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Connecting to more than one newsgroup source
using  Forté Free Agent and Agent through a Firewall

 

I have been an occasional reader of some of the Usenet news groups, especially the private group of notes for pair networks web hosts.  However, since I installed the cable modem and WinGate I had been limited to just one source of newsgroups and in fact, had to map a link in Wingate to receive these.  Therefore, I had chosen the RoadRunner groups, enabling me to have access to a larger set of groups.  But I longed for access to the pair groups.

I knew that I would have to map a separate link to the two sources of newsgroups.  The default ports for NNTP servers is 119 and I wanted to create my new WinGate service with a port of x119 so it would be easily identifiable.  The led me to a search of what various ports numbers are assigned to and I remembered I had put together a page with a link to a listing of port numbers.  I checked here and didn't notice anything reserved for port 1119, so I gave that a whack.  My RoadRunner groups would be linked to 119 and the pair groups to 1119.

The pair groups are password protected and for some reason did not like port 1119, so I switched the two around.  For some reason this was successful, so I decided not to mess with the world.  Just be happy.

Now I needed to make my Forte Free Agent newsreader have access to both sets of groups.  The first thing I did was to look within Free Agent newsreader to see if I could assign a particular port and not seeing this option I tried assigning my news source as 192.168.1.20:1119 (my Wingate server and the mapped link), but this did not work either.  I then went searching for another newsreader that might allow me to assign different ports and in the process found a new version of Free Agent.  This updated version wasn't that much different from the version I was already using, so I was in a way back to square one.  I found a beta package of another reader that would allow me to assign port numbers and this is what I used to test that my two mapped ports were working, but this package was not saving my message lists, so I went back to Free Agent.

I check the WinGate knowledge base for help.  It had an entry for a single mapped link, but did not address what I was trying to accomplish.  I then went directly to the Forte site and scanned through the FAQ's and presto, found an question that dealt with exactly what I was attempting to make happen.  Here's the FAQ I found  (http://www.hillm.demon.co.uk/agent/firewall.html):

Using Forté Free Agent and Agent through a Firewall

Forté Free Agent and Agent offline newsreaders do not contain options to access a firewall in the same way that Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer do. But this does not mean that it can not be done.

First off, it would be a good idea to talk with your network admin responsible for the firewall. He (or she) may not be best pleased if you pass through the firewall using a method that was not intended. The network admin may be required to even get through the firewall anyway, so be nice to them.

There are two ways that [Free] Agent can get through a firewall: mapped link and SOCKS proxy.

 

Mapped Link

Using a mapped link requires your network admin to create a mapped link through the firewall. This can use any available port number, although 119 or 8119 would be common ones. All connections to this port on the firewall will be passed to a fixed nominated news server. Multiple servers can be accessed by using multiple mapped links, each on a unique port.

To use [Free] Agent through a mapped link, set the specified news server in [Free] Agent to the full name of the firewall. If the port number being used is not 119, you will also have to edit the agent.ini file. The entry in agent.ini is found in the [Servers] section. For example:

[Servers]

NewsServer="proxy.foobar.com"
NNTPPort=8119

NOTE: You should use the fully qualified name of the firewall, and not just firewall. This is because [Free] Agent currently uses that name to generate MessageIDs; if you just use firewall, then the generated MessageIDs will technically be invalid and could clash with others on usenet. If your firewall does not have a full domain name, you have two options:

1.. Disable Message-ID generation in [Free] Agent. This is achieved in the agent.ini file by setting the following option to 0 in the [Message] section.

[Message]

GenerateId=1

2.. Create an alias for your firewall using the hosts file. This will be located in the \windows\system directory in Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 and in the \windows\system32\drivers\etc directory in Windows NT. 

In the hosts file, add a line like: 

proxy.foobar.com 12.34.56.78

Replacing 12.34.56.78 with the IP address of your firewall.

And that's it.

 

 

SOCKS Proxy

If your firewall is running a SOCKS proxy, usually on port 1080, then it is possible to make [Free] Agent go through that, using a winsock addon which "socksifies" any winsock application. There are several such addons available, two of which are free.

SocksCap from NEC : FREE

This comes in two flavours - 16-bit and 32-bit. The 16-bit version works on Windows 3.x and Windows 95 and will "socksify" any 16-bit application that is run once SocksCap is installed. It will not run on Windows NT.

The 32-bit version will socksify 32-bit applications, but only if they are started through SocksCap. This isn't a major problem, as it just requires a minor command line modification so that the shortcut runs SocksCap which in turn runs [Free] Agent. This version works on Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Configuration is performed from the SocksCap control panel. You will need to specify the address of the SOCKS proxy, as well as addresses or subnets for machines that are local to you and do not need to go through the firewall.

Hummingbird SOCKS : FREE

Only available in a 32-bit version and works on Windows 95 and Windows NT.

The latest version works with NT 4.0 SP3. Once installed, this "socksifies" every 32-bit application that is loaded without having to fiddle with command lines. Excellent for "socksifying" services on NT where command line alteration is a problem.

Requires configuration via a socks.cnf file located in \windows\system (Windows 95) or \windows\system32 (Windows NT). Configuration is easy and can be just two lines:

DIRECT 12.34.56.0 255.255.255.0

SOCKD @=12.34.56.78 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0

This indicates that everything destined for machines on the 12.34.56 subnet should go direct, while everything else goes via a SOCKS proxy on 12.34.56.78.

AutoSOCKS : Prices start from US$49

Details on this are available via the above link. Configuration should also be relatively easy. While this option does cost money, this is the only one of the three options that will include support - very useful since NT 4.0

SP3 initially broke the Hummingbird SOCKS; fortunately, Hummingbird released a fix.

 

Once you have installed and configured your choice of "socksifier", you should be able to access your chosen news server directly (eg msnews.microsoft.com). You won't need to fiddle with the hosts file or agent.ini file.

 

Hopefully, the above information will prove useful.

My first step was to install two complete copies of Free Agent in different directories and change the agent.ini in each directory to indicate the new mapped link.  This worked well and I was a happy camper.

I then posted a message in the pair users group as to how this could be done (not as lengthy as this message) since I found nothing on this subject in a search of the messages. As typical with the pair groups I received a fairly quick response from another web host, Duncan Murdoch [dmurdoch@pair.com]:

I use Agent, not Free Agent, but with that version it's not necessary to have two full copies: you only need to copy the Agent.ini file to another directory, and set up your shortcut to start the original exe file in that directory. I'd guess this is the same with Free Agent too, so you can save some disk space.

I took his advice and saved myself some disk space.

My Free Agent directory structure looks something like this:
....Program Files\Agent
....Program Files\Agent\internet\data only the agent.ini file with the NNTP port address of 1119 and message files are in this directory
....Program Files\Agent\pair\data only the agent.ini file with the NNTP port address of 119 and message files are in this directory

The Free Agent FAQ had suggested mapping port 8119, but I had already chosen 1119, so I am leaving it at that for now.  However, knowing me, I'll bet I will go back and change my mapped link to 8119 sometime in the future at which time I'll probably screw the whole thing up.  Maybe I should adopt the guidance:  "it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I added two shortcuts on my desktop for newsgroups:

Pair News Groups  (shortcut properties)

Target:  "...\Program Files\Agent\agent.exe"
Start In:  "...\Program Files\Agent\pair"

Internet News Groups  (shortcut properties)

Target:  "...\Program Files\Agent\agent.exe"
Start In:  "...\Program Files\Agent\internet"

I can now place a shortcut on the desktop of any machine on my network and have access to these newsgroups.  The important thing is I will be reading from one source, so my newsgroup messages are the same, not matter which machine I access the groups from.