Restricting Access to a Newsgroup

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

To restrict access to a newsgroup

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

Authenticating Users

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, right-click Default NNTP Site, click Properties, and then select the Directory Security tab.
2. Under Password Authentication Method, click Edit.
3. Select the appropriate authentication method.

Limiting Access by IP Address

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

Either you can allow access to a specified list of IP addresses, or you can deny access to a specified list of IP addresses. You also can specify IP addresses using a domain name, but this adds the overhead of a DNS lookup for each connection.

To limit access by IP address

1. Using Internet Service Manager right-click Default NNTP Site, click Properties, select the Directory Security tab.
2. To grant access to all computers by default, choose Granted Access or choose Denied Access to deny access to all computers by default. In either case, you would then specify exceptions to the policy by listing IP addresses that will be denied (or allowed) access.
3. To add each IP address you want to allow or deny, click Add.
4. Click Single Computer. In the IP Address box, type the IP address of the computer. If you don't know the IP address, click DNS Lookup.
5. Click Group of Computers. In the Network ID box, type the IP address. In the Subnet Mask box, type the subnet mask name for the group of computers.
6. Click Domain Name. In the Domain Name box, type the domain name of the computer.