This is nntp-merge, a program which acts as an NNTP server and passes
requests to one or more other NNTP servers, towards which it presents a
client interface.  Selection of which server to use is based on the group
being read or posted to.  The merger supports XAUTHINFO GENERIC
authentication with its own shared-secret MD5 challenge-response protocol;
other authentication methods could be added in principle.

I wrote it for my own system, chiark.greenend.org.uk, where it has proved
to be very useful; it may also be useful to you.  If you like it and patch
it please do send me the patches as I may someday turn this into a real
free software product with documentation, version numbers, features and
everything.

There may be some binaries in the tarfile; these are Linux/i386 libc5
ELF.  There is no configure script and no documentation, but there is
a Makefile and a sample config file.

If there are any new versions or anything I might put them up on my main
WWW page (<URL:http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/>), or possibly
at <URL:http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/nntp-merge/>.

nntp-merge is Copyright (C)1995-1997 Ian Jackson.  It is free software; you
can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for
more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program as the file GPL; if not, email Ian Jackson
<ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk> or write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA, or consult
the Free Software Foundation's WWW page at <URL:http://www.fsf.org/>.

 - Ian Jackson 16.09.1997