All, We've been experimenting with nntpcache for a little while now, and I have a bit of a problem with the way in which nntpcached retrieves the active file. Upon startup or a SIGHUP it will completely reread the active file from the upstream news server. Is that REALLY necessary? It certainly uses a lot of bandwidth. However, I have a bigger problem with this. We want to block all the sicko groups and a large number of the alt.binaries.pictures groups. The access file allows you to block certain newsgroups, which is a good thing. However, because the active file is completely reread at startup those groups will always be VISIBLE to the end user. The end user can still seem them and when they try to access one of these blocked groups they get a message about accessing being denied. Am I missing something here? This certainly seems like a fairly large disadvantage of nntpcache. If the groups could be removed completely it would be easy to fob off any queries (from anyone who was game enough to call and say these groups where gone). However, because the groups can still be viewed but not accessed, the responsibility can be pointed directly at ourselves. The crux of the problem seems to come down to nntpcached reading the active file every time it starts up. I can't find any option to supply our own active file or filter certain newsgroups out competely. Any information that anyone may have regarding this would be very much appreciated. Douglas Garstang dgarsta1@c2.telstra-mm.net.au.
