This file has been extracted from the word 6 document manual.doc,  because
of this it's format is very bad, I suggest you print the word6 document if
at all possible.
                            
                            
                            
                    DNEWS Management
                            
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                            
DNEWS: A fast, efficient, low management NNTP news server
                           for
                            
                            
            Windows NT, VMS and UNIX systems.
                            
                            
                        Version 2
                            
   
   
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
                                                         
NetWin World,
P.O Box 27574,
Mt Roskill,
Auckland,
New Zealand,
Email   netwin@world.std.com
                            
                    DNEWS Management
                            
 DNEWS Features                                         5
  Dynamic sucking feed.                                 5
  Flexible expire settings                              5
  Flexible access restrictions                          5
  Binaries available for common platforms               5
  Email confirmation of posts                           5
  Items stored in a database                            5
  Compiling and porting relatively easy                 5
  Installation easy, totally configurable without
  recompiling                                           5
  Documented                                            5
  Supported                                             5
  Speed                                                 6
  XOVER implemented in software                         6
  Streaming support                                     6
  Machine impact automatically limited                  6
DNEWS Installation                                      7
 Main installation steps for Windows NT                 7
 Main installation steps for VAX                        8
 Main installation steps for UNIX                       8
TELLNEWS commands                                       9
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)                     11
 Where is dnews.conf?                                  11
 Where are the log files?                              11
 Creating local news groups                            11
 My news reader says the newsgroups don't exist?       12
 I don't know if posts are working?                    12
 I'm still not convinced my posts are getting to the
 other side of the planet?                             12
 I have an old fashioned feed coming in but I'm not
 getting any items?                                    12
 I deleted some item files by hand, is that ok?        12
 What should I do now that I've deleted history.dat    13
 Netscape shows items but I can't read them, why?      13
 Can I restore some news files (*.itm, *.idx) from tape?1
 3
 Why doesn't the status report match actual diskspace
 used?                                                 13
 How do I setup DNEWS to take in a `normal' NNTP - IHAVE
 feed                                                  13
 How do I setup XMIT to send to other sites            14
  Adding XMIT to Windows NT Services (startup)         14
  Adding XMIT to UNIX startup                          14
  Adding XMIT to VMS startup                           14
 How do I move the spool area to a bigger disk         14
 How do I make the updates run only at night           15
 How do I test the server using TELNET                 15
 What files can I copy from an INN or CNEWS system     15
 How do I rename a volume on UNIX                      15
 DNEWS goes very slow when users connect               16
 My system runs out of memory?                         16
 DNEWS goes very slow                                  16
 DNEWS locks up for brief periods (or permanently)     16
 DNEWS Crashes                                         17
 Large messages & Memory Use.                          17
 How can I cut out spamming (cross posts)              17
 How can I make XOVER faster?                          17
 TELLNEWS says Can't BIND?                             18
 TELLNEWS fails or locks ups                           18
 TELLNEWS says remote node is unknown                  18
 TELLNEWS says "Cannot access tellnews.pass"           18
 I see errors "NNTP, Sorry I can't talk to you" in the
 log file?                                             18
 What does "Transfer permission denied" mean?          19
 I still can't figure it out, how can I get help?      19
DNEWS Mailing List                                     19
 To subscribe to the discussion list send to:          19
 To subscribe to the announcement list                 20
Configuration files                                    21
 dnews.conf                                            21
 access.conf                                           22
  Notes:                                               23
 expire.conf                                           23
  Example:                                             23
 newsfeeds.conf                                        24
 moderators.conf                                       24
 control.conf                                          24
  Example:                                             25
How news gets in and out of your system                26
 FEEDING news INTO your system                         26
  Feeding in using an NNTP IHAVE feed.                 26
  Feeding in using a SUCKING feed (default)            26
 FEEDING news OUT OF your system                       26
  Sending news up line using a POSTING feed (default)  26
  Sending news up line using an NNTP-IHAVE sender      27
Appendix A, What is USENET                             27
 What is USENET News?                                  27
  News groups                                          27
  How your article will get to the rest of the world   27
  What to read first                                   27
  What is an FAQ?                                      27
  Be careful posting                                   27
  How big is it?                                       28
Appendix B, Time Zone Names                            28
Appendix C, NNTP Summary                               29
  authinfo [user Name]|[pass Password]                 29
  article [MessageID|Number]                           29
  body [MessageID|Number]                              29
  date                                                 29
  group newsgroup                                      29
  head [MessageID|Number]                              29
  help                                                 29
  ihave <message-id>                                   29
  last                                                 29
  list [active]                                        29
  list active.times                                    29
  list newsgroups                                      29
  listgroup [newsgroup] (extension)                    30
  mode reader (extension)                              30
  mode stream (extension)                              30
  newgroups yymmdd hhmmss [GMT] [<distributions>]      30
  newnews newsgroups yymmdd hhmmss [GMT]
  [<distributions>]                                    30
  next                                                 30
  post                                                 30
  slave                                                30
  stat [MessageID|Number]                              30
  check [MessageID] (extension)                        30
  takethis [MessageID] (extension)                     30
  xgtitle [group_pattern] (extension)                  30
  xhdr header [range|MessageID] (extension)            30
  xover [range] (extension)                            31
  xpat header range|MessageID pat [morepat...]
  (extension)                                          31
  xpath MessageID (extension)                          31
Copyright & Disclaimer                                 31
Corrections & Additions.                               31
DNEWS Features
Dynamic sucking feed.
   A sucking feed may use as little as 10% of the
   normal disk space and network bandwidth. By only
   getting news items that people usually read very
   large savings are possible particularly for small
   sites & workgroups.  A hundred users can be
   supported on 100-200 MB depending on their  reading
   habits!
   
   I run a single user server on my NT as a background
   service, it's using less than 5MB.
   
Flexible expire settings
  By allowing expiration by 'number of items' low
  volume groups become much more useful.  Also by
  allowing settings which change with disk space the
  system is much more stable to large influxes of
  news.
  
Flexible access restrictions
  Reading and Posting access can be given separately
  to different users and selections of news groups.
  
Binaries available for common platforms
  On many platforms you do not need to build the
  binary yourself, e.g. VMS, (VAX & ALPHA), Solaris,
  Linux, Windows NT
  
Email confirmation of posts
  DNEWS can be configured to send email confirmations
  as it sends items up to a main news server.  This
  gives users a clear record of a posted item and it's
  successful transfer into the 'net'.
  
Items stored in a database
  Items are stored in a database which puts items
  together in blocks of 100.  This saves directory
  entries, inodes, and the empty space usually wasted
  due to blocking factors. Also file open and closes
  are minimized, this is essential on systems where
  this is a 'costly' operation, e.g. VMS.
  
Compiling and porting relatively easy
  DNEWS was designed to be portable from the ground
  up, it does not rely on obscure UNIX features.
  
Installation easy, totally configurable without
recompiling
  DNEWS can be configured without recompiling and all
  the configuration scripts have been simplified where
  possible.
  
Documented
  A user manual is available.
  
Supported
  EMAIL support is available for help with
  installation and management.
  
Speed
  On comparable systems DNEWS typically out performs
  other news software, (even the likes of CNEWS and
  INN in some instances), other VMS news servers don't
  even come close.
  
  This is partly because DNEWS uses a more advanced
  database to store the news items.  The difference is
  also very notable on smaller systems (e.g. Linux)
  
XOVER implemented in software
   No xover database is created, the normal DNEWS
   database is fast enough to create this information
   'on the fly'
   
Streaming support
  Streaming NNTP extensions are built in.
  
Machine impact automatically limited
  DNEWS runs in a single process, this speeds up
  connect time as a process does not need to be
  created, and it self-limits the impact on the
  system.
  



DNEWS Installation
   Always refer to install.txt for the most up to date
   installation notes and helpful hints etc.
   
   When upgrading use newver.cmd to copy the new
   binaries into place instead of install.cmd which
   would over-write your .conf files.
   

Main installation steps for Windows NT
         FTP the files
       
      FTP ftp.std.com
      ftp> cd /ftp/vendors/emagic/dnews
      ftp> binary
      ftp> get dnews_nt.zip
      ftp> quit
         Extract the files to a temporary directory and then
       install them
       
      mkdir \tmp
      cd \tmp
      pkunzip ..\dnews_nt.zip
      install.cmd
      del \tmp\*.*
         EDIT dnews.conf and carefully define the following
       symbols
       
         NOTEPAD  winnt35\system32\dnews.conf
       
Symbol  Example         Description
manager joeblogs@here.  Your Email address
        this.place
nntp_fe news.feeder.si  The news site where you are going
eder    te              to SUCK a feed from.  You need
                        NNTP READER access to this site.
myname  news.this.plac  Your full internet name.
        e
diskspa 100             Total disk space in megabytes that
ce                      DNEWS can use
confirm *.this.place    Send email confirmation to
                        postings from these addresses.
                        (set this to match your local
                        email addresses)
  
  
      You may want to also redefine SPOOL in  DNEWS.CONF
     if you want the news spooling area to be on another disk.
     
      If your news feed stamps items with a name other
     than exactly what you put in DNEWS.CONF under
     NNTP_FEEDER, then you must add an exclude field to your
     newsfeeds.conf file to stop DNEWS from trying to echo
     every item it gets.  See the section Adding an Exclude
     Field for more details on doing this.
     
      Edit newsfeeds.conf and add an SMTP queue so DNEWS
     can send email when it wants to:
     
      NOTEPAD \dnews\newsfeeds.conf
          SITE mail.gateway.here.com
          SMTP
      Edit access.conf to grant IP access to any machine
     which will read news from your system, you can give a
     wildcard ip name or number, names will only work if your
     DNS is configured correctly.
     
      NOTEPAD \dnews\access.conf
      *.here.com:Read,Post:::*
      161.23.1.*:Read,Post:::*
      Start the system.  In Control Panel, double click on
     SERVICES and then click on DNEWS and click on START.
     
      Try out the management command:
     
      TELLNEWS STATUS
      Try a news reader
     
    If it doesn't work check the log files and then
check the section in this manual on Common Problems:
      TYPE \dnews\dnews.log

Main installation steps for VAX
     1.   FTP ftp.std.com  /ftp/vendors/emagic/dnews...
     2.   @extract                   Extracts the required
       files
     3.   $ edit register_user.com             Change uic and
       disk to match your machine
4.   $ @register_user              Register user
dnews$server on your machine.
5.   $ edit dnews_start.com             Define the
disk(s) where DNEWS is installed
     6.   $ edit sys$manager:systartup_v5.com  Add the startup
       line (see startup.tmp)
7.   $ edit sys$sylogin:           Add the symbol  (see
login.tmp)
     8.   $ edit dnews_top:news.conf      Modify the file
       DNEWS.CONF to describe your
       system by defining the following symbols
       MANAGER, NNTP_FEEDER....
       TIMEZONE, DISKSPACE, MYNAME
     9.   If your news feed stamps the path header with a name
       other than it's ip name as in `nntp_feeder' then edit
       newsfeeds.conf and add an exclude command to prevent your
       news system from `echoing' all messages back to your
       feeder.
     10.  $ edit access.conf              Grant an ip range
       access to the system, e.g.
       *.here.comp.edu:read,post,:::*
       161.23.4.*:read,post,:::*
     11.  $ @dnews_top:dnews_start        Start the system
     12.  $ type dnews.info          Type the log file, give
       it one or two minutes                     before
       panicking.
     13.  $ tellnews status               Get a status report
14.  Go to your favorite PC news reader software and try
it out!!!

Main installation steps for UNIX
         FTP ftp.std.com
       /ftp/vendors/emagic/dnews/dnews_linux.tar.Z
       
         Extract the files to a temporary directory
       
      # uncompress dnews_linux.tar.Z
      # tar -xvf dnews_linux.tar
      # cd dnews
         EDIT dnews.conf and carefully define the following
       symbols
       
   
   
Symbol  Example         Description
manager system@here.th  Email address of the news manager
        is.place
nntp_fe news.feeder.si  The news site where you are going
eder    te              to SUCK a feed from.  You need
                        NNTP READER access to this site.
myname  news.this.plac  Your full internet name, if left
        e               out this may be picked up from the
                        system.
diskspa 100             Total disk space in megabytes
ce
confirm *.this.place    Send email confirmation to
                        postings from these addresses.
                        (set this to match your local
                        email addresses)
df      df -k           Path and parameters for df command
                        (Display Filesystem)
sendmai /usr/lib/sendm  Path and parameters for sendmail
l       ail -t %s
  
  
      EDIT your startup script and add the following line,
     startup scripts are different for every version of UNIX:
     
      # emacs /etc/rc.d/rc.local
      Add a line:
      /usr/local/dnews/dnews_start.sh
      
      If your news feed stamps the path header with a name
     other than it's ip name as in `nntp_feeder' then edit
     newsfeeds.conf and add an exclude command to prevent your
     news system from `echoing' all messages back to your
     feeder.
     
      EDIT access.conf and grant ip access to ip numbers
     or names in your domain, names will only work if your
     reverse name translation is setup correctly.
     
      *.this.site.edu:read,post:::*
      161.24.3.*:read,post:::*
      
      If you have changed any of the default directories,
     then you must edit all the shell scripts, (*.sh) to
     reflect the change.
     
      Run the installation script:
     
      # ./install.sh
      
      Start the news server
     
      # ./dnews_start.sh
      
      The system will now try and fetch a list of
     newsgroups from your feeder site, this may take 10
     minutes the first time and the system will not respond to
     the tellnews command while this is happening.  Use `ps -
     alx | grep news' to check it is running, and look at the
     log files:
     
      # more /usr/local/dnews/dnews.log
      # more /usr/local/dnews/nohup.out
      # ps -ef | grep news
      
      When the system has had a chance to get going, try
     it out using the tellnews command
     
      # tellnews status
      
      Go find a PC and try out the system!
     

TELLNEWS commands
  The tellnews command is used to communicate with the
  server, you can find out what it's doing, modify
  some internal settings, reload the configuration
  files or shut down the server cleanly.
  
  To use the command you need read access to the DNEWS
  configuration directory.
  
  Try this command to find out what your server is
  doing:
  
      tellnews status
  Or this command to shut down your server
  
      tellnews exit
      
  Here is a table of all the other TELLNEWS commands:
  
      
Command           Description
addlost           Scans all newsgroups for articles that
                  are not in the history file, and adds
                  them to the history file.  Use this if
                  you have deleted your history file, or if
                  you have restored a group from tape.
                  This command will take many hours to run
                  on several Gig's of news.
cached wildgroup  Force a group or groups to be cached for
days              the next so many days, if you give a wild
                  card on UNIX you must put quotes around
                  it to stop the shell from interpreting
                  it.  Example:
                        tellnews cached comp.os.* 999
expire            Start an expire run, use this if the
                  system is getting short on space and the
                  last expire didn't work for some reason:
                  (response will be slow while this is
                  running)
exit              Close down DNEWS
fixgroups         Fetch the complete list of groups from
                  the feeder site again, if you have less
                  than 300 cached groups then you will need
                  to do this once every month or so to
                  pickup new groups.
fixrange          Corrects the internal count of how many
                  items are in each news group, if WinVN
                  crashes when you read a group then this
                  is a good thing to try.  This command is
                  instant and harmless so it's always worth
                  a try.
getgroups         Get or update the active.dat file from
                  the feed site.  If you have more than 300
                  groups cached this is automatic,
                  otherwise you will need to do it once a
                  month
getnames          Get the active.names from our feeder.
getold wildgroup  Get older news from the feeder, use this
days              after deleting the entire system except
                  the active.dat file, to reload some old
                  news from the server.
killitem grpname  Delete a specific item, use with caution
num
killgroup         Actually delete group
wild.group.name
newgroup name     Add a new group by hand. y=Normal group,
y|m creator       m=Moderated the description is added to
description       the newsgroups file.
purgelost         Scans every newsgroup for items which are
                  not in the history file and deletes them.
                  This will take several hours to run on a
                  large system.
reload            Reloads dnews.conf and other
                  configuration information.  You must use
                  this whenever you change a configuration
                  file or the changes will probably not
                  take effect.
rotate            Renames all the log files and deletes the
                  oldest one.
                  dnews.log > dnews.log2 > dnews.log3 >
                  dnews.log4 > deleted
rmgroup           Mark group as deleted
wild.group.name
setused           Sets the amount of space currently used
                  in MB. The change will take 2 minutes to
                  take effect.  This is needed if dnews has
                  lost track of how much space it is
                  actually using for some reason.
                        tellnews setused 950
status            Show what the server is doing
stats             Show statistics on NNTP command usage.
update            Start a suck update.  These are normally
                  automatic every 10 minutes but you can
                  disable the automatic updates using the
                  UPDATE_AT settings in DNEWS.CONF
uncached          Set a group or groups to uncached.  Items
wildgroup         in the group will then expire normally,
                  this does not prevent a user from
                  fetching the group again.
                        tellnews uncached comp.os.*


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Where is dnews.conf?
   This is the main configuration file, and you can't
   move it from it's built in directory which is:
   
      Windows NT     /winnt35/system32/dnews.conf (system
      dir)
      Unix      /etc/dnews.conf
   
   
   All other configuration files will be in the config
   directory defined in dnews.conf
   

Where are the log files?
  Look in dnews.conf for the symbol LOG_DIR, this will
  tell you which directory to find them in, there are
  three files:
  
      dnews.log The main log file
      dnews.in  A one line log of each message that came
      in
      dnews.out A one line log of each item dnews sent
      out.
  
  
  The file dnews.log contains .in and .out messages as
  well.  By default the logging level is set to INFO,
  you can set it in dnews.conf to one of,
  error,warn,info,debug.  E.g.:
  
      loglvl warn
  In debug mode all error messages are sent to the log
  file, in info mode only error,warn and info messages
  are printed.  In warn mode only error and warn
  messages are sent, and in error mode only serious
  errors are printed to the log file.
  
  Every night, or if the log files get more than
  DEBUG_ROTATE lines in them the files are rotated
  like this:
  
      dnews.log -> dnews.log2 ->dnews.log3 ->dnews.log4 -
      >(deleted)

Creating local news groups
  If you wish to have local groups on your server,
  that are not on the server you 'suck' from, then you
  should remove the 'POSTING' flag from the feed to
  your feeder site (in newsfeeds.conf).  But only if
  you can get ihave (or transfer permission) to send
  articles up stream rather than simple 'posting'
  access.
  
  You can still have local groups if you can't get
  ihave access, it's just not the `recommended' setup.
  
  You can add groups with the TELLNEWS NEWGROUP
  command, e.g.
  
      tellnews newgroup here.chat y myname Local group
      
      here.chat = name of group
      y = Normal group (m = moderated)
      myname = A record of who created the group (one
      word)
      Local group = description for active.names file.
  
  
  To stop your local group from being sent up stream,
  you would change the line in your newsfeeds.conf
  file:
  
      groups *,!here.chat,!here.secret.*
  NOTE: KNOWN BUG, with version 2.0 items will still
  be sent upstream if  you have left the 'POSTING'
  keyword in your feed.  This will probably be fixed
  in a future version.  (ofcourse this isn't a major
  problem unless the items are very secret as your
  upstream site will probably just reject them anyway)
  

My news reader says the newsgroups don't exist?
  Check access.conf, you might have access to get in,
  but no access to read the news groups so they will
  appear empty or give `no such newsgroup' errors.
  

I don't know if posts are working?
  There are two main reasons for posts to fail:
  
  1.   You've messed up your newsfeeds.conf file.
    
  2.   Your provider is not allowing you to send messages
    via `ihave'
    
  Follow these instructions to figure out where the
  error is:
  
  
  
  Post an item to some local TEST news group, e.g.
  nz.test, then check the file DNEWS.OUT, this should
  give one line per message sent `out' of your system,
  if this file is empty, or gives an error, first
  consider if the error is from DNEWS or if it is from
  the site you are sending items to.    Second, look
  in dnews.log, search for "out:" once you've found
  the failure message you will probably find more
  clues just above or below it as to what went wrong.
  

I'm still not convinced my posts are getting to the other
side of the planet?
  Post an item to alt.test, you should receive 10-15
  messages from news robots all over the world.
  

I have an old fashioned feed coming in but I'm not
getting any items?
  There are two main reasons for incoming feeds to
  fail:
  
  1.   You've messed up your access.conf file (or your DNS
    does not work)
    
  2.   Your provider has not successfully setup the feed.
    
  In case 1), first try letting everyone in by putting
  a wildcard access line at the bottom of access.conf
  
      *:read,post,ihave:::*
      tellnews reload
  Then check the log files, or use tellnews status,
  and you will see the name and number of any machine
  sending you IHAVE messages,  (in the list of
  connected channels)  put this name in access.conf.
  
  If tellnews status shows the number twice, but no
  name, then your DNS is not working, use numbers in
  the access.conf file instead or fix your DNS.
  

I deleted some item files by hand, is that ok?
  This is like editing a database with a binary editor
  and removing a few records by hand, it is not a good
  idea :-(
  
  However, DNEWS is written for people just like you,
  the database will correct itself with a little luck.
  :-)
  
  Please do not edit an item file and remove
  individual items or change them, this will corrupt
  the database and the items will simply dissappear.
  

What should I do now that I've deleted history.dat
  First I advise you not to play with guns because you
  are in danger of shooting yourself in the foot.
  
  Before restarting dnews, delete history.idx and
  history.dat, and then start dnews and type:
  
      tellnews addlost
  Which will scan the entire database and rebuild the
  history file.  This could take 12 hours or more to
  run on 4 Gig of news.
  

Netscape shows items but I can't read them, why?
  This means the item is missing from the history
  database, this should never happen, but since it
  has, try this command:
  
      tellnews addlost
  Which will scan the entire database and rebuild the
  history file.  This could take 12 hours or more to
  run on 4 Gig of news.
  

Can I restore some news files (*.itm, *.idx) from tape?
      You have restored part of a database, to merge this
      new stuff into the indexes use:
      tellnews addlost
  Which will scan the entire database and rebuild the
  history file.  This could take 12 hours or more to
  run on 4 Gig of news.
  

Why doesn't the status report match actual diskspace
used?
  DNEWS maintains an internal count of free disk
  space, this can be wrong, or possibly your setting
  for `diskspace' in dnews.conf could be wrong.
  Decide which is wrong, either fix the number in
  dnews.conf or use the `setused' command to change
  the internal count, e.g. to set the used value to
  950MB, type in:
  
      tellnews setused 950
  Then wait 2 minutes and do another:
  
      tellnews status

How do I setup DNEWS to take in a `normal' NNTP - IHAVE
feed
  In access.conf, give your feed site access to send
  you ihave messages:
  
           my.feeder.site.com:ihave:::*
      
  In dnews.conf, comment out the nntp_feeder
  definition.
  
  In newsfeeds.conf, replace:
  
                site $NNTP_FEEDER
                     groups *
                     builtin
                     posting
  With:
  
                site my.feeder.site
                     groups *
                     builtin
  And in dnews.conf add a line:
  
      cachedall true
  
  
  (Also see the section on copying files from an
  existing INN or CNEWS system)
  

How do I setup XMIT to send to other sites
   If you have more than one large feed coming into
   your site, then you should use XMIT to send to all
   sites and NOT use the builtin feeding system at
   all,  (see the keyword builtin above, remove it!!)
   The builtin feeder will not run fast enough to
   `pass through' large feeds so you must use the XMIT
   feeder in all directions.  (Leaf sites can still
   use a sucking feed quite safely as this is also
   very efficient)
   
   The XMIT feeder is a high speed, auto configuring
   streaming feeder with built in scheduling, so you
   don't need to use CRON or anything else tricky like
   that.
   
   First add entries to your NEWSFEEDS.CONF file, this
   creates the .feed file that XMIT will use:
   
      NOTEPAD newsfeeds.conf
           site other.site.here.com
                groups *
   Now modify your startup procedure to run the xmit
   job for each feed you have defined in
   newsfeeds.conf
   
Adding XMIT to Windows NT Services (startup)
   On windows NT you need to setup each xmit job as a
   service, to do this use the program ADDSVC.EXE
   which came with the dnews distribution to add a
   service for each outgoing feed, e.g. (notepad
   setupsvc.cmd and then run it to create the feeds)
   
      addsvc -add dxmit1 xmit.exe "dxmit1 site.name.edu -
      at *5 *"
      addsvc -add dxmit2 xmit.exe "dxmit2 site2.name.edu
      -at *5 *"
   
   
   Then from CONTROL PANEL, SERVICES, and start the
   feed(s).
   
Adding XMIT to UNIX startup
   Add lines to your dnews_start.sh procedure, e.g.
   
      cd /usr/local/dnews
      ./xmit send.to.site.name -at "*2" "*"
      ./xmit send.other.site.name -at "*7" "*"
Adding XMIT to VMS startup
        Modify RUNXMIT.COM and add it to
   dnews_start.com
   

How do I move the spool area to a bigger disk
   First shutdown DNEWS:
   
      tellnews exit
   Then move the entire SPOOL tree structure from it's
   current place to it's new place, for example on NT
   you might use file manager to move
   
      c:\dnews\spool...        to   e:\dnews\spool...
      
   Change the definition of SPOOL in DNEWS.CONF
   
      NOTEPAD \winnt35\system32\dnews.conf
      spool     e:\dnews\spool
      
   Restart DNEWS:
   
      (NT) Control Panel, Services, Start
      (UNIX)    su root; dnews_start.sh

How do I make the updates run only at night
   Updates for a sucking feed normal run once every
   ten minutes, this is controlled in DNEWS.CONF with
   the command
   
      update_at *5 *
   This "*5" tells dnews to do an update whenever the
   minutes end in a digit `5' and the second "*" tells
   it to do updates during any hour.
   
   To do one update a night at 5 past 2 in the morning
   you would use:
   
      update_at 5 2
   To do updates every 10 minutes from 6p.m. to 8a.m.
   you would use:
   
      update_at *5 18-8

How do I test the server using TELNET
   NNTP is a text based protocol, this means you can
   test it, and even read news without any software,
   just by using telnet and typing in commands by
   hand, this is not a seriously good way to read
   news, but it is a very good way to test your own
   server or your feeding server:
   
      NT   Accessories, Telnet, Connect, Remote Service
           Enter the feeder.site and under PORT type in
      NNTP
           Under Terminal Preferences turn ECHO on
           Press Control J to end lines instead of ENTER
      VMS  $ telnet feeder.site /port=119
      UNIX > telnet feeder.site 119
      
      Type in this sequence of commands to read an
      article by hand:
           group comp.os.vms   (select a group)
           head           (display the header)
           body           (display the body)
           next           (next item please)
           help           (show valid commands)
           quit           (exit the connection)

What files can I copy from an INN or CNEWS system
  This is not necessary, but if you are replacing a
  system then there are some files that you may want
  to preserve so that news.rc files are not `too'
  confused by the new system.
  
  You can safely copy these files:
  
           active         -> active.dat
           active.times   -> active.times
           newsgroups     -> active.names  (may be
      changed in future)
  
  
  If you copy the active file, you must reset DNEWS
  with this special manager command:
  
           tellnews resetall

How do I rename a volume on UNIX
  You may wish to rename a current volume
  /var/spool/news to be /var/spool/dnews, to do this:
  
           cd /var/spool/news
           mkdir OLD
           mv * OLD
           umount /var/spool/news
           emacs /etc/vfstab (or /etc/fstab)
                (change /news into /dnews)
           mount /var/spool/dnews
  
  
  When you are happy with the new system, or you need
  the space:
  
           rm -r /var/spool/dnews/OLD

DNEWS goes very slow when users connect
  Check your DNS is working, try putting
  
      nodns true
  In dnews.conf, and fix access.conf to use numbers
  then type:
  
      tellnews reload
  Then see if that speeds things up,  if it does then
  your DNS is faulty.
  

My system runs out of memory?
  First check your pagefile settings, for a full feed
  you will need about 120MB of pagefile on Windows NT.
  
  See the section on large news messages.
  
  Send the output of tellnews status to the mailing
  list or NetWin and ask for comments.
  

DNEWS goes very slow
  Check your DNS is working.
  
  Type in:
  
  tellnews stats
  
  (not status)
  
  This gives a listing of NNTP commands and how long
  dnews is spending on each one, this will show if one
  command is slow, and also if one command is being
  used more than is reasonable.  Also consider adding
  memory.
  
  Send the output of tellnews stats and status to the
  mailing list or NetWin for further suggestions.
  
  Consider installing more memory or a faster disk
  drive.
  
  If the xover command is using most of the time then
  consider increasing the buffering of headers.  (see
  dnews.conf options)
  

DNEWS locks up for brief periods (or permanently)
  Panic!
  
  Check the log file dnews.log, work out from the time
  stamps what dnews was doing when it locked up.
  
  This can happen if you run an expire while lots of
  people are trying to use the system or while an
  ihave feed is sending stuff in.
  
  Use the tellnews stats command, this will also point
  to commands which are taking too long to process for
  some reason.
  
  Check your DNS and also that site you are sucking
  from is working and it's news server is working,
  either of these can cause a problem.  If the site
  you suck from is down for a few hours, you may have
  to remove the feeder line from dnews.conf until it
  is up again.  (normally you won't have to do this,
  it's just a thing to watch for)
  

DNEWS Crashes
  Check the end of the file dnews.log, the only partly
  acceptable reason for a crash is if DNEWS runs out
  of memory, if the errors indicate this then see the
  section on memory problems above.
  
  If it gives an error `signal xxx causing exit' then
  set the debugging level to `debug', if the log files
  just ends suddenly, then set the debug level to
  `flush'
  
      loglvl debug           (or flush)
      debug_rotate 3000
  Now next time it crashes email the last few hundred
  lines of dnews.log to NetWin.  We really don't
  accept crashes as acceptable behaviour and will go
  to some extreme lengths to fix this sort of problem.
  

Large messages & Memory Use.
  Unless you have infinite memory on your system then
  it is necessary to limit the size of messages that
  can be processed.  This also saves a lot of wasted
  bandwidth and disk space for you and every other
  news system.  DNEWS limits messages to 1MB by
  default, (a fairly generous limit considering many
  news readers still die horribly with messages
  greater than 64K and anything bigger than this
  should not be sent via news but should be put on an
  FTP/WEB site and a pointer to it should be sent)
  
  To deal with messages of size 1MB dnews needs about
  6MB of memory, so if you are short of memory you may
  want to reduce this.  To limit messages to 100k you
  would add a line in DNEWS.CONF
  
      ITEM_MAX 100000
  (this setting is not dynamic, you must restart
  DNEWS)
  

How can I cut out spamming (cross posts)
  Spamming, is where people cross post to hundreds of
  news groups with information which is not relevant
  to the content of the news group.  e.g. advertising
  pyramid schemes etc...
  
  Cross posting is a neat idea but enormously abused
  mechanism,  you can limit the abuse by rejecting
  items that are crossposted to more than `n' groups,
  a value of 5-10 would seem reasonable to me.  The
  default is 100 for DNEWS.
  
  You can chage the limit in newsfeeds.conf under the
  ME settings
  

How can I make XOVER faster?
  By default DNEWS caches the last 200 item headers
  that it has read, if you have spare memory then it
  is well worth increasing this value:   The upper
  limit is 9000, at approx 3K per header this would
  use about 27MB, but a value of  2000 would use 6MB
  which most systems could easily deal with.  In
  DNEWS.CONF
  
      HEAD_CACHE 2000

TELLNEWS says Can't BIND?
   Can't BIND, and tellnews says "I can't talk to you"
   when you telnet to the port.
   
   On LINUX the slackware distribution comes with a
   dummy nntp daemon installed, you must remove this
   so dnews can bind to the socket.
   
           edit /etc/inetd.conf
           (comment out the NNTP line)
           kill -HUP <pid of inetd process>

TELLNEWS fails or locks ups
        The DNEWS process may take 1-2 minutes to
   initialize, so wait a bit before panicking.
   
        Check if the process is running
   
           ps -axl | grep dnews     (linux)
           ps -ef | grep dnews (SunOS)
        Check the log files
   
           more /usr/local/dnews/dnews.log
   
   
   On UNIX if it gets started up with the wrong PID
   you will get all sorts of protection problems,  all
   the files in:
   
             /var/spool/dnews/...  (including
   var/spool/dnews)
   
   must be owned by the same user, normally 'news'.
   Also all the files in:
   
             /var/local/dnews/*
   
   Also on UNIX it is possible to start dnews twice,
   this can cause real disasters, always check with ps
   and by looking at the log before restarting DNEWS.
   

TELLNEWS says remote node is unknown
   Check the myname variable in DNEWS.CONF, also check
   your DNS is working, if its isn't then use the
   number in dnews.conf
   
   On VMS, if the symbol tellnews is not defined, it
   will try and run telnet instead, this can be
   confusing.  You may have to log in again to get the
   symbol, or if you forgot to put it in your sylogin:
   script then you will have to do so, e.g.:
   
        $ tellnews :== $dnews_top:tellnews
   

TELLNEWS says "Cannot access tellnews.pass"
   For some reason tellnews cannot find it's
   configuration files, on NT this could be caused by
   a file protection problem or more likely if the
   disk drive letter was not specified in the
   configuration file DNEWS.CONF.
   
   On VMS and UNIX you must be running the tellnews
   command from the usercode ROOT or NEWS or
   NEWS$SERVER.
   

I see errors "NNTP, Sorry I can't talk to you" in the log
file?
   Your news-host does not want to talk to you, this
   is because there is a security file which gives a
   list of hosts which are allowed to connect, the
   name of your machine must be in this list, and your
   machine's name must be in the Domain Name Server
   tables as well as the Reverse Translation Domain
   Name server tables.
   
   The access file may be called something like:
   
     CNEWS          /usr/local/lib/news/nntp_access
     INND      /usr/local/news/nnrp.access
     DNEWS          /usr/local/dnews/access.conf
     DNEWS-NT  /dnews/access.conf

What does "Transfer permission denied" mean?
   This can come from one of two directions,  DNEWS
   can give this error when a site tries to feed it
   new items.
   
   If you are using a sucking feed then you should
   stop the site that is trying to send to you from
   sending as DNEWS will ask for any items it wants.
   
   If you do want to allow incoming IHAVE messages,
   then add an IHAVE record for this ip address in the
   ACCESS.CONF file, and also remove the 'POSTING'
   flag from the NEWSFEEDS.CONF file for the ME site.
   
   The last possibility is that this error is coming
   from your feeding site, in which case you need to
   contact the system manager of that site and ask him
   to give you `ihave' access.
   

I still can't figure it out, how can I get help?
   You have two options, the DNEWS discussion list has
   lots of expertise on it.  So try that first.
   
   If that fails, or if you are a registered (not
   free) customer then as part of normal support
   NetWin provide email advice and help on setting up
   your system.  In general try and give as much
   information as possible about your setup and what
   you want to do, and ALWAYS include a FAX or phone
   number just incase your mail system is broken as
   well :-)  e.g.
   
    Hardware & OS:      Windows NT - Intel   (or NT-Alpha
    or Solaris 4.3 etc...)
    Version of DNEWS:  2.0b
    Type of feed:  Sucking feed   (or full ihave feed...)
    FAX:           (include country code)
    And any relevant setup files, usually one or more of:
    dnews.conf, newsfeeds.conf, access.conf
    And maybe a few lines from dnews.log showing the
    problem
    (Please don't email 3MB of log files to us :-)
    
    And state your problem clearly:
    (a bad example)  My feed doesn't work, why not?
    (a good example) The IHAVE feed coming INTO my system
    from my provider is being refused, he says it gives
    an error, `transfer permission denied',  what should
    I do?

DNEWS Mailing List
   There are two mailing lists for DNEWS, one is only
   used to make major announcements of new version or
   urgent patches.  The other is for general
   discussion, you may want to join both.
   

To subscribe to the discussion list send to:
      dnews-request@adam.com.au
   A message containing one word:
   
      subscribe
   
   
  Then to post to the list send to:
  
      dnews@adam.com.au

To subscribe to the announcement list
   Send a message to:
   
        maiser@emagic.co.nz
   
   Containing the line:
   
       subscribe dnews
  
  This is a moderated list, it's only function is to
  provide timely information on new features,
  releases, bugs, installation gotcha's etc to
  interested people.  You will not get 20 messages a
  day from this list, it will probably average 1-2
  messages per month.
  



Configuration files
  The following files define your news system in
  approx. order of importance:
  
File Name      Description
news.conf      Main configuration file
access.conf    Controls nntp access to your server
expire.conf    Specifies how long to keep news items
newsfeeds.con  Defines feeds out of your news system
f              up the line of news servers
moderators.co  Defines where to send email to a
nf             moderated news group
control.conf   Defines how to process control messages
               for auto creation and deletion of news
               groups

dnews.conf
         cachedonly true  (don't allow items into non
  cached groups)
  
         cachedall true   (pretend all groups are
  cached)
  
   
   
Symbol    Example        Description
active_st true           Stops new groups from being added
atic                     by the sucking feed.  Use this if
                         your feed site has lots of groups
                         you never want added into your
                         active file.
cachedall true           Pretend all groups are cached,
                         use this if you are taking a full
                         IHAVE feed in.
cachedonl true           Only accepts items into groups
y                        which are cached, this is used
                         for the hybrid feed where items
                         are sent by a feed but only taken
                         if users are reading that
                         particular group.
confirm   *.this.place   Send email confirmation to
                         postings from these addresses.
                         (set this to match your local
                         email addresses)
config    dnews_top:     Directory for configuration files
                         (*.conf)
debug_rot 10000          Automatically rotates log files
ate                      (renames and deletes the oldest
                         one)  if more than 10000 lines
                         are written.  This is good if you
                         have turned on debugging as you
                         always have the last few
                         thousands lines if a problem
                         develops but you don't run out of
                         disk space due to the huge log
                         file.
diskspace 100            Total disk space in megabytes a
                         dynamic feed needs 20-200MBs, a
                         full feed needs approx. 1000MB
expire_at 5  23,3        Run an expire job at 5 past
                         eleven and 5 past 3 in the
                         morning.
feed_read true           Sends the `mode reader' command
er        (default)      when connecting to a feeding
                         site, this is the default.  You
                         will probably never have to
                         change this setting.
history   \dnews\spool   Directory for history file, this
                         could grow to 40MB for a full
                         feed (80,000 blocks)
history_m 5              Pause if less than `n' megabytes
in                       free
item_max  100000         Sets the maximum size for any
                         article that DNEWS can deal with,
                         the default is 1,000,000.  A
                         smaller number will save memory.
life      30             Number of days to keep caching a
                         news group after someone reads an
                         item in it.
logdir    \dnews         Directory to write log files
                         
logdir_mi 5              Pause server if less than 5MB is
n                        left free on logging disk.
loglvl    info           One of:
                         error,warn,info,debug,flush
                         There are four levels of error
                         reporting, "error" includes
                         serious errors, "warn" includes
                         possible problems, "info"
                         includes general information
                         messages and "debug" which is
                         used for tracing bugs.  "flush"
                         is the same as debug but the log
                         file is flushed with every single
                         line written, this is useful if
                         the system is crashing but not
                         providing a stack dump.
loguse    true           Write a log of every item body
                         read by users in the file
                         used.log
manager   system@here.   Email address of the news manager
          this.place
mail      smtp           This is only used on VMS systems.
                         The name of the foreign email
                         system on VMS, typically in% or
                         smtp% (don't include the %)
myname    news.this.pl   Your full internet name, if left
          ace            out this may be picked up from
                         the system.  It's best to put it
                         in by hand to make sure it's
                         right.
nntp_pass mysecretword   Use this if the site you are
                         sucking from requires a username
                         and password to access it.
nntp_user jbloggs        Use this if the site you are
                         sucking from requires a username
                         and password to access it.
nntp_feed news.feeder.   The news site where you are going
er        site           to SUCK a feed from.  You need
                         NNTP READER access to this site.
                         If you are not sucking a feed
                         then comment this line out.  If
                         you need to specify a PORT other
                         than the default one (119) then
                         add it on the end of the name,
                         e.g.  feeder.site.edu:2021
nodns     true           Stops DNEWS from doing reverse
                         DNS lookups every time a user
                         connects,  you will have to put
                         ip numbers into access.conf if
                         you use this feature, but if your
                         DNS is faulty or slow then this
                         can improve connection times.
port      119            The TCP port which DNEWS should
                         listen for incoming connections
                         on.
postonly  true           Stops items from being posted
                         locally until the `echo' back
                         from the feeder site, this gives
                         a very clear confirmation that
                         the message has been passed up
                         stream.  You cannot do this if
                         you want to have local groups
                         which are not on the site you are
                         sucking from.
report    no             Stops the daily email report from
                         being sent to the manager after
                         every expire run.
timeout   30             Define how long to wait after a
                         channel becomes idle before
                         disconnecting it, the default is
                         120 minutes.
timezone  NZST           Timezone hh:mm or timezone name
                         Appendix B
too_old   50             Refuse items that were created
                         more than this many days in the
                         past, this prevents old items
                         from being re-distributed when a
                         machine dumps old news items onto
                         the network.
spool     \dnews\spool   Disk name (or logical) for news
                         articles
spool_min 5              Pause if less than `n' megabytes
                         free
update_at *0,*5  *       Check for new items every time
                         the minutes end in a 5 or a zero
                         and at any hour, e.g. every 5
                         minutes..
workarea  \dnews\spool   Directory for work files
                         (active.dat, *.feed, etc)
workarea_ 5              If less than `n' megabytes are
min                      free on this disk then pause the
                         news system, (stop accepting new
                         articles)

access.conf
  This file controls access to your system, you can
  control access by IP name, IP number or even by
  individual user using password protection.
  
<host>:<perm>:<user>:<pass>:<groups>
Paramet Example         Description
er
<host>  *.my.domain     A wildcard name or number, this
        161.29.4.*      rule is only used if the
                        connection matches this address
<perm>  Read, Post,     Allow any combination of reading
        Ihave           posting or ihave feeding from this
                        site.
<user>  chrisp          Some news readers can send a user
                        name, if so then it will be
                        matched here, and the password can
                        be checked.
<pass>  rumplestiltski  The password in plain text
        n
<groups *,!*.erotic.*   Allow access to groups matching
>                       this wild card
Notes:
  Unlike other news implementations, you can permit
  reading and posting to different combinations of
  news groups, for example you may wish to allow
  students to read all groups but only post to local
  news groups.
  

expire.conf
  This file can be tricky to use, remember order is
  significant!!
  
  The expiration file is very different from INN and
  CNEWS implementations,  Rather than a simple set of
  rules, the DNEWS expire rules match both news group
  names and current disk usage, so as use increases
  the rules can become more strict.
  
  In addition rules can specify minimum or maximum
  numbers of items, this allows a single rule to apply
  to groups which get 20 items a day, or 20 items a
  month.
  
  Each line of the file must have the following
  format:
  
     UPTO x GROUPS wild KEEP n DEFAULT n PURGE n MAXITEMS
     n MINITEMS n
Symbol  Example         Description
upto    20%             This rule applies if less than 20%
                        of the disk space is full.
groups  alt.*,comp.bin  This rule applies if the group
        aries.*         matches this list
keep    2               Keep items for this many days even
                        if they have already expired.
                        (From the expire date in the
                        article header)
default 10              Keep items this long and then
                        delete unless the expiration date
                        says to keep it longer.
purge   35              Delete after this many days even
                        if the expire header says to keep
                        it longer.  This should be set
                        long enough to keep FAQ's and no
                        longer to prevent abuse.
maxitem 1000            Delete old items if the group has
s                       more than this many items in it.
                        Good for controlling high volume
                        groups.
minitem 10              Don't apply any other rules if the
s                       group has less than this many
                        items in it,  this is good for
                        making `low volume' groups
                        useable.
Example:
      # Default rule
      upto 10000% groups * keep 0 default 1 purge 10
      maxitems 0 minitems 0
      # Start to panic a little
      upto 90% groups * keep 0 default 2 purge 33
      maxitems 100 minitems  0
      # Normal operation, put your meaningfull settings
      here.
      upto 60% groups * keep 2 default 5 purge 33
      maxitems 1000 minitems  10
      upto 60% groups comp.* keep 2 default 10 purge 33
      maxitems 2000 minitems  10
      # Lots of space, just stop things getting silly
      (e.g. 10000 items in...)
      upto 30% groups * keep 2 default 17 purge 33
      maxitems 3000 minitems  100
      upto 20% groups * maxitems 2000
      # Keep any local groups forever (this line must be
      last to work)
      upto 1000% groups local.* keep 99999 minitems 10000

newsfeeds.conf
  This file controls feeds out of DNEWS to other
  sites, it also controls the feed `into' DNEWS via
  the same mechanism.
  
Symbol  Example         Description
site    me              The name of the site to feed,
        $NNTP_FEEDER    usually it's full internet name.
        my.leaf.site    The `me' feed must be the first
                        one in the file.
builtin (flag, no       Specifies the builtin feeding
        value)          mechanism should be used.  This is
                        only intended for sending local
                        postings up stream, it is not fast
                        enough to send a full feed on to
                        another site.
posting (flag, no       Specifies that the nntp `post'
        value)          command should be used to send
                        items upstream.  This gives your
                        feeder site the job of deciding
                        how to email postings to moderated
                        groups.
exclude feeder.real.na  Use this if your feeder site is
        me,feeder.thir  `name stamping' articles with a
        d.name          name other than it's ip name.
                        This MUST be right or DNEWS will
                        attempt to echo everything it gets
                        back to the feeder site. (check
                        the path header)
smtp    (flag, no       Specifies this is not really a
        value)          feed, but on a vax it is actually
                        the email queue used to send
                        articles to moderated groups, this
                        is only needed on VMS and then
                        only if you are not using the
                        `POSTING' mechanism to feed
                        upstream.
maxcros 50              Throw away items which are
s                       crossposted to more than `50' news
                        groups.  This is good for
                        preventing `spamming' which is
                        where people post adverts and
                        money making schemes to
                        inappropriate news groups.
maxsize 100000          Limit items to 100K, the default
                        is 1MB, if you want to make it
                        larger than 1MB then you must also
                        increase ITEM_MAX in DNEWS.CONF.
                        Personally I think 100K is too
                        big, ftp sites and web should be
                        used for larger items.

moderators.conf
  You won't need to touch this file unless you want to
  add a local group and make it moderated.  In that
  case add your groups at the top of the file as the
  first match is used.
  
  Format:
  
      newsgroup:email-address
  If the email address contains a "%s" then that is
  replaced by the news group name with the dots
  changed into dashes.
  
  Example:
  
      local.gossip.moderated:chrisp@marc.cri.nz
      gnu.*:%s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
      *:%s@uunet.uu.net

control.conf
  This file controls the action taken when control
  messages are received.  This is the secret to the
  administration of news.  The following control
  messages are checked by this file:
  
         newgroup
       
         rmgroup
       
    version
    checkgroups
    ihave
    sendme
    sendsys
    senduuname
   
   
  However only the following three are implemented.
  
         newgroup
       
         rmgroup
       
    version
   
   
  Blanks are not allowed, e.g. :: would be
  misinterpreted.
  
  For each type of control message, you can specify
  based on who sent it, whether or not to do what the
  message says, just log it, or email the message to
  the news administrator.  The log file that DNEWS
  creates can be used to action the control messages
  at a later date as it contains valid commands.
  
  All control messages are logged to
  `control_(message).(action)'
  
  Format:
  
      message-type:email-address:action
      message-type   rmgroup, newgroup, version
      email-address  A wildcard email address, e.g.
      news@trusted.site
      action         "drop", "log", "mail", "doit",
      "doit,mail"
Example:
      all:*:*:mail
      ihave:*:*:drop
      sendme:*:*:drop
      sendsys:*:*:drop
      senduuname:*:*:drop
      newgroup:tale@*.uu.net:comp.*,misc.*,news.*,rec.*,s
      ci.*,soc.*,talk.*:doit
      rmgroup:tale@*.uu.net:comp.*,misc.*,news.*,rec.*,sc
      i.*,soc.*,talk.*:doit

How news gets in and out of your system

FEEDING news INTO your system
  With DNEWS you have two choices, you can push the
  news into your system using an NNTP IHAVE sending
  program or a SUCKING feed. A pushing ihave feed is
  run from the server which provides you with a feed.
  This is the standard way of sending news but it has
  two disadvantages:
  
     1.   An NNTP IHAVE feed comes as a random selection of
       items from various news groups, this prevents any
       optimization when creating indexes and storing items.
     2.   An NNTP IHAVE feed must be setup from the other end.
       This prevents auto configuration of what is fed, it also
       makes configuration difficult as you may have limited or
       virtually no access to the feeder site configuration.
Feeding in using an NNTP IHAVE feed.
  If you use this method then you must take a full
  feed, or at least a fixed subset of feeds, you can't
  use the DNEWS dynamic system.
  
  To set this up simply modify the access.conf file to
  allow the site that is feeding you to have IHAVE
  access.
  
      news.feeder.site:ihave:::*
  In dnews.conf add one line
  
      cachedall true
  Then the job is done apart from setting the feed up
  from the other end which is entirely your problem!
  
Feeding in using a SUCKING feed (default)
  This is extremely easy to setup, in the file
  NEWS.CONF define the variable NNTP_FEEDER to point
  to a site where you have NEWS READER access.
  
  Simple wasn't it :-)
  

FEEDING news OUT OF your system
Sending news up line using a POSTING feed (default)
  If you are a LEAF site. (A leaf site is where you
  don't feed news on to anyone else) then you have an
  easy option, you can pass the job of `posting' an
  item up stream to your feeder site.
  
  Using this system DNEWS essentially pretends to be a
  NEWS READER which is posting your item directly on
  your FEEDER site.  Any error message will be emailed
  to you.
  
  In the file NEWSFEEDS.CONF define one feed as
  follows:
  
      site $NNTP_FEEDER
      groups *
      builtin
      posting
   
   
  If your feeder site is stamping each news item with
  a name different from it's IP name that you used in
  your DNEWS.CONF file then you will have to add an
  exclude line to this feeding definition to stop the
  feed from trying to send every item that comes in
  back to the feeder.
  
      exclude feeder.name.stamp
  The special commands `builtin' tells DNEWS to use
  it's own internal NNTP link to send any articles to
  this feed and the command `posting' tells DNEWS to
  POST articles rather than pass them up using the
  IHAVE mechanism.
  
  In order to get email confirmation of each post as
  it is really posted use the CONFIRM variable in
  news.conf to match all local email addresses.
  
Sending news up line using an NNTP-IHAVE sender
  If you are a leaf site then just remove the
  `posting' keyword from your newsfeeds.conf file.
  
  However, if you want to pass a full feed on to
  someone else then you need to use the XMIT program
  as the builtin feed cannot deal with large volumes.
  See the section "How do I setup XMIT" in the FAQ
  section of this manual.
  

Appendix A, What is USENET

What is USENET News?
  USENET News is a world wide bulletin board.  It has
  no management or central system.  It is a large
  number of computers and networks connected together.
  
News groups
  The news is divided into approximately three
  thousand groups.  These groups are chosen by mutual
  agreement using a complicated voting system.
  
How your article will get to the rest of the world
  When you post an article, it travels from your
  machine to all the NEWS servers which your machine
  is connected to, (usually just one other machine,
  but in the case of a university, you may be
  connected to three or four other `news' machines).
  Each of these servers in turn pass on your `article'
  to all the machines that they are connected to.  In
  this way your message eventually gets to every other
  news machine in the world.
  
  There are some very clever built in systems to
  prevent an article from traveling in a loop but
  these need not concern you.  The important point is
  there is built in redundancy, so once your message
  gets past your local system a single faulty system
  will not stop it from getting to the rest of the
  world.
  
What to read first
   There are a number of postings in the news group
   "news.announce.newusers" that should be read and
   followed by all  users using news for the first
   time.
   
What is an FAQ?
   FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions.  These
   are questions that every one asks when they first
   become interested in a topic,  the `old timers' in
   a news group get sick of answering them again and
   again so they create an FAQ.  This is a list of all
   the questions and answers.  Always look for an FAQ
   before posting a question.
   
Be careful posting
   Remember when you ask a stupid question on NEWS you
   have just annoyed approximately ten to one hundred
   thousand people, depending on the news group.  So
   always consider very carefully before posting.
   
How big is it?
   An item in a widely distributed news group will
   reach an estimated  24,000 sites world-wide hosting
   1,000,000 potential readers.  Most  sites are
   educational institutions, but many research
   organizations,
   
   companies, and government departments are also part
   of USENET.  This number is growing exponentially,
   as many as 20,000,000 users are on the internet and
   most `private' individuals will only begin to
   connect over the next couple of years.
   

Appendix B, Time Zone Names
          gmt  Greenwich Mean
          ut     Universal
          utc  Universal Coordinated
          cut  Coordinated Universal
          wet  Western European
          bst  British Summer
          nst  Newfoundland Standard
          ndt  Newfoundland Daylight
          ast  Atlantic Standard
          adt  Atlantic Daylight
          est  Eastern Standard
          edt  Eastern Daylight
          cst  Central Standard
          cdt  Central Daylight
          mst  Mountain Standard
          mdt  Mountain Daylight
          pst  Pacific Standard
          pdt  Pacific Daylight
          yst     Yukon Standard
          ydt  Yukon Daylight
          akst Alaska Standard
          akdt      Alaska Daylight
          hst  Hawaii Standard
          hast Hawaii-Aleutian Standard
          hadt      Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight
          ces  Central European Summer
          cest      Central European Summer
          mez  Middle European
          mezt      Middle European Summer
          cet  Central European
          met  Middle European
          eet  Eastern Europe
          msk  Moscow Winter
          msd  Moscow Summer
          wast      West Australian Standard
          wadt      West Australian Daylight
          hkt  Hong Kong
          cct  China Coast
          jst  Japan Standard
          kst  Korean Standard
          kdt  Korean Daylight
          cast      Central Australian Standard
          cadt      Central Australian Daylight
          east      Eastern Australian Standard
          eadt Eastern Australian Daylight
          nzst      New Zealand Standard
          nzdt      New Zealand Daylight

Appendix C, NNTP Summary
authinfo [user Name]|[pass Password]
  Used to authenticate individual users.  The command
  is first sent to define a user and then sent a
  second time to give the password.  Older news
  readers may not allow the use of this feature. On
  the server side add entries to access.dat using an
  editor.
  
article [MessageID|Number]
  Responds with the article, if no second parameter is
  given then the current article is sent.
  
  News readers should avoid using MessageID as it
  generates extra work for the server.
  
body [MessageID|Number]
  Sends the body of the message.
  
date
  Responds with the current time from the servers
  point of view, (not standard)
  
group newsgroup
  Sets the current group
  
head [MessageID|Number]
  Sends the header of a message.
  
help
  Sends a list of valid commands.
  
ihave <message-id>
  Used by another news system to `offer' new items to
  this news system.
  
last
  Sets the current news item to one item lower.
  
list [active]
  List on it's own or with the active qualifier
  responds with a list of known news groups.
  
list active.times
  Responds with a list of news groups and the date and
  time they were created. This file may or may not be
  complete depending on how the system was installed
  and how long it has been running.
  
list newsgroups
  Responds with a list of news groups and a short
  description of each one.  This list may or may not
  be complete or even available depending on how your
  system is installed.
  
listgroup [newsgroup] (extension)
  Gives a list of valid items in a news group.  This
  is currently the only efficient way for a news
  reader to establish which items in a group actually
  exist.
  
mode reader (extension)
  Does nothing, this command only exists for
  compatibility with INN.
  
mode stream (extension)
  Responds with a success status to signify that the
  streaming extensions are supported.
  
newgroups yymmdd hhmmss [GMT] [<distributions>]
  Lists news groups created since the given date.
  
newnews newsgroups yymmdd hhmmss [GMT] [<distributions>]
  Lists message-id's of news items that arrived after
  the specified date.
  
next
  Sets the current point to the next item.
  
post
  Used by news readers to post a new item.
  
slave
  Has no affect.
  
stat [MessageID|Number]
  Checks an item exists, responding with it's message
  id.
  
check [MessageID] (extension)
  Checks an item exists.  This is one of the STREAMING
  extensions to NNTP. It is different from the stat
  command in that it will respond that it still has a
  message even after the message has expired.
  
takethis [MessageID] (extension)
   This is the other half of the streaming extension
   to NNTP, this command behaves like the IHAVE
   command but doesn't have a refusal stage so it's
   return status doesn't need to be checked before the
   next item is sent.
   
xgtitle [group_pattern] (extension)
  Extension used by ANU-NEWS to actually use the
  newsgroups file to respond with a list of newsgroups
  that matches the pattern, and gives their one line
  descriptions.
  
xhdr header [range|MessageID] (extension)
  Lists the requested header of all items that fall
  within the given range.
  
xover [range] (extension)
  Lists all the items within range giving a fixed set
  of headers in return.  Under DNEWS this command is
  implemented in software, no actual database is
  required as the DNEWS database is efficient enough
  to produce this information on the fly.
  
xpat header range|MessageID pat [morepat...] (extension)
  Weird extension, don't use this.  In shell syntax it
  is roughly equivalent to:
  
  xhdr header range | grep pat
  
xpath MessageID (extension)
  This command is not implemented, as their is no
  internal file name that can be returned and frankly
  the command should never have existed as it breaks
  every rule of information hiding and abstraction.
  But hey, that's UNIX :-)
  

Copyright & Disclaimer
  The software DNEWS is Copyright (C) 1995 NetWin LTD,
  New Zealand, All  rights reserved. The software
  remains the sole and exclusive property of NetWin at
  all times it may not be modified and resold or
  coppied in any way other than as described in the
  documentation.
  
  This software and the accompanying files are sold
  "as is" and without  warranties as to performance of
  merchantability or any other warranties whether
  expressed or implied.  No warranty of fitness for a
  particular purpose is offered.
  
  (DNEWS is an extremely complex piece of software.
  NetWin will make reasonable efforts to solve any
  reported problems but we must limit our legal
  liability for obvious reasons.)
  

Corrections & Additions.
  Please let us know if you find errors in this manual
  or if you think some additional information should
  be added.
  
  
  
