Thunderbird Woes

[Phil Heads]

Hi all

Having to post through Google Groups ughh.

Anyone had problems with Thunderbird lately? I'm not sure whether Windows updates are to blame here, but I can no longer post messages via Thunderbird. I have version 24.1.0 and can subscribe to groups and see content etc. When I try to submit a test post, I receive the alert message "A News (NNTP) error occurred: Article is empty" followed by "Sending of message failed. The message could not be posted because connecting to the news server failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing connections. Please verify that your news server settings are correct and try again, or else contact your network administrator."

I didn't alter any server or connection settings prior to this issue. It's possible that Thunderbird did an auto-update maybe. I have tried removing and re-instating the news server eternal-September to no effect.

Anyone got any suggestions please?

Phil

[John Williamson]

You could try transferring to the LTS version, which, IIRC is at about

17.x.xx

I'm still using 2.0.24..... (If it ain't broke, etc.)

[Martin Brown]

Not noticeably and I am running the same version you are having problems with. I notice also that 24.1.1 wants to update too.

Only problem I have with it is that Customize filters don't seem to behave correctly returning no match found when they should not.

This is usually something along the lines of having mangled your login id or password or a hard timeout at the other end "server too busy".

Knowingly. TB has a bad habit of putting up a dialogue box to trash your password if the other end times out at an inopportune time.

Check passwords and or try a free server like AOIE to test it.

[soup]

You could try waiting. I had problems with ES yesterday (it reported

220 errors) this seemed to sort itself after a while if you have DEFINITELY not changed anything it is unlikely to be something you have done. A poster on another group was also having problems with ES over the last couple of days perhaps ES are changing servers or are having other problems. I am using TB 24.1.1 and ES no problems today but yesterday... .

[John Williamson]

The Eternal September problems yesterday have now been reported elsewhere as fixed. I suspect someone e-mailed Ray to let him know....

[Phil Heads]

Thanks guys

When I said I didn't change the username/password, I meant that I didn't make changes to cause the initial upset. Having had problems with posting, ISTR being presented with username and password dialog box. I did get credentials from eternal-September, but these didn't seem to make a difference. I have checked in Tools - Options - Security, and the stored username and password are as sent to me recently. Looking at the update history, I updated Tbird to 24.1 on 18th November. This might have caused the problems. Is it possible to un-update it without using a full system restore?

Phil

[John Rumm]

Yup, download the release you want from here:

and just install - as long as you are not going back to version 2 or something prehistoric it should be ok.

FWIW, I am using 24.1.0 without any problems.

Might be worth running wireshark to capture the posting transaction and check it really does contain the credentials etc you think it ought.

[The Natural Philosopher]

that version works for me OK

When I try to submit a test post, I receive the

Isn't eternal September having issues?

[Michael Chare]

I have managed to move to 24.1.1 and am sending this from ES.

[Brian Gaff]

Well ES did throw some wobblies a couple of days ago. How about trying another server first, and see if that works. Brian

[dennis]

This is 24.1 and appears to work OK.

[Broadback]

I have slightly different problems, I am running under Windows 8. From time to time mail will not post, if I leave it for a while (time indeterminate) it will eventually post. APITA.

[Martin Brown]

That happens when the server at the far end times out repeatedly and TB effectively just sits there for ages. Quite often an immediate retry will go first time. It takes an age and a half to time out though.

Blame whoever runs your news server for that one.

[Phil Heads]

t make changes to cause the initial upset.

d password dialog box. I did get credentials from eternal-September, but t hese didn't seem to make a difference.

nd password are as sent to me recently.

. This might have caused the problems.

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Hi John

OK so I've made minimal progress with this...

Subscribed to 2 new news servers, news.mozilla.org and free.xsusenet.com.

Mozilla seems to be a limited group list (unless I'm missing something) but I managed to post fine to a test group on this. There were no connection credentials required for Mozilla though. Xsusenet behaves the same as Thunderbird, in that it will display groups et c, but won't accept posts.

So either I'm getting something wrong when setting up credentials, or the s ame problem exists with different groups. I've checked the ID and password details stored for each group and they seem fine. One issue might be that there have been windoze updates since I last posted successfully through T bird.

On the subject of reinstalling an earlier version of Tbird, it appears from Googling that a user profile exists which is retained between versions. S o I suspect that a reinstall may not solve this.

I have had a quick look at wireshark - is this safe to install in a corpora te environment, or will it start analysing the entire network? I am reluct ant to install apps that might cause problems either with my PC or (more im portantly) with the network as a whole.

Thanks

Phil

[John Rumm]

I have not tried either of those servers, but if you can post to one, then it suggests that the basic posting capability is working.

The credentials would typically apply per news server, not per group.

Can't see that making any difference.

You could even telnet into the news server and type the NNTP commands manually to see what responses you get...

You can delete or (or backup and delete) the existing profile if you want to start completely fresh.

Uninstall your current version of TB. Open a file explorer window and type %appdata% into the address bar, and you will see a folder called thunderbird. Simply delete or rename that and then install your new (or old) version.

You may find simply clearing your profile and then recreating your accounts etc fixes the problem.

NOTE: if you use TB for email etc, then your email may also be stored in your profile folder. Same goes for message filters, searches and any other stuff you may have setup. If in doubt backup the old one first

It is only capable of sniffing what is visible from your PCs network interface - its a passive thing - it listens, and has no capability to probe or otherwise "reach out".

Search for the "portable" version - its designed to be run from a USB memory stick or similar, and hence does not need installation. (it does need to install the WinPCap driver each time you run it though - it uninstalls it when you quit)

[Phil Heads]

I'll have to come back to this next week - day off tomorrow :)

Phil