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.

This allows you to use the proxy as a raw TCP proxy to route other TCP traffic.  yProxy can be used as a raw TCP proxy in such a manner simply by disabling the “yEnc Decode” feature, which turns it into a pure TCP proxy.

yProxy as a web proxy

For example, try the following setup in yProxy:

Be sure to set the port numbers also, and click the Start button to start the proxy server.  Then try entering this URL in your browser address bar:

http://localhost

You’ll see Google’s homepage show up.  What you’ve done is load Google’s homepage through the proxy.  Actually, you’ve got a little bit more work to do if you want to keep going through the proxy at this point because anything you click on goes to a google.com address instead of “localhost”, but you’ve gotten the point that yProxy can be a down and dirty proxy for redirecting TCP traffic.

yProxy’s TCP proxy options would be best used for other types of TCP traffic like email or FTP, where the client doesn’t try to make connections to other domains.

yProxy as a remote web proxy and port obfuscator

The above example doesn’t really make much practical sense, but imagine that your school or work attempts to blocks all web traffic by blocking all traffic on outgoing port 80, but they do allow SSH traffic over port 22.  Leave yProxy running at your home with the following configuration:

Disable yProxy’s ”Run Locally Only” option and, as before, click Start to start yProxy.

Then from your school or work computer enter the following URL into your browser’s address bar:

http://10.2.0.96:22

You’ve just loaded Google from your home over port 22.

Note: I cheated in my example.  10.2.0.96 is actually a private IP address.  You’ll need type your public IP address into your web browser.  If you’re behind a NAT router at home, you’ll have to find out what your public IP address is and enable port forwarding or plug your computer into the DMZ port.  To find your public IP address, go to http://ifirefly.com.

yProxy as a remote FTP proxy

What if your friend is running an FTP server, but for security purposes, he only allows you to connect from your home IP address.  You’re going to be on the road though, and you still need to access the FTP server, but you don’t want to bother your friend to change his server’s configuration.

Use the following configuration for yProxy:

Well, FTP uses a second port for data, so you’ll need another instance of yProxy running to actually download anything:

Again, you need to turn off the “Run Locally Only” option for yProxy and press the Start button to start the proxy servers.

Now, you can enter this address into your FTP client or web browser:

ftp://10.2.0.96

Your computer at home is connecting to your friend’s FTP server, and you’re connecting to your computer at home, so as far as your friend’s server is concerned, you’re still at home.

yProxy is more than just a yEnc decoder

There are other legitimate uses for a TCP proxy.  Please let me know what you come up with.

yProxy stands apart from other yEnc decoders.  yProxy is a true TCP proxy underneath.  Have fun.

The binary groups I frequented started getting a fair amount of yEnc posts.  About 10% of the posts were yEnc encoded.  I couldn’t read yEnc encoded attachments with my existing newsreader, so I simply conceded to the fact that I would miss out on the content.  However, as more and more of the valuable content was yEnc encoded, I either had to find a yEnc decoder, or keep missing out on the yEnc content.

My news reader, Forte Agent, did not decode yEnc attachments.  It only handled MIME and UUE.  I downloaded yEnc32.  In order to decode attachments with yEnc32, I had to first export the messages to text files, then processes those text files with yEnc32.  While this wasn’t very difficult to do, it was time consuming.

I am a software developer, and one of my specialties is developing web and network utilities.  As a network developer, I was able to apply the pipelining and streaming paradigm to this problem, yielding a proxy as a solution.

What is a Proxy?

A proxy is a generic term in networking for a utility that sits between a client and a server and acts on behalf of the client.  Generally, a proxy filters and/or caches some type of traffic that flows between the client and server.

The most common type of proxy related to the Internet is a caching web proxy.  A caching web proxy intercepts all web requests and attempts to fulfill the request from its cache.  For example, one person might request a photo from the Internet.  The web proxy retrieves the photo from the Inernet and delivers it to the client.  The second person that requests the photo from the proxy is sent a copy of the photo that had been saved to memory or disk.  This saves Internet bandwidth.

yEnc Decoder Proxy

A yEnc decoder proxy also sits between the server and the client, sending requests on behalf of the client.  When the client asks for a yEnc encoded attachment, the proxy requests the attachment from the server in yEnc format and converts it to a more accepted format before sending it to the client.

A yEnc Decoder proxy is also considered a plug-in because it’s a third party utility that adds functionality to an a separate program.

I figured a yEnc Decoder proxy would be the perfect solution to my problem.  The only problem, of course, was that there wasn’t such a thing.   I would have to write one.

yProxy: The Original yEnc Decoder Proxy

I wrote the first, beta, version of yProxy over the weekend and released it to the public.  I also alerted Forte so that they could recommend the free utility to their users until they added yEnc support to Agent.  Unfortunately, Forte never responded.  Yet, Forte did add yEnc support to Agent shortly after, and anyone with a recent version of Forte Agent has native yEnc support.

Still, the word about yProxy spread via the newsgroups and quickly became the yEnc Decoder solution for many people who either weren’t entitled to upgrades for their existing newsreaders, or whose newsreaders just plain didn’t support yEnc.  For example, the most popular free newsreaders are still Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird.  None of those newsreaders support yEnc.

With a yEnc Decoder proxy between your newsreader client and the news server, you can continue using your existing newsreader and still be able to read yEnc content, even if your newsreader does not support yEnc natively.  Most yProxy users, therefore, are Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird users.

Jurgen, the inventor of yProxy, became one of yProxy’s biggest advocates.  People who had previously complained that their newsreaders didn’t support yEnc were directed to use yProxy and stop complaining.

yProxy is the Leading yEnc Decoder Proxy

yProxy Pro’s biggest competition is the free version of yProxy, which is still available on the yProxy website via the FAQ page.

I stopped counting after one million people downloaded yProxy, which occurred within the first year that it was available.  There is even a French version that a considerate user translated.

yEnc has more advantages than simply being smaller in size.  yEnc also ensures that the file has been delivered intact via two methods:

• CRC32 Error Checking
• File Size Checking

If you yEnc decoder doesn’t support the above features of yEnc, not only are you losing out on some of the benefits of yEnc, but your yEnc decoder is not even yEnc compliant.

CRC32 Error Checking

yEnc CRC32 error checking uses a technology similar to what CDs and DVDs use to check for errors.  It uses a mathematical algorithm at creation time to generate a checksum value based on the data and stores that checksum on the data.  At play time, the value is recomputed against the data and compared against the stored value.  If the checksums do not match, then an error has occurred while reading the data.

In order for a yEnc Decoder to be compliant with the latest yEnc standards, a yEnc Decoder must include CRC32 error checking.  All yEnc attachments have the CRC32 checksum, and if your yEnc Decoder isn’t evaluating the checksum, then you won’t know when you’ve downloaded a file that has been corrupted or modified since it was created.

You may download that treasured song that you’ve been looking for, then when you go to play it back, it may not play or it may contain defects.  At that point, it may be too late to try to download the song again from another source.

Embedded yEnc Decoders will not provide CRC32 error alerts.  yProxy notifies you immediately when an attachment with an error has been detected.  yProxy beeps and changes the system notification icon to one with a large red exclamation mark, in addition to logging the error.  None of yProxy’s competing yEnc proxies provide CRC32 error detection.

File Size Checking

The file size is also computed at creation time and stored in every yEnc attachment.  All yEnc compliant yEnc Decoders must check the final file size against the stored value.  If a file has been truncated by the news server or parts of it are missing, the file may be unusable.  It is important for your yEnc decoder to be able to determine the difference between a corrupt file and an incomplete file.

If the file is incomplete, you may simply need to try again later after the file has finished propagating.  An incomplete file may still be usable, depending on the type of file.  An MPEG video file with the last second missing will still be playable, and you may not notice that missing second.  Therefore, it is important for your yEnc decoder to distinguish between a corrupted file and an incomplete file.

yProxy notifies you immediately if the downloaded file size does not match the expected size.  yProxy will beep and place an exclamation mark in the system notification icon, in addition to logging the error.  The error displays the expected file size and the actual file size so that you can determine the extent of the problem.

Embedded yEnc decoders cannot check the file size and none of yProxy’s competing yEnc proxies provide file size checking.

yEnc Decoder Compliance

CRC32 error checking and file size checking are valuable features of yEnc encoding.  yEnc decoders must support both CRC32 error checking and file size checking in order to be compliant with the latest yEnc standards.  yProxy is the only yEnc decoder proxy that is yEnc compliant.

Apparently, the lack of streaming support for yEnc encoding was an oversight, probably stemming from lack of knowledge regarding the general design pattern used for streaming data.

Pipelines

Pipelining relates to streaming, especially with yEnc.  In computing, processes often take data as input, perhaps change the data in some way, and then output the resulting data.  A second process may then take the output of the first process as its input, and so on.  When the output of one process is used as input by another process, this is called pipelining.

This pipelining effect is how proxies work.  The output from your news server is piped through yProxy to your newsreader.  This allows the user to create a pipeline of tools that filter or modify the data in multiple steps.  Connecting pipes allows generation of a specific output, often converting one format or protocol to another.

The pipelining concept is also used when hooking up cable television.  You connect the output from the wall into the input of your cable converter and the output from the cable converter into the input on your television.  Your cable converter unscrambles the TV signals as the data travels from the wall, through the cable converter, and into your TV.  Your cable converter may even be converting coaxial cable input into composite cable, S-Video, or HDMI.

Streams

Streaming means that you process data in real time as you receive it, rather than waiting to receive all of the data before you begin processing it.

Streaming movies on the Internet means that you can start watching the movie from the beginning, as soon as it arrives, while the rest of the movie downloads.  You don’t have to wait for the entire movie to download to begin watching it.

Streaming reduces the latency, or wait time, while data is going through the pipeline.  If your cable converter needed to download an entire show before you could begin watching it, you would definitely notice the wait.  However, the cable converter processes the data as it is received and immediately passes it along to the TV, removing the perception of any delay.

While yEnc supports pipelining in both directions (encoding and decoding), yEnc supports streaming only for decoding.

Streaming yEnc

yEnc includes the size of the file in the yEnc header, instead of in the footer.

Imagine if you were the type of person that hated surprises, so you absolutely had to see the ending of a movie before you could watch it.  If that were the case, you could never watch a streaming movie.  You’d have to download the whole movie, skip to the end, then go back to the beginning.  yEnc has a similar problem.  yEnc requires the encoder to describe the end of the data before sending the data.

If yEnc had simply made the “size” information a footer instead of a header, yEnc would support streaming in both directions.  The current process in the pipe doesn’t have the size of the attachment until all of the data has flown through, so the size should be included at the end, not the beginning.

If you piped an attachment from your newsreader to yProxy, in order for yProxy to encode the attachment, yProxy would first have to receive the whole attachment, buffering it in memory or on your hard disk, generate the yEnc header, and then begin uploading the encoded attachment to the news server.  Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, or whichever newsreader you were using would have to wait while yProxy sends the entire attachment to the news server.  The newsreader would very likely timeout while it waits for yProxy to respond with the success message from the news server.  Therefore, yProxy does not support yEnc encoding.

Streaming and pipelining are important paradigms in communications and information technology.  Developers should adhere to both standards when designing protocols or encoding methods.