29. INND

29.1 Overview

1. Provides Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) service.

2. Major newsgroups include: alt,comp,gnu,misc,news,rec,sci,soc, and talk.

3. Newsgroups configured in a hierarchical fashion.

4. Package: inn

5. Port: TCP 119.

29.2 Configuration

1. /etc/news/

   Location of configuration files. A minimal leafnode setup requires that you modify the following files:

   • inn.conf

     Set the following options. The defaults for the remaining options should be fine.

     organization:   MyOrganization
     domain:         mydomain.com
     server:         news.mydomain.com
             
     

   • incoming.conf

     Place your ISP's news server information in here.

     # Peer definition
     # MyISP.com  (800) 555-1212 news@MyISP.com
     peer myisp.com {
         hostname:  news.myisp.com
         }
             
     

   • newsfeeds

     If you want to post articles, you need to modify newsfeeds.

     news.myisp.com:comp.*,!comp.sources.*,comp.sources.unix/!foo:Tf,Wnm:news.myisp.com
             
     

     The colon is the field delimiter used above. The format of that above line is:

     sitename[/exclude,exclude,...]:pattern,pattern,...[/distrib,distrib,..]:flag,flag,...:param
             
     

     Options:

     1. sitename - Names the site to which this feed relates. It can be called anything you want and does not have to be the domain name of the site.

     2. pattern - Indicates which news groups are to be sent to this site. The default is to send all groups (leave it blank if that's what you want). The above example will cause all "comp" groups to be received, but not any group under "comp.sources" except for "comp.sources.unix".
        • distribution - If specified, and an article has a "Distribution" header, it is check against this value. If the distribution specified matches the distribution header in the article, it is sent. However, if the distribution specified starts with an exclamation point, and the distribution header in the article matches, it is not sent. In the above example, any article with a distribution header containing "foo" will not be sent.

     3. flag - Specify various options about the newsfeed. The above options specify that this is a file feed type (Tf), and that only articles "message-id" and "token" (Wmn) should be written.

     4. param - Meaning varies depending on the feed type. When the feed type is "file" as in the example above, it specifies the file to write an entry to when an article is received. If not an absolute path, it is relative to the "pathoutgoing" option in inn.conf.

   • readers.conf - Edit this file if you want to allow readers on other computers.

   • motd.news - If you allow readers, it is a good idea to put a banner in this file that relays your usage policies to your readers.

2. Run inncheck to correct any permissions problems and catch any configuration file errors.

3. Run makehistory to initialize the INN history database.

4. Run makedbz to rebuild the dbz database files.

29.3 Troubleshooting

1. innd won't start
   • Use inncheck.
   • Check logs under /var/log/news.

2. Readers can't read
   • Verify that the reader is allowed access by checking nnrp.access.
   • Make sure innd is running.
   • Check logs under /var/log/news.
   • telnet to port 119 and see if a banner comes up.

3. Posters can't post
   • Confirm poster is allowed to post by checking nnrp.access.
   • Check logs under /var/log/news.
   • telnet to port 119 and see if a banner comes up with (posting allowed).