|
|
| Home->Internet->ISPs->MPNews PRO |
 MPNews PRO  ($14.99)  (1.828MB)(for WinNT/2000/XP)(1.847MB) (for Win95/98/ME)
|
 Description:
MPNews PRO is a news server for Windows that allows you to create news groups on your own computer. It is more fully-featured than the standard, free version. MPNews PRO is exceptionally easy to configure and run. MPNews PRO includes all the features you would expect from a local news server, as well as several additional ones, such as an integrated web interface
Business users may find benefits in using MPNews PRO by setting up news groups to provide customer support - clients and customers can be brought together with support staff on the news group to help solve each other's problems, and share information on your products and services. This will also help develop a sense of community around your business, and may lead to increased confidence in your business for potential customers who may visit.
Home users can also benefit from creating news groups to allow friends or family members to keep in touch from throughout the world, sharing news and pictures. If you're into family history, a news group can prove an ideal location for discussions with previously unknown relations. Making these discussions open to the public can only help your research!
News groups created in MPNews PRO can be limited to people with a specific user name and password, on a computer within a specific IP address range, or any combination of these.
MPNews PRO runs as a service in the background, so your desktop is not cluttered with an additional window, and it is still running when you log off your computer.
MPNews PRO also allows your news groups to be accessed via the web as well as by using standard news reading software, so your news groups can be easily integrated into your web site and allow people who do not know how to use news reading software, or people who's news access is blocked by a firewall, to access your news groups.
Setting up an MPNews PRO server
- Install the software. Just run the setup program that you have downloaded.
- Set up your news groups. Once you have installed MPNews PRO, a single "test" news group will have been created. If you want to set up the other news groups you want, open Control Panel and double-click on the MPNews icon to start changing the settings. Go to the Groups tab, select the first server, and click on the Add button. Type in the name and description of your news group, and click on OK. Click OK again to save the settings.
- Publicize the address of your server. For other people to connect to your news server and start reading and posting messages, they must know where it is. The easiest way to do this is create a link on your web site to news:// followed by the address of your server.
- If you are running Windows 95, 98 or ME, you can find your address by clicking on Start, Run, and typing in winipcfg. You should see a box labelled "IP Address". This is the address of your server.
- If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP, you can find your address by clicking on Start, Run, and typing in cmd. In the box that pops up, type in ipconfig and press return. The number labelled "IP Address" is the address of your server.
- It is possible to use a name for your server instead of your IP address. This has the advantages that it is easier to remember, and it does not change. Depending on how you connect to the Internet, your IP address may change each time you connect, making any links to your news server break. To prevent this happening, you will need to get a permanent name for your computer that you can use instead of your IP address. You can set this up through another company called DynDNS, using their Dynamic DNS service.
- You will need to check that your server is accessible from the outside world - simply get a friend to try to access it from their computer. It may be that your ISP does not allow incoming connections to be made to your computer - if this is the case then you may need to either negotiate with your ISP to find some settings that will be allowed (a different port number may sometimes work), upgrade to a different option from your ISP that allows incoming connections, or change ISP. You will also need to ensure that your firewall is not configured to prevent incoming connections from reaching the server.
Editor's Rating:
|
|
|
All the Soft - Software Downloads