Member Avatar for null_pointer

i have been given an assignment on programming a simple NNTP client which should be able to connect with any of the newsservers and it should download all the news articles posted in a particular news group. I searched for free news servers but i didnt get anything. I just need to access it for 4 days or so. How can i proceed? do i first have to sign up for a particular newsgroup in a newsserver to view and download the news articles?

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Practical, focused notes for the assignment and temporary access.

: you do not always have to "sign up" to read a group. Some public news servers allow anonymous read-only NNTP access, while others require accounts or paid subscriptions. Replies here pointed at web readers and provider trials; those are handy for quick browsing, but for testing a real NNTP client you want an NNTP endpoint (protocol access) rather than just a web UI. NNTP normally runs on TCP port 119 (plain) or 563 (NNTP over TLS).

A quick way to confirm a server and exercise the protocol manually is telnet. Example session (replace news.example.com and group names):

telnet news.example.com 119
<server greeting>
LIST
GROUP comp.lang.python
XOVER 1-50
ARTICLE 12
QUIT

Notes on the commands above: LIST shows available groups, GROUP selects a group and returns the article number range, XOVER (overview) returns subjects/headers for a range, and ARTICLE / HEAD / BODY retrieve content. Multi-line responses are terminated by a single dot on a line (dot-stuffing), so implement reading accordingly.

Implementation tips: if you must implement the protocol, pay attention to CRLF line endings, dot-stuffed termination, and numeric server reply codes. If you can use an existing library, that will save time (for example, language runtimes commonly provide NNTP clients). Watch for SSL/TLS requirements and AUTHINFO or other authentication methods if the server requires login. For a short assignment, a local test server (INN or a lightweight Docker image) or an ISP/university news server avoids account hassles and risk of being blocked for heavy downloads.

Cautions: respect server usage policies and limits; avoid bulk downloads from public servers; test on text groups first (binary groups often contain large multipart encoded files and different handling).

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Member Avatar for pritaeas

I think you can try teranews.

Member Avatar for rubberman

You should be able to see how the "Slick RSS" news reader does this as well. I use it in my Chrome browsers.

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

Almost all news providers offer a free 10 day trial. You can sign up for any of them, then quit before the 10 days are up.

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