Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.eng.convex.com!newshost.convex.com!bcm.tmc.edu!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!gatech!news.mathworks.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!linux.demon.co.uk From: John Phillips <john@linux.demon.co.uk> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: best news server for a limited feed Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:13:54 GMT Organization: JaleX Lines: 44 Message-ID: <DM7Gz6.EB2@linux.demon.co.uk> References: <4edrkm$q0b@news.be.innet.net> <4eh1lg$e0@prds-grn.demon.co.uk> <4eiocg$lsm@news.cic.net> X-NNTP-Posting-Host: linux.demon.co.uk X-Mail2News-Path: disperse.demon.co.uk!post.demon.co.uk!linux.demon.co.uk pauls@cic.net (Paul Southworth) writes: >In article <4eh1lg$e0@prds-grn.demon.co.uk>, >Thomas D.G. Sandford <t.d.g.sandford@prds-grn.demon.co.uk> wrote: >>I use the INN software, which is available as a package/port, together >>with a program called "slurp" which is a fast offline news gatherer. >Don't be surprised if the newsadmin of the site you're planning to "slurp" >off of decides to clobber you with a pipe for using that method. Thomas' ISP will certainly not object. They have said so publicly and their servers are designed properly to cope with NEWNEWS. I can't speak about others. >slurp is extremely abusive to news servers and is a target for hatred and >derision among many ISPs. Then these ISPs should arrange to change RFC 977. RFC 977 requires NEWNEWS (for which slurp is being derided here), and NNTP according to RFC 977 is listed in RFC 1780 as an elective protocol. This means you don't have to provide NNTP, but if you do, you have to meet RFC 977. >My experience also indicated that its performance was not very good; I >suppose mileage may vary. Perhaps you had an old version. Slurp (version 1.10) certainly saturates my connection. >Finding a method for extracting news from the server without using the >"newnews" NNRP command would be advisable, IMO. I think "suck" avoids >it, but "slurp" does not. If an ISP doesn't like NEWNEWS then this *is* advisable, and suck is a way to avoid NEWNEWS, but without any RFC-backed guarantee that it will work. I have previously come across at least one case where suck would miss articles on a fully RFC-compliant NNTP server. Fortunately, I suspect this is not common. However the standardisation process, upon which the proper operation of the Internet is built, is being abused if people are being denied by the back door, access to required protocol elements in NNTP. -- John Phillips john@linux.demon.co.uk