nntp telnet connection with remote command echoes

[Rod Whitby <list.ding@rwhitby.net>]

I'd like to make some changes to nntp.el to handle remote telnet
programs that echo commands.  I'm looking for advice on whether there
is another way to solve the problem instead of changing nntp.el

Here's the background:

I'm using Gnus to read news from behind a telnet firewall.

The firewall has a very restricted version of telnet.  It does not
understand "mode" commands.  So I modified nntp-open-telnet (well,
actually I copied it and changed the name before modifying it) to look
for the correct login and password prompts (the defaults in
nntp-open-telnet don't match this weird firewall system) and to not
try and send the mode character command (as the firewall telnet won't
accept it - I presume the intent of changing the local escape
character to ^X is to ensure that the "mode character" command goes to
the gateway telnet program instead of the local telnet program).

When I connect to the remote system, all the NNTP commands are echoed
(starting with MODE READER).

So I've created a new defvoo variable "nntp-telnet-remote-echoes", and
modified nntp.el to rip out the echoed commands from the buffer.

Are my assumptions about the "mode character" command going to the
gateway telnet program (not the local telnet program) correct ?

Is there a better way to solve this problem ?

Would the maintainers of nntp.el accept a patch that fixes this
problem (the assumption being that I've written it such that it works
the same as it does currently if the nntp-telnet-remote-echoes
variable is nil) ?

-- 
-- Rod Whitby, Snr Staff Engr, Electronic Design Automation --
-- Motorola Australia Software Centre - Adelaide, Australia --
-- Phone: +61 8 8203 3526, Fax: +61 8 8203 3501, <GMT+9:30> --