Managing Usenet (Paperback)

Description:

Usenet, also called Netnews, is the world's largest discussion forum and it is doubling in size every year. There are Usenet discussion groups on every imaginable topic, from the technical and scientific, to the political and religious, and onto the truly bizarre and arcane. If you simply use the Netnews system, all of this discussion can be interesting and entertaining. But if you're a system administrator who has to set up and run a Netnews system, you suddenly have the unenviable task of making sure that your system can handle a data flow of thousands of megabytes per day. Unfortunately, Usenet administration is one area of network administration that is still learned primarily by word-of-mouth and Internet folklore. That is, until now.

This book, written by two of the foremost authorities on Usenet administration, is full of practical information about how to set up and run a news system. Managing Usenet covers C News and INN, the two most widely used news relayers on UNIX systems. It explains the basics of starting a Netnews system, from getting a news feed, to building and installing the news software, to keeping everything running smoothly. Managing Usenet also offers guidelines to help you make sure that your system is capable of handling news volume today and in the future. This book contains everything you need to know to administer a Netnews system, from a single news server inside your organization to a complicated system with multiple servers, several incoming news feeds, and outgoing feeds to a number of other hosts as well.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction

   1.1 Netnews and Usenet

   1.2 A Brief History

   1.3 How It Works

   1.4 What You Need
Chapter 2. Getting Ready

   2.1 Getting a Feed

   2.2 How Much News?

   2.3 Propagation Issues

   2.4 Hostnames

   2.5 Local Newsgroups

   2.6 Internal News Networks

   2.7 Filesystem Layout

   2.8 Choosing the Software
Chapter 3. News Operations

   3.1 Managing the Flow

   3.2 Control Messages

   3.3 Newsgroup Changes

   3.4 Expiry Policy

   3.5 Archives and Backups

   3.6 Unwanted Newsgroups

   3.7 Security Considerations

   3.8 Getting Help
Chapter 4. Installing C News

   4.1 The C News and NNTP Distributions

   4.2 Preparing to Build C News: quiz

   4.3 Building C News

   4.4 Checking C News

   4.5 Installing C News

   4.6 Preparing to Build the NNTP Reference Implementation

   4.7 Building the NNTP Reference Implementation

   4.8 Installing the NNTP Reference Implementation
Chapter 5. Configuring C News

   5.1 C News Control Files

   5.2 NNTP Reference Implementation Control Files

   5.3 Verifying C News Installation

   5.4 Loose Ends

   5.5 Cleaning Up
Chapter 6. Running C News

   6.1 Testing a New Installation

   6.2 Article Flow

   6.3 Common Problems

   6.4 Logs and Trouble Reports

   6.5 Wrapping Up
Chapter 7. Installing INN

   7.1 The INN Distribution

   7.2 Preparing to Build INN

   7.3 Building INN

   7.4 Installing INN
Chapter 8. Configuring INN

   8.1 How to Update Files

   8.2 Control Files

   8.3 Scripts
Chapter 9. Running INN

   9.1 Starting INN

   9.2 Testing the Installation

   9.3 Normal Operation

   9.4 Ongoing Maintenance

   9.5 Log Files

   9.6 Troubleshooting Common Problems

   9.7 Wrapping Up
Chapter 10. Choosing and Installing Newsreaders

   10.1 Installing Newsreaders

   10.2 Operational Issues

   10.3 Popular Newsreaders

   10.4 More Information
Chapter 11. You're a Network Manager Now

   11.1 Network Optimization

   11.2 Managing People

   11.3 Your Site and the Law
Chapter 12. Leaf Nodes

   12.1 Plenty of Power

   12.2 Maintaining the Active File

   12.3 Dealing with Your Feed

   12.4 Record Keeping
Chapter 13. Hub Nodes

   13.1 Volume, Volume, Volume

   13.2 Transmitters

   13.3 Additional Automation

   13.4 The Political View
Chapter 14. Gatewaying

   14.1 Known Worldwide Gateways

   14.2 Posting via Mail

   14.3 Setting Up a Gateway

   14.4 Programming a Gateway
Chapter 15. Moderating Newsgroups

   15.1 Creating a Moderated Group

   15.2 Getting Postings to the Moderator

   15.3 Preparing Articles for Distribution

   15.4 Putting the Articles in the Group

   15.5 Moderators' Software Tools

   15.6 The Political Side
Chapter 16. Newsgroups and Their Names

   16.1 A Brief Survey

   16.2 Namespace Theory

   16.3 Changing the Namespace
Chapter 17. A Brief History of Usenet

   17.1 Origins

   17.2 Growing Pains

   17.3 Namespace History
Chapter 18. Anatomy of a News Article

   18.1 Basic Layout and Character Codes

   18.2 Headers

   18.3 Body

   18.4 Control Messages

   18.5 MIME
Chapter 19. Flow and Processing of Traffic

   19.1 News Propagation

   19.2 Article Storage and Indexing

   19.3 Batching for Transmission

   19.4 Transmission by UUCP

   19.5 Transmission by NNTP

   19.6 Last-Resort Transmission Methods
Index