*** How to Filter out the Crap ***

* How to Filter out the Crap *

Dear All,

** A note on Trolls **

People, when will you learn, *PLEASE* do not reply to the trolls, leave them under their pitiful bridge to starve. And they will starve, and go away if you stop feeding them with your replies.

Filtering with Nfilter (aka NewsProxy)
Filtering with OutLook Express

** How to use Nfilter(AKA NewsProxy) to filter out Trolls and other useless crap **

Nfilter is used successfully by wreck members using the following O.S.'s - Win98se, XP Home, XP Pro, Win2K, and Win2K Advanced Server.

Download & install NewsProxy from http://www.nfilter.org/ Basic instructions are at http://www.nfilter.org/faq.html#2.2

*** The Nfilter web site is gone! ***

Robert Bonomi has been kind enough to host the program for us wreckers, click the link to get a copy of Nfilter and some other useful info, http://www.r-bonomi.com/rec.woodworking/index.html

Thank you Robert.
Copy the "NewsProxy" shortcut
   from - C:\Program Files\NewsProxy\
   to - C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\
   [this is for Win98se, modify this to suit your OS.]
If you are using Outlook Express (for other clients the process is similar -- you need to find the name of the current newsserver, and change it):
1. Start OE.
2. Right click on your news folder (not rec.woodworking - you want the main news folder) and select Properties.
3. Select the Server tab.
4. Copy the information from the Server Name box.
5. Enter "localhost" (without the quote marks) in the Server Name box. Some O.S.'s may require you use 127.0.0.1 in the Server Name box.
6. Select the Advanced tab and make sure that News(NNTP): is set to 119.
7. Click OK.
In NewsProxy:
1. Select the Edit | Configuration | Network tab.
2. In the "Server Name or IP Number" box - paste the information from Server Name you copied in step 3.
  
  Note: Nfilter *IS* case insensitive for the criteria in nfilter.dat. By enabling Regular Expressions you can avoid having to enter all permutations of upper & lower cases into the nfilter.dat file.
3. Select the General tab and check "Enable Regular Expressions".
4. Click OK.
5. Select Edit | Filters.
6. Click File | Save As.
7. Change FileName to nfilter.dat.old
8. Click Save.
9. Delete all the existing lines.
10. Copy the following section, from "Start Nfilter..." to "End", to the file & be sure not to leave any blank lines in the file.
11. Click File | Save As.
12. FileName = nfilter.dat
13. Click Save.
# Start Nfilter.dat list # Any line that starts with a # is a comment line and will be ignored. # Blank lines are a no no. # This list requires that "Enable Regular Expressions" be turned on. # In NewsProxy Click Edit | Configuration and check the # Regular Expressions box. # #Drop 3 or more xposts rec.woodworking Drop xref:[^:]*:[^:]*:[^:]*:.* rec.woodworking Drop xref:.*rec\.pets.* rec.woodworking Drop from:.*[Pp][Uu][Pp]+[Yy].* rec.woodworking Drop from:.*[Jj][Dd].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Jj][Ee][Ww][Ss].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Jj][Ee][Ww][Ii][Ss][Hh].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Cc][Hh][Rr][Ii][Ss][Tt][Ii][Aa][Nn].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Mm][Uu][Ss][Ll][Ii][Mm].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Jj][Ee][Ss][Uu][Ss].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Pp][Ee][Nn][Ii][Ss].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Ff][Uu][Cc][Kk].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.* [Cc][Uu][Mm] .* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Cc][Oo][Cc][Kk].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Pp][Uu][Ss]+[Yy].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Ss][Hh][Ii][Tt].* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*JOAT IS GAY.* rec.woodworking Drop subject:.*[Nn][Ee][Gg][Rr][Oo].* rec.woodworking drop message-id:.*@cypherpunks.to rec.woodworking drop message-id:.*@bogg.dynu.com rec.woodworking drop from:*remailer* # End NFilter.dat list
Any time you edit the nfilter.dat file be sure you Save it, then close NewsProxy and restart it. This will cause NewsProxy to read the new nfilter.dat file.

Note: there is no need to close your newsreader (ie Outlook Express) when doing this.

Here's a quick primer on Regular Expressions.

Using the example expression .*[Pp][Uu][Pp]+[Yy].*
- [Pp] will match one letter of either upper or lower case P.
- [Pp]+ will match any number of letters of either upper or lower case P.
  So the above will match: Puppy, Pupy, PuPpY, pUPPPPPPPy, etc.
- A dot (".") will match any single character. And ".*" will match any number of any characters.
- Spaces are not ignored and are a valid matching character.
- [Pp][Uu] [Pp]+[Yy] (note the space between the U&P) will not match "Puppy" but will match "Pu ppy".
For more information on Regular Expressions go to: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/helpsheets/regex.html or http://sitescooper.org/tao_regexps.html

Using the above as a guide it is simple to add a new rule, but you may want to test it first by using Flag instead of Drop. For example, to test for "asshole" anywhere in the subject line use:
rec.woodworking Flag:ASSHOLE= subject:.*[Aa][Ss]+[Hh][Oo][Ll][Ee].* Once it works to your satisfaction replace "Flag:ASSHOLE=" with "Drop".

Please use one of the test groups (ie alt.test) for testing Subjects. You just need to change rec.woodworking to alt.test and have at it.

Alternatively you could unsubscribe from rec.woodworking and then resubscribe. This will give you the actual posts from the current crop of idiots to test the From, nntp-posting-host, or message-id functions.

CAUTION: With Regular Expressions enabled, the rule in the original nfilter.dat file = rec.woodworking drop xref:*:*:*:* will cause ALL posts to be dropped.

ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES from wreck users:

#Drop 2 or more xposts rec.woodworking Drop xref:[^:]*:[^:]*:.*

#Drop any post from known troll posting hosts (as of Oct-2003) rec.woodworking Drop nntp-posting-host:.*65\.149\.76 rec.woodworking Drop nntp-posting-host:.*63\.159\.116 rec.woodworking Drop nntp-posting-host:.*206\.216\.55 rec.woodworking Drop nntp-posting-host:.*206\.216\.[456] rec.woodworking Drop nntp-posting-host:.*205\.184\.1[23456789]

#Drop the current trolls (as of Oct-2003) rec.woodworking drop from:rottfather@canada.com rec.woodworking drop from:BettySue@ampfarm.com rec.woodworking drop from:joat@free.linux.net.mk rec.woodworking drop from:sarahsarah@gloat.org rec.woodworking drop from:sarahsarah@glay.org rec.woodworking drop from:joat@c895fm.com

rec.woodworking drop path:.*{{servername}}
**** Filtering with Extreme Prejudice ****
Things have got out of hand on the wreck with a few morons posting through Google. As such, I have decided to remove all posts from Google.com. This is an extreme measure and decide for yourself if you want to add the following line to your Nfilter.dat rules.

rec.woodworking drop message-id:.*@posting.google.com
You should be able to see from those examples how to add additional rules to drop messages with certain words in the subject or from specific users. If you have any questions, please reply to this message.
If you are running a firewall like ZoneAlarm you will need to enable NewsProxy to function as a server.
If your ISP requires you to login, Nfilter requires no special set up. It will pass the login information from your newsreader to your ISP/News Server.
For using Nfilter with multiple servers. See http://www.geocities.com/d4vidb/x_setup11.html

*** A special thankyou to Art, AKA the Wood Butcher for his help installing Nfilter, It works, go get it and install it now. ***

**** USING OUTLOOK EXPRESS TO FILTER THE CRAP ****

To Block a Sender:

Click on a message from the offender.
Click on "Message"
Click on "Block Sender"
Click on "Yes" to remove all messages from the offender.

To Block a Thread:

Double Click on the message
Copy the subject line (without the Re: prefix)
Close the message
Click on Tools | Message Rules | News | New
In box #1 Check "Subject line contains specific words"
In box #2 Check "Delete it"
In box #3 Click on "contains specific words"
Paste the subject line into the box
Click Add | OK | OK

To Block On Something Else:

See Block Thread above and explore other options in box #1