cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

BertCoules
Grafter
Posts: 255
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎12-07-2008

Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

I used to access a few Usenet groups via news.plus.net and Thunderbird but haven't done so in some time.  Trying just now to set up a new account on a new installation of Thunderbird didn't get me very far: does Plusnet still support Usenet?  I rang the general helpline number to enquire and the (otherwise helpful) operative I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about.

 

Many thanks.

 

 

10 REPLIES 10
darjeelingf
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎10-12-2021

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Plusnet has some agreement with Giganews to supply text-base newgroup access.

It used to be easy to find Plusnet help pages with the required configuration details (server names etc.) but searching now I can't find the web page.  The settings I'm using are:

server:  news.plus.net

port:   119

connection security:    none

Note:  there's currently some problem with the server, which is asking for userid/password for connection.  When working properly the server does not require userid/password as it authenticates based on your IP address which is allocated by Plusnet.  This problem happens from time to time, and is generally gets fixed in a couple of days.

Regards,

Mike.

BertCoules
Grafter
Posts: 255
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎12-07-2008

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Mike,

 

Thanks for that.  The current login problems may well be the sole cause of my difficulty.

May I ask what newsreader you're using?  I find Thunderbird very unfriendly but haven't really looked into alternatives.

 

Bert

darjeelingf
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎10-12-2021

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

I use SeaMonkey, which I believe uses the same code base as Thunderbird.  (So if you don't like Thunderbird I think you wouldn't like SeaMonkey!)

 

Mike.

G6JPG-0
Rising Star
Posts: 115
Thanks: 20
Registered: ‎27-03-2024

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Yes, the authentication prompt does seem to be the only _immediate_ indication that's something is wrong - but I'm sure the current problem has been there for several days if not longer.

If I try to _post_, I get - usually after a significant time, the most recent one I've kept being 37+ minutes - a "480" (I'm inserting the "===" lines here):

===>

Your article could not be posted
Talking to news.plus.net on Tue, 14 May 2024 23:35:17 +0100
>>>
<<< 480

<===

On examination of the "message delivery status" below that, I see

===>

Reporting-MTA: dns; 255soft.uk

Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; news.plus.net
Diagnostic-Code: nntp; 480
Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 14 May 2024 23:35:17 +0100

<===

 

If I try to _receive_, I get the "Authentication required for news.plus.net" message, but of course I only see this if I have the log window my software provides open, which normally I do not; I am therefore normally unaware that anything is wrong.

 

Has anyone raised a ticket? I'm reluctant to do so, as I'd have to go through the usual education process of someone who has never heard of usenet.

darjeelingf
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎10-12-2021

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

I don't think there's a ticket, but there's a Forum post for the problem:

  <https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Usenet-server-prompting-for-userid-password/td-p/19696...>

In any case, the problem has gone away for me, so hopefully it is fully fixed now.

Mike.

 

G6JPG-0
Rising Star
Posts: 115
Thanks: 20
Registered: ‎27-03-2024

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Until next time. (Someone in that thread suggested it happens every six months, and asked [Bob?] if they knew of anything that happens with the supplier [which would be Giganews] every 6 months.)

One can't help wondering if it's deliberate to see how many complain🙁

BertCoules
Grafter
Posts: 255
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎12-07-2008

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

I'm pleased to report that I appear to have solved the problem: I completely uninstalled Thunderbird and started again from scratch.  As before, the setup wizard accepted the account details, though (again as before) it bafflingly reported the username as "mail".  I left it at that, but changed the port number from the given 119 to 110 (as used by Outlook for my main email account), and from there on, everything worked: for the first time, I wasn't prompted for login details.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and suggestions.

darjeelingf
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎10-12-2021

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Hmm, port 110 is not right for Usenet, and doesn't work for me.  It sounds like you might have set up an email account rather than a news server account?  When you select "add account" I would expect you to see a couple of options including "email account" and "newsgroup account".  You would select the newsgroup option, and enter details as in my earlier post (including port=119 which should be the default anyway...)

OTOH if you're happy with the way you've got it working, who am I to suggest changing anything!  Smiley

Mike.

BertCoules
Grafter
Posts: 255
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎12-07-2008

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

Mike, thanks for that.  I tried changing the port number to 119 (which did come up as the default, you're quite right) and that worked too, so I'll leave it there now.  I did definitely choose the newsgroup option when I set the account up.

One oddity: this morning, having left the program running overnight (but minimised), the connection was lost: I had to close and restart the program to re-establish it.  Is there a setting somewhere to disconnect after a particular period of non-activity?

 

Bert

 

G6JPG-0
Rising Star
Posts: 115
Thanks: 20
Registered: ‎27-03-2024

Re: Does Plusnet still support Usenet groups?

One oddity: this morning, having left the program running overnight (but minimised), the connection was lost: I had to close and restart the program to re-establish it.  Is there a setting somewhere to disconnect after a particular period of non-activity?

I would not be surprised if there's a timeout at the server end under such circumstances; inactive but open connections must still use something, even if it's only holding open one of a limited (but hopefully large!) number of ports. Having to restart Thunderbird, rather than just tell it to fetch and that triggers it, to initiate a reconnection sounds a bit poor, though.