Hello Sean,

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about trying something that has been recently written and
released to the public.



PyGate - Python FidoNet-NNTP Gateway, has been released to the public.

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet echomail and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message
exchange between the two networks.

Version: 1.5.6
Author: Stephen Walsh
Contact: vk3heg@gmail.com | FidoNet 3:633/280 | FSXNet 21:1/195 | Amiganet 39:901/280
Based on: SoupGate by Tom Torfs

https://github.com/vk3heg/pygate


Features
Core Functionality

Bidirectional Gateway: Messages flow seamlessly between FidoNet and NNTP
Flexible Deployment Modes: Full gateway mode or client-only mode
Area Mapping: Flexible mapping between FidoNet areas and NNTP newsgroups
Message Hold System: Manual review and approval of messages
Spam Filtering: Advanced regex-based filtering with built-in patterns
Netmail Notifications: Automatic notifications for held messages
Areafix Support: Dynamic area management via netmail with wildcard protection
Character Set Handling: Proper encoding conversion per FTS standards

Advanced Features

Message Deduplication: Prevents duplicate messages
Cross-posting Control: Configurable limits on cross-posted messages
Timezone Support: Proper timezone handling (TZUTC)
Message Threading: Preserves reply chains and references
Administrative Panel: Admin panel interface for message review of held messages, filter management, newsrc
management, newsgroups list viewing.

Requirements

Python 3.7 or higher
NNTP server access
FidoNet mailer (binkd recommended)
Required Python packages:
configparser
pathlib
logging
datetime
uuid
json
paramiko (for SSH/remote ctlinnd on Windows deployments)
psutil (for automation script process management)


Deployment Modes

PyGate supports two deployment modes:
Full Gateway Mode (Default)

In this mode, PyGate manages both the NNTP connection and the server configuration:

Updates local newsrc file when areas are added/removed
Executes ctlinnd commands to create/remove newsgroups on NNTP server
Requires server administrative privileges or SSH access
Best for deployments where PyGate runs on or manages the news server

[Gateway]
client_mode = false # or omit this line (false is default)

Client-Only Mode

In this mode, PyGate operates as a standard NNTP client without server management:

Updates local newsrc file when areas are added/removed
Does NOT execute ctlinnd commands
Assumes newsgroups already exist on the remote NNTP server
Does not require server administrative privileges
Best for connecting to external/remote news servers you don't control

[Gateway]
client_mode = true

When to use client-only mode:

Connecting to a remote news server you don't administer
Using a commercial or third-party news provider
Testing PyGate without affecting server configuration
Security-restricted environments where ctlinnd access is unavailable

Note: In client-only mode, areafix operations will still update your local newsrc file, but you must ensure the
corresponding newsgroups exist on the NNTP
server before subscribing to them.


Message Hold System

The hold system allows manual review of messages before they are gated, providing control over message flow. When
areas are remapped to fidonet echomail
areas. This is mainly to protect fidonet from usenet spam.

Configuration

Enable holding in pygate.cfg:

[Arearemap]
Hold = yes
notify_sysop = yes

How It Works

Message Evaluation: Each message is checked against area mappings
Hold Decision: Messages in mapped areas are held for review
Notification: Netmail sent to sysop (once per hour maximum)
Review Process: Admin reviews messages via admin panel
Action: Messages are approved, rejected, or archived

Notification System

When messages are held:

Netmail sent to sysop at linked_address
Rate Limited: Maximum one notification per hour
Comprehensive: Lists all areas with pending messages
Tracking: State saved in hold/notifications.json





Stephen



--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Stephen!

28 Jan 26 22:54, you wrote to me:

Hello Sean,

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about
trying something that has been recently written and released to the public.

I have been a long time user of soupgate and prefer it.

Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.2.6-B20251227
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (2:263/1)

Hello Stephen!

28 Jan 26 22:54, you wrote to me:

Hello Sean,

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about
trying something that has been recently written and released to the public.

PyGate - Python FidoNet-NNTP Gateway, has been released to the public.

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet echomail
and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message exchange between the
two networks.

In fairness I almost went down the python route. I will give PyGate a try :) Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.2.6-B20251227
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (2:263/1)

Hello Sean!

28 Jan 26 12:30, you wrote to me:

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about
trying something that has been recently written and released to
the public.

I have been a long time user of soupgate and prefer it.

I got frustrated with it's quirks and the way things worked.

PyGate was the result. It's actually gone further then what I initially planed.



Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Sean!

28 Jan 26 12:47, you wrote to me:

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet
echomail and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message exchange
between the two networks.

In fairness I almost went down the python route. I will give PyGate a
try :) Sean

On my news server it runs every half an hour and the run time is 2-4 seconds to go through over 400 news groups.



Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Sean!

28 Jan 26 12:47, you wrote to me:

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet
echomail and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message exchange
between the two networks.

In fairness I almost went down the python route. I will give PyGate a
try :) Sean

On my news server it runs every half an hour and the run time is 2-4 seconds to go through 443 news groups.
Of course the more often it's run the less work that needs to happen. #-)

Tommi has it setup, and provided feedback on couple of things, that got fixed/added.




Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hi Stephen.

29 Jan 26 10:25, you wrote to Sean Rima:

On my news server it runs every half an hour and the run time is 2-4 seconds to
go through 443 news groups. Of course the more often it's run the less work
that needs to happen. #-)

Tommi has it setup, and provided feedback on couple of things, that got fixed/added.

Yep. :)

I'm thinking about one feature of Soupgate. It will reject dupes, "own" fido messages coming back from usenet by checking "Organization" field. I have these lines in my soupgate config:

Organization RBBSG
OwnOrgAction move
OwnOrgArea RBB.NEWS.OWN

I know that PyGate will adjust the message count by one every time it sends a message to news server but it is possible "own" messages to come back other route.

Maybe a filter would fix this. Like:

^X-Organization:.*RBBSG
Organization:.*RBBSG
^From:.*fidonet.fi

One more thing I like in PyGate is Areafix, and that it can command INN. :-)

'Tommi

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: nntps://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/1)

Hi Stephen,

I see these ERRORs when PyGate is trying to post to INN:

29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Processing packet: /bbs/pygate/inbound/697a8dc9.pkt 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Parsed 1 messages from /bbs/pygate/inbound/697a8dc9.pkt
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Loaded 10 areas from config/newsrc
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Connecting to NNTP server 192.168.10.2:119 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Posting message to fidotest: Re: Test
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - ERROR - Failed to post message: 441 Can't parse Message-ID header field body
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Area FIDOTEST: 0 gated, 0 filtered, 1 failed 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Processing packet: /bbs/pygate/inbound/697a8d5d.pkt 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Parsed 1 messages from /bbs/pygate/inbound/697a8d5d.pkt
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Loaded 10 areas from config/newsrc
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Posting message to fidotest: Re: Test
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - ERROR - Failed to post message: 441 Can't parse Message-ID header field body
29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Area FIDOTEST: 0 gated, 0 filtered, 1 failed 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Import complete: 2 packets processed


If I check the saved .PKT's there are Syncronet-style MSGID's:

MSGID: 5036.fidonet_fidotest@1:135/205 2ddfd6b0
MSGID: 2022.fidonet_fidotest@1:218/601 2ddfcb0d

'Tommi

---
* Origin: ------------------- (2:221/1)

Hi Stephen!

28 Jan 2026 22:54, from Stephen Walsh -> Sean Rima:

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about
trying something that has been recently written and released to the public.

Interesting

PyGate - Python FidoNet-NNTP Gateway, has been released to the public.

I wanted to play around with the mail capabilities.

Stephen

CU, Ricsi

... Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
--- GoldED+/LNX
* Origin: Advice is usually worth what it cost. (2:310/31)

Hello Stephen!

29 Jan 26 10:17, you wrote to me:

Instead of beating a old horse that is soupgate/spoon, how about
trying something that has been recently written and released to
the public.

I have been a long time user of soupgate and prefer it.

I got frustrated with it's quirks and the way things worked.

PyGate was the result. It's actually gone further then what I
initially planed.

Yeah well that is what we all do I guess. I am still considering a Python version of my own. I tried yours and it won't link to my nntp server, god knows why

Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.2.6-B20251227
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (2:263/1)

Hello Stephen!

29 Jan 26 10:19, you wrote to me:

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet
echomail and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message exchange
between the two networks.

In fairness I almost went down the python route. I will give
PyGate a try :) Sean

On my news server it runs every half an hour and the run time is 2-4 seconds to go through over 400 news groups.

Python is very swift that way alright

Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.2.6-B20251227
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (2:263/1)

Hello Stephen!

29 Jan 26 10:25, you wrote to me:

PyGate is a Python-based gateway system that bridges FidoNet
echomail and NNTP newsgroups, allowing seamless message exchange
between the two networks.

In fairness I almost went down the python route. I will give
PyGate a try :) Sean

On my news server it runs every half an hour and the run time is 2-4 seconds to go through 443 news groups. Of course the more often it's
run the less work that needs to happen. #-)

Tommi has it setup, and provided feedback on couple of things, that
got fixed/added.

One of the additions I did to spoon was to add multiple nntp servers and newsrc files. Currently working with 3 different nntp servers for stuff I like

Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.2.6-B20251227
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (2:263/1)

Hello Tommi!

29 Jan 26 13:29, you wrote to me:

I know that PyGate will adjust the message count by one every time it sends a message to news server but it is possible "own" messages to
come back other route.

INN should take care of that, but adding rules to the filter.cfg file will also work.

Maybe a filter would fix this. Like:

^X-Organization:.*RBBSG
Organization:.*RBBSG
^From:.*fidonet.fi

These would be the one's I'd use to do that.

^Organization:(?i).rbbsg
^Injection-Info:(?i)news\.rbbsg\.net
^NNTP-Posting-Host:(?i)news\.rbbsg\.net

One more thing I like in PyGate is Areafix, and that it can command
INN. :-)

Yeah. I initially started coding pygate as a areafix module for soupgate, then got annoyed at all the steps that the
soupgate system took.. It was also prone to one step failing in my testing.

So pygate morphed into what it is now, and the ability to run on the INN news server or remotely.



Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Richard!

29 Jan 26 14:34, you wrote to me:

PyGate - Python FidoNet-NNTP Gateway, has been released to the
public.

I wanted to play around with the mail capabilities.

Pygate don't do email's and isn't something I'm wanting it to do.



Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Sean!

29 Jan 26 18:04, you wrote to me:

PyGate was the result. It's actually gone further then what I
initially planed.

Yeah well that is what we all do I guess. I am still considering a
Python version of my own. I tried yours and it won't link to my nntp server, god knows why

Send me the logfile and your config (Change any passwords to password).



Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)

Hello Tommi!

29 Jan 26 14:09, you wrote to me:

29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Processing packet:

[...]

failed 29-Jan-26 00:30:01 - INFO - Import complete: 2 packets
processed

If I check the saved .PKT's there are Syncronet-style MSGID's:

MSGID: 5036.fidonet_fidotest@1:135/205 2ddfd6b0
MSGID: 2022.fidonet_fidotest@1:218/601 2ddfcb0d

I did add support for Syncronet-style MSGID's, can yo drop the packets into my system, and I'll have a look.
zip them up as syncpkt.zip please.


Stephen


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (3:633/280)