Tiscali news problems

Does anyone know if Tiscali broadband connections block all access to news
servers at certain times of day? I get intermittent access to
news.individual.net from Windows Mail (Vista 32) over my girlfriend's
Tiscali connection whereas on my own PlusNet connection I can always get
access. I've tried alternative ports 8119 and 80 (with
server=port80.individual.net in the latter case). Even access to Tiscali's
own news.tiscali.co.uk is blocked.

The symptom is that when I click on a newsgroup, I see a count of the number
of new messages but no list of messages, or else on the rare occasions when
I see a list of messages, I cannot open any.

The NNTP log file shows

Microsoft Internet Messaging API Resources 6.0.6002.18005
(lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)
NNTP Log started at 02/06/2010 11:52:58
NNTP: 11:52:58 [db] Connecting to 'news.individual.net' on port 8119.
NNTP: 11:53:00 [db] Connection to 'news.individual.net' closed.

Microsoft Internet Messaging API Resources 6.0.6002.18005
(lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)
NNTP Log started at 02/06/2010 11:53:00
NNTP: 11:53:00 [db] Connecting to 'news.individual.net' on port 8119.
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 200 The server welcomes
88-109-244-223.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com (88.109.244.223). Authorization
required for reading and posting.
NNTP: 11:53:09 [tx] MODE READER
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 200 You are already in this mode. Ignored.
NNTP: 11:53:09 [tx] AUTHINFO USER <myusername>
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 381 PASS required
NNTP: 11:53:09 [tx] AUTHINFO PASS ************
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 281 Authentication accepted. (UID=310294)
NNTP: 11:53:09 [tx] GROUP uk.railway
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 211 37551 1022635 1060395 uk.railway
NNTP: 11:53:09 [tx] XOVER 1060394-1060395
NNTP: 11:53:09 [rx] 224 1060394-1060395 fields follow
NNTP: 11:53:42 [db] Connection to 'news.individual.net' closed.

In other words, I get part-way through the process and the server drops the
connection - though it may be an intermediate server rather than
news.individual.net's server that is dropping.


(I won 't be able to post this message until news access comes back again!)

 

A few minutes later and it works again - but for how long?

Now the log shows something sensible:

Microsoft Internet Messaging API Resources 6.0.6002.18005
(lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)
NNTP Log started at 02/06/2010 12:19:27
NNTP: 12:19:27 [db] Connecting to 'news.individual.net' on port 119.
NNTP: 12:19:27 [rx] 200 The server welcomes
88-109-244-223.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com (88.109.244.223). Authorization
required for reading and posting.
NNTP: 12:19:27 [tx] MODE READER
NNTP: 12:19:27 [rx] 200 You are already in this mode. Ignored.
NNTP: 12:19:27 [tx] AUTHINFO USER <myusername>
NNTP: 12:19:27 [rx] 381 PASS required
NNTP: 12:19:27 [tx] AUTHINFO PASS ************
NNTP: 12:19:27 [rx] 281 Authentication accepted. (UID=310294)
NNTP: 12:19:27 [tx] POST
NNTP: 12:19:28 [rx] 340 Ok, recommended ID <>
NNTP: 12:19:28 [tx]
..
NNTP: 12:19:29 [rx] 240 Article posted <>
NNTP: 12:19:29 [db] Connection to 'news.individual.net' closed.
NNTP: 12:19:38 [tx] GROUP rec.arts.mystery
NNTP: 12:19:38 [rx] 211 8509 578571 587097 rec.arts.mystery
NNTP: 12:19:39 [tx] GROUP uk.comp.home-networking
NNTP: 12:19:40 [rx] 211 328 39266 39602 uk.comp.home-networking
NNTP: 12:19:40 [tx] XOVER 39602-39602
NNTP: 12:19:40 [rx] 224 39602-39602 fields follow
NNTP: 12:19:47 [tx] GROUP uk.media.tv.misc
NNTP: 12:19:47 [rx] 211 26826 944876 971782 uk.media.tv.misc
NNTP: 12:19:47 [tx] XOVER 971780-971782
NNTP: 12:19:48 [rx] 224 971780-971782 fields follow
NNTP: 12:19:52 [tx] GROUP uk.railway
NNTP: 12:19:52 [rx] 211 37559 1022635 1060403 uk.railway
NNTP: 12:19:52 [tx] XOVER 1060396-1060403
NNTP: 12:19:53 [rx] 224 1060396-1060403 fields follow
NNTP: 12:19:57 [tx] ARTICLE 1060399
NNTP: 12:19:58 [rx] 220 1060399
<> article


So what's going on?

 

I'd try a proper news client before blaming the network or server.

 

Actually I tried "telnet news.individual.net 119" and "telnet
news.tiscali.co.uk 119", to eliminate any transient problem with OE. The
former sometimes gave me a login prompt whereas the latter never did at time
when OE had problems. This, taken with Graham U's reponse to the thread,
makes me suspect that Tiscali are playing silly buggers.

 

I'd say nothing to do with Tiscali or NIN but your software or its
configuration is f*sked. Why is it trying and failing on port 8119 then
trying and succeeding on (the correct NNP) port 119?

Tony

 

Whoops - please insert the missing "N" in the appropriate place.

Tony

 

I wonder if they're using some sort of deep packet inspection that's
excluding protocols not related to e.g. web and mail access. It seems
silly to be blocking their own services when they could just be
throttling them, but maybe they're actually targeting something like P2P
file sharing and this is just collateral damage.

 

NIN supports port 8119 for use when your ISP throttles 119.

The OP might be better off using port 80 - see:
http://news.individual.net/faq.php#1.13

It worked for me when Demon started throttling news.

 

Thanks. Been with NIN (and fu-berlin before that) for very many years
and I never knew (or even needed to know) that.

Note the log says "Connection ... closed." Unless Tiscali was acting as a
proxy I don't believe anything they could do would cause that message.

Tony

 

That's why I assumed it was the news client failing to handle an error
gracefully - mine sees errors on NIN but carries on with the next
group, his might think that the server had closed the connection when
in fact it hadn't.

 

Hi,

I have similar problems with Tiscali blocking NIN on 119 usually in the
evenings, (not that I am around much in the daytime to compare) but yes it
is Tiscali for definite. (Or Talk Talk as they are now known)

 

Not quite correct.....
I would recommend you started using http://www.eternal-september.org/ for
newgroups. This news-server is configurable for port 443 which Tiscali
never blocks at any time. Better still its free.
I have been using it for a long time because of the Tiscali issue of
blocking port 119. Good luck.

 

I would recommend you started using http://www.eternal-september.org/ for
newgroups.
This news-server is configurable for port 443 which Tiscali never blocks at
any time. Better still its free.
I have been using it for a long time because of the Tiscali issue of
blocking port 119.

 

Jeff Gaines explained :

I use 563, which works fine all the time.

 

John Palmer submitted this idea :

Along with a newsreader which supports your doing that - I use Mesnews
which does.

 

Even port 80 and port.individual.net fails to work at times. Somehow Tiscali
seem to be allowing HTTP and blocking news traffic on the same port.

I'll try http://www.eternal-september.org/ and port 443. Shame as I've just
paid for the news.individual.net account because my own ISP's news server,
news.plus.net is not accessible from Tiscali at any time of day or night (as
far as I can tell).

 

Mortimer wrote on 14/02/2010 :

Tiscali closed down their news servers several months back, likely they
also closed the plus one down too. They could never really be relied
upon.

 

Does news.individual.net not provide NNTP over SSL (port 443) then?

--
Tony Evans
Saving trees and wasting electrons since 1993
blog -> http://perceptionistruth.com/
books -> http://www.bookthing.co.uk/
[ anything below this line wasn't written by me ]

 

How about over 563? Or do Tiscali 'filter' that one too?

--
Tony Evans
Saving trees and wasting electrons since 1993
blog -> http://perceptionistruth.com/
books -> http://www.bookthing.co.uk/
[ anything below this line wasn't written by me ]