Re: [Pan-users] Posting problem - SOLVED!

[George Czerw]

On Sunday 23 November 2008 12:32:33 George Czerw wrote:
> On Sunday 23 November 2008 12:00:40 address@hidden wrote:
> > Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:22:20 +0000 (UTC)
> > From: Duncan <address@hidden>
> > Subject: [Pan-users] Re: Posting problem
> > To: address@hidden
> > Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> >
> > "Travis" <address@hidden> posted
> > address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Sat, 22
> >
> > Nov 2008 12:02:23 -0800:
> > > From: "George Czerw" <address@hidden>
> > > To: <address@hidden>
> > > Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 11:31 AM
> > >
> > >> I am using Pan 0.133 on Mandriva 2009.0
> > >>
> > >> I recently had to change Usenet providers because Comcast stopped
> > >> providing Giganews service in late October.  So I established an
> > >> account with motzarella.
> > >>
> > >> I did not delete the groups that I had been subscribed to, but merely
> > >> refreshed them after initially logging onto motzarella.
> > >>
> > >> Now, when I attempt to post to a group, I most frequently get the
> > >> following error:
> > >>
> > >> 441 No valid newsgroups in "alt.os.linux.mandriva" (or whatever other
> > >> group I want to post to).
> > >>
> > >> I have to save my post as a draft, close Pan and then reopen it, after
> > >> which I can open my saved draft and post it.  I have to note that I
> > >> never had this problem before switching Usenet services.
> > >>
> > >> Does anyone know why this is occurring and what I have to do to
> > >> eliminate the problem?
> > >
> > > I don't know the answer but Duncan probably does, and he will ask you
> > > to stop the HTML.
> >
> > You got it! =:^)  There's a reason pan doesn't do HTML.  Even if you
> > can't respect it in ordinary mail, please respect it on the pan lists,
> > which some of us participate on as groups, using pan.
> >
> > Walt's answer, refreshing the group list, might help, if the lists
> > differ.  I'd do it anyway, just to eliminate that possibility.  However,
> > since you can post to the same group later, that wouldn't appear to be
> > the problem.  It appears that the server is sometimes forgetting the
> > groups which it carries, thus returning errors for them, but remembering
> > them at other times.  Unfortunately, this would be a server problem.  If
> > that's correct, you'd get the same error if you setup new servers.
> >
> > Another possibility is that it might be only on certain cross-posted
> > messages, where the server carries one or more of the groups posted to
> > but not all of them.  In this case pan will warn you, but still allow you
> > to post.  However, it should warn you regardless of when you post (so
> > after the save/load draft process), so that doesn't quite seem to fit the
> > described behavior either.
> >
> > --
> > 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
>
> Neither refreshing nor unsubscribing/resubscribing seems to solve the
> problem. Only closing and re-opening Pan seems to temporarily resolve it.
>
> If anyone has suggestions regarding any other free, reliable USENET servers
> that don't delay posting of articles, email me directly and let me know
> what they are.  I really like the way that Comcast simply cut-off access to
> Usenet because they no-longer wanted to pay for it, but did nothing about
> reducing my internet access rates after they did so!  Nice business
> model......
>
> Thanks
> George

After banging my head against the wall for a few days, I remembered that I did 
not have the posting problem with the version 0.133 that I had manually 
compiled under Mandriva 2007.  A check of the rpm database revealed that when 
I upgraded to Mandriva 2009.0, that the installation overrode Pan with a RPM  
version of 0.133 packaged for Mandriva 2009.0.  Upon replacing the RPM 
provided PAN binary with the binary that I had compiled, all of the strange 
article posting and retrieval behavior disappeared!

Thanks for everyone's input.
George