Re: on downloading too much data when there's no news

["Adam Sjøgren" <asjo@koldfront.dk>]

Adam writes:

> But now we are deeper into how Gnus works than what I know :-)

It looks like you can configure Gnus to use GROUP instead of LIST
ACTIVE:

,----[ C-h v nntp-server-list-active-group RET ]
| nntp-server-list-active-group is a variable defined in ‘nntp.el’.
| Its value is nil
| 
| Documentation:
| If nil, then always use GROUP instead of LIST ACTIVE.
| This is usually slower, but on misconfigured servers that don’t
| update their active files often, this can help.
| 
| This is a Gnus server variable.  See Info node ‘(gnus)Select Methods’.
`----

So maybe try something similar to:

        (nntp "fidonet" 
              (nntp-server-list-active-group nil)
              (nntp-address "news.fidonet.fi"))

in your secondary select methods.

For me that helps, ngrep shows this when fetching news, subscribed to
fidonews:

  asjo@tullinup:~$ sudo ngrep -q -Wbyline host news.fidonet.fi
  interface: wlp82s0 (192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0)
  filter: ( host news.fidonet.fi ) and ((ip || ip6) || (vlan && (ip || ip6)))

  T 2a06:4001:d06f:0:909a:cc99:d2b8:3fa6:45732 -> 2001:41d0:401:3100::1030:119 [AP] #1
  GROUP fidonews.


  T 2001:41d0:401:3100::1030:119 -> 2a06:4001:d06f:0:909a:cc99:d2b8:3fa6:45732 [AP] #2
  211 3290 1 3290 fidonews Group selected.


  Best regards,

    Adam

-- 
 "Subdued flamboyance"                                      Adam Sjøgren
                                                       asjo@koldfront.dk