Restricting Access to Newsgroups

Access to individual newsgroups or sets of newsgroups is controlled by setting Windows NT Server permissions for the directories that contain those newsgroups.

If you do not want to restrict access to a newsgroup, do not set any Windows NT Server directory permissions for the directory that contains the newsgroup, and enable anonymous access. To enable anonymous access, on the Directory Security property sheet, choose Edit, and select the Allow Anonymous check box.

To restrict access to a newsgroup, you need to complete three steps:

• Create Windows NT Server accounts for users.
  
• Define Windows NT Server permissions for the directory that contains the newsgroup.
  
• Set the authentication method used by Microsoft NNTP Service.

You can also limit access to all newsgroups by the IP address of the client computer. See Limiting Access by IP Address.

You can create accounts using the User Manager application in Windows NT Server. It is helpful to organize users into groups, and then grant permissions by group. If possible, use the accounts and groups already established in your organization.

Each newsgroup is stored in a directory. You can set permissions for an individual directory, or for a set of directories. See Setting Access Permissions for a Directory or File in the IIS online documentation for specific steps.

Microsoft NNTP Service supports two methods for authentication of users:

• Basic authentication
  
• Windows NT challenge/response authentication

To set the authentication method:

1. Using Internet Service Manager or Internet Service Manager (HTML), select the Directory Security property sheet.
   
2. Under Password Authentication Method, choose Edit.
   
3. Select the Basic Authentication check box, the Windows NT Challenge/Response check box, or both.

Limiting Access by IP Address

You can limit access to Microsoft NNTP Service by the IP address of the client computer. By default, all IP addresses can access Microsoft NNTP Service.

You can either allow access to a specified list of IP address or you can deny access to a specified list of IP addresses. IP addresses can be specified individually or as a group using a subnet mask. You can also specify IP addresses using a domain name, but this adds the overhead of a DNS lookup for each connection.

For information on how to specify a subnet mask, see Microsoft Windows NT Server Networking Guide.

1. Using Internet Service Manager or Internet Service Manager (HTML), select the Directory Security property sheet.
   
2. Choose Granted Access to deny access to a list of IP address or choose Denied Access to allow access to a list of IP addresses.
   
3. Choose Add to add each IP address you want to allow or deny.
   
4. Choose Single Computer and in the IP Address box type the IP address of the computer. If you don't know the IP address, choose DNS Lookup.

   Choose Group of Computers, in the Network ID box type the IP address, and in the Subnet Mask box type the subnet mask of the group of computers.

   Choose Domain Name, and in the Domain Name box, type the domain name of the computer.

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