reconfigured nntp server problems

David Schultz

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Oct 1, 2022, 4:55:39 PM10/1/22

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It has been a month since Earthlink got it working again. Sort of.

I consistently get invalid username or password errors. A retry usually
works. Eventually.

I have also had difficulty posting. With Thunderbird just sitting there
spinning it wheels until I stop it.

Worse are the failures to download an article. It starts but then the
server stops sending data. The receiving program then times out. Looking
at a stack trace it appears that no response is received after sending
the BODY command.

Which is a new twist on the errors I have seen with that command. Such
as not being able to find an article the server had just provided a
header for. But at least that returned an error message.

--
http://davesrocketworks.com
David Schultz

Ant

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Oct 1, 2022, 8:53:56 PM10/1/22

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David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:
> It has been a month since Earthlink got it working again. Sort of.

> I consistently get invalid username or password errors. A retry usually
> works. Eventually.

...

Yes, this is annoying ever since ELN's NNTP got a new IP address last
month or so that I mentioned in my other thread. I told ELN and
SuperNews about it. They told me it was fixed, but nope. :(

Please let EarthLink know about these issues even if they don't know.
...
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David Schultz

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Oct 1, 2022, 10:20:02 PM10/1/22

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On 10/1/22 7:53 PM, Ant wrote:
> David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> It has been a month since Earthlink got it working again. Sort of.
>
>> I consistently get invalid username or password errors. A retry usually
>> works. Eventually.
> ...
>
> Yes, this is annoying ever since ELN's NNTP got a new IP address last
> month or so that I mentioned in my other thread. I told ELN and
> SuperNews about it. They told me it was fixed, but nope. :(
>
> Please let EarthLink know about these issues even if they don't know.
> ...

I am still waiting for the call back I was promised on (checks notes) 26
July. :-)

Ant

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Oct 2, 2022, 12:07:56 AM10/2/22

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Did you follow up? I did, but got nothing. :(

David Schultz

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Oct 4, 2022, 7:20:11 PM10/4/22

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On 10/1/22 11:07 PM, Ant wrote:
>>> Please let EarthLink know about these issues even if they don't know.
>>> ...
>
>> I am still waiting for the call back I was promised on (checks notes) 26
>> July. :-)
>
> Did you follow up? I did, but got nothing. :(

I tried and probably failed. I gave up on the phone call route after
being transferred and sitting on hold for almost an hour. The coup de
grace was after sitting on hold for a long time, a new person picks up
thinking I was transferred to them. And wanting me to explain the
problem. Again.

So today I tried the online chat. Also with low expectations which were
met. Supposedly sent up to a senior technician. I have little hope that
this will ever reach anyone who knows what a NNTP server is.

All I really managed to do is lengthen my set of notes.

David Schultz

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Oct 5, 2022, 6:01:35 PM10/5/22

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On 10/4/22 6:20 PM, David Schultz wrote:
> On 10/1/22 11:07 PM, Ant wrote:
>>>> Please let EarthLink know about these issues even if they don't know.

> So today I tried the online chat. Also with low expectations which were
> met. Supposedly sent up to a senior technician. I have little hope that
> this will ever reach anyone who knows what a NNTP server is.
>
> All I really managed to do is lengthen my set of notes.
>
>

I received a call back today. Which started off badly and got worse
before getting better. Maybe.

The bad start was that "Mike" thought my problem was with email. The
worse is not only that he had no idea what NNTP or
news.west.earthlink.net were, he claimed that no one at Earthlink knew.
Even when I described how the IP address changed from the Earthlink
subnet to the Giganews subnet in August.

Then he claimed that he was going to transfer me to level 3 support.
Muzak for a bit then silence. Then beeps. Then disconnect.

Mike called back with the number and a PIN for the executive escalation
line. Called them and Tiffany couldn't do anything but submit a ticket.

Sigh.

David Schultz

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Oct 8, 2022, 10:45:53 AM10/8/22

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A new wrinkle on the server problems. I started getting connection
refused errors so tried using telnet:

$ telnet news.west.earthlink.net 119
Trying 69.80.103.39...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.39: Connection refused
Trying 69.80.103.37...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.37: Connection refused
Trying 69.80.103.38...
Connected to news.west.earthlink.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
200 News.GigaNews.Com

More tests showed that all attempts to connect to the .37 and .39
addresses failed while .38 worked.

Ant

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Oct 8, 2022, 3:14:02 PM10/8/22

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Mine connects. Last night was bad. :(
--
Bad sleep again due to allergies and more upcoming deaths. :( Quiet week so far since everyone seems to be busy like outside since places are crowded. :O

David Schultz

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Oct 8, 2022, 3:47:47 PM10/8/22

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On 10/8/22 2:13 PM, Ant wrote:
> David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:

>> More tests showed that all attempts to connect to the .37 and .39
>> addresses failed while .38 worked.
>
> Mine connects. Last night was bad. :(

Your what connects? News reader? Telnet?

I have been getting connection refused errors on .37 and .39 all day.

Ant

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Oct 8, 2022, 4:05:51 PM10/8/22

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David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:
> On 10/8/22 2:13 PM, Ant wrote:
> > David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:

> >> More tests showed that all attempts to connect to the .37 and .39
> >> addresses failed while .38 worked.
> >
> > Mine connects. Last night was bad. :(

> Your what connects? News reader? Telnet?

Tin last night. Both tin and telnet connections look fine right now.

> I have been getting connection refused errors on .37 and .39 all day.

Hmm.

Ant

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Oct 8, 2022, 4:12:50 PM10/8/22

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Ant <a...@zimage.comant> wrote:
> David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > On 10/8/22 2:13 PM, Ant wrote:
> > > David Schultz <david....@earthlink.net> wrote:

> > >> More tests showed that all attempts to connect to the .37 and .39
> > >> addresses failed while .38 worked.
> > >
> > > Mine connects. Last night was bad. :(

> > Your what connects? News reader? Telnet?

> Tin last night. Both tin and telnet connections look fine right now.

> > I have been getting connection refused errors on .37 and .39 all day.

> Hmm.

OK, now I am seeing the disconnections in both telnet and tin clients:

$ telnet nntp.earthlink.net 119

Trying 69.80.103.39...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.39: Connection refused

Trying 69.80.103.38...
Connected to nntp.earthlink.net.

Escape character is '^]'.
200 News.GigaNews.Com

^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed.

$ telnet nntp.earthlink.net 119

Trying 69.80.103.37...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.37: Connection refused
Trying 69.80.103.38...

Connected to nntp.earthlink.net.

Escape character is '^]'.
200 News.GigaNews.Com

^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed.

$ telnet nntp.earthlink.net 119
Trying 69.80.103.38...
Connected to nntp.earthlink.net.

Escape character is '^]'.
200 News.GigaNews.Com

^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed.

$ telnet nntp.earthlink.net 119
Trying 69.80.103.36...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.36: Connection refused

Trying 69.80.103.37...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.37: Connection refused
Trying 69.80.103.39...
telnet: connect to address 69.80.103.39: Connection refused

Trying 69.80.103.38...
Connected to nntp.earthlink.net.

Escape character is '^]'.
200 News.GigaNews.Com

Ant

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Oct 9, 2022, 11:16:24 PM10/9/22

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I can't connect at all in both my usenet newsgroup reader and
telnet clients tonight:

$ tin -r
tin 2.6.1 release 20211226 ("Convalmore") (c) Copyright 1991-2022 Iain Lea.
Connecting to earthlink.us.supernews.com...
socket or connect problem
connect(2): Connection refused
Failed to connect to NNTP server earthlink.us.supernews.com. Exiting...

$ telnet nntp.earthlink.net 119
Trying 69.80.103.39...

Trying 69.80.103.36...
Trying 69.80.103.38...
Trying 69.80.103.37...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

:(
--
Quiet October so far since everyone seems to had been busy like outside
since places (airports, planes, restaurants, stores, etc.) were crowded. :O

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Ant

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Oct 9, 2022, 11:29:59 PM10/9/22

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Now, it's back for how long? :P

--
Quiet October so far since everyone seems to had been busy like outside since places (airports, planes, restaurants, stores, etc.) were crowded. :O
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.

David Schultz

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Oct 22, 2022, 11:11:10 AM10/22/22

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Another peculiar thing happened today. The first article number
available for some groups lowered. For example:

(Response to NNTP GROUP command)
211 1 1678602 1678602 alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dr_demento
211 17669 1660934 1678602 alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dr_demento
num first last

Yesterday there were no articles available but then there are 17669.

Actually it seems be random. Not the article numbers but which result I
get. I checked again and the first article number had gone back to
1678602. Then a minute later I got 1660934.