>Additionally, I've been working on a fast cancelbot (far too late into the
 >night, too) and am curious what's the state of the art with
 >spam-cancelbots? Current plan is have a WinGate capable client that uses
 >XHDR (if available - if not, I will have to add something else) to request
 >a list of NNTP-Posting-Host headers (At the moment - same applies here...)
 >and scans them for wanted entries (In basic case same as the WinGate being
 >used), extracts the headers and builds the cancels, sending them out. I'm
 >still ironing out blocking behaviour etc. but am curious for any
 >tips/comments you might be able to give.

It is best to do "Blocking" mode, so that you do not need to set flags to
keep track of which processes are completed and which are not.

Use:

        GROUP alt.religion.scientology

to aquire the high-article value, while retaining on your hard disk
a file that contains the last low-article number since your cancel 'bot
last ran.

        XPAT NNTP-POSTING-HOST lowest-highest *

to gather all articles. This will render the article number (not the
article ID, but its associated number--- a long integer) followed
by a space and then the posting host value. Some values will
show up as "(none)" from some originating NNTP servers.

Compare the article table retrieved via XPAT with a list of known
hosts that the OSA has used to inject their forgeries. For matches,
issue the command:

        HEAD articlenumber

That will give you all the information required to issue a cancel request.
Once you issue the cancel request, update your low-article count on
your hard disk afterwards--- don't wait until the program shuts down to
do so, because your program could lock up or crash and you would
miscount the low article (beginning) value.

For canceling articles as they are being injected, the cancel robot needs
to be connected to the same NNTP server the OSA is using at the moment.
---
The Truth About "Psychics:" http://holysmoke.org/keene.sht
The Truth About Scientology: http://www.airspeed.com/~shydavid/cos.htm
The Truth About Creationism: http://holysmoke.org/icr-cult.htm
"When you break the silence you break the terror." -- Jesse Prince