Special Edition Using Linux, Fourth Edition:Configuring a Usenet News Service

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Configuring Usenet Clients

Usenet operates on the familiar client/server relationship: A server exchanges messages with another server and stores the messages on the local system. In order to read a Usenet newsgroup, you will need to contact your network or Internet service provider and ask for the name of an NNTP Server. Once you have a server name (which will normally look something like either test.fake.com or 192.168.2.221), you can start.

NN and TIN

NN and TIN are two very similar newsreaders with similar configuration requirements, and both are included in many common Linux distributions.

If you’re using a version of TIN compiled with the NNTP options from a UNIX shell account, try one of these commands:

• If you are using the ksh or bash shell:


$ NNTPSERVER= test.fake.com tin -r -f .fakenewsrc I .newsnet/.index

• If you are using the C shell or tcsh shell:


% setenv NNTPSERVER test.fake.com; tin -r -f .fakenewsrc I

.newsnet/.index

For NN, the configuration is similar:

• If you are using the ksh or bash shell:


$ NNTPSERVER=test.fake.com nn newsrc=~ .fakenewsrc

If you’re using the C shell or tcsh shell:


% setenv NNTPSERVER test.fake.com nn newsrc=~/.fakenewsrc

Pine

Pine is most commonly used as a mail reader, but it can also be used as a newsreader. To set up your pine mail client for accessing Usenet, press <S> (Setup) and then <C> (Config). Then edit the line “news collections” to read as follows:


*{test.fake.com/NNTP}[]

Next, press <E> to exit pine and restart it. Then press <L> (List Folders), go down to the news folders, and select <A> (Add) to subscribe to the newsgroups you want.

The resulting screen might look similar to this:


PINE 3.96   FOLDER LIST          Folder: INBOX  313 Messages

----------------------------------------------------------------

Folder-collection <mail/[]>  ** Default for Saves **      (Local)

----------------------------------------------------------------

                 [ Select Here to See Expanded List ]

----------------------------------------------------------------

News-collection <News on test.fake,com>                  (Remote)

----------------------------------------------------------------

                 [ Select Here to See Expanded List ]

Although reading news can be fun and informative, only reading (and not posting) messages in newsgroups is a behavior pattern called lurking, which is frowned upon by long-time Usenet people. If you want to post new Usenet messages to newsgroups or to send replies by electronic mail, you must typically also fill out the following fields:

• Your name (first and last name)

• Your e-mail address (userid@hostname.domain)

• The computer that forwards your mail (ask your system administrator for the SMTP mail server’s name)

This is typically already set up for your mailreader software. You should be able to use the same entries. Check with a system administrator to make sure, though.

NOTE: Most system administrators will have an information sheet already prepared with this information. If they don’t, keep this information summary where you can get to it, so the next person to ask can benefit from your research.

With pine and other newsreaders, as well as most e-mail applications, you can define a sigfile. A sigfile (short for signature file) is a block of information you want included with every posting you make to a newsgroup. Typically people include their name, e-mail address, and (if a work-related account) their title or rank. Sometimes people also include a short quote they consider witty.

NOTE: Things you would rarely want to put in a sigfile are your home address and telephone number. Without even considering the possibility of malicious or prankish behavior, there is always the possibility that the person making the legitimate business call from Singapore to you (in New York City) can forget the time zone difference. Remember that if a person can read your e-mail or news post over the Internet, he or she can almost always reply the same way.

Another caution if you set up a sigfile is to remember that you have your sigfile defined. Manually pasting your sigfile into the end of your outgoing message or attaching the sigfile as an attached file when the sigfile is automatically included, will make you look silly.

At some point while reading newsgroups, you will either want to contribute to a current discussion or start a new conversational topic. Before you start actively participating in Usenet, you need to understand the rules of the Usenet subculture. Follow this general advice when you start posting messages to a newsgroup:

• Don’t post until you’ve read the group for at least a week and have a feel for the tone of the newsgroup. Do you consider the average discussion too rude and brutal, or would the newsgroup’s current residents consider you an irritant?

• Look for and read the FAQ (if one exists). Many of the Usenet’s FAQs are archived at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/Usenet/.

• Post only to newsgroups in which your message is relevant. If you are trying to sell a waterbed in California, you should probably advertise only in .forsale newsgroups in the immediate are. It’s not likely that readers of the triangle.forsale newsgroup serving the eastern North Carolina area will want to ship your waterbed across the country. Similarly, if you have a question about Amiga computers, don’t post your query to a Macintosh-oriented newsgroup.

You might post a message to a newsgroup but look at that newsgroup later and not see your message. Some newsgroups are moderated, which means that all posts to that newsgroup are read by a person or group of persons who weed out inappropriate messages and don’t send them to the newsgroup. You can find out if a newsgroup is moderated by reading the FAQ for that newsgroup, by reading the charter for that newsgroup, or by reading messages on that newsgroup for a week or two before posting, and noticing if anyone describes himself as a moderator of that newsgroup.

NOTE: If you don’t see a FAQ immediately visible on the newsgroup when you first log in, try using one of the Usenet-capable search engines such as http://www.dejanews.com or http://www.altavista.digital.com and searching for the newsgroup name and “FAQ” as keywords. Alternatively, you might ask “Is there a FAQ for this group?” in your first message to save you a world of angst.

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