anybody using BT and Thunderbird to access this group

[Jethro_uk]

[Davey]

Agreed. I use a private server, which does accept binaries, as my main one, but E-S for this group, as, for some unexplained reason, not all posts were getting through. But what I now have works, which is what matters.

[GMM]

Not my original discovery - in fact I think I read it here, but wouldn't like to guess which thread:

In addition to many other frustrations, every now and again, my BT service resets its IP, possibly to some 'temporary' address (though I don't know which, but definitely a different number at the start from the one it normally has), and this won't support newsgroups, but will work fine with the email side of TB.

The solution is quite simple: Reset (power cycle) the modem/router, and it will pick up the normal address if available. Then everything works as before.

Not the most convenient behaviour, and it often happens on a Sunday for me, but not too complex a fix.

Hope it works for you too!

[bert]

In message , Davey writes

Nonsense

I use news.btinternet.com Port NNTP with Turnpike You can also use news.btopenworld.com

[Chris Holford]

In article , Davey writes

snip

Nope! I picked Zen because they had usenet, but they stopped that service a couple of months ago.

[alan_m]

Zen closed their Usenet servers a month ago.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

IIRC, there's two different ways of retrieving articles from a news server. The commonest one these days is by server-specific article numbers, easy for individual server admins to implement...

But there's another way (IIRC Demon's news server used to support this) where someone wishing to collect news issues the NEWNEWS command and in return is sent a list of the message-ids (which are specific to each message and are the same everywhere) of news posts in the newsgroups of interest, posted since a time specified on the NEWNEWS command. If the server(s) you collect news from support NEWNEWS and your news client is configured to do it that way, then you do get the seamless solution.

See section 3.8.1 of:

[Davey]

That's a shame. I use a private server, so I don't need, nor know, what Zen can provide in that regard. I do know that Zen as an ISP and 'phone provider is much better and easier to talk to than BT ever was, so my advice still stands in that respect.

[RJH]

+1

[Martin Brown]

Presumably a block of IP addresses they haven't told their news server supplier about as being theirs.

Kicking BT in the teeth and telling them to fix the allocation of BT IP addresses to their presumably contracted out newsserver would be better.

WTF should customers have to thrash their router through multiple reboots because BT can't be bothered to configure their kit properly?

It probably will and I guess Usenet is such a minority interest now...

[John Williamson]

As long as they don't authenticate by the client's IP address, as the BT news server does, any news server will work via any ISP, as long as the ISP isn't blocking port 119. Even if they do, there are often ways round it, with any news servers offering connections via other ports.

I use news.individual.net via a number of different routes and as long as the password and username are okay, it works. I've had one problem in a hotel that blocked port 119 on their wifi, but they didn't block the alternative port....

[bert]

OP may find it worth raising this on the BT forum as they do monitor them.

[F]

Have you, by chance, updated Kaspersky...?

I did, and got the same problem.

Settings -> Network -> Monitor selected ports only and click on *Select*

Scroll to find NNTP 119 -> right click and Disable.

[Eednud]

Yep, same here. better than VM

[GMM]

I'm sure you're right there.

To be honest, it's a minor niggle compared with all their other shortcomings, like multi-day outages every month or so, and there seems to be little opportunity for dialogue, which is why I shall be voting with my feet as soon as I get around to changing. Unfortunately, all the 'copper' competitors rely on the same shoddy infrastructure, so the options are limited.

[Rick Hughes]

OK ... update (and not good)

tried nntp.aioe.org still the same .. connects to server, pops up window do you want to download 500 headers - click on proceed ... nothing for a couple of minutes, then get the timeout error.

De-installed Thunderbird, re-installed .... exactly the same.

[John Williamson]

Next time you uninstall TB, delete the profile, as it leaves it intact after uninstalling, just in case, and the new install picks it up.

It's here by default:-

C:\Documents and Settings\$Username\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\$Randomstring.default

Just delete the whole Thunderbird folder, unless that's where you keep your e-mail, at which point it gets a touch more complicated.

[F]

That's exactly what I got after updating Kaspersky. See my post from earlier tonight (18:37) for how I fixed it.

[John Rumm]

If you try the steps I outlined elsewhere in the thread you can establish where the problem is occurring.

This is beginning to sound more and more like a firewall or filtering type problem.

[Rick Hughes]

I don't pay the bill for the landline so no choice in supplier