BULLETIN now 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.

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"

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.

It is possible to automatically have news messages to be fed into a real
folder. Place the name of the news group into the folder description surrounded
by <>, i.e. <misc.test>.  It must be in lower case.  (Other text is allowed in
the description, i.e. "THIS IS A TEST FOLDER <misc.test>".)  When the POST and
ADD commands are used with this folder, the messages will be posted to the news
group, rather than actually being added to the folder.

If you have any problems or questions, please let me know.
									MRL
P.s.
	If you do not know what USENET NEWS, it's basically news messages which
are passed between nodes.  Originally it was limited to USENET, but that is no
longer the case.  Unlike internet mailing lists which use MAIL to send the
messages to individuals, NEWS messages are not sent via MAIL.  They are passed
between nodes using a special protocol, NNTP.  Users must use a NEWS reader
package to read them.  However, it is possible to read NEWS remotely over a
network, and therefore avoiding having to actually store the messages.
BULLETIN is setup to be used mainly in this client mode, i.e. it can read
messages on another node via TCP or DECNET.  This is useful, since the number
of NEWS groups total over 1000, the disk space required for storage is very
high.  If you are interested in finding a server node that would allow you to
read NEWS, and do not know of one (i.e. a USENET node), I know of no official
way of doing so.  However, one suggestion was to try connecting to BBN.COM via
ANONYMOUS FTP and look through the directory uumap/comp.mail.maps to find a
USENET node near you to contact.
