Post To Group

[n4aof]

I know that the purpose of NewsBinPro is for downloading, but it has always included a feature called Post To Group which used to do exactly that -- it would open a "Post Dialog" box where you could enter the destination group and the body text for a post, and optionally select files to attach to the post.

I say "used to" because although it still opens the Post Dialog box, it doesn't seem to actually post anything to the group or groups. An entry appears in the Downloading Files tab, showing Posting: followed by the subject line for the post -- but the progress bar for that line never advances, the entry never clears itself, and the next time you download the new headers for that group, your post hardly ever appears.

I know that the Post To Group function used to work -- I used it occasionally -- but for quite a while now, it doesn't seem to work. I cannot find any settings that seem to have anything to do with posting. Apparently it uses whichever server happens to be at the top of the server list (regardless of the priority settings).

Is this function still supposed to work -- and is it working for anyone else? If the function is supposed to work, where would I look to try troubleshooting it.

[Quade]

What version are you currently using?

[n4aof]

6.80B13 Build 5004

[n4aof]

AHA!

Last night I updated to 6.80RC3 Build 5035.

That didn't help, BUT this time I finally found a mention of the error in the log (maybe I was missing it among the umpteen thousand log entries before).

[01/23 03:18:00] ERROR NEWS SERVER ERROR: Astraweb Posting Failed: Server returned error, Unable to complete Posting:441 posting failed. "from" header not in internet syntax. e1

The problem seems to be that Astraweb has changed how it handles messages being posted. I have always used the same public address on my posts and it worked fine until a couple of months ago. I had the domain as gmail_dot_com instead of gmail.com which enabled people to email me but reduced the chances of the address being harvested (at least I thought it would). Now Astraweb requires the from address to be legitimately formatted. I had looked at the log before trying to find any mention of the posting and I had not seen any error message before, but this time I found the error message shown above. I changed the from address and it works.

Main problem solved!

This does bring me to one thing I had mentioned in the original message. When newsbin posts to a group, it seems to always use the server that is first in the list of servers, regardless of the priorities assigned to the servers and apparently regardless of whether or not that particular server carries that particular group.

I have three servers configured as
news.astraweb.com (priority 2)
eu.news.astraweb.com (priority 2)
news.xlned.com (priority 1)

They are listed in newsbin in that order because that is when they were each added. Most of the groups I download are carried on all three servers, but a few groups are not carried on one or another of them. Newsbin tries all of them when downloading headers. This produces an error message in the log, but doesn't cause any problem as newsbin gets the headers from whichever server carries the group:
[01/23 03:13:13] HIGH Astraweb alt.binaries.uk.tv GROUP alt.binaries.uk.tv|211 389402 353 389754 alt.binaries.uk.tv
[01/23 03:13:13] ERROR NEWS SERVER ERROR: Astraweb SendCommand - Failed: 411 no such group

But notice what the log shows when I use Post To Group to post a message to alt.binaries.uk.tv
[01/23 13:07:07] ALWAYS Astraweb POST | 340 Send Article to be Posted
[01/23 13:07:07] HIGH Astraweb |340 send article to be posted
[01/23 13:07:08] HIGH Astraweb None |240 article posted

So the log shows that the article was posted to a group that does not exist on that server. (I assume that part of the fault is that Astraweb accepted the post even though that group is not on that server).

[Quade]

1 - Astra isn't the same Astra anymore. They had a shake up and are now using different servers.

2 - Either A, they send the posts on or B, they throw them away. I'm not clear what they do with them. You control what servers the posting goes to.

[n4aof]

1 - Astra isn't the same Astra anymore. They had a shake up and are now using different servers.

Yes

2 - Either A, they send the posts on or B, they throw them away. I'm not clear what they do with them.

Looks like they just throw them away.

You control what servers the posting goes to.

Is there some setting for that somewhere, or is it (as I think) just whichever server happens to be listed at the top in the list of servers?

[Quade]

Is there some setting for that somewhere, or is it (as I think) just whichever server happens to be listed at the top in the list of servers?

In the posting window there's drop down that lets you pick the server. Order isn't used for anything anymore. Even for download priority. Instead there's a priority in the options.

[n4aof]

OK, I must be blind, but I never noticed that before.

Thanks.