topic Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird in Everything else

Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 12:58:41 GMT

I'm trying to set up Thunderbird (102.6.1 running under Windows 10) to access Usenet groups. I've configured the settings as advised, with the server name news.plus.net and the outgoing server relay.plus.net, both using port 119 with no identification necessary. But though I can download and read posts, I can't send any. I get the error message "connecting to the server failed".

AM I doing something wrong? I'd be grateful for any thoughts. Many thanks.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 13:44:06 GMT

Hi,

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName "news.plus.net" -Port 119

ComputerName : news.plus.net
RemoteAddress : 69.80.102.140
RemotePort : 119
InterfaceAlias : WiFi
SourceAddress : 192.168.10.100
TcpTestSucceeded : True

I would say port 119 for relay.plus.net is incorrect as a TCP connection tests fails

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName "relay.plus.net" -Port 119

ComputerName : relay.plus.net
RemoteAddress : 212.159.9.107
RemotePort : 119
InterfaceAlias : WiFi
SourceAddress : 192.168.10.100
PingSucceeded : False
PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 0 ms
TcpTestSucceeded : False

For plusnet email relay.plus.net is recommended to be 587 (recommended) or 25

Not sure if ports 587 or 25 is correct port for usenet, but it explains why 119 is not working.

HTH

Dan.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 14:31:00 GMT

Dan, many thanks for the speedy reply. I tried 587 and 25 but unfortunately neither worked. I got the same error message as before.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:32:20 GMT

Hi @BertCoules

I setup news.plus.net using thunderbird version 102.6.1

I sent a message titled "testing message for attention of Bert" in feedback with no issues.

I am using relay.free-online.net on port 587, STARTTLS, Normal Password

Are you connecting via a plusnet network?

Dan

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:51:50 GMT

Hi Dan, thanks for that.

Plusnet is my only ISP, so I suppose I am connecting via a Plusnet network. Or have I misunderstood what that means?

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:00:12 GMT

No misunderstanding, if you're connecting using a plusnet broadband username then indeed you're connected to plusnet.

Are you able to use plusnet email service?

Dan.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:14:05 GMT

I don't use Plusnet as my main email service but I've had no problems with it for occasional use.

And I've just tested it again, both for receiving and sending. It worked perfectly.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Dan_the_Van — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:58:51 GMT

It worked perfectly.

Well that is mad, anyway pleased it's working.

Dan

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Browni — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:11:02 GMT

It worked perfectly.

Email or Usenet?

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Browni — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:21:34 GMT

Thanks @Dan_the_Van, my 1,000th thanks!

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 21:40:53 GMT

Dan, unfortunately it's the email that's working; Usenet is as unco-operative as ever.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 21:42:51 GMT

Browni, just the email, unfortunately.

It seems a bit drastic but I suppose I could try uninstalling Thunderbird and then installing it afresh. But would that also delete all my stored messages?

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Jaggies — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 00:38:44 GMT

relay.plus.net is for sending email, not newsgroup posts.
I did see your test posting on the newsgroup, so maybe you have resolved it, but in case this is needed by anyone else in future, both the outgoing and incoming news servers should be set to news.plus.net and if a port number is required, set it to 119.
You shouldn't need any form of authentication other than to be on a Plusnet connection.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 01:14:25 GMT

Jaggies, that did it. I'm very grateful.

Incidentally, it wasn't a test post from me you saw on the newsgroup: I wasn't able to post to Usenet until after you gave me the correct settings.

Thanks again.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/All-about-Usenet/ba-p/1322545

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 01:32:57 GMT

In case anyone else finds her- or himself with same problem, the original directions I followed are here .

The relevant section is this:

If you're using a different [newsreader, implied] program, the only things you'll need are our news and relay server addresses:

News server: news.plus.net
Outbound mail server: relay.plus.net

This is on a page headed All about Usenet, and is more than a tad misleading, I think. In a hasty reading I took the second setting to mean Outbound messages to Usenet.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 13:30:59 GMT

Well, it seems I spoke too soon. This morning, with the settings still exactly the same as they were yesterday, I'm once again getting the connecting to the news server failed message.

Is there a way of cancelling the FIXED flag?

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 15:02:15 GMT

One oddity: when the upload fails, if I open Task Manager, Thunderbird is always shown as running multiple copies: usually 3 sometimes 5. If I then click End Task and immediately reload Thunderbird, the upload works perfectly.

Does that gve anyone a clue as to what's amiss? Many thanks.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

Stoker — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:01:28 GMT

Two points:

1) To reply to a Usenet post in Thunderbird click "followup", not "reply".

2) As I posted in "everything else", I've found the connection times out after a few minutes so if you've read lots of posts and want to contribute (by clicking "followup"!) it could fail.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BertCoules — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:11:58 GMT

Stoker, thanks for that.

I twigged about using Followup pretty quickly.

The connection timing out could be the answer, but I used to use a different newsreader (actually Windows Mail) and never once experienced the Plusnet connection going down.

Re: Usenet settings for Thunderbird

BrightonRock — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:44:07 GMT

What happens if, when you have a problem, you close Thunderbird (using the x) and then restart it? Does that clear the problem, at least temporarily?

With my Thunderbird here I can access Usenet groups when the program first starts but not after a period. I have seen it as a Thunderbird peculiarity - or bug - that I can live with.

If you can get your Usenet working for long enough, there is a support group that you might find useful: alt.comp.software.thunderbird