Need a news system for a 3B2

[Eric Thompson]

Hello fellow newsreaders!  Perhaps you can help me try and get a
news system running on my 3B2/700s.  Here's the story:

I tried downloading the sources to rn and cnews and had very
little success getting them to run.  Part of the problem is that
I'm a C novice.  The source documentation wasn't exactly helpful,
either.

In addition to getting a news system to run on my system, I need
to be able to learn how to manage it.  I'm sure the docs that come
with the source won't help.  I read somewhere that Portal sells
docs with the news software and the uucp connection they offer--
that sounds more helpful.

If you're willing to help me out, let me tell you a little about
the system:

  * there are no connections to anywhere on this machine, thus
  * all news and newsgroups will be internal;
  * the users are extreme novices (lawyers, actually.... ;-)

I don't know much about the foundation (transport) of the news
system.  I know that I'd like to be able to use rn or something
similar (nn? trn?) as a newsreader, only because that's what I'm
already familiar with.

If the easiest way to go about this is to buy the docs and software
from someone, point me in the right direction.  Where can I get it
and for how much?  If it really *isn't* that hard to install, and
you have a 3B2 running news software, perhaps you could give me your
source and some pointers.  That would be terrific.

Please e-mail to me (Eric) at et at ocf.berkeley.edu unless this is
really of general interest... :-)

my eternal thanks,
Eric