YouGov :"POLL - Blunkett's proposals on internet privacy: for or against"

[Ian G Batten]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Richard D G Cox wrote:

> newsgroup - say alt.amsterdam.porn.  If I want to read that article, my
> client will later ask that NNTP server for article 7151992, and as NNTP
> servers are stateless it will NOT know from which newsgroup I was trying
> to download that article.  If - to meet LEA requirements - it has to look

Not quite.  The article numbers are only of significance within a group,
and per-connection state has to be preserved to understand which group
you are accessing.

group alt.education.distance 
211 16 64280 64295 alt.education.distance
article 64284
220 64284 <u1dq1levr80fbd@corp.supernews.com> article
Path: ftel.ftel.co.uk!warwick!server1.netnews.ja.net!fu-berlin.de!isdnet!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail
From: "PROPHEAD" <wittig@theramp.net>
Newsgroups: alt.education.distance
Subject: Re: HELP
[...]
group alt.autos.antique
211 28 64277 64304 alt.autos.antique
article 64284
220 64284 <ffOR7.159771$WW.10059187@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> article
Path: ftel.ftel.co.uk!warwick!server1.netnews.ja.net!mimas.salford.ac.uk!peernews.mcc.ac.uk!ifl.net!xara.net!gxn.net!easynet-monga!easynet.net!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!wn1feed!worldnet.att.net!135.173.83.71!wnfilter1!worldnet-localpost!bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "Bob P" <email@mail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.autos.antique
References: <1105_1007990418@rbs-45-4>
Subject: Re: Search for Simca Sport 1952
[...]

Both groups have an article 64284, and disambiguation requires the use
of the GROUP command to get the right item. (*)

You could write a client which didn't rely on this by using `XHDR
message-id [range]' to obtain message ids, and then fetch the articles
using the message id, because this:

group uk.misc
211 1061 748228 749289 uk.misc
article 749289
220 749289 <kitkMnNR5gG8EwfA@otolith.demon.co.uk> article
Path: ftel.ftel.co.uk!warwick!univ-lyon1.fr!oleane.net!oleane!grolier!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!otolith.demon.co.uk!steve
From: Steve Walker <steve@spam.spam.spam>
[...]

is equivalent to this:

group uk.misc
211 1062 748228 749290 uk.misc
xhdr message-id 749289
221 message-id fields follow
749289 <kitkMnNR5gG8EwfA@otolith.demon.co.uk>
.
article <kitkMnNR5gG8EwfA@otolith.demon.co.uk>
220 749289 article <kitkMnNR5gG8EwfA@otolith.demon.co.uk>
Path: ftel.ftel.co.uk!warwick!univ-lyon1.fr!oleane.net!oleane!grolier!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!otolith.demon.co.uk!steve
From: Steve Walker <steve@spam.spam.spam>
[...]

However, that doesn't solve the problem of statefulness, because you
can't use xhdr outside a group (and it won't make you popular, because
it uses significantly more resource to do the fetch).  So yes, you can
fetch individual without reference to groups if you know the message id,
but it's hard to see how in NNTP-land you'll find message-ids without
setting a group.  I

ian

(*) I expected my script to go looking for cases of repeated article
numbers to use as my example would only find a few, my news installation
being 13 years old and never having had the article numbers reset.  In
fact, taking the space of all article numbers, I found that of the
790064 unique article numbers on my system, 204666 were duplicated
(referenced more than one article), and 8 of them referenced _9_
articles!

0000018352 alt.food.sushi,alt.tasteless.penis,rec.food.drink,alt.music.clash,rec.music.collecting.misc,alt.internet.providers.uk,alt.autos.porsche,alt.digitiser,uk.adverts.computer.mac,alt.nl.ftp
0000002205 alt.internet.providers.uk,alt.just.testing,alt.autos.porsche,alt.support.depression.teens,alt.digitiser,alt.anarchy.rules,alt.politics.socialism.democratic,alt.support.grief.suicide,alt.games.simcity,alt.autos.toyota.trucks
[ ditto for 2206 ]
0000012687 alt.culture.austrian,alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo,alt.tv.talkshows.daytime,alt.islam.sufism,alt.support.sexreassign,alt.marketplace.books.sf,alt.internet.providers.uk,alt.just.testing,alt.autos.porsche,alt.digitiser
[ ditto for 12688--12691 ]