Noffle
Introduction
Noffle is a proxying NNTP server similar to Leafnode but offering a different
(I would say wider) set of capabilities. The present stable release is
1.0.1 and the current development release is 1.1.2.
Noffle is aimed at the home or smaller organisation that wants to read
up to a few hundred newsgroups. It is not suitable for running a
complete newsfeed and cannot participate in a properly configured
newsfeed. Instead it appears to the ISP news server as a normal
newsreader.
Noffle features:
- Optional auto group subscribe and unsubscribe.
- Full, Overview and Thread subscription modes.
- Local groups.
- Article expiry time customisable for each group.
- Article request stacking for faster download.
Modus operandi
Noffle presents the full list of groups available from the ISP news
server. When a user tries to read messages from a group that is not
currently subscribed, Noffle shows a generated message. If Noffle is
configured for auto-subscribe, the group is automatically added to the
list of groups read, and the message explains this. Otherwise the
message gives instructions on how to subscribe to the group by hand.
When nobody has read articles in a group for a certain number of days,
Noffle can be configured to automatically unsubscribe the group.
Noffle can subscribe to groups in three modes.
- Full. Download every article in the group.
- Overview. Download overview information (Date, From, Subject etc.)
for each article only. When the user reads an article, mark the
article body for download on the next connection to the new server
and show a generated message body explaining this.
- Thread. As overview, but all articles in a thread are marked for
download when an article is read.
Noffle can be optionally set into online mode. When in
online mode, articles requested are retrieved immediately from
the news server. Also, auto subscription to groups is disabled but
aricles in unsubscribed groups may be read. This can be used for
sampling group contents.
Downloading
See the Noffle home page.
Alternatively you can download source and i386 binary RPMs here.
The RPMs require sendmail; if you use a RPM based system that
does not use sendmail but does have a /usr/sbin/sendmail, you may
safely use the RPMs here, though you may need to force the install.
The 1.1.2 RPMs are for RedHat 7.2.
Stable
Development