plusnet news server

Andy Burns

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Jul 27, 2022, 5:10:45 PM7/27/22

to

shilling needed for the meter?

Roger

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Jul 28, 2022, 2:04:15 AM7/28/22

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On Wed, 27 Jul 2022 22:10:42 +0100, Andy Burns
<use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>shilling needed for the meter?

DNS problem.

>$ dig news.plus.net
>
>;; ANSWER SECTION:
>news.plus.net. 86400 IN CNAME usenet.plus.net.
>usenet.plus.net. 86400 IN CNAME europe.isp.giganews.com.
>europe.isp.giganews.com. 300 IN CNAME news-europe.ord.giganews.com.
>
>;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
>ord.giganews.com. 900 IN SOA ns-1565.awsdns-03.co.uk. awsdns-hostmaster.amazon.com. 1 7200 900 1209600 86400
--
Roger

Andy Burns

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Jul 28, 2022, 3:38:20 AM7/28/22

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Roger wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> shilling needed for the meter?
>
> DNS problem.

> europe.isp.giganews.com. 300 IN CNAME news-europe.ord.giganews.com.

Yep, it's also taken out the "ex" mozilla news server, I've reported it to
giganews, but they generally ignore requests from me as I'm only an "indirect"
customer of theirs ...

Andy Burns

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Jul 28, 2022, 4:01:14 AM7/28/22

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Andy Burns wrote:

> I've reported it to
> giganews, but they generally ignore requests from me as I'm only an "indirect"
> customer of theirs ...

To be fair, they've replied saying use the IP addr 216.166.97.131 as a workaround

That does connect, but unfortunately it then prompts for username/password,
which plusnet customers don't have because they are recognized by plusnet IP
addr ranges

Chris Green

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Jul 28, 2022, 4:33:04 AM7/28/22

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Does that mean that if I set up 216.166.97.131 as news.plus.net on my
local DNS it wiil work? I'll try it!

--
Chris Green
·

Andy Burns

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Jul 28, 2022, 4:41:55 AM7/28/22

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Chris Green wrote:

> Does that mean that if I set up 216.166.97.131 as news.plus.net on my
> local DNS it wiil work? I'll try it!

not sure, I don't think a usenet server "sees" the original hostname your client
resolved (in a similar way that http/https servers do "see" the hostname: or SNI)

So I don't know how they could recognise plusnet customers and bypass the
username/password prompt for them.

hopefully they'll get the DNS entry back soon ...

Hubertus A. Haniel

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Jul 29, 2022, 5:54:39 AM7/29/22

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I thought they may have got rid of news - I raised a ticket but switched
directly to giganews now.

Best regards

Woody

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Jul 29, 2022, 6:25:21 AM7/29/22

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On Fri 29/07/2022 10:54, Hubertus A. Haniel wrote:
>
> I thought they may have got rid of news - I raised a ticket but switched
> directly to giganews now.
>
> Best regards

Why go to the expense of Giganews (unless of course PN are supplying it
f.o.c.?) when you can have free Usenet from Eternal September?

Andy Burns

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Jul 29, 2022, 7:02:31 AM7/29/22

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Hubertus A. Haniel wrote:

> I thought they may have got rid of news

No, bob is chasing giganews to get it restored

Hubertus A. Haniel

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Jul 29, 2022, 7:11:33 AM7/29/22

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I already had Giganews anyway and only talked to plusnet server for
their private groups.

Reasons for giganews are mainly:
- VPN included
- Can access from anywhere when I travel not just from plusnet

Best regards

Woody

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Jul 29, 2022, 10:07:17 AM7/29/22

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As indeed you can with the latter. And why do you need a VPN for Usenet?

Hubertus A. Haniel

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Jul 29, 2022, 11:03:06 AM7/29/22

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VPN is not just for Usenet it is for all traffic

Jerome Fandor

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Jul 29, 2022, 1:15:42 PM7/29/22

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"Andy Burns" <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote in message
news:jkht24...@mid.individual.net...

> Hubertus A. Haniel wrote:
>
>> I thought they may have got rid of news
>
> No, bob is chasing giganews to get it restored
>

Ah Bob Pullen on the case?

JF

Andy Burns

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Jul 29, 2022, 1:38:41 PM7/29/22

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Jerome Fandor wrote:

> Ah Bob Pullen on the case?

Yes, though last time he was dealing with giganews (I'd requested some groups
added, they claimed to have done it, but they hadn't) he had to give up as they
were going nowhere ... I'm finding signs of them similarly going round in
circles with whatever has broken this time :-(

Andy Burns

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Jul 29, 2022, 4:21:33 PM7/29/22

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Andy Burns wrote:

> shilling needed for the meter?

Looks like it's back, but article numbers have been reset, so I've got groups
with nearly a million new messages

Jeff Layman

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Jul 29, 2022, 5:33:22 PM7/29/22

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So about half-a-dozen if you filter out Speed, Peeler, et al... ;-)

--

Jeff

Plusnet Support Team

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Jul 29, 2022, 7:09:06 PM7/29/22

to

On 7/29/22 21:21, Andy Burns wrote:
> Andy Burns wrote:

> Looks like it's back, but article numbers have been reset, so I've got
> groups with nearly a million new messages

Yep, seems to be.

From what I can establish, Giganews broke the DNS of the hostname we
have CNAME aliases pointing to.

This was remedied, but the new hostname was then refusing to
authenticate against either our allowed IP ranges, or username/password
(for the accounts we provide that rely on login credentials).

The whole thing was backed out over the last few hours, but I get the
impression the work will be attempted again at some point.

Due to the nature of the problem, I imagine some news clients are going
to grumble/potentially need accounts/message lists etc. recreating.

Utter headache, so apologies to anyone affected.

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------

Andy Burns

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Jul 30, 2022, 4:17:39 AM7/30/22

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Plusnet Support Team wrote:

> From what I can establish, Giganews broke the DNS of the hostname we have CNAME
> aliases pointing to.

Yep, the chain of CNAMEs ended at an A record, which suddenly went away, when it
first returned it was probably a different IP addr which didn't recognise the
plusnet IP ranges and asked for authentication, then they remedied it properly.

I did open a ticket with giganews, but it's as though their support people are
unaware of the outsourcing arrangements they have such as with plusnet.

I wonder if this was all a casualty of them retiring the deprecated mozilla
server? Because the DNS record there disappeared at the same time.

Flyińg Ńuń 2°22 +

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Jul 30, 2022, 6:56:37 AM7/30/22

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Plusnet Support Team wrote:
> On 7/29/22 21:21, Andy Burns wrote:
>> Andy Burns wrote:
>> Looks like it's back, but article numbers have been reset, so I've
>> got groups with nearly a million new messages
>
> Yep, seems to be.
>
> From what I can establish, Giganews broke the DNS of the hostname we
> have CNAME aliases pointing to.
>
> This was remedied, but the new hostname was then refusing to
> authenticate against either our allowed IP ranges, or
> username/password (for the accounts we provide that rely on login
> credentials).
> The whole thing was backed out over the last few hours, but I get the
> impression the work will be attempted again at some point.
>
> Due to the nature of the problem, I imagine some news clients are
> going to grumble/potentially need accounts/message lists etc.
> recreating.
> Utter headache, so apologies to anyone affected.
>

>> Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
>> Support Home & Business @
>> Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
> +--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------
>

Well it is all up and running again this morning I see.

Thanks Bob
--
Heard melodies are sweet but those Unheard are sweeter.
FN 2º22+. Mungo Brandybuck of Buckland..
flyi...@roseofwhite.plus.com

Flyińg Ńuń 2°22 +

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Jul 30, 2022, 6:59:00 AM7/30/22

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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°22 + wrote:
<snipped>

>>
> Well it is all up and running again this morning I see.
>
> Thanks Bob
>

Perhaps it only needed a few bob put into the 'lecce' meter !! :)