JSI Tip 4298. How do I manage newsgroups?

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Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q302533 contains:

IN THIS TASK

• SUMMARY

How to Manage Newsgroups

How to Create Newsgroups

How to Moderate Newsgroups

How to Edit Newsgroups

How to Define Newsgroup Limits

How to Limit Newsgroup Enumeration

SUMMARY

This step-by-step guide describes how to manage newsgroups.

After you create your newsgroups, users can begin posting articles to them. If you want a moderator to review new articles before they are posted, define a moderated newsgroup.

You can change the properties of an existing newsgroup, or delete the newsgroup if you no longer need it. You can also select options that enable Microsoft Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) Service to delete articles after a specified number of hours or when the amount of disk space used by newsgroups reaches specified limits. You can also filter which newsgroups are visible to users and the number that appears when the Newsgroups node is selected under the NNTP virtual server.

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How to Manage Newsgroups

Managing newsgroups consists of creating newsgroups, moderating newsgroups, editing newsgroups, defining newsgroup limits, and limiting newsgroup enumeration.

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How to Create Newsgroups

You can use the New Newsgroup Wizard to create a newsgroup. When you create a new newsgroup, Microsoft NNTP Service creates the directory for the newsgroup automatically. If you want a moderator to review new articles before they are posted, you can create a moderated newsgroup.

To create a moderated newsgroup:

1. In the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), expand the NNTP virtual server that you want to display the Newsgroups node.



2. Right-click Newsgroups, point to New, and then click Newsgroup.



3. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the New Newsgroup Wizard. In the Name box, type the name of the newsgroup you want to create.



4. In the Description box, type a brief description of the newsgroup function.



5. As an option, you can type another name for the newsgroup in the Pretty name box. This "pretty name" will be returned by the List Prettynames NNTP command. The pretty name is another alias for the newsgroup that clients can display.



6. Click Finish.

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How to Moderate Newsgroups

If you want to control which articles are posted to a newsgroup, you should create a moderated newsgroup. Articles submitted to a moderated newsgroup are not posted until they are approved by the moderator that you have chosen for that newsgroup. You must enable a moderated group before you create it.

To enable moderated newsgroups:

1. Click the Settings tab.



2. In the SMTP server for moderated groups box, type one of the following:

• Type the Domain Name System (DNS) name of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server.



• Type the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server.



• Type the path to the directory where articles are stored for the moderators.
  
  The directory path must be a local directory. Typically, you should set this value to the pickup directory of the SMTP server. By default, this directory is \Inetpub\Mailroot\Pickup.

In the Default moderator domain box, type the e-mail domain for default moderators.

Click OK.

If you specified an SMTP server, be sure that the user ID under which Microsoft NNTP Service is running (by default the System Account) is defined as an account on the SMTP server.

To create a moderated newsgroup:

1. If necessary, create the newsgroup. After you complete the New Newsgroup Wizard, the procedure is the same for both new and existing newsgroups.



2. In the MMC, expand the NNTP virtual server that you want to display the Newsgroups node.



3. Click Newsgroups to display all the NNTP virtual server's newsgroups in the details pane.



4. Right-click the newsgroup that you want, and then click Properties.



5. Click to select the Moderated check box.



6. In the Moderator box, type the e-mail address of the moderator or click Set Default to use the default moderator.



7. Click OK.

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How to Edit Newsgroups

To edit newsgroups:

1. In the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), expand the NNTP virtual server that you want to display the Newsgroups node.



2. Click Newsgroups to display all the NNTP virtual server's newsgroups in the details pane.



3. Right-click the newsgroup that you want, and then do one of the following:

• Click Properties to edit the newsgroup properties.



• Click Delete to remove the newsgroup.

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How to Define Newsgroup Limits

You can limit the time period that articles are kept in a Microsoft NNTP Service newsgroup by defining expiration policies for newsgroups. An expiration policy can apply to a single newsgroup or to any number of newsgroups. You can define as many policies as you need. In each case, the oldest articles are deleted first.

1. In the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), expand the NNTP virtual server that you want to display the Expiration Policies node.



2. Right-click Expiration Policies, point to New, and then click Expiration Policy.



3. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the New NNTP Expiration Policy Wizard.
   
   For more information about expiration policy parameters, see the Expiration Policy dialog box.

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How to Limit Newsgroup Enumeration

You can use the Find Newsgroups dialog box to limit the number of newsgroups that appear when a user selects the Newsgroups node.

To limit newsgroup enumeration:

1. In the MMC, expand the NNTP virtual server that you want to display the Newsgroups node.



2. Right-click Newsgroups, and then click Limit groups enumeration.
   
   The Find Newsgroups dialog box appears.



3. In the Newsgroups box, type the kind of the newsgroup that you want to display in the MMC when the Newsgroup node is selected.
   
   All other types of newsgroups will be filtered out. Use wildcards, such as alt.*. In this example, only newsgroups under the alt hierarchy would be visible to users. By default, every kind of newsgroup is enumerated.



4. If you do not want to have a limit on the number of enumerated newsgroups, click to clear the Limit number of items on the result pane check box. This check box is selected by default.



5. In the Maximum number of items box, type the maximum number of newsgroups that you want to enumerate on this virtual server.
   
   This limit applies only when the Limit number of items on the result pane check box is selected. The default is 100 newsgroups.