== fsxNet Usenet Gateway Overview ===========================================

The Gateway currently stores the most recent 3000 messages per newsgroup.

News is polled hourly and nodes are fed as fresh news is tossed to
the Gateway system. Traffic can be CRASHed to a node or put on HOLD for
it collect. The default setting is HOLD. If you would like to change
that please contact your Network Coordinator.

The feed is bi-directional so posts from your node to the Gateway will be processed and sent out via the Gateway within the hour.

At present the focus is on offering the Usenet Big 8 and some alt.* groups

comp.* Computer-related discussions comp.software, comp.sys.amiga, humanities.* Humanities topics humanities.music.composers.wagner
misc.* Miscellaneous topics misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids news.* Newsgroup-related matters.
rec.* Recreation and entertainment rec.music, rec.arts.movies,
sci.* Science-related discussions sci.physics, sci.research, sci.skeptic soc.* Social discussions soc.college.org, soc.history.what-if
talk.* Talk about various controversial topics and discussions with no obvious categorization talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.bizarre, talk.origins

Further newsgroups will be added over time and updates posted to FSX_BOT
and/or FSX_GEN echomail areas. If there are specific newsgroups you would
like the fsxNet Usenet Gateway to carry - please email your requests to avon@bbs.nz or discuss them in FSX_GEN :)

== Terms of Use =============================================================

* Users of this service must be nodelisted fsxNet members.

* Use of this service implies acceptance of these Terms of Use.

* Nodelisted fsxNet members are responsible for the content their system
generates via the fsxNet Usenet Gateway

* The use of the fsxNet Usenet Gateway for illegal purposes is not permitted.

* You must not post binary files, either in full or in part via this service,
this is a text based service only.

* Posted content must not contain or reference material that is deceptive,
fraudulent, defamatory, malicious, harmful or discriminatory.

* You must not use this service to bully, taunt, harass, intimidate,
or threaten any person(s).

* It is prohibited to use this service to spam. New Zealand has, and enforces
under law, The New Zealand Spam Law (2007), where substantial penalties
exist.

* Members deemed to be engaged in any such activities, as noted above, will
be de-listed by the Network Coordinator and may risk facing further legal
action.

* The provision of this service is not guaranteed. Available newsgroups may
change over time. Requests to carry certain groups are welcome but the
decision to do so (or not) is solely that of the Network Coordinator.

* The Network Coordinator is Paul Hayton (21:1/101)

* The Terms of Use are subject to change. Please ensure you review them
regularly.


== Best Practice ============================================================

* Posts should be made using an alias and not a real name to avoid giving
spammers and/or trolls a 'free ride'.

* Likewise, it's highly recommended if you're using an email address in your
posts, that you make it a disposable one or obfuscate it using the standard
.invalid technique e.g. avon@bbs.nz.invaid
This also helps to negate your inbox being filled with spam from bots
that harvest email addresses posted to newsgroups. You've been warned!

* Check your content before pressing send. Once sent, your message can not
be recalled and will be publicly discoverable around the globe on assorted
NNTP news servers within the hour.


== Getting Setup ============================================================

Here's how to connect to the fsxNet Usenet + Games Gateway (21:1/10)

1)

Contact Paul aka Avon at either avon@bbs.nz or 21:1/101 and ask for your
fsxNet node number to be set up at the fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/10)

2)

Create a new echonode entry in your BBS config for 21:1/10@fsxnet

Use the settings below BUT - change ensure your 'Session Options'
are as follows: agency.bbs.nz:24557

This address and port number may differ from the usual address and/or port
you connect to for your fsxNet HUB. However the Gateway runs on a different BinkP server to feed your BBS Usenet News compared to your usual fsxNet echomail / netmail traffic fed from a fsxNet HUB.


Description │ fsxNet Usenet + Games Zone │ 21
Active │ Yes Net │ 1
Archive Type │ ZIP Node │ 10
Export Type │ Crash Point │ 0
AllFix PW │ Domain │ fsxnet
PKT Password │
Session Type │ BinkP
Route Info │
Max PKT Size │ 512
Max ARC Size │ 2048
Use FileBox │ Yes
FileBox │
TIC Password │ Session Options


3)

Send a netmail to Areafix at 21:1/10

Place your areafix password in the subject line and try to send
a %HELP to the Gateway. Hopefully you will get a reply :)

4)

Send a further netmail to Areafix at 21:1/10

Place your areafix password in the subject line and try
the following commands - note comments on the right do not need
to be entered in, they are just to explain what each command does.

%LIST Request a list of areas available to you
ALT.BBS Connect area ALT.BBS
%RESCAN Request a rescan of all new areas - in this case
the alt.bbs newsgroup :)

5)

Send a further netmail to Areafix at 21:1/10

Place your areafix password in the subject line and add a list
(one per line) of each of the newsgroups you wish to have fed
to your system. Using the output of the %LIST command you issued
earlier is a great help with this :)

For example you might want to do something like...

ALT.BBS.ADS
ALT.BBS.ALLSYSOP
SCI.FRACTALS
SCI.GEO.CARTOGRAPHY
SCI.GEO.EARTHQUAKES
COMP.SYS.ACORN.GAMES
COMP.SYS.ACORN.HARDWARE
COMP.SYS.ACORN.PROGRAMMER
REC.GAMES.BRIDGE
REC.GAMES.PINBALL
REC.MUSIC.CLASSICAL.RECORDINGS
REC.MUSIC.DYLAN
REC.MUSIC.ROCK-POP-R+B.1950S
%RESCAN

...and send that off. In the end it's up to you to choose which
newsgroups you want. Send multiple netmails to the /10 Gateway until
you're happy with what you're getting sent to you :)

**IF** you want them all then the command to use is

%+ALL Connect all available areas

or

%-ALL Disconnect all areas

If you also follow this command up with a

%RESCAN

on another line then hopefully you will get a reply with a lot
of messages that your BBS will auto create message areas for as
they are imported :)

== Important Stuff ==========================================================

Using a Mystic system?

1) As new bases are created it will create them using the settings you have defined for your fsxNet Zone 21 address. It's highly likely you will want to assign a different ACS G group code to these messages so they are part of
a different message group you might want to call 'fsxNet Usenet' or similar.

Doing this using the global editor in the message base editor will allow you
to display all of your Usenet News in one message group and the smaller number of fsxNet echoareas in another

2) As new bases are created at the Gateway you may wish to re-issue arefix commands such as %UNLINKED to identify those bases and/or keep an eye out
for posted updates from your friendly NC who will advise on FSX_GEN the general chat echoarea on fsxNet from time to time.

3)

** NOTE WELL **

It's very important your system does not send Usenet traffic to 21:1/100
all traffic must be sent to 21:1/10

If in doubt I strongly suggest you remove all past Usenet message bases
from your system and set up from scratch using the above instructions
and (if using Mystic and/or another BBS package) get your BBS to auto
create the new message bases as they arrive from the 21:1/10 Gateway

Watch you do not have a connection to another gated Usenet feed coming in
to your system at the same time as you are setting up and attaching to
21:1/10

We have seen issues in the past with nodes obtaining x 2 usenet feeds and sending messages coming in from one gate back out to the second gateway
because of identical echomail tags being used. If in doubt delink from
any/all Usenet echomail groups another provider is feeing your BBS *before*
you start hooking up to the fsxNet Usenet + Games Gateway.

If in doubt about the above, contact Avon at Agency BBS 21:1/101
or avon@bbs.nz


== Frequently Asked Questions ===============================================

Got a question you think should be here? Let me know and I can include it :)

== Miscellaneous ============================================================

Use aliases not real names in Usenet message bases.

Avoid ANSI posts to Usenet message bases - they never look good once sent across as plain text to NNTP systems.

Using a Mystic BBS?

Feel free to change message base type to 'Newsgroup' if you want to.
What this does is that it makes messages posted in each base set this
way be addressed to 'All' as opposed to the name of the person your
replying to. The use of 'All' as the recipient is standard Usenet
convention. But you don't have to use it these days (as far as I know)

If you do opt to do this - ensure your semaphore event types are also
looking for 'newsmail.out' and 'newsmail.in' (in addition to your other existing semaphores) in order to export/import some of the messages sent to/from the fsxNet Usenet Gateway to/from your node. It's probably easiest just to leave message base type set to 'Echomail'

Did you know not may people read the last lines of these docs? :)

No cats, fish, small bipeds or other mammals were harmed in the making
of these docs.

Some assembly required, batteries not included!

Cheers, Avon.

Feel free to contact me at Agency BBS 21:1/101 or avon@bbs.nz

== Helpful Areafix Commands =================================================


ALT.BBS Connect area ALT.BBS
ALT.BBS /R Connect area ALT.BBS and rescan all messages
in the message base
ALT.BBS /R=50 Connect area ALT.BBS and rescan at most 50 messages
=ALT.BBS Rescan the connected area ALT.BBS without having
to disconnect it first

-ALT.BBS Disconnect area ALT.BBS

%+ALL Connect all available areas
%-ALL Disconnect all areas


%NOTIFY ON Turn NOTIFY messages on
%NOTIFY OFF Turn NOTIFY messages off

%HELP Request this message
%LIST Request a list of areas available to you

%QUERY Request a list of areas for which you are active
%UNLINKED Request a list of areas to which you are not connected

%RESCAN Request a rescan of all new areas
%RESCAN=50 Request a rescan of at most 50 messages per area for
all new areas
%PAUSE or
%PASSIVE Temporarily disable all areas. This means that you won't
receive any echo mail anymore unless it is addressed to
you personally (only if the sysop on this node has
entered your name correctly in the Node Manager). You
will still be allowed to send echo mail to this system
in areas to which you are connected.
%RESUME or
%ACTIVE Make your node active again.


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 (Windows/32)
* Origin: (21:1/100)