I've moved and have changed my ISP to AT&T (previously using Verizon).

In the past I've been successful with Pan, emacs gnus, and thunderbird. Using a couple of different free newsservers, later using (something like) news.verizon.net.

AFAIK my news server is now news.snet.sbcglobal.net. i CAN telnet to it fine, get a good 200 code from access to port 119. But with the different clients:

Emacs gnus:
Had one successful session. Was reading postings in alt.os.linux.slackware. Now, after entering username and password the emacs screen locks up, and the modem lights flash endlessly (I can post some of the packets I tcpdump'd from this) . A couple of cntl-G's get me out. But no connection.

Pan:
After initially entering username and password, I was getting an authentication failure. So deleted (backed up) .pan2 directory, and started over. NOw it just sits there, with the event log saying "Getting group list from news.snet.sbcglobal.net Queued"

Thunderbird:
Setting up as a news reader. Always getting authentication failure on login.

BTW AT&T tech support already told me (in reference to a POP3 mail question) "Thunderbird is unsupported". So I'm not looking for any help there.

Ideas?

TIA

JohnI

i dont even know what that PASV mode is in FTP, but i'm just thinking that maybe NNTP has something "Passive" in it as well? could you search?

What do they say about setting up other newsreaders - they probably have examples on how to set them up, what port to use, encryption etc.
Just apply this to your linux client.
Pan cannot do encrypted transfers AFAIK - but Thunderbird can.
But they say they do not support it. Well - what software do they support?

Reading news is not OS specific. There is nothing special to it. Provided you really have an account you can use.
When you ask them, ask them to explain the setup of a software they do support.

resetreset: active or passive nntp is apparently an issue for the server side, not the client, at least that's what I get out of it:
http://docs.rinet.ru/LiSys/lsg39.htm

jomen: att tech support has some knowledgeable people but it takes multiple calls to get one. Rather than go thru that annoyance I'm putting this in a forum of like users. But I appreciate what you're saying. If I can get someone to explain the setup for Outlook I can transfer over the procedure to anything.

Correction on Thunderbird sessions
When selecting "Subscribe to new groups" it pops up a window saying wait, a progress bar is active, but nothing ever shows up. And no traffic thru the modem.

I have tried with SSL (port 563 I think) and without (119)

Do you know or do you not know?
Why not use the server you used to use?

Unencrypted news is port 119 (nntp) and provided that the server is accessible and you have a valid account - it should work.

I thought ATT dropped all the alt. groups after that thing with NY.

jomen,

according to at&t help -
http://support.att.net/bellsouth/asp...2D4b2d67b5d487
this is one of four newsservers for users@att.net in my area. I've tried two of the four but not getting anywhere. I agree with you, connecting shouldn't be that difficult. And, as I said initially, I can run
and get a good (200) code.

If it's a question of authentication, I know this username and password is good because it works for my at&t pop3 mail.

As for why i don't use what i had before: Previously I was using Verizon's news server(s), but I no longer have an account with them.

Sometime before that I had an account on news.individual.net, but they started charging around 2005 and it wasn't worth it since I was on infrequently.

I've signed up to be served news from motzarella.org and connect as expected (thunderbird); one slight problem with pan but still able to read.

As far as AT&T is concerned I guess with the changes they've made recently (mergers, etc) all usernames and passwords are not getting propagated to all the right places. Gonna give them time to sort it out.