EleNEWS usenet retrieval utility, W32, OS2. 0.09! ================================================= The 32-bit versions of EleBBS include a program called EleNEWS.EXE. EleNEWS adds the ability for people with access to a standard news server to download and upload messages from any available newsgroup to and from any defined newsgroup area in Elconfig: Manager>Msg Areas. In Elconfig you must define the newsgroups you wish to download: Elconfig: Manager>Msg Areas. Select an appropriate area to edit, or press Insert to add a new area. Select the area using the enter key. A newsgroup message area has little difference between itself and other area types, those main areas are outlined as follows. A full description of the remaining options can be found elsewhere in the EleBBS documentation. Name: A description of the News group should be entered here e.g. "News: ALT.BBS.ALLSYSOP". This setting does not effect the actual newsgroup that is downloaded, it is purely used for descriptive purposes. Type: Newsgroup, this option has to be set, in order for the Elenews utility to find the newsgroups you require. Status: Public, all newsgroups are of a public nature. Echoinfo: No, we are not required to append an FTN address to any newsgroup posting. Attaches: No, the EleBBS file attachments are not compatible with newsgroups as no conversion is made to do so, therefore this option should be set to no. Newsgroup:Selecting this item will bring up a submenu, there are various options, however for elenews we are only interested in name. Other fields refer to options requires by Newssrv. Name: The actual name of the newsgroup should be entered exactly as it is stored on the server you are downloading from. e.g. "ALT.BBS.ALLSYSOP". Using the Elenews retrieval utility: Elenews does not know what your users e-mail address is, or indeed if they have one at all. When an article is posted to a newsgroup the article header will contain the users name. However rather than a valid e-mail address being used it is replaced by yourbbsname@elebbs.bbs, yourbbsname is defined in Elconfig: System>Site Info>Name. This method has the advantage that no "Spam" can ever be sent to your users from "Spammers" reading the header for e-mail addresses. Command-line parameters: -C: Collect articles from server. -T: Toss articles into messagebase. -S: Scan messagebase for new articles (to send to server) -P: Post articles to newsgroups (send locally written messages to news server). -L: Download a list of all newsgroups available on defined server to the file NWSGROUP.TXT. -M[max msgs]: Limit the maximum number of messages which Elenews will retrieve from the server. This option can be used if you expect a large number of articles may require downloading and you wish to override the default of all new articles. -H[:port]: Specify hostname of news server, this option is required for -C, -P and -L parameters. -D[filename]: Specify a filename which will be appened to the end of any messages posted by a users on the EleBbs system. This may be used to show a disclaimer or a short advert for your system. -Z[fido-address]:Specify a fidonet style address, pkt files should be addressed to. This command should be used in conjunction with "-I". This command allows your system to distribute Newsgroups to other fido-style nodes using your mail tosser. -I[path]: Used in conjunction with "-Z" this option defines the path your wish pkt files to be created. -?: Supplies a summary of the above command line options. Examples: C:\ELEBBS> Elenews -hnews.elevator.bbs -m1000 -c -t The above example will connect to the server at news.elevator.bbs and collect no more than 1000 articles for each area defined in Elconfig: Manager>Msg Areas. C:\ELEBBS> Elenews -hnews.elevator.bbs -s -p The above example will connect to the server at news.elevator.bbs, scan the message base for any new articles written on your system, and post them to the appropriate newsgroups. C:\ELEBBS> Elenews -hnews.elevator.bbs -m1000 -c -t -z2:2502/66 -ic:\mailer\in The above example will connect to the server at news.elevator.bbs and collect no more than 1000 articles for each area defined in Elconfig: Manager>Msg Areas. Additonaly instead of tossing new articles to your message base, EleNews will create fidonet style pkt files. These will be created in the directory c:\mailer\in. These values should be changed to your valid FTN address, and directory your tosser expects to find inbound pkt files. C:\ELEBBS> Elenews -hnews.elevator.bbs -l The above example will again connect to the server at news.elevator.bbs but will only attempt to download a list of newsgroups available on the server. The list of available groups will be saved to the file NEWSGROUP.TXT which is stored in the current directory. * Note: This manual assumes you already have TCP/IP facilities installed for your operating system, and access to a news server on your network or, when connected can connect to one via an Internet service provider. Please consult the documentation provided with your operating system for information on how to install TCP/IP protocols. For information regarding connecting to a news server contact your system administrator or ISP support service.