topic Re: Usenet not working in Everything else

Usenet not working

iw6dgm — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 09:45:54 GMT

Hello

back after 10 days abroad and usenet.plus.net has disappeared from the Internet. Did I miss any "memo" ?

I remember about a related issue few months ago (authentication errors) but this one seems much more serious as the domain doesn't resolve anymore... I am 100% confident it was working right before leaving the country.

Re: Usenet not working

thejudge — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:17:15 GMT

Same here. Domain not resolving.

Re: Usenet not working

andrewww — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:21:20 GMT

Same here:

Thu Jul 28 12:16:01 2022 - Error connecting to “text.news.plus.net:119” (Connection refused)

(using pan on Linux Mint)

Re: Usenet not working

andrewww — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:33:30 GMT

hmmm...

both usenet.plus.net and text.news.plus.net resolve to "lb-182-246.above.com (103.224.182.246)" which is

ISP	Trellian Pty. Limited
Hostname(s)	lb-182-246.above.com
Domain Name	trellian.com
Country	Australia
City	Beaumaris, Victoria

Re: Usenet not working

andrewww — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:43:19 GMT

just posted another message, but it has disappeared. Try again...

both usenet.plus.net and text.news.plus.net resolve to lb-182-246.above.com, which is:

netname:        TRELLIAN-AU
descr:          Trellian Pty. Limited
descr:          8 East Concourse, Beaumaris Victoria 3193
country:        AU

Re: Usenet not working

pittdj70 — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:57:54 GMT

Same here.

Unable to connect: Host not found

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:59:46 GMT

Thanks for raising, looking into this now.

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 12:35:41 GMT

The domain does resolve (at least from a Plusnet perspective). It is CNAME aliased to the reseller: -

~ $ dig news.plus.net @212.159.6.10 ; <<>> DiG 9.11.5-P4-5.1+deb10u7-Raspbian <<>> news.plus.net @212.159.6.10 ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 15968 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;news.plus.net. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: news.plus.net. 69961 IN CNAME usenet.plus.net. usenet.plus.net. 69962 IN CNAME europe.isp.giganews.com. europe.isp.giganews.com. 77 IN CNAME news-europe.ord.giganews.com. ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: ord.giganews.com. 677 IN SOA ns-1565.awsdns-03.co.uk. awsdns-hostmaster.amazon.com. 1 7200 900 1209600 86400 ;; Query time: 11 msec ;; SERVER: 212.159.6.10#53(212.159.6.10) ;; WHEN: Thu Jul 28 13:12:34 BST 2022 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 214

Something doesn't look quite right with the target hostname though - news-europe.ord.giganews.com

Still looking into it (ref: IMT-8012)...

Re: Usenet not working

Tim-J — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 13:29:56 GMT

I use text.usenet.plus.net. I get:-

>ping usenet.plus.net
Ping request could not find host usenet.plus.net. Please check the name and try again.

>ping news.plus.net
Ping request could not find host news.plus.net. Please check the name and try again.

>ping text.usenet.plus.com
Ping request could not find host text.usenet.plus.com. Please check the name and try again.

Re: Usenet not working

darjeelingf — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:32:55 GMT

Bob, I know you're a sensible and practical guy, so here's a suggestion: for external servers and DNS entries that are required for your own services to work, why not periodically test them yourselves (that is Plusnet, not you personally) so that you proactively discover when they break, maybe even before your customers report a problem. (I used to work for a company with computers, and that's what we did. You're welcome )

The DNS entry for the Usenet server broke over 12 hours ago!! (Somewhere in Giganews land, it would seem...)

If the DNS configuration error is going to take any length of time to fix, perhaps you can just tell us the IP address to use in the meantime?

Thanks,

Mike.

Re: Usenet not working

gladman — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 18:57:37 GMT

Using nslookup I was seeing 'name not found' but I now see

------------------------------------------------

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
Server: news-europe.giganews.com
Addresses: 127.42.0.1
51.89.1.37
135.125.197.173
135.125.197.81
135.125.197.85
141.95.121.65
Aliases: usenet.plus.net
europe.isp.giganews.com

-----------------------------------------------------

But it is asking for a password that I don't think is necessary. If it is how do I set one up?

Re: Usenet not working

darjeelingf — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 19:03:30 GMT

Something has changed - the DNS is now resolving to 6 IP addresses, which all have Usenet servers running, but the all ask for authentication details. (Presumably they should be configured to recognise Plusnet IP ranges? My IP is 146.199.21.132.)

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 20:35:19 GMT

I'm seeing the same. From a Plusnet IP (which is the only authentication that should be required): -

bob@penguin:~$ telnet news.plus.net 119 Trying 51.89.1.37... Connected to news-europe.giganews.com. Escape character is '^]'. 200 News.GigaNews.Com group plusnet.service.customer-feedback 480 authentication required

I'm involved in a dialogue with Giganews.

Re: Usenet not working

gladman — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:00:28 GMT

Thanks Bob, I appreciate your efforts on our behalf.

Its hard to believe that I have been here since 2007 - not long after your good self!

Brian

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:08:00 GMT

Thanks, think I've been around a while longer than that though!

The registration date on these forums is from when they were migrated from the old phpBB ones to SMF I beleive (and now Lithium/Khorus).

I was contributing for a fair few years prior to that!

Must have done something wrong in a former life

Re: Usenet not working

BrightonRock — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 06:48:57 GMT

The server is asking for a username and password now here.

Re: Usenet not working

cmwb — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 07:19:36 GMT

I use news.ic24.net getting same (asking for user name and password) thing is

I do have a username and password, but it is rejecting it !

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 07:49:29 GMT

@cmwb - thanks for the info. IC24 is technically a seperate reseller account, although I'd already noticed that traffic had slowed to a crawl over there too.

I'm still waiting on Giganews to get back to me.

Re: Usenet not working

Stoker — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:09:54 GMT

Same here.

A repeat of the issue I reported a while ago https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/usenet-plus-net/m-p/1850834

Re: Usenet not working

bobpullen — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:15:49 GMT

I've had word that a fix has now been implemented for this issue.

A quick test suggests that the Plusnet news server is now responsive and no longer prompting for authentication. Can folk check and let me know if any problems persist?

I am seeing proxy/auth errors on the Madasafish server so I'm not convinced that's fixed yet. @cmwb - what are you seeing at your side?