Install Internet Information Services and Microsoft NNTP Service
Because Microsoft NNTP Service depends on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), IIS must be installed on your computer. To install IIS and Microsoft NNTP Service, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. In the Windows Components Wizard, click Internet Information Services (IIS), and then click Details.
5. Click to select the following check boxes:
Common Files
Documentation
Internet Information Services Snap-In
Internet Services Manager (HTML)
NNTP Service
World Wide Web Server
6. Click OK, and then on the Windows Components page, click Next.
7. On the Completing the Windows Components Wizard page, click Finish.
8. In the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, click Close.
IIS and the NNTP service are now installed.
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Configure the NNTP Virtual Server
The NNTP virtual server that is created when you install Microsoft NNTP Service is automatically configured with default settings that enable it to accept local client connections. You can either accept the default settings or change the NNTP virtual server configuration. There are many options available for you to configure the NNTP virtual server to meet your needs.
This section explains how to configure the following three (required) options:
* Assign an Internet Protocol (IP) address
* Set the Authentication method
* Configure the Virtual Directory settings
Assign an IP Address
To assign an IP address to your NNTP virtual server, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager. Or, open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that contains the IIS snap-in.
2. In the console tree, right-click Default NNTP Virtual Server, and then click Properties.
3. In the Default NNTP Virtual Server Properties dialog box, click the General tab.
* If you want the NNTP virtual server to respond to connection requests for all IP addresses configured on the computer, click (All Unassigned).
This is the default setting.
* If you want to assign a specific IP address to the NNTP virtual server, click the IP address that you want to assign in the IP address box.
* If you want to assign additional IP addresses to the virtual server, click Advanced, and then click Add. In the Identification dialog box, specify the IP address and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port numbers. Note that the default TCP port is 119, and the default SSL port is 563. Click OK twice to return to the Default NNTP Virtual Server Properties dialog box.
4. Click OK to return to the Internet Information Services window.
The NNTP virtual server is now configured to accept connection requests from the IP address assigned to it.
Set the Authentication Method
To specify the authentication methods that you want to set on the NNTP virtual server, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager. Or, open the MMC containing the IIS snap-in.
2. In the console tree, right-click Default NNTP Virtual Server, and then click Properties.
3. In the Default NNTP Virtual Server Properties dialog box, click the Access tab.
4. Under Access control, click Authentication.
5. Specify the authentication method (or methods) that you want.
Click to select one or more of the following check boxes, and then click OK:
Allow anonymous
Basic authentication
Windows security package
Internet Services Manager
Enable SSL client authentication
NOTE: If you do not want to restrict access to a newsgroup, click to select the Allow anonymous check box to enable anonymous access. In addition, do not set any Windows 2000 Server folder permissions for the folder that contains the newsgroup.
6. Click OK twice to return to the Internet Information Services window.
The authentication method (or methods) that you specified are now configured for the NNTP virtual server.
Configure the Virtual Directory Settings
A virtual directory is a folder on a local or remote drive that stores newsgroup content. Each virtual directory represents a level of your newsgroup hierarchy. You can create as many virtual directories as needed to match the structure of your newsgroup hierarchy.
When an NNTP Virtual Server is created, two virtual directories, Control and Default, are created by default. The Control virtual directory stores all control processing content, and the Default directory stores newsgroup and article content.
To configure the virtual directory settings, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager. Or, open the custom MMC containing the IIS snap-in.
2. In the console tree, double-click Default NNTP Virtual Server to expand the container.
3. Click Virtual Directories.
4. In the Newsgroup Subtree pane, right-click the directory that you want (for example, Default), and then click Properties.
5. Under Virtual Directory Properties, click Contents. In the Directory Contents dialog box, specify the storage location that you want for the virtual directory’s contents, and then click OK.
The default location for the home directory is Inetpub\Nntpfile\root. NOTE:
* If you want to allow news clients to post articles to newsgroups in this directory, click to select the Allow posting check box under Access restrictions.
* To generate an access log for this directory in the IIS access log, click to select the Log access check box under Content control.
NOTE: To turn on logging, you must also click to select the Enable logging check box on the General tab of the NNTP virtual server Properties dialog box. (In the console tree, right-click your virtual server, click Properties, and then click the General tab).
* To index the contents of the directory by using Microsoft Indexing Service, click to select the Index news content check box. By doing this, users can query the newsgroup articles for specific words or phrases.
6. Click OK to return to the Internet Information Services window.
The NNTP virtual server is now configured with the settings that you specified, and is ready to accept incoming requests from NNTP clients. After you define the newsgroup hierarchy structure and then create newsgroups, users can post articles to, and view the articles in, those newsgroups.
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