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Noaaport NNTP

Nbsp can distribute files by nntp, through a news (nntp) server. All it takes to set up a working configuration of an nbsp-news server is to install the nbsp-news rpm package, which available from this site. The RELEASE NOTES in that package give a short step-by-step set of instructions to install the rpm package.

For illustrative purposes, a test system has been setup at

nntp.inoaaport.net
which is currently completely open to clients. We have tested this setup with various NNTP client programs, including Outlook Express. A particular one that we like and recommend for Windows PC's is QuadSucker/News. The Screenhots section in this web site has several pictures that capture the interaction of this client with the server.

The current noaaport groups are defined as follows: the station groups

  • noaaport.txt.kkkk
  • noaaport.emwin.{urgent,warnings,data,forecast,summary}.kkkk
  • noaaport.rad.img.sss
  • noaaport.rad.raw.sss
contain all the text bulletins from each station, and the radar images and the raw data files for each radar site. (Here, kkkk is any station id, and sss stands for a radar site). There is also a group
  • noaaport.emwin.{urgent,warnings,data,forecast,summary}
that carries a duplicate of the same subset of the emwin text bulletins, from all the stations, and a group
  • noaaport.emwin.img
that carries the emwin images. The two special-purpose groups
  • noaaport.misc.adm
  • noaaport.emwin.misc.adm
carry administrative messages from the noaaport and emwin systems. The groups
  • noaaport.sat.img.{tiga,tigb,tige,tigf,tigh,tigi,tign,tigp,tigq,tigw}
  • noaaport.sat.raw.{tiga,tigb,tige,tigf,tigh,tigi,tign,tigp,tigq,tigw}
carry the satellite images and the corresponding data files. Then there are several groups that contain data that can be used directly by applications, and in particular DigitalAtmosphere, such as
  • noaaport.data.surface
  • noaaport.data.syn
  • noaaport.data.ship
  • noaaport.data.warnings
  • noaaport.data.nwx.spc.day1
  • noaaport.data.nwx.spc.day2
  • noaaport.data.nwx.spc.day3
  • noaaport.data.nwx.hpc.fronts
and many others, all of them with the noaaport.data prefix.

There are two ways in which any other host can use this system: as an end-point client, or as a slave server.

As an end-point client, all it involves is the use of a news reader software, such as tin in unix, and Outlook Express in a windows machine or any other of many available. A particular one that we have tested under windows, which is efficient, simple and inexpensive, is QuadSuck After configuring the client program to use our news server as the nntp server, anyone of the above groups can be subscribed. The text files and the radar (gif) images can be viewed from the news reader itself, while the raw data files can be saved to disk and then imported by special-purpose programs, such as Digital Atmosphere, which we have tested successfully in this way.

A slave server involves setting up a news server in the slave machine, with a feed from our master server (or any other using the nbsp software). Anyone interested in setting up a slave server would need to notify us so that we can add it to the distribution list (this is currently not required for end-point clients).