The Exchange 2000 Server

Exchange 2000 directly supports external newsgroups. It has the capability to connect automatically to newsgroup servers, downloading and uploading articles on a regular schedule.

You need the following information before you begin:

• The domain name (or TCP/IP address) of the newsgroup server (or servers) at your ISP.  The ISP must be willing to accept a newsgroup feed (you will need to arrange this with them).
• Any authentication required (username and password).
• The newsgroup names that you want (you really don't want them all, as that's 75 to 100 gigabytes per day).

That's about it. Now all you need to do is define the feeds.

To add a new newsgroup feed, follow these directions.

1. Open the Exchange system manager program.
2. Navigate down to "Servers".
3. Expand the server name.
4. Expand Protocols.
5. Expand NNTP.
6. Expand "Default NNTP Virtual Server"
7. Right click on "Feed".
8. Select "New".
9. Select "Feed..."
10. This will start up the wizard to create a feed.

11. The first field to enter in the wizard is the NNTP (newsgroup) server name. Enter it here.

12. Now choose which type of NNTP feed you want to establish. A "peer" server is not subordinate to any other server and identifies new articles for itself. This is the most common type of server to create. A "master" server identifies new articles for slave servers. "Slave" servers are simply under the control of masters.

13. Now indicate if you want an "inbound" or "outbound" feed (or both), and whether you want articles to be pushed to the server or pulled from the ISP server. If you pull articles, you will control the schedule. If articles are pushed, then the ISP controls the schedule.

14. Enter the date and time from which you want to being retrieving articles. Articles dated after this time will be downloaded to your server.

15. Now enter the newsgroups that you want to download. It's a good idea to remove the default value of "*", as you might find your server receiving 75 to 100 gigabytes a day!

17. Finish adding the feed once you have add or removed all of the desired newsgroups.

18. Now right-click on the feed name and modify the properties of the feed as desired.
19. Your feed is now created. You can test this by checking the Outlook Internet Newsgroups folders. The newsgroups you added should be available in Outlook (it may take a few minutes for this to propagate, so don't panic if you don't see them immediately).

20. You should also check the event log on your Exchange 2000 server to see if any errors or messages are logged. There will be more than one error and/or message, so be sure and check them all.