Newsgroups: news.admin
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Can a Newsgroup be Restricted...? (FOLLOW-UP)
Message-ID: <1989Oct25.162059.28776@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <352@cs.nps.navy.mil>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 89 16:20:59 GMT

In article <352@cs.nps.navy.mil> jxxl@cs.nps.navy.mil (vibo) writes:
>This works like a charm on the news server. However, the catch is that
>access cannot be restricted by readers who use NNTP to come over the
>net. NNTP currently has no facility for identifying the user...

This is actually a generic problem:  there is no reliable authentication
over most current networks.  (It's marginally feasible if you control all
machines on the network *and* have your gateways to the outside world do
fairly paranoid packet filtering, but that combination is rare.)  NNTP
per se is not to blame here.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu