Managing Newsfeeds

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Newsfeeds send articles between the IIS NNTP service and other NNTP servers. With newsfeeds, the articles that are posted to one server can be read by users of the other servers. There are several different kinds of newsfeeds:

  • Usenet: You can create an external newsfeed to Usenet to enable users of your news site to access the articles that are posted to any Usenet news site. A Usenet provider uses one or more NNTP servers to push new articles to the NNTP service. The NNTP service pushes the articles that are posted by your users to your Usenet provider.

  • Peer newsfeed: If your organization has more than one news site, you can share articles between the sites. A peer newsfeed is ideal for private newsgroups that are not appropriate for public distribution on Usenet.

  • Master/slave newsfeed: If the volume of traffic on your news site exceeds the capacity of a single computer, you can use multiple computers and share articles among them. A single master news site pushes articles to and from multiple subordinate sites. All clients connect to the subordinate sites.

    The master site controls the article numbers and keeps all the subordinate sites synchronized. Because all the subordinate sites have the same data, a master/slave newsfeed also provides a backup in case one of the computers fails.

Newsfeeds are not enabled by default. For information about enabling newsfeeds, see Enabling Newsfeeds.

Adding, Deleting, and Modifying Newsfeeds

Use Rfeed.vbs to add, delete, and modify newsfeeds. Table 8.8 lists and describes the parameters that you can use with Rfeed.vbs.

Table 8.8 Rfeed.vbs Parameters

Parameter Description

-t Operation, where Operation is one of the following:

  • a

  • d

  • g

  • s

  • e

Adds a feed.

Deletes a feed.

Gets information about a feed.

Sets feed information.

Enumerates feeds.

-sServe

Specifies the computer name of the server to configure.

-vVirtualServerID

Specifies the ID of the virtual server.

-fpeer |master| slave

Indicates the feed type.

-r FeedServer

Specifies the server that you push newsfeeds to or pull newsfeeds from.

-uUucpName

Specifies the name that you put in the path header. (The default is the host name of the server.)

-a AuthInfoAccount

Specifies the user name to use when you connect.

-b AuthInfoPassword

Specifies the password to use when you connect.

-IFeedID

Specifies the ID of the specified feed.

Parameters for inbound feed settings:

  • -ia pull | accept|none

  • -in NewsgroupPatterns

  • -ix#Minute

  • -iz true| false

  • -im #Connection

  • -io Date

  • -ic true |false

  • -ip PortNumber

  • -itDirectory

Indicates whether to enable or disable pull feeds.

Specifies newsgroup patterns.

Specifies the amount of time (in minutes) between feed runs.

Indicates whether to process control messages.

Specifies the maximum number of connection attempts that are allowed.

Gets articles after this date (pull feed only).

Indicates whether to create newsgroups automatically during pull feeds.

Specifies the outbound IP port for pull feeds.

Specifies the temporary files directory.

Parameters for outbound feed settings:

  • -oa push | none

  • -on Patterns

  • -ox #Minutes

  • -oz true| false

  • -om#Connections

  • -opPortNumber

  • -otDirectory

Indicates whether to enable a push feed.

Specifies newsgroup patterns.

Specifies the amount of time (in minutes) between feed runs.

Indicates whether to process control messages.

Specifies the maximum number of connection attempts allowed.

Specifies the outbound IP port for push feeds.

Specifies the temporary files directory.

Table 8.9 lists examples of how you can use Rfeed.vbs.

Table 8.9 Rfeed.vbs Script Examples

Command Script Function

Rfeed.vbs -t e

Enumerates feeds.

Rfeed.vbs -t a -r FeedServer.microsoft.com -f peer -ia pull -in *

Adds a pull feed from peer server FeedServer.microsoft.com, from which the articles from all the newsgroups are to be pulled.

Rfeed.vbs -t d -i 1

Deletes feed 1.

Rfeed.vbs -t -s -i 1 -ix 120

Sets the wait time between feed runs to 120 minutes.