BULLETIN has the capability to read and post messages to USENET NEWS in a client mode. I realize that there are many NEWS readers, some with much more elegant interfaces. However, I elected to modify BULLETIN for the following reason: We have many decnet nodes, but only several are internet nodes. Our only access to a news server was via internet. In order for those non-internet nodes to read USENET, the only method that seemed available was to run a NEWS server program on one of our own internet nodes so that it could be accessible via decnet. I did not want to do that, as that requires storing the news groups on disk, and I do not have the room for that. I thus added the ability in BULLETIN (actually BULLCP) so that it acts as as a gateway between decnet and tcp for NEWS. This method does not require spawning any processes, since the detached process BULLCP is always present, so the access is very fast. Also, since BULLETIN uses a shared database to store info on the NEWS groups and periodically updates it, there is no need for that to be done when a user accesses the NEWS groups. Several other NEWS readers do this when you run them, which is why they take a long time to start up. It is also possible to feed NEWS groups into a "real" BULLETIN folder, so that the messages are saved on disk (see the file NEWS_TO_FOLDER.TXT). Presently, BULLETIN can be used with either UCX, MULTINET, or CMU TCP/IP packages (and of course DECNET) for reading NEWS. Support for other packages can be added if I can find sites willing to beta test the interface for me. The source for the TCP interface is in C rather than FORTRAN because the MULTINET include files are in C. However, if you do not have C, I will be glad to send the object for it (or to even possibly rewrite the code in FORTRAN). The instructions for installation are as follows. Define BULL_NEWS_SERVER to be a system logical name pointing to either your internet or decnet NEWS node. If it is decnet, simply specify the decnet node name, i.e. $ DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_NEWS_SERVER NERUS BULLETIN decides to use DECNET rather than TCP access based on the node name. If it does not have any periods in it, then it assumes it is a DECNET node. In our cluster, we usually have one node which is an internet node, and the rest non-internet nodes. If you have a similar situation, you'll have to create a startup procedure that defines BULL_NEWS_SERVER to be the internet news server address only on the node (or nodes) on the cluster that have actually internet access. The other nodes will have BULL_NEWS_SERVER defined as the decnet node name that BULLCP is running on in the cluster. (Of course, BULLCP will have to be running on a node with internet access.) NOTE: If you want to disable the gateway feature, then before starting BULLCP, define the logical name: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_NO_NEWS_GATEWAY "TRUE" Defining this will only shut off the gateway. BULLETIN will still be allowed to read NEWS from the local node as long as BULL_NEWS_SERVER is defined. You can also specify that BULLCP is only to act as a NEWS gateway. This is to allow adding the news gateway to an INTERNET site that you have DECNET access to, but which does not want to make use of any of the other BULLETIN features. You would specify the following command before starting BULLCP: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_NEWS_GATEWAY_ONLY "TRUE" It is also possible for BULLETIN to access news groups that are located on other news servers than the one specified by BULL_NEWS_SERVER. This is done by creating the file BULL_DIR:BULL_ALT_NEWS.LIS and adding a line which containsthe name of the news group and the news server where it's located. The format is news-group-name:news-server-name. In order to post messages, BULLETIN needs to know the internet nodename of the local host. This is done automatically for nodes running MULTINET. For other nodes, BULLETIN attempts to translate the logical name ARPANET_HOST_NAME, INTERNET_HOST_NAME, and MX_NODE_NAME. If you are on a DECNET node that is not on INTERNET (and is not part of a cluster which has an INTERNET address), but you are accessing NEWS via DECNET, you can specify the hostname as follows: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM INTERNET_HOST_NAME "%localhost@internet-address" Where "localhost" is your local decnet hostname, and "internet-address" is the internet address of the gateway node. The local time zone is detected by looking at the following logical names: LISP$TIME_ZONE, MULTINET_TIMEZONE, or PMDF_TIMEZONE. (LISP$TIME_ZONE is defined if you have LISP installed.) The name of the organization is included in the header of the NEWS message. This can be anything, but usually is the company or university name. This can be hardcoded into the source by putting in BULLNEWS.INC, or by defining the system logical name BULL_NEWS_ORGANIZATION. The name of the mail protocol to use for responding by mail to NEWS messages can also be either hardcoded by putting in BULLNEWS.INC, or by defining the system logical name BULL_NEWS_MAILER. After installing the new BULLETIN, execute the command NEWS, which asks for a list of all the news groups. Because this is the first time it is executed, it will cause a load of all the remote news groups into a local data base (BULL_DIR:BULLNEWS.DAT). This will take several minutes to do. It is the only time that this load will be done interactively. Afterwards, BULLCP will periodically update the data base. For this reason, it is highly recommeded that BULLCP be installed. BULLCP will update NEWS every hour. If you want to change this frequency, define the logical name BULL_NEWS_UPDATE to the number of minutes in between updates, i.e. DEFINE/SYSTEM BULL_NEWS_UPDATE "30" for 30 minutes. NOTE: BULLCP will create a subprocess BULLCP NEWS which does the update. You can watch how long it takes for this to run in order to determine if you want to change the update period). Due to long news group names recently created, you must do the following, or else those news groups will not be seen. After BULLNEWS.DAT is created, do the following: $ ANAL/RMS/FDL/OUT=FIX.FDL BULL_DIR:BULLNEWS.DAT Edit FIX.FDL and find the first line which says DUPLICATES no and change it to DUPLICATES yes Then type: $ CONVERT BULL_DIR:BULLNEWS.DAT BULL_DIR:BULLNEWS.DAT/FDL=FIX.FDL Also, it is suggested that you run OPTIMIZE_RMS.COM on it, as it will cause the file to be compressed and will allow updates to run much faster (factor of 5 or more). Never delete BULLNEWS.DAT. There is no reason to ever do so, and it will cause subscribed users to be subscribed to the wrong news groups. WARNING: One user discovered that his server (using bnews?) had a bug which caused the updates to cause bogus "new messages" notifications for subscribed NEWS group when entering BULLETIN. If you experience this problem, try defining the system logical name BULL_SPECIAL_NEWS_UPDATE. This will cause the update to use a different algorithm which should eliminate the problem, although it requires much more time to execute. If you have any problems or questions, please let me know. MRL