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NNTP Server Setup

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Using a mail-based mechanism for hosting discussions of interest to a variety of people can become inefficient as the number of discussion participants grows. Sending a separate copy of the message to each of the interested parties consumes large quantities of bandwidth, CPU resources, and disk space among the many recipients and mail servers hosting them.

Significant resources can be saved if popular messages are hosted in a single database. This single database is known as a news server and the messages on such a server are called news items or articles. Using the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) service, you can create your own news server to host discussions. NNTP is the protocol for the distribution, inquiry, posting, and retrieval of news items between a news server and client.

Access to the news server can be open to everyone, or it can require user authentication. The NNTP service allows fine tuning of security policies and is capable of handling a large number of virtual domains and independent server instances on a single computer.

The NNTP service is not installed by default. You must install the NNTP service using the Control Panel. Installing the NNTP service creates a default NNTP configuration, which you can then customize to your needs using IIS Manager.

Many articles about deploying and configuring the NNTP service are available by searching for "nntp" on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site.

Procedures

To install the NNTP service

  1. From the Start menu, click Control Panel.

  2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.

  3. From the left pane, click Add/Remove Windows Components.

  4. From the Components list, click Application Server, and then click Details.

  5. From the Subcomponents of Application Server list, click Internet Information Services (IIS), and then click Details.

  6. From the Subcomponents of Internet Information Services (IIS) list, select the NNTP Service check box.

  7. Click OK.

  8. Click Next. You might be prompted for the Windows Server 2003 family CD or the network install path.

  9. Click Finish.

When you install the NNTP service, a default NNTP virtual server configuration is created with a message store in LocalDrive:\Inetpub\Nntpfile\Root.

When setting up the NNTP service for the first time, you can configure global settings for an NNTP virtual server, as well as settings for individual components of the virtual server.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /user:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

To configure global NNTP settings

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the local computer, right-click Default NNTP Virtual Server, and click Properties.

  2. Change the default settings on the property pages as needed. For information about individual settings, click Help.

To configure NNTP virtual server component settings

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the local computer, expand Default NNTP Virtual Server, right-click the component you want to configure, and click Properties.

  2. Change the default settings on the property pages as needed. For information about individual settings, click Help.