What's the world coming to when our trusted secret services can't properly bump off someone they don't like? Or maybe they don't like us DIYers so
*they( are presecuting *us* with this c-r'a*p. Anyhow, now that a simple match to subject line or author doesn't filter out the posts concerned we need either a more sophisticated newsreader or a news feed that stomps on such stuff.
I've already been through option 1 trying to read comp.os.linux.misc (which gets deluged with posts of Racter-like ramblings) and the only option I've found for Linux is the console-based slrn, which is undoubtedly a fine newsreader but a steep learning curve from a gui-based one.
Another option which I've resisted so far is to set up a local newsfeed with the fitering I need, but there are only so many Tuits in a Day
Does that E10pa/used-to-be-free newsserver, or any other publically-available, reasonably-priced ones, do such filtering?
Could/should we run a uk.d-i-y owned one for ourselves?
news.individual.net ? They only carry text and not binary articles. They also implement "cleanfeed" which is a server side filter. Details at
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use this one and the preponderance of SPAM postings is relatively low on this group and several others that I use.
I can remove the rest with news client filters quite easily.
In the past, I have implemented and run INN in a commercial environment. It was quite good but at the time didn't support suck feeds, so one had to have an ISP willing to provide a news feed as well as having the server open on the public internet.
I switched to using DNEWS some years ago, mainly because it can use suck feeds and has good controls and filtering as well.
Essentially, a suck feed is configured in much the same way as a personal newsreader configuration - user name and password. You can have several servers if you like. DNEWS then goes out and gets the complete list of newsgroups from the feed and caches them locally. The user client is configured as normal, but nothing is downloaded from the upstream server until a local user subscribes to a group. Then everything for that group that is available or everything newer than N days is downloaded and becomes available for access in the usual way. A cron job kicks off a look for new messages when required - I tend to use every 5 minutes at peak times and less at other times. There are configurable settings for how long to store messages on the DNEWS server and also a timeout to stop downloading if nobody reads a group for more than N days.
There is also the advantage that one doesn't have to have a server with port 119 exposed on the public internet - outgoing connections only - although obviously it will behave as a conventional server as well if you can get a news feed supply.
There is a comprehensive filter language and worked examples as well.
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one-user server license is $95 U.S. (about £50) which I think is pretty good for what it does.
In the past, I have run the server on Win2k, but moved it to a Linux one more recently. Both work without problems, IME.
I use Leafnode, again a suck feeds server. From Andy's description of DNEWS they are very similar. Leafnode is under the GNU Library or LGPL, MIT License so is very cheap...
BTW, Mike is easily filtered out with 4 killfile rules. I'm not going to post them, because Mike is insane, but not stupid. Send me an email if you'd like them.
They normally do. Probably not many people in the office over the holiday period...
My ISP filters him out. It happens after hitting the spool so occasionally I see the odd one, but if I click again, they're gone. I would guess someone generates cancels for all his posts and it may be a case of which ISP's honour them.
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