| 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 4.0 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, Web Crossing 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
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.
Users
get an error "server not found" when trying to do newsreader
access.
I don't
see a place to set my newsgroup name when I press the Edit
Folder button.
Resources
Sysop
Documentation
Sysop
Control Panel
|
