Network News Transfer Protocol Control  
 

Download and submit articles to a news server.

Reference

Control Information

Object Name NntpClientCtl.NntpClient
File Name CSNWSX12.OCX
Version 12.0.3024.1286
ProgID SocketTools.NntpClient.12
ClassID DEC81A71-4F58-4E03-B601-E486822DBD1F
Threading Model Apartment
Help File CST12CTL.CHM
Dependencies None
Standards RFC 977, RFC 2980

Overview

The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is used with servers that provide news services. This is similar in functionality to bulletin boards or message boards, where topics are organized hierarchically into groups, called newsgroups. Users can browse and search for messages, called news articles, which have been posted by other users. On many servers, they can also post their own articles which can be read by others. The largest collection of public newsgroups available is called USENET, a world-wide distributed discussion system. In addition, there are a large number of smaller news servers. For example, Microsoft operates a news server which functions as a forum for technical questions and announcements.

The control provides a comprehensive interface for accessing newsgroups, retrieving articles and posting new articles. In combination with the Mail Message control to process the news articles, SocketTools can be used to integrate newsgroup access with an existing email application, or you can implement your own full-featured newsgroup client.

The control supports secure explicit and implicit connections using TLS 1.2 or later with client certificates for authentication. By simply setting a few properties, a secure connection using 256-bit AES encryption can be established, providing your application with the highest level of security available.

Requirements

The SocketTools ActiveX Edition components are self-registering controls that are compatible with any programming language that supports the Component Object Model (COM) and the ActiveX control specification. If you are using Visual Basic 6.0, Service Pack 6 (SP6) is required. We recommend installing all available updates for your development tools. Although the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime is supported on Windows 11, the IDE itself is no longer officially supported by Microsoft. Legacy IDEs and compilers may also require elevated (administrator) privileges to run properly.

The ActiveX controls are supported on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and later versions of both desktop and server editions of Windows. For Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (SP1) is the minimum requirement. For Windows 8 systems, the 8.1 update must be installed. On ARM-based platforms, the minimum supported version is Windows 10 build 1709.

SocketTools includes components for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Windows platforms. All modern versions of Windows are 64-bit, but we continue to include 32-bit components for compatibility with legacy development tools such as Visual Basic 6.0. We also provide native ARM64 ActiveX controls for systems running Windows on ARM. Note that 32-bit applications on ARM run using x86 emulation, and Microsoft no longer supports native ARM32 applications.

If you are using VBScript, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), or another scripting environment on an ARM-based system, be aware that 64-bit hosts will require ARM64 components, while 32-bit hosts will use x86 components under emulation. This includes applications created with Visual Basic 6.0. To reduce deployment complexity and avoid confusion, SocketTools does not include ARM32 ActiveX controls in its standard redistribution packages but they are available on request for legacy or specialized scenarios.

Distribution

When you distribute an application that uses this control, you can either install the file in the same folder as your application executable or as a shared component in the appropriate system folder. If you install the control in the system folder, it is important that you distribute the correct version for the target platform and it must be registered. If you install the control in the same folder as your executable, it is recommended that you use registration-free activation or COM redirection to ensure that the correct version of the control is loaded by the application.