Getting only the eternal.september hierarchy

[Cameo]

i just bought this Dell Inspiron laptop and set it up with Thunderbird
the same way as my old Lenovo is, yet I can't download any newsgroups
with a list refresh beside the eternal.september.* groups, even though I
get everything on my old Lenovo. Same network, same Thunderbird version
78.9, except the Lenovo uses the 32-bit version, the new Dell uses the
64-bit version. Should that make a difference?

[Andy Burns]

You need an E-S account, and in the thunderbird server settings you need
to tick the "always request authentication when connecting to this
server" box.

you probably also want to tell thunderbird to store the username and
password, so it doesn't ask every time.

[Cameo]

Thanks, but I am not sure what an E-S account is and I don't think I
needed that when I set up Thunderbird on my old Lenovo.

[Andy Burns]

Cameo wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> You need an E-S account, and in the thunderbird server settings you
>> need to tick the "always request authentication when connecting to
>> this server" box.
>>
>> you probably also want to tell thunderbird to store the username and
>> password, so it doesn't ask every time.
>
> Thanks, but I am not sure what an E-S account is

<https://www.eternal-september.org/RegisterNewsAccount.php?language=en>

> and I don't think I
> needed that when I set up Thunderbird on my old Lenovo.

if you don't have an account, you'll only see the e-s groups (as you said).

[Paul]

https://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=techinfo

Server name: news.eternal-september.org
Port : 119 (NNTP)
Port : 563 (encrypted connection NNTPS)

Servername: reader80.eternal-september.org
Port : 80

Servername: reader443.eternal-september.org
Port : 443 (encrypted connection NNTPS)

*****

On the old machine:

1) Alter the setting to use port 119, instead of 563.
2) Fire up wireshark.
3) With "always request authentication" set on the old setup
(you should not need to change this, because it was working),
the wireshark trace of the USER and PASS packets on port 119
will show you your account name and password.

And this is why, in a "snooping" world we live in, you don't
use port 119 if you want to keep your USER and PASS shielded
from prying eyes.

I've selected a few bits out of the Wireshark trace, to
show what your user and pass would look like. The actual user
and pass have been replaced with ***. Notice how the client
"submits" the user, without being asked. Authentication is
a "push protocol" in this case, not a "pull protocol" like
a telnet session maybe. The AUTHINFO says "oh, by the way,
this is my user account detail". That kicks off the (optional)
authentication sequence.

11 NNTP 164 Response: 200 reader02.eternal-september.org
InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.7.0
(20190513 snapshot) ready (posting ok)
12 NNTP 67 Request: MODE READER

14 NNTP 164 Response: 200 reader02.eternal-september.org
InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.7.0
(20190513 snapshot) ready (posting ok)
15 NNTP ** Request: AUTHINFO user ***
16 NNTP 74 Response: 381 Enter password
17 NNTP ** Request: AUTHINFO pass ***

Wireshark is an awful pain in the ass, the first time
you use it. The hard part, is getting it to start a trace.
And you never really know whether the WinPCAP promiscuous
Ethernet capturing bit is working properly. It likely
needs to run as administrator, so it can abuse the NIC,
and that can be a challenge to get right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireshark

When attempts to authenticate with E-S have failed in the past,
I've used Wireshark to verify the sequence is going in properly.

Once you have the details in hand, you can switch any softwares
back to port 563 if you want.

You may have an archived email sitting in your email tool,
with the details of your new password, when you applied for
an E-S account.

Paul

[Cameo]

Turns out I've had an account, but when I was setting up this server on
my Dell, it just put itself to the default port 119, connection security
None, no password, and the authentication box was not marked. After
seeing that the box was marked on my Lenovo, I marked it on my Dell,
too. Still no refresh and I was not even asked for the UID and PWD. So
now I changed connection security SSL/TLS, which automatically changed
the port number as well, and did pop up a dialog box for UID and PWD.
After I entered that, the refresh list worked and downloaded a bunch of
news groups. What is interesting that now when I changed the connection
security back to None and the port to 119 again, the list refresh seems
to work.

Thanks for all of you for the help.

[Lewis]

In message <s47cgg$s3g$1...@anonymous.dont-email.me> Cameo <ca...@unreal.invalid> wrote:
> i just bought this Dell Inspiron laptop and set it up with Thunderbird
> the same way as my old Lenovo is, yet I can't download any newsgroups
> with a list refresh beside the eternal.september.* groups

This means you did not setup your news software correctly with your ES
account info,


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