On Sun, 14 Sep 97 22:57:05 -0800,
In article <97Sep15.015122-0400_edt.342473-16045+3053@mail.bc.rogers.wave.ca>,
"Gerry Britton" <gbritton@mail.bc.rogers.wave.ca> wrote:
> I'm having serious probs using VSOUP with my ISP. I'm on a 7/24 cable
> modem hookup. VSOUP usually just reboots the system after reaching
> the ISP, but at least once it's given me this:
>
> ill URL gbritton
>
> SOUPER works, but often chokes part way through a fetch, just sitting
> there like a lump. I usually have to unsubscribe a group, then
> subscribe again.
>
> Other command line Usenet utilities sometimes report strangely, like
> "no slave processes allowed", or some such(it's difficult to capture
> these, as a proggie exits after returning these).
>
> Undoubtedly it's the ISP's setup :) However I'd like some ammunition
> to use with the ISP. Any hints or suggestions?
It definitely sounds like problems on the ISPs end.
I assume you tried testing other protocols (ftp, http (web), smtp
(send mail), pop3 (get mail), and telnet) with both their site and
other sites, and that those all work.
Let's see what their points will be:
1) Your program is broke.
True since vSoup reboots. (Perhaps Hardy would want some
information on this to determine why it reboots.)
Don't tell them vSoup re-boots, tell them vSoup dies.
Tell them Souper locks up, other utilities fail. Try a usenet
program such as Pine, Netscape or some other established news
reader.
Check their distributed or suggested software. Look for OS/2
versions of the same software. Try them.
Having three or more programs fail on their server that otherwise
work successfully points toward their server. Especially if one
or more of the programs is a mainstream or suggested program.
2) Your program isn't set up correctly.
Try connecting to another NNTP server or two. For public news
servers, try <news://forums.borland.com> or
<news://msnews.microsoft.com>. For other public news servers, try
<http://www.whidbeynet.net/ron/report.html>. I just tried
Microsoft with no response. I assume that it's either down or way
too busy. I would assume that the general purpose public news
servers would also have that same problem.
Get your info ready. Ask them NNTP server name, port number, and
if authentication information is needed. Make sure you could
reply with your setup information.
3) We don't support OS/2, try using Windows-95.
(I know this is going to generate some flak, but they may bring
this up.)
This will probably be used as their 'killer' response. It
deserves a killer response of your own.
Assuming that it would be easy to switch to Windows-95, try it.
Try Souper-95 or Souper/Gui. Does it _ever_ fail under 95? (If
it doesn't fail under 95, yet all the other protocols do work, you
really have a strange one.)
Ask them if they support the NNTP protocol according to RFC-977
"Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the
Stream-Based Transmission of News." It's been adopted by just
about every news server in existence. Most definitely, by every
NNTP server and client. Both vSoup and Souper follow this
protocol with the authinfo extension.
This should have only one answer: yes. If not, how do they expect
_anybody_ to use any standard programs such as Netscape, or
Internet Explorer, or anything else out there to read news. Then
tell them that the NNTP protocol doesn't care what operating
system you use. NNTP works on unix, Windows-95, NT, OS/2, VMS,
and just about every other operating system in existence. It
apparently doesn't work with your news server though.
I could add code to Souper to write a log file for the communications
between Souper and their NNTP server. Perhaps the same could be done
for vSoup. This log file could then be checked for discreptencies in
the NNTP protocol.
Since you're running OS/2, I can't compile for OS/2, but perhaps,
someone else could compile the code.
Let me know if you have any questions,
bob
-- Bob Rush | eschew obfuscation bobr@mcs.com | <http://www.mcs.com/~bobr/> |"In case of major discrepancy, it's always reality that's got it wrong." (HHG)