News server intermittently rejecting connection

[ianpstark]

"Hello ianpstark and welcome back. It appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, so why not take a few moments to ask a question"

OK, then I will! Thanks for the opportunity!;)

I am experiencing very intermittent service from news.cable.ntlworld.com. Following advice from another thread I tried 62.253.170.163 as the server address but still the same "....rejected connection request" message. That is the only part of my configuration that I have changed (and now changed back) since the problem started on or around 9th June.

This has been an on and off problem for the last two or three weeks but I have successfully used newsgroups since I first got NTL broadband more than 7 or 8 years ago, plus it has worked OK for the last two or three days.

I use NewsRover (latest version), I have the 20mb package, an Ambit 250 modem and a Linksys router. XP Pro SP2.

Update: Just tried connecting through Outlook Express and it threw up this error:

502 Cannot connect to NNTP server 62.253.170.163 (62.253.170.163:119), connect error 10060
Configuration:
Account: news.cable.ntlworld.com
Server: news.cable.ntlworld.com
Protocol: NNTP
Port: 119
Secure(SSL): 0
Error Number: 502
Code: 800ccca0

The service status pages seem to suggest all is well and there are no obvious threads here suggesting others are having problems. Anyone got any suggestions please? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers!

Ian . . .

ps Virgin's overseas tech support leaves me cold so I have, for now, postponed the awful moment when I have to call them up, in the hope that someone here will be able to assist or advise. While they are always completely friendly and charming I'm afraid the last thing I want to be doing when frustrated with an issue, is to have to frequently repeat myself and ask the techie to repeat themselves so we can be understood. And I'm not entirely convinced of their first line support capabilities either. But they are friendly and polite, did I mention that?

[Stuart]

Error 502 normally indicates a bad username or password. Are you sure your account info is correct?

[ianpstark]

Hi Stuart, thanks for the suggestion.

I've never had to put my account info in before - connection was automatic so I always assumed it was a 'closed' service for people that were on NTL (if that makes sense?!). I have just tried it with my regular Virgin Media account details and, sadly, no joy.

In fact, more to the point, that wouldn't explain how it intermittently successfully connects.

Thanks for the idea though!

Cheers,

Ian . . .

[ianpstark]

UPDATE:

As of about 5pm today it suddenly started working without any intervention from me! (In other words I didn't change anything to get it to work - it just worked).

Any thoughts?

[Mick Fisher]

UPDATE:

As of about 5pm today it suddenly started working without any intervention from me! (In other words I didn't change anything to get it to work - it just worked).

Any thoughts?

It was broke and now it's fixed?
I only use it as a slave server and it seems to have been up and down like a yo-yo these last couple of weeks.

[ianpstark]

It's clearly an issue with the service but whether it's been (or being) 'fixed' or not is in question! I haven't seen any issues showing up on the service status pages, nor any relevant posts in this forum and it seems to me that many folks here are quick to report problems when they have them. Maybe all the 'serious' users subscribe to paying services - for me that's a bit overkill cos I only subscribe to a handful of work-specific text forums. Just would be nice to get what I'm paying for without these constant problems.

[Mick Fisher]

In my experience News or Email servers have never been high on Cables maintenence agenda.
I fully understand your reluctence to pay premium rates when all you require is occasional text services.
Have you explored the facilities of the many free news servers that are out there.
I fully understand your frustration with VM's News service but frankly with all the cost cutting I am surprised that we still have a news server and a free email server.

[ianpstark]

Yeah, valid points Mick. Funnily enough, I have just started looking at some of the free text only servers. Looks like there are a few decent ones I can try.

I am saddened, though, if it really is the case that these services will disappear or be allowed to fall apart - especially email. They form part of the sales offering and as such I get that 'being gouged' feeling when I experience worsening and continuing problems.

It's a symptom of the age, I suppose. Lie about your 'great' customer service; put on a big toothy smile when signing us up; tell us how much better you are than the competition; offer us a magnificent, unbeatable package . . . . then crap on us, cos what's a few thousand fed up customers in the overall scheme of things? Sigh . . .

British Rail, Virgin, British Airways, The Mayor of LondON (git), privatised council services like bin collection and parking enforcement, the country - all run by greedy, gouging *****.

Must watch the next episode of Grumpy Old Men . . .;)

---------- Post added at 18:44 ---------- Previous post was at 18:36 ----------

Ha! They must have it in for me!

News service just disappeared!

:banghead:

[Mick Fisher]

I think all this cost cutting, cost efficiency stuff has spiralled out of control to a point where staff and consumers alike just feel they are being ripped off.

In the meantime some Companies themselves are going down the pan because of it.

It was supposed to lead to greater choice for the consumer but may well lead to less.

[ianpstark]

Amen.

In fact, I'm glad you said "staff and customers" because I have every sympathy for the staff who have to face disgruntled ***** like me every day!

I hope they know that it's not THEM I'm cross with, but the policy makers and finance people that employ them and have the sheer nerve to consider me as little more than a value on a spreadsheet.

Amyway, I guess we'd better kill this thread before I get banned for promoting misery!

I love you, Virgin Media . . .

[Richy99]

the news server is a free service they dont HAVE to provide one, many ISP's dont provide them, you are not paying extra for the news server

502 can be either too many connections to the server or the server is rejecting the IP address from where you are connecting

[ianpstark]

the news server is a free service they dont HAVE to provide one, many ISP's dont provide them, you are not paying extra for the news server

Yes I can see that now, having looked at the VM newsgroup info page, so I suppose it's pointless to expect any improvement. Shame.

I would point out that it actually says "Virgin Media provides a world-class newsgroups service free of charge to our Internet customers".

Which world did they have in mind?

502 can be either too many connections to the server or the server is rejecting the IP address from where you are connecting

That makes sense (well, the first one does anyway - can't see any reason why the server would intermittently refuse my IP address). Thanks for that. It seems to point to a crap (but free, so why should I expect more, eh?) service that's causing me problems, not a fault at my end. I was going to say that's good to know. But it isn't.

[zaax]

Having a news server is one of the reasons I am with VM

[Mick Fisher]

I seem to remember that when 10meg was introduced the news server through a massive wobbley :). Over the following weeks, or was it months?, the problem was eventually sorted and the normal patchy quality of service it provides was resumed, excepting of course for the pretty regular periods when it is just plain broke. :)
Perhaps just patience is required until the dust has settled on the roll out of the 20meg?

[homealone]

I seem to remember that when 10meg was introduced the news server through a massive wobbley :). Over the following weeks, or was it months?, the problem was eventually sorted and the normal patchy quality of service it provides was resumed, excepting of course for the pretty regular periods when it is just plain broke. :)
Perhaps just patience is required until the dust has settled on the roll out of the 20meg?

It can also suffer intermittently on a regional basis, ie good some places, bad others.

atm (although I'm aware it doesn't help the OP) picking a group like alt.binaries.e-book, I'm showing 99% completion & 9 days retention & it is running at full speed for my 4Mb.

As the 'server' is distributed around the country I expect that it can be re-balanced to pick up the slack - which, as you say, could be connected to the 20Mb upgrades.