[news.software.nntp] Help with NNTP Client and RRN?

elw@netxcom.iad-nxe.global-mis.dhl.com (Edwin Wiles) (10/08/90)

Hello!

	I need help figuring out what I've done wrong with the
	installation of RRN and NNTP in a client configuration.

	From the symptoms, I suspect it's something simple and
	stupid that I'm missing.

	We have Bnews running on an HP somethingorother with
	SCO Xenix and Excelan ethernet.  That same machine has
	an NNTP server set up on it that is known to work correctly.
	(We have TCP/IP connections to remote machines that are
	currently using it, so I know it still works.  No, I didn't
	install it on those machines.)

	Now I would like to add remote news reading capabilities
	to other machines of ours, most of which are PC clones
	running SCO Xenix Sys V 386.

	I obtained the latest NNTP from UUNET (1.5.10) and the
	latest RN as well (Patchlevel 47).  After some messing
	about with configuration, both compiled succesfully.

	I created the /usr/lib/news/server file, which points
	to the server machine.  I looked at the existing 
	/usr/lib/news/nntp_access file on our server, and
	found that it contained a single line:

		default read post

	I tried "rn" and got the long "newsnews" message.  When
	I pressed return to continue I got:

		socket:Permission denied.
		socket: Permission denied.

	Plus a message saying it couldn't reach the news server,
	but which indicated that it knew the right name.

	I then tried it as root, and got a segmentation violation,
	for which I could not find the core file.  I tried it again
	after adding "netex read post" to the nntp_access file on
	the server, and got the same results.  I tried it again
	changing the "netex" line to reflect our domain name of
	"netx.com", same problem.  Durring this, I tried the Pnews
	command as well, which failed for much the same reasons.

	Through adding a number to all the perror("socket")
	calls (e.g. perror("socket2")), I isolated the error to
	the "rresvport" call in "get_tcp_socket" near line 266
	in the common/clientlib.c file.

	I've gone through a number of configurations in
	common/conf.h, remaking both NNTP and RN (in that
	order) each time.

	If I haven't given enough info, ask.  I'd include
	the common/conf.h file and RN's config.sh file, but
	that would make this message rather long, and the
	answer might be quite simple.

	Any help will be appreciated!

					Thanks!
						Edwin Wiles.

elw@netx.com (Edwin Wiles) (10/09/90)

Thanks Anyway!  But I finally figured it out.

We have EXCELAN on our Xenix Sys V 386 2.3.2.

There were two problems with the common/clientlib.c
code for EXCELAN tcp/ip.

1) No allowance had been made for the fact that "rhost" under EXCELAN
expects the machine name it's given to be a "char **", not just a "char *".
This, possibly along with several other mixed-type problems, is apparently
what lead to the attempt at invoking as root causing a segmentation violation.

2) The Excelan code in common/clientlib.c made use of the "rresvport"
call, which is restricted to superuser use only.  There is a way to
achieve much the same effect by using "socket" which is not restricted
to superuser.

If anyone is interested, I'll send along my "common/clientlib.c" file.

					Thanks Anyway!
							Edwin.