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Author Topic: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM  (Read 4791 times)

tonyappuk

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Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« on: April 19, 2008, 02:49:05 PM »

Hallo one and all
I don't know if this is the right place for this, perhaps a moderator will decide, maybe "Software"?
My question is what do you all do about SPAM on Newsgroups? Just recently Plusnet (my ISP) decided to changeover to Giganews as their Newsgroup provider (this why I posted in the ISP section) and now the amount of SPAM on some groups makes reading them a real pain. There seem to be several Spam filtering programs out there, Hamster seems highly regarded, but Plusnet's original system on their own server was fairly clean so I've not had to consider this problem before. What do you all use, please?
Tony
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tonyappuk

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2008, 02:30:59 PM »

No-one has responded yet (but maybe it's early days) so I thought I should report some progress of my own. Although I have been using Outlook Express for years I have never really investigated what is available in "Message Rules" for Newsgroups. I have several rules for SPAM in emails but not had cause to research what "Rules" could offer in Newsgroups.

The biggest plus I have found is that if you make a rule to delete messages from say "clothesseller@163.com" (a regular SPAM poster), modify it to "or @163.com" by adding to the rule, then apply it, when you "browse" to select the Newsgroup, don't just select one, select the News Server at the top of the list and all your downloaded messages will lose all their SPAM from this domain.

That's a worryingly long sentence but it seem to say what I mean. If anyone is interested I shall be glad to explain further.
Tony
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Pwiggler

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2008, 02:44:49 PM »

hi tony

what type of material do you get from newsgroups?  is it individual items/post or larger things like tv eps/films/games etc?

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Paul

tonyappuk

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2008, 03:41:02 PM »

Paul
I edit a retirement association Newsletter and in it I use "funnies " I find in many Humour newsgroups and others and as a sailor I look at sailing newsgroups for links to useful sites (weather forecasts, electronic plotting/navigation software. etc) Amongst all the dross there is a wealth of information, you just have to be aware that most who post have an axe to grind! Such as alt.global-warming which is always good for a laugh - sorry to be so un-PC! As a Linux newbie I read several Linux newsgroups and usually look at the virus and anti-virus groups to keep abreast of the latest threats. A fairly broad spectrum of interests but I don't bother with binaries, it's all text, so no movies or games. The latest change to Giganews by Plusnet resulted in making it much more difficult to scan the Newsgroups I subscribe to because of the SPAM, hence the initial posting.
Tony
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guest

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2008, 11:04:23 AM »

What you do about spam is firstly get a REAL newsreader. Outlook Express is seriously broken (non-RFC compliant) when it comes to usenet.

Agent - IMHO still the best text newsreader : http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php

Whole load of others here for your perusal : http://www.newsreaders.com/win/clients.html

Oh and for Linux since you mention it : http://www.newsreaders.com/unix/clients.html

Get rid of Outcrock and once you've made the transition you should be much happier :)
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tonyappuk

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2008, 11:55:43 AM »

Thanks Rizla. I'll have a look at Agent. I have never had much of a problem with OE despite the poor press. What do you see as the advantages of Agent over OE? Certainly if it stores emails as straight txt that would get over one of my other beefs. As I say I'll give a look at the Forte site.
Tony
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guest

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2008, 12:16:40 PM »

I guess for me its mainly familiarity as I've used it forever (well 15 years or so anyway) and hence have filter expressions which work for the newsgroups I use.

There are probably better clients out there now - bound to be :)

This might be of interest :

http://improve-usenet.org/filters_bg.html

Edit - they're spot on! Just slap in "googlegroups" as a filter and watch the difference :lol:
« Last Edit: April 21, 2008, 12:26:40 PM by rizla »
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Jameseh

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2008, 10:22:27 AM »

Hi Tony,

I thought that I'd point out that we didn't decide to switch to Giganews.  We didn't have a choice in this one!  Supernews decided to sell to Giganews, leaving us with no choice and a very, very small notification period!

I'll see if Bob's around to offer some recommendations.
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bobpullen

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2008, 10:59:49 AM »

Hi there,

rizlas's recommendation is a good one. Give NewsProxy a try and configure it to block messages from Google Groups.

  • Download NewsProxy from here.
  • Create a directory called NewsProxy in your Program Files folder and copy the contents of the zipped archive across to it.
  • Create a shortcut to NewsProxy.exe and copy this to your startup folder (you should just be able to drag it to your Start button > Programs > Startup folder). This will ensure it's run when your machine is switched on.
  • Create a new file called nfilter.dat and save it into the NewsProxy directory. This file should contain the following line of text:
  • * drop Message-ID:*googlegroups*
  • Open NewsProxy and go to Edit > Configuration.
  • On the General tab, select Hide on Startup.
  • Select the Network tab, change the Server name to news.plus.net and click OK.
  • Exit NewsProxy.
  • Open your news client and create a *new* news account but use the server address 127.0.0.1 instead of news.plus.net.
  • Exit your news client.
  • Reopen NewsProxy.
  • Reopen your news client.
  • Refresh the list of newsgroups for the new account and resubscribe to all of your groups.

Recreating your account and renewing all of your subscriptions is a pain but the above steps will completely eliminate the spam that's posted from Google Groups.

Hope that helps.
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Bob Pullen
Plusnet
Product Team
community.plus.net

tonyappuk

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Re: Usenet/Newsgroups SPAM
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2008, 11:47:14 AM »

James, I appreciate that Plusnet had no choice in this matter but I wondered what other members here were doing. My second post sets out what I have done to ease the situation.
Bob, my reading of newsgroups has been improved by the steps I have taken as set out in my second post. If the time comes that I have to resort to Newsproxy your guide to how to do it will be invaluable.
Thanks to you both.
I would say that the steps I took in OE have cut down my SPAM enormously. I was especially pleased to find the "trick" of browsing to the Newsserver when you apply the mail rule. The big advantage over Newsproxy as I see it is that you don't have to re-subscribe to your newsgroups.
Tony
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