Anyone use Albasani.net as their news server with thunderbird/having trouble connecting of late...

[B.H.]

I have had an account on Albasani.net for years, and used it with
thunderbird on Windows and Linux with no issues, but for a couple years
or more I've not been able to get things to work.
It seems to set up fine, but then I can't see any groups to subscribe to.
I think I followed their instructions correctly, and am at a loss. Is
there something new one must do, or is there a common bug or problem
that folks are running in to using thunderbird with news.albasani.net?
I have not received a reply when.
Thanks in advance for any help.
--
B.H. I emailed for help, but will try that again

[David E. Ross]

The news server at reader.albasani.net was created by Alexander
Bartolich, who died a few years ago. It took a while for volunteers to
assume responsibility for keeping the server running. They run it as a
hobby, not as their primary careers.

I use reader.albasani.net as my primary Usenet server. Sometimes,
connections are quite slow, slow enough that Thunderbird times-out.
However, I generally find it to be quite excellent. I prefer it over
Eternal September at news.eternal-september.org since the administrator
there usually has only bad things to say about Thunderbird.

Go to <http://albasani.net/wiki/Thunderbird_%28English%29> for setup
information specific to Thunderbird. Remember, you need a user ID and
password to access the reader.albasani.net server. If you still have
trouble, reply in this thread. I will then give you how I setup my
account at reader.albasani.net.

--
David E. Ross

While many tributes to the late Supreme Court Associate Justice
Antonin Scalia now fill the news media, his legacy was not
necessarily positive. See my "What Price Order, Mr. Justice Scalia?"
at <http://www.rossde.com/editorials/edtl_scalia_wrong.html>.

[B.H.]

OK, Sorry for the top post in this group.
I mostly do list mail and such to groups with many blind folks/forgot to
change it for this server.
Anyway, I did not know that Alexander had died. That explains him not
answering my last couple of emails, one today, and another sent several
months ago...
Unless t-bird instructions have changed, (I'll check in a bit), I
followed them to the letter I thought with no good results.
I'd done this successfully a few times before, so kind of think I did it
right.
I'll try one more time, and right back if it still does not work.
I'm using xusenet, just got the account. It does not seem bad, but I'm
not sure if they have a monthly data cap or some other limitation I've
missed. No ssl on their free accounts though.
Regards,

[Mike Easter]

B.H. wrote:
> Unless t-bird instructions have changed, (I'll check in a bit), I
> followed them to the letter I thought with no good results.
> I'd done this successfully a few times before, so kind of think I did it
> right.

As a non-registered, I can access albasani's groups using the readonly
user and pass.

My Tb settings are news.albasani.net port 119
Security none
always request authentication

If you try to use security, there is this:

http://albasani.net/wiki/Thunderbird_3_%28English%29 Albasani uses a
self-signed certificate. Configuring Thunderbird 3.x to use it takes a
number of steps.

1 NNTPS
2 Download Albasani's Certificate
3 Import Albasani's Certificate
3.1 Certificates
3.2 Server Certificates
3.3 Select certificate to import
3.4 Server Certificates
3.5 Edit web site certificate trust settings

Server names and ports:
http://albasani.net/wiki/FAQ_%28English%29#NNTP.2C_SSL_and_alternative_Ports

--
Mike Easter

[Lynn McGuire]

I use Eternal September as my news server:
http://www.eternal-september.org/

Lynn