FAQ - I can't connect!? (i.e. Unable to Authenticate)

[techfuzz]

Virtually every day someone comes asking why they can't connect. Here are the 3 very most common solutions every needs to attempt before creating a new thread requesting support here.

1. If you haven't ever configured NL before or are setting it up again after a reinstall, double check your username, password, and server settings - then triple check them again.

2. If you have been happily cruising along using NL and then one day you cannot connect to your server, check your usenet service providers network status page.

3. If you still can't connect after quadruple checking your settings in NL and double-checked the network status of your usenet service provider, your server settings could be corrupt. Please exit NL, then (backup and) delete all the files under X:\Program Files\NewsLeecher\data\ and then open NL and recreate your servers and try logging in again.

EDIT: It has also been suggested that you check your firewall to make sure it is allowing outbound connections on port 119 (default NNTP) or whichever port you are using to connect to your usenet service provider. Thanks Morpheus25.

EDIT: DDT2005 also suggested that you reset your cable/dsl modem and any routers you might be using.

techfuzz
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[Gazzadp]

Thank you for very much for that techfuzz, I think that this deserves to be a sticky so watch this space!

Best Wishes,

Gazzadp.

[Smudge]

A followup to step 3 above.

If you just want to delete the server entries, delete the servers directory in the newsleecher\data\ directory. Then relaunch NL and setup your server configs again.

No need to delete the entire data directory unless you are having other issues (corrupt headers, queues, etc).

[Morpheus25]

It could be to do with your firewall not allowing access to port 119 which newsleecher uses to connect to news server. I had this problem, and found out my firewall (Norton) was restricting access to port 119, I then simply manually added port 119, and things are working fine.

Check out your firewall settings and see if that changes anything.

[techfuzz]

Thanks Morpheus25, I added a bit about the firewall to my initial post.

techfuzz
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"The greatest risk in life is not taking one."

www.techfuzz.com

[DDT2005]

Here's the problem I encountered overnight from the NL log:

04/30/05 00:41:34 Resetting hanging (121 seconds of inactivity) connection on the "Easynews 443" server.
04/30/05 00:41:34 Resetting hanging (121 seconds of inactivity) connection on the "Easynews 443" server.
04/30/05 00:41:55 Unable to connect / authenticate server: Easynews 443 (205 Closing connection - goodbye).
04/30/05 00:41:55 Unable to connect / authenticate server: Easynews 443 (205 Closing connection - goodbye).
04/30/05 00:44:33 Auto disconnecting from server(s) due to 5 minutes of inactivity. (04/30/05 00:44:33)
{manual intervention here}
04/30/05 05:28:48 Successfully downloaded article ....

Turns out that my cable modem was offline for 17 minutes (I have a log for that too). What angers me is the fact that NL didn't continue to retry connecting to the server. I also had NL configured to shutdown the computer and it didn't even do that. My computer just sat there for nearly five hours while I slept.

So a feature request: The program needs to keep trying to connect/authenticate an infinite number of times while the download queue has something in it.



Oh. I'm using NL v2.1 Final.

[dwazegek]

[DDT2005]

[Lips]

[Smudge]

[DDT2005]

Let me run the test mentioned by Lips and the config change mentioned by Smudge and I'll get back here.




Update. I reproduced the cable modem failure by disconnecting the coaxial cable from it. Computer was then assigned a temp IP as I discussed earlier. Then I reconnected the cable. With "never auto logoff" checked, the queue resumed downloading five minutes (another setting) after having established connectivity. This will work.

Feature to continually retry connecting was already present (although it only tries once every five minutes, the minimum setting; BNR2 retries once every 10-30 seconds).

Perhaps you should put my experience into the FAQ. Also could we lower the minimum setting to say, 1 minute, instead of 5?



Another update. I just noticed that my little test corrupted two segments of a 40 segment RAR part. Doesn't NL throw away segments that aren't completely downloaded? (I call them segments, you probably call them parts).

[Smudge]

[DDT2005]

[uniboy]

I have a problem with my connection. I cannot connect to my newsserver. I have triple tried to check my password. I even deleted the data file of newsleecher and newsleechter itself . I have got problems with my connection when I wanted to download too much at once. Newsleecher gives as an answer server says ""or 205 closing connection goodbye. I've got Newsleecher for two days and yesterday the problem disappeared with deleting the data file, but today this did not work. Can anyone help me?

[techfuzz]