Allowing Users to Access Your Server

Allowing Users to Access Your Server

As the INN software is delivered, your server will enable anyone with a login to your local host to access (or read) the news server. Requests from all other host computers are denied. To accomplish this, the contents of the /etc/news/readers.conf file are set as follows:

auth "localhost" {
    hosts: "localhost, 127.0.0.1, stdin"
    default: "<localhost>"
}
   
access "localhost" {
    users: "<localhost>"
    newsgroups: "*"
    access: RPA
}

In the above lines, the auth definition defines the localhost identity as including reader connections that come from different interfaces on the local computer. Access given to users from the localhost identity for all newsgroups consists of the ability to read articles (R), post articles (P), and post articles for moderated newsgroups (A).

You can add access definitions to allow access to your INN server from other host computers. For example, if you wanted to add access to your INN server from all users from computers in the handsonhistory.com domain, you could use the following code:

auth handson {
    hosts: "*.handsonhistory.com, handsonhistory.com"
    default: "<LOCAL>"
}
access handson {
    newsgroups: "*"
    access: RPA
}

In this example, the handson identity consists of all hosts in the handsonhistory.com domain. As with the localhost example, access is granted to all newsgroups for reading articles, posting articles, and posting articles to moderated newsgroups.

The access letters, shown below, each represent a different permission that is granted to the client hosts you are defining. Here are the available letters:

• R:???Users from this host can retrieve articles.

• P:???Users from this host can post articles.

• A:???Users from this host can post articles to moderated newsgroups. (This includes any articles that have Approved headers.)

• N:???Users from this host can use the NEWNEWS command, even if that means overriding the global settings (set by the allownewnews parameter in the inn.conf file, described earlier).

• L:???Users from this host can post to groups that have prohibited local posting.