messages from and sending messages to another NNTP news server. You can read about those settings in the section on News Server Settings.

To Set a Folder for Newsreader Access

All you need to do is give a folder a unique newsgroup name. Go to any Web Crossing folder and press the Edit Folder button. The second entry is Newsgroup name. Simply enter a name here that is in "newsgroup format."

For the most part, a newsgroup format name is any strings of alphabetical characters and numbers, usually separated by periods to indicate a hierarchy. You may want to think about how your folders are viewed from the outside and create an appropriate hierarchy.

For example, suppose you have a folder for each academic department in a school, organized by division. You might have a folder hierarchy that looks like:

Science and Match

Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Mathematics
Computer Science

Humanities

History
Philosophy
Social Science

Fine Arts

Music
Graphics
Sculpting

A corresponding list of newsgroup names for newsreader access might be

scienceandmath.physics
scienceandmath.chemistry
scienceandmath.biology
scienceandmath.mathematics
scienceandmatch.compsci
humanities.history
humanities.philosophy
humanities.socialscience
finearts.music
finearts.graphics
finearts.sculpting

The newsgroup names do not have to match the names of the folders. Web Crossing automatically associates the names you give so that web users and newsreader users are always seeing the same content.

Note: You will want to avoid using spaces in newsgroup names because some newsreader programs cannot deal with such names correctly. If you are mirroring an Internet newsgroup, you will want to use the exact name of the internet newsgroup (for example, misc.talk.politics).

After you set a newsgroup name for a folder a user can access Web Crossing using a newsreader program simply by entering the full domain name for your Web Crossing server in the newsreader program. If login is required, the newsreader program will automatically provide a login/password prompt to the user.

For example, if you enter "www.webxharbor.com" in your favorite newsreader program you can visit Web Crossing Harbor and participate in folders there that are linked to newsgroup names.

Note: Even though Web Crossing correctly authenticates newsreader users and makes sure that group and access list permissions are preserved, all folders with newsgroup names are visible from a newsreader. This is different from web access where users cannot even see the names of folders for which they do not have permission. Users will not be allowed access to folders for which they have no access rights, but they will be able to see the folder names. If you do not wish a folder name to be visible under any circumstances, you should not assign a newsgroup name to that folder.

Troubleshooting

I am getting errors about "port already in service" when I start up Web Crossing.

If you are already running a news service on the same server machine, make sure it is not using the same IP address and port number combination. This is most likely to happen if you installed a Unix server and asked for news services to be installed by default. If there is an existing news service running with the same IP address and port number, you will see error messages in the webx.log file when you startup Web Crossing. To avoid this problem, choose a port number other than the default 119. Note that Web Crossing also supports multihoming for NNTP services. If you have more than one IP address on the same server machine Web Crossing will only listen for NNTP accesses on its own IP address and port setting. If you want to use the standard Port 119 on more than one IP address you should make sure that your other news server programs also support multihoming If they do not, they will pick up accesses to Web Crossing and this will cause conflicts.

Users cannot see my conference folders with their newsreader.

Make sure to set newsgroup names for each folder you want to allow newsreader access to.

Users get an error "server not found" when trying to do newsreader access.

Make sure you have turned on the master switch for news services and set your news IP address and Port Number correctly.

I don't see a place to set my newsgroup name when I press the Edit Folder button.

Unless you have first turned on the master switch for news services, this item will not appear in the Edit Folder settings.

Resources

Sysop Documentation

syshelp.htm#NNTP

Sysop Control Panel

News Service (NNTP)