I've been experiencing some flaky results using Zax's newsserver. Here's
what I've observed. I'm connecting to through the cotse SSH proxy and
using Xnews.

a) some groups (alt.cotse) d/l just fine on a computer at work, but
I get a 411 error "no such group" at home.

b) on alt.anonymous.messages, I get

1) at home computer, full message headers, but I find that most bodies
aren't available (a "?" when try to download)

2) at work computer, i only get message headers for messages which
aren't "binaries"-- text and very short PGP messages. Most of the
7500 articles don't download.


I've tried troubleshooting it on my end, I've cleared my score file
and that doesn't change any of this behavior. I've tried deleting the
group and all data files and reloading them from scratch, to no avail.

Any ideas? Is this just my problem, or is anyone else having problems
with news.bananasplit.info?

Any other free newsserver that carries good alt.anonymous.messages
feed? At last check, Frell isn't around anymore, and most freebie
servers strip out PGP messages as binaries.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:59:43 +0200 (CEST), George Orwell wrote in
Message-Id: < 6f1e5c270802a3e10a87fae15d209c27@mixmast
er.it>:

>   1) at home computer, full message headers, but I find that most bodies
>      aren't available (a "?" when try to download)
>
>   2) at work computer, i only get message headers for messages which
>      aren't "binaries"-- text and very short PGP messages. Most of the
>      7500 articles don't download.

Can you try bypassing your newsreader:

telnet news.bananasplit.info 119
mode reader
head <Message-ID>
body <Message-ID>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)

 iQEVAwUBQzK2gmoLu9HNUqmMAQqiTAf+KsGlJN7V
036/Dn4N91bVKIP8dhRoyJu2
 c2u7e9Rrj388Knr5Gn7aZBFRB7wmDfW5L8EWVC+u
rJfjM4Az8O9ptnOXueB63+AE
 60jtJ1MVodmMR0gd6TL7Zf96DodRY8W3g8dmurn1
fxk3GLvx++lREi4v95kRG3Yq
N15TK/ J51hauHB8xSODpjUj0rVnhNryz7Cn7QxLMdZgR6K
izNzbqrOGdR1IQ6In/
 XQLomP5AAKHaeGGKWb903yzXEHQravTwdPZYM8iv
2nnjILKDuiPQ8wqOKeo9LWGH
 k9PlvjuOO7zfG8fugmNIygnjb0WbHQ72fwC5qPez
zGU8iZ0CfkxDBQ==
=WhpX
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
pub  1024D/8ED57743 2003-07-08 Bananasplit Operator
Key fingerprint = 796F 67E0 E890 A0BB BDAE  EBB4 94A6 7A09 8ED5 7743
uid                            Admin <admin.bananasplit.info>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Zax <fleegle@bananasplit.info> wrote in
news:dgucq2$62f$1@bananasplit.info:


> On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:59:43 +0200 (CEST), George Orwell
> wrote in Message-Id:
> < 6f1e5c270802a3e10a87fae15d209c27@mixmast
er.it>:
> 
>
> Can you try bypassing your newsreader:
>
> telnet news.bananasplit.info 119
> mode reader
> head <Message-ID>
> body <Message-ID>

I've tracked at least the source of the problem down by
running a test; it's Xnews and Putty that's the problem, not you.
Deleting everything for news.bananasplit.info and reloading all the
groups from scratch makes it work again.

The problem arises--I *think*--that when you use a client like Putty
and to use a proxy like cotse to access a newsgroup.

When you connect to aam directly, without proxy, the Xnews files
that store the data are kept separate for each server. If I
try connecting to aam on news.bananasplit.info directly, and
then to aam using dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu, I'll create the
following 4 files:

[news.bananasplit.info]alt.anonymous.messages.hdr
[news.bananasplit.info]alt.anonymous.messages.mbx

[dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu]alt.anonymous.messages.hdr
[dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu]alt.anonymous.messages.mbx

(hdr. files store header info, mbx stores the bodies),
Xnews keeps track of which files go with which server by
prefixing the individual server name to each.

However, when you use a proxy and putty, you direct Xnews
to fetch the information from host 127.0.0.1, different
servers just differ by using different port #s. That
messes up Xnews's method of keeping track of which files
go with which server, as ALL group names get prefixed
with "127.0.0.1" no matter which server is used, ergo:

[127.0.0.1]alt.anonymous.messages.hdr
[127.0.0.1]alt.anonymous.messages.mbx

Whether I use bananasplit or syracuse.

And somehow, there is an interplay with the newsrc files (which
are still separate files) between different servers, and it
seems somehow that the *most restrictive* rules get applied
(i.e., if one strips out PGP messages as binaries, it somehow
"contaminates" the newsrc file for the one that doesn't.
In my example above, dp-news.maxwell.syracuse.edu strips out
PGP messages, while news.bananasplit.info doesn't, so if I
connect to aam using the syracuse then banana, the fact that
I connected to one that strips out PGP messages means that I
don't see them when I connect back using banana.

You'd think that simply deleting the two files above would fix the
problem, but apparently it doesn't; I had to essentially
delete news.bananasplit.info from my configuration and restore
it to get things right. So it must be doing something to the
newsrc. file that Xnews keeps for news.bananasplit.info.

I think that the problem could be avoided if Xnews could be
made to store the data for each newsserver used in separate
directories, that way the fact that all the files get prefixed
with [127.0.0.1] wouldn't matter. But I can't figure out how
to make it do that.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

On 23 Sep 2005 04:57:01 -0000, Anonymous wrote in
Message-Id: <3N10G7IT38617.9979282407@anonymous.poster>:

> However, when you use a proxy and putty, you direct Xnews
> to fetch the information from host 127.0.0.1, different
> servers just differ by using different port #s. That
> messes up Xnews's method of keeping track of which files
> go with which server, as ALL group names get prefixed
> with "127.0.0.1" no matter which server is used, ergo:
>
> [127.0.0.1]alt.anonymous.messages.hdr
> [127.0.0.1]alt.anonymous.messages.mbx

You probably need to point XNews at different hosts, even if all of them
are actually local.

Have a look in:
\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

You should see an entry like:
127.0.0.1	localhost

Underneath that, add the following section:

# Host spoofs for XNews
127.0.0.1	banana
127.0.0.1	maxwell

Save that and then test it by pinging banana and maxwell.  Both should
respond with a 127.0.0.1 ping.

Now edit your XNews server configs and replace 127.0.0.1 with your new
server names.

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Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)

 iQEVAwUBQzPPpmoLu9HNUqmMAQqBFgf9EazmrwHo
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0Te1eCgmXdaobg==
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-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
pub  1024D/8ED57743 2003-07-08 Bananasplit Operator
Key fingerprint = 796F 67E0 E890 A0BB BDAE  EBB4 94A6 7A09 8ED5 7743
uid                            Admin <admin.bananasplit.info>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

George Orwell wrote:

> Any ideas? Is this just my problem, or is anyone else having problems
> with news.bananasplit.info?
>
> Any other free newsserver that carries good alt.anonymous.messages
> feed? At last check, Frell isn't around anymore, and most freebie
> servers strip out PGP messages as binaries.

I don't know if it helps you anything, but Nick's messages with
Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; always turn up empty
for me on nbi. I haven't been able to resolve this. I use TLS and
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6.

I also didn't see the announcement of Eelbash this week on
news.xs4all.nl, but that is probably related to my provider (he probably
uses a large RSA key).

hth,
Thomas
--
Life is like a videogame with no chance to win - ATR

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.privacy.anon-server.]
On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 14:44:44 +0200, Thomas J. Boschloo wrote in
Message-Id: <4333f894$0$11074$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>:

> I don't know if it helps you anything, but Nick's messages with
> Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; always turn up empty
> for me on nbi. I haven't been able to resolve this. I use TLS and
> Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6.

He uses Mutt which adds the PGP signature as a MIME attachment.  Your
newsreader/mailer probably treats both the message and signature as
attached files.

--
pub  1024D/8ED57743 2003-07-08 Bananasplit Operator
Key fingerprint = 796F 67E0 E890 A0BB BDAE  EBB4 94A6 7A09 8ED5 7743
uid                            Admin <admin.bananasplit.info>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In <dh0uop$ct1$1@bananasplit.info>, fleegle@bananasplit.info wrote:
>["Followup-To:" header set to alt.privacy.anon-server.]
>On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 14:44:44 +0200, Thomas J. Boschloo wrote in
>Message-Id: <4333f894$0$11074$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>:
> 
>
>He uses Mutt which adds the PGP signature as a MIME attachment.  Your
>newsreader/mailer probably treats both the message and signature as
>attached files.
>

PGP/MIME is a stupid way to post on UseNet and anything posted that way dese
rves to land in the bit bucket.

Inline is the *Proper* method for use in Usenet posts (and any email anyone 
expects me to read... I delete PGP/MIME uread)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Zax wrote:
> ["Followup-To:" header set to alt.privacy.anon-server.]
> On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 14:44:44 +0200, Thomas J. Boschloo wrote in
> Message-Id: <4333f894$0$11074$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>:
>
> 
>
>
> He uses Mutt which adds the PGP signature as a MIME attachment.  Your
> newsreader/mailer probably treats both the message and signature as
> attached files.

Probably, but I have received binaries from newszilla.xs4all.nl with TB
1.0.6, I just gave up on it :-( I just wanted to know if I was the only
one having this problem.

Thomas
- --
Life is like a videogame with no chance to win - ATR
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[ Post a follow-up to this message ]