news.eternal-september.org FAQ

1. I have registered, but I have not received an email with my access data.
2. I can only see the hierarchy eternal-september.*
3. I have now set up my news client to use authentication and I still don't see all newsgroups
4. I'm using an SSL connection and Thunderbird/Seamonkey complains about the certificate
5. I have received a notification that my account will be closed due to inactivity in 30 days
6. I'm the moderator of newsgroup x.y and would like to post the articles using Eternal-September.
7. Why am I seeing several instances of the same article on your server? Does your server honor Cancels and Supersedes?
8. My postings are rejected with a "Excessive nymshifting" error

I have registered, but I have not received an email with my access data.

Please use a valid and deliverable email address for registration. Also make sure that mails to this address are not disposed of by misconfigured spam filters. The registration mail is sent immediately after registration.

If the registration mail is not deliverable (mistyped address etc.), the new account is automatically deleted.

This will give you the opportunity to re-register with a valid mail address.

---

I can only see the hierarchy eternal-september.*

This hierarchy is open for reading and posting without registration. You have either forgotten to configure your client to use your username and password or the client does not send the user data, as it assumes they are not required.
In this case it is necessary to force the client to send authentication data.

The following clients are known to need explicit configuration:

• Mozilla Thunderbird

  Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings
  Always request authentication when connecting to this server

• Seamonkey

  Edit-> Mail- and Newsgroups Account Settings -> Server Settings ->
  Tick the "Always request authentication when connecting to this server" check box

• Forte Agent Version 3

  In

  Options - General Preferences - User

  check the "Server requires Authorization" Login checkbox and enter your user name and password below.

• Forte Agent Version 4

  In

  Tools - Servers and Accounts

  select "Username and password" as your login method and enter the username and password you received with your registration mail.

• Gnus

  add the following line to .authinfo:
  machine news.eternal-september.org login xxxxxx force yes password xxxxxxxx

• mutt (with vvv-nntp patch)

  add the following line to .muttrc:
  set news_server="nntp://username:[email protected]:119" (provided by Travis Poppe)

• Pine

  In .pinerc add the line
  nntp-server=news.eternal-september.org/user=myaccount

• slrn prior to version 0.9.9

  add the following line to .slrnrc:
  set force_authentication 1

• tin

  add the following line to the .newsauth file in your home directory (or create the file, if it doesn't exist) and make sure the file is only readable and writable for your user (chmod .newsauth 600):

  news.eternal-september.org password username
  
  and start tin with the -A option

• xrn

  In the X resources database (often a file named .Xdefaults in one's home directory) put a line:

  xrn*authenticateOnConnect: true

  You can also do this by typing at a command prompt:

  echo "xrn*authenticateOnConnect: true" | xrdb -merge

  On the xrn command line, include the argument

  -authenticator "user/pass name/passwd"

  where "user/pass" is a literal string, "name" is replaced by the registered username, "passwd" is replaced by the assigned password, and the surrounding quotes are essential.

  (Contributed by Steve Willner)

• Opera

  http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=167037

• MT NewsWatcher

  Select "Always authenticate" on the Server->Authentication tab Setting up NewsWatcher Authorization

  Restart NewsWatcher and check for an updated list

  If it isn't automatically updated, you might have to rebuild your list

If you know other newsreaders that need special configuration, please send me an email, so I can make this information available here.

---

I have now set up my news client to use authentication and I still don't see all newsgroups

(Information contributed by David W. Hodgins)

Eternal-September allows posting to a limited number of groups, without authentication.

When the news reader first connects, it gets a list of groups it is allowed to see/post to. From this point on, the news readers only asks for a list of new groups, when it connects.

Once you set the news reader to always authenticate, and give it the correct username/password, the rest of the groups will be allowed, but as they are not new groups from the server's point of view, they will not be listed in the list of "new groups". The only way to get the rest of the groups, is to force the news reader to get the full list of groups again, after the authentication has been setup. The method of doing that varies from one news reader to another.

For opera users, there is no way to do this via the gui interface. Opera must be shut down. Each account has an incoming??.txt file, where ?? is a number in the Mail directory (See Help/About Opera, to find the path on your platform). Find the one for eternal-september.org, and change the last_updated= to 0.

I'm using an SSL-encrypted connection and Thunderbird/Seamonkey complains about not being able to verify the issuer of the certificate

(Information contributed by markspace)

Eternal-September uses a SSL certificate issued by CAcert. The root certificate for this Certification Authority is not installed by default by Thunderbird/Seamonkey and must be installed manually by the user. The CAcert web site as detailed instructions on how to do this.

http://wiki.cacert.org/ThunderBird

Only the first two steps are necessary, 1) Download and 2) Import. Steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 about logging into a CAcert account and creating a personal certificate are not needed.

---

I have received notification that my account will be closed due to inactivity in 30 days

Accounts with Eternal-September will be automatically closed after 180 days of inactivity. If you would like to continue using your account you just have to connect to the server with your userid and password. This will reset the inactivity counter.

---

I'm the moderator of newsgroup x.y and would like to post the articles using Eternal-September.

Users of our server are normally not allowed to post directly into moderated groups because we reject postings which contain an "Approved" header. However, permission can be granted per user.

If you can justify it well, we can activate this feature for you - just send a mail to "[email protected]".

If possible, include an URL or Message-ID to prove that you are indeed the moderator of x.y. and your Eternal-September User-ID.

---

Why am I seeing several instances of the same article on your server? Does your server honor Cancels and Supersedes?

In general, our server does not execute Cancels and Supersedes. An article stored on our server can neither be deleted by a Cancel nor be overwritten by a Supersedes which means that an article deleted by a Cancel message on other servers is still available on our server (article is not deleted) and an article overwritten by a Supersedes elsewhere is available on our server in more than one instance (different versions of the article are not replaced).

But our server does honour the article headers "Cancel-Lock:" and "Cancel-Key:" that create a verifiable connection between an article and a corresponding Cancel/Supersedes. Users who add Cancel-Lock to their articles and Cancel-Key to their Cancels/Supersedes can still delete and replace articles on our server. For our own users, our server automatically creates Cancel-Lock at posting time; a Cancel-Lock already present at posting time (added by the user himself) will be extended according to the technical specifications of the system. Cancels and Supersedes through our server will automatically get the corresponding Cancel-Key after verification and will be executed.

Additionally, we maintain a whitelist of senders that contains well-known Despammers ("professional" Spam Cancellers) so that we can honour their desirable Spam Cancels and NoCeM Notices.

---

My postings are rejected with a "Excessive nymshifting" error

As a safeguard against spam, sporge floods and people who use "morphing" or "nymshifting" as a means to evade kill files the server will accept no more than 5 different mail addresses in the From: header within a period of 24 hours.

Your permission to post will automatically be re-established after 24 hours

Please also see Eternal-September's Usenet Abuse FAQ

---