Re: do i need nntp? what happens after C-c C-c?

Re: do i need nntp? what happens after C-c C-c?

[Joel Smith]

Yoni Rabkin Katzenell <yoni-r@actcom.com> wrote in message news:<m37jz324cc.fsf@jrwork.burla>...
> joelvsmith@earthlink.net (Joel Smith) writes:
> 
> > i've been having trouble replying to messages through gnus.  i use
> > fedora core 1, sendmail as my MTA, connect through earthlink for mail
> > and internet. i can read mail and post directly to newsgroups  
> > but any time i post something substantial i get 503 time out or
> > program error, can't talk to news...  or something like that...  i
> > just noticed that i am not running nntp.  should this be up and
> > running?  
> 
> Go to the *trace of...* buffer after attempting to send your mail and
> see how the session looks like. Note that you have to make a clear
> distinction between email and newsgroups, two very different things.
> 
> > this may be the wrong question but what happens when i hit C-c C-c?
> > does gnus and emacs send my message to the mail queue?  and then
> > sendmail delivers it???  any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Gnus has its own SMTP implementation so that it does not need sendmail
> to send the mail. You can see the function as it is defined in my
> dotgnus file:
> 
> (setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
> (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)

First.  Thnak you! 

I have in my .gnus file

(require 'smtpmail) ; i'm not at home, this line is from memory
(setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)

I can post a message through gnus (i.e. type 'a' in gnus, write a new
message that isn't too long and then send it), but i can't seem to
follow-up and yank or anything that creates a large message or that
has lines longer than 79 characters.  i don't even get a trace.  i
just get 503 time out or program error, can't talk to the news server
(which is listed in the *Messages* buffer).

i guess the first place to start is to track all the things that gnus
and emacs does when I hit C-c C-c.  How can this be done?  Please,
please help, because I'm the type of person who will go insane if I
don't get an answer.  I believe that there must be a problem between
gnus and earthlink (not with my MTA--sendmail), and the first step is
to figure out what is not working.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: do i need nntp? what happens after C-c C-c?

[Joel Smith]

Glyn Millington <glyn@millingtons.org> wrote in message news:<87r7x9307q.fsf@millingtons.org>...
> Hmmm   You are on a dial-up, stand-alone machine? Just guessing from your
> previous message.

i'm using a DSL connection on a PC.  Earthlink is my provider.  I
don't run any servers, i.e. I use the internet through earthlink and i
don't provide anything to the internet...

> 
> In the passage I snipped above there is still some confusion between mail
> and news - these are two very different systems !! 
> 
> Mail - you are trying to send this out using smtp  via sendmail.
> News - you are trying to post to newsgroups using nntp via inn.
> 
> What you do with sendmail/smtp will not effect your newsgroup posts. 
> What you do with inn should not effect your mail.
> 

ok.

> 
> Are you really committed to sendmail as an MTA - almost anything is easier
> to configure!! and Gnus doesn't need it, as the previous poster said.
> If you want a "real" MTA, why not try postfix - MUCH easier!!
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/RH-postfix-HOWTO/book1.html
> 

i'm not committed, but it works and that makes me happy.  since it
doesn't affect posts and the news stuff doesn't affect mail.  i'll
keep sendmail.

> 
> And INN !!!!  If you want a server on a home computer, use little
> Leafnode
> 
> http://leafnode.sourceforge.net/
> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/News-Leafsite.html#toc4
> 

ok.  hmm.  my problem is that gnus doesn't want to post a long
message.  i chose inn to post it for me.  i don't even want a news
server.  i just want to post... but (see next comment)

> 
> And next time post the exact error message you received .....
> 

i don't get an error message.  without /usr/bin/inet (standard gnus,
declare news.east.earthlink.net as my server, and smtp-message as the
way to post) my posting returns 503 program error or time out
(couldn't talk to news server).  note that with small messages they
post fine.  since i can't seem to fix gnus i chose inn in the vain
hope of finding an alternative.

with /usr/bin/inet i hit c-c c-c, it sends sending, and then a second
later my message disappears, but never showed up in the newsgroups i
was sending it to...  will /var/log/mailog describe what happened to
my post?  what will?

> 
> 
> Hope that helps
> 

Thank you for your comments.

Re: do i need nntp? what happens after C-c C-c?

[Jesper Harder]

Joel Smith <joelvsmith@earthlink.net> writes:

> well, i suppose i should be happy, but i'd like to be able to use the
> news server i pay for to post my messages.  i guess at this point i
> should ask earthlink for an explanation i can't talk to their news
> server.  what i really need is for an earthlink and gnus user to
> explain how they connect to earthlink.  

If you can't make it work you can always go for
<http://news.individual.net/>.  It's free (and quite good, I've been
told), but requires registration.

Re: do i need nntp? what happens after C-c C-c?

[Floyd Davidson]

Joel Smith <joelvsmith@earthlink.net> wrote:
>well, i suppose i should be happy, but i'd like to be able to use the
>news server i pay for to post my messages.  i guess at this point i
>should ask earthlink for an explanation i can't talk to their news
>server.  what i really need is for an earthlink and gnus user to
>explain how they connect to earthlink.

What happens if you manually try connecting to that server?

Here is an example of how to do it, with "==>" indicating
lines that I typed.

 ==>  telnet news.barrow.com 119
      Trying 69.60.161.3...
      Connected to news.america.net.
      Escape character is '^]'.
      200 Powered by Typhoon -- http://www.highwind.com/ (Typhoon v1.2.2)
 ==>  authinfo user *******
      381 More Authentication Required
 ==>  authinfo pass *******
      281 Authentication Accepted
 ==>  help
      100 Legal Commands
        article [<messageid>|number]
        authinfo type value
        ...
        quit
        .
 ==>  group gnu.emacs.gnus
      211 9 164710 164718 gnu.emacs.gnus
 ==>  stat 164718
      223 164718 <m3k7309adc.fsf@defun.localdomain>
 ==>  quit
      205 GoodBye


If you can't get it to do that, then between you and the server
there is a disagreement over who is allowed and who isn't.  But
if you get as far as a "281 Authentication Accepted" response,
then you've got a configuration problem.

--
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@barrow.com