[Pan-users] Re: nntp server setup

[Duncan]

Donald Duquet <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Sat, 17 Feb 2007
16:00:15 -0500:

> Does the archive have a thread for setting up Pan. My ISP instructed me to
> use the same info for pop3, smtp and nntp. I did and only nntp gives error
> messages. A phone call to tech help got me the reply that I was entering
> the correct info. As I wait for the linux person to contact me, I thought
> I would ask the newsgroup.

Same info?  That doesn't /quite/ make sense.  Maybe the same server info but
using the different standard ports?  So server.isp.com port 119 for nntp/
news, port 25 SMTP, port 110 POP3 (I /think/ those are the default smtp/pop3
ports, I know 119 is nntp), right?

Alternatively, maybe you mean "same" as in pop3.isp.com, smtp.isp.com, and
news.isp.com, on the default ports?

Alternatively, maybe you mean those three addresses (pop3. smtp. news.) but
all on the same port?

I'd guess the first one, but it is a bit ambiguous, and same server same
port, what I'd take as the most direct meaning, as I said just doesn't make
sense.

Anyway, without the error, and also without the pan version number (in
particular, old 0.14.x or new 0.1xx, 0.124 being the current beta), it's
hard to know what it is.  That said, if you run pan from a terminal window,
it will often print errors to STDERR, thus, the terminal window.  Old pan
had a quite a lot of debugging command line options as well.  The first
thing to find out is whether pan's making and holding a connection and
having trouble beyond that, or if it's not even making the connection at all.

Another way to test whether you can even connect is to use a telnet client,
connecting to the specified server on the specified port (or port 119 is the
default NNTP port).  If it gives you a greeting and lets you on, you know
you can at least connect.  If it gives you a news banner but won't let you
connect, it's probably an ISP problem.  If it just says connection refused
(or hangs without saying anything), you are probably trying to connect to
the wrong address or port.  If it connects with a banner saying mail or
something else other than news, you got the wrong server.

Most servers (news, mail, web, whatever), if they allow you to connect at
all, respond to the HELP command, if you wish to try working the manual
connection.  Type QUIT when you are ready to logoff.

--
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman