06/05/96 v0.62 README Configuration of Linux Slackware INN_PKG for use with DEMON INTERNET SERVICES Copyright (C) 1995,1996 Ivan A. Beveridge. ivan@dreamtim.demon.co.uk This package is freely distributable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was initially flung together on the request of two Linux/Demon users who requested information on how to get INN_PKG working with Demon; hence I have aimed it at the beginner. For those who are a little baffled, INN stands for InterNetNews and is the up-and-coming news agent. It is used instead of CNews and is designed to use the NNTP (Net News Transfer Protocol), rather than being patched to use it (as CNews is). This setup is being carried out using INN v1.4 with Slackware v2.3.0 and 3.0, although it should work fine with all later versions. This is included with John Phillips's slack2.3.0 package now, so that only one package must be found and downloaded for connection to Demon's services. As a result, I have only included the parts needed for News setup. The reasons that I used INN instead of CNews are as follows: * Once setup, INN is _very_ easy to administer. * Using NOV (News OverView) threading, all NOV-compatible news readers can be used, without separate threading details. * The INN_PKG in Slackware is _really_ well setup and described. Once INN has been setup with your node-name and news server, etc, all that is required is a shell script auto-run at Linux bootup and a cron job run every night. Admin details are setup to be emailed to root, although this is easily changed. Please bear in mind that you may need quite a lot of space for downloading news articles. As a guideline, I subscribe to 23 newsgroups (several of which are pretty dormant), and I have approximately 8-10Mb used (including the NOV database). The threading allows you to read articles on the same subject, one after another, rather than reading all articles in date order. The database for threading uses up approximately 10% extra. That's about it for an intro. Sorry if any of this seems a bit disjointed. Please let me know of spelling errors, unclear points, etc ... and, most importantly, any setup errors with this package. INN.ins describes the steps to go through for configuring INN with Demon. ****************** Note - to those people who want the permissions and users correct (hopefully) for all of the config files I have put in this package, detar the package again, using: tar xzpvf inn-???.tar.gz (the "p" option tries to match all the permissions, so remember to detar using root user!) The permissions should be correct if you are installing this, as part of the Slack-help package, using the Slack-Demon script. ****************** All that remains is the usual disclaimer for *all* of this package: THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Reproduction and distribution of complete and unedited copies is allowed without prior permission of the authors.