Some people have wondered how to setup yProxy to connect to multiple news servers, needing a yEnc Decoder for more than one server. The idea is that if some of the messages are incomplete on one server, they can switch to the other. In addition, perhaps one server is faster or the user has a higher bandwidth limit.

Connecting to multiple news servers, one at a time

So, if you only want to connect to one server at a time, it’s easy.

1. Stop yProxy (by pressing yProxy’s Stop button)
2. Change the NNTP (News) Server Name in yProxy to the other server that you want to connect to.
3. Start yProxy again by pressing yProxy’s Start button.

You don’t have to change anything in your newsreader, since it’s connected to yProxy. You’re just pointing yProxy to another server. yProxy even remembers your last ten news servers in a drop down selection, so it’s easy to swtich servers in yProxy.

This is the most common scenerio for using multiple news servers with yProxy, and this is the configuration that I recommend. There are some caveats though:

You should only download the message headers from one of the news servers. If you need to get headers from multiple servers, you should reset the headers and get all of them, otherwise you may miss some headers. Each server tracks the messages that you’ve already downloaded using its own index.

However, some people want to connect to multiple news servers at the same time, and need a yEnc Decoder for each server. This implies that your news client supports multiple servers.

This requires a bit more work. You will run an instance of yProxy for each news server, and each instance of yProxy will listen on a different port.

For example, I might have one instance of yProxy connecting to Easynews, listening on port 119, and another instance of yProxy connecting to Giganews, listening on port 120. This allows to connect to both news servers at the same time, through yProxy.

Connecting to multiple news servers, at the same time

1. Setup yProxy to connect to the first server normally, and click yProxy’s Start button.
2. Start another instance of yProxy by clicking on the shortcut from your Windows Start menu.
3. Setup yProxy to connect to your second server, changing the yProxy Port Number to a different number than the first instance. It’s okay to increment, so if you are already using 119, use 120, then 121, etc.
4. Setup your news client to connect to 127.0.0.1 for the host name, and the port numbers that you have specified earlier.

The yProxy yEnc Decoder allows you to connect to multiple news servers in the way that best suits your needs. The simple method is the most common.

The first video tutorial shows you what yEnc messages look like in your newsreader if your newsreader doesn’t natively support yEnc. This video will help you recognize yEnc messages so you know if you need a yEnc Decoder like yProxy.

The second video walks you through installing and configuring yProxy with your newsreader, but uses Windows Live Mail as the example newsreader.

The third video walks you through running yProxy for the first time and starting yProxy.

The fourth video demonstrates yProxy in action.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide their users with free news service. Some ISPs even subcontract their free news service through one of the premium news services such as Easynews.

Often, these ISP provided news services don’t require a login. Instead, the ISP uses the source IP address to allow or disallow access to the news service. So, as long as you’re on the ISP’s lines (at home), you can access the news service without question. However, if you aren’t at home, you can’t access the news service.

You might be away from home and need to access your ISP provided news service. Normally, you can only access the news service from home. However, yProxy allows you to share your connection from home.

In local mode, yProxy only accepts connections from the same physical computer where yProxy is running. This is for security. However, if you turn this mode off, yProxy will accept connections from anywhere.

Simply leave yProxy running on your home computer, you connect to yProxy remotely, and yProxy connectes to the news server over the ISP’s own lines. As far as the ISP knows, you’re sitting at home on your computer accessing the news server.

To setup yProxy and your computer for remote news service access, simply follow these steps, in order:

1. Configure your home computer’s firewall to allow remote connections to local port 119 from the IP address that you will be connecting from. If you do not use the firewall to restrict access, the entire Internet may be able to connect to yProxy and share your news connection. In addition, if your firewall is enabled and you don’t specifically allow this type of connection, your firewall will probably block it by default. In other words, don’t skip this step.
2. If you have a Internet router or Local Area Network at home, you will also need to configure your router or gateway, enabling port forwarding for port 119 and directing it to the address of the computer where yProxy is running. This is so you can reach the computer on your home Local Area Network from the Internet.
3. On your home computer, run yProxy, but turn off the “Run locally only” Server option.
4. Now, you just need to know the public IP address of your home computer. An easy way to get your home computer’s public IP address is to visit IPChicken from your home computer. Your home computer’s public IP address is the address that you will connect to remotely from your work or vacation. In your remote computer’s news reader settings, simply set the news server name to your home computer’s public IP address. This allows your news reader to connect to yProxy remotely on your home computer. yProxy will then connect to your free news service via your ISP.

Caveats

In case it isn’t obvious, you’ll need an always-on Internet connection at home. Most highspeed cable and DSL plans automatically provide this type of service. You will also need to leave your home computer on.

If your news service provider requires a login, you will need to configure your remote news reader with the required username and password.

Benefits of using yProxy yEnc Decoder as a remote news proxy:

• Access your free or premium news service from anywhere
• Share your news service with friends, family, and coworkers
• yProxy still decodes yEnc messages for you, remotely

Disclaimer

Please note that some ISPs who provide news service restrict this type of use in their terms of agreement or other legal agreements which you may have signed. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are not violating the terms with your ISP, or be willing to face the consequences.

If you are paying a premium news service provider, they probably won’t care if you share their service because you are paying for the bandwidth usage, just as long as you don’t resell the service. Read your agreements or ask them if you’re unsure.

Native yEnc Decoder

The native yEnc Decoder is the one that is built into your software.  If your newsreader has yEnc Decoder support, this means that your application provides native yEnc Decoder support.

The Forte Agent newsreader is a native yEnc Decoder.

Manual yEnc Decoder

If your newsreader does not offer yEnc Decoder support natively, like Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Opera, you will need third party software that provides yEnc Decoder functionality. A manual yEnc Decoder allows you to copy and paste, or save your news messages as text, and convert the yEnc messages into binaries.  This is a manual process.  yEnc32 is a manual yEnc Decoder.

Automatic yEnc Decoder

An automatic yEnc Decoder is also a third party software that you use when your newsreader does not have a yEnc Decoder feature. There are many types of automatic yEnc Decoders.  There are application specific plugin, and there are generic plugins like yProxy Pro that works with any newsreader.

An automatic yEnc Decoder such as yProxy Pro only has to be setup or configured once, then it automatically decodes yEnc attachments for your newsreader.