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Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Setting up NEWS as an NNTP client
Message-ID: <1990Nov3.141335.370@vixvax.mgi.com>
From: glass@vixvax.mgi.com (William H. Glass)
Date: 3 Nov 90 20:13:35 GMT
Organization: Management Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 70


   I've gotten the impression from watching questions here that many people
are having problems setting up NEWS to run as a client.  I've been successfully
running NEWS on two machines in client mode without any problems on the
client end (the bugs in NNTP_SERVER are another story).  For the benefit of
others, here's what I did (your mileage may vary):

   1) Put NEWS.EXE in SYS$SYSTEM and installed it as with NEWS in non-client
mode (e.g, SYSPRV is set).

   2) Put the NEWS.HLB in SYS$HELP.  Make sure that it has world read privs.

   3) Included DCLNEWS.HLP into SYS$HELP:HELPLIB.HLB.

   4) I created a directory for the NEWS MANAGER (it's not necessary to
actually have an account - just a directory to store things).

   5) I created the following NEWS_SETUP.COM (called from SYSTARTUP_V5.COM):

$ ! Logical name definition template - this will need to be altered to
$ ! match local site requirements
$ !
$!
$! News manager accounts must own this identifier
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_MGR_ID NEWSMANAGER
$!
$! the node address is the internet address of the node
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_ADDRESS "SPANKY.MGI.COM"
$!
$! the node name is either the decnet node name, or the cluster decnet alias
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_NODE "SPANKY.MGI.COM"
$!
$! The "work directory" for news - normally sys$login of the news manager account
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_MANAGER USER1:[NEWS_MGR]
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/TRANS=(conc)/EXEC NEWS_MANAGER_DEV USER1:[NEWS_MGR.]
$!
$! Define NNTP server node and protocol
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_NNTP_SERVER VIXVAX.MGI.COM
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_NNTP_PROTOCOL CMUTCP
$!
$! Timezone,Organisation definition
$!
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXEC NEWS_TIMEZONE "CST"
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM NEWS_ORGANISATION "Management Graphics, Inc."
$ DEFINE NEWS_GMT_OFFSET "-6"

   6) In the NEWS MANAGER directory, I placed a copy of the NEWS_ADDRESS.CNF
file from the server machine (with appropriate changes for any hard coded
lines containing the name of the local machine).  You need this file so that
REPLY will be able to generate e-mail addresses.

   7) As with non-client mode, I placed a DCL foreign command definition in
the SYLOGIN file  ($ NEWS :== $SYS$SYSTEM:NEWS.EXE).

   8) That's it.  The users just login and type NEWS.

   Hope this helps anyone struggling with client mode, and I sure hope that I
didn't leave out any steps.

-- 

William H. Glass                        Internet: glass@mgi.com
Management Graphics, Inc.               Phone:    +1 (612) 854-1220
1401 E. 79th Street
Minneapolis, MN  55425