[Pan-users] Re: Can't subscribe

[Duncan]

"R. Georgeson" <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Fri, 20 Jul
2007 16:31:33 +0100:

[about using another app to try to download the group list]

> OK, that's got me a bit further - I shouldn't have had authentication on
> - and I've managed to get Evolution to download the list of newsgroups.
> With Pan the modem flickers briefly and that's it, though the event log
> has now stopped complaining about 'Access to your node denied'. Doesn't
> tell me anything (except Pan started), I wsh it would.
> 
> BTW zetnet is Linux friendly and generally RFC compliant so there should
> be no problems there.

=8^) =8^)

If Evolution downloads the newsgroup list, then you know it's not that 
the server got misconfigured or something and simply isn't offering it.  
pan /should/ get them too.  At this point, you may wish to open a pan bug 
and see what Charles has to say about it, if you can't seem to get 
further.  Note that you'll want to open it on new-pan, 0.1xx, preferably 
after updating to the latest (0.131 I believe, I compile off of SVN 
directly so sometimes lose track).  0.14.x and previous are specifically 
deprecated now, and won't have further updates or bug support, altho we 
do try to help here if we can (but 0.11 is beyond even that, tho I still 
have 0.14.x installed to start up for reference if necessary).

> The other thing that I noticed was there seems to be no setting to
> download bodies with headers. I'd *really* like to do that, otherwise I
> have to stay online to read everything, working offline is preferred.

There's no download bodies with headers option ATM.  Look for it to 
return after 1.0 (next stable), however, as that has been a very popular 
request.  It'll probably return in the form of an option to download 
based on score level (same levels as in the preferences color tab), 
autodownload messages scoring at least [dropdown selector], or something 
similar.

If you really need it, you may want to stay with 0.14.x for the moment.

Alternatively, do what I do for binaries (it won't work so well for text 
as you'll always be viewing old versions, but text generally downloads 
relatively fast anyway, even on dialup).  Set your cache larger (this 
requires editing the preferences.xml file directly, as the setting isn't 
in the GUI prefs) than the 10 MB default (I'm working with a 12 gig cache 
here, so it can be quite large if necessary).  Then when you are done 
with your existing messages, download headers, then leave pan downloading 
bodies.  When you return, they'll be downloaded, and you can go thru them 
locally, before downloading headers and setting pan up for the next 
download bodies session once again.

>> If you can't do that or as alternative server or network
>> troubleshooting, there's really nothing better than a manual telnet
>> session.
> 
> Not entirely sure what I'd be looking for however.

If evolution's grabbing the group list now, you know it works on the 
server and probably wouldn't gain much from the telnet session as far as 
troubleshooting this particular issue anyway.  It might still be 
interesting/educational however, if are curious and want to try it, and 
as I said, the HELP command usually gives you enough to go on.  I had to 
telnet to my mail server recently and figure out using HELP, how to 
manually delete a malformed spam message that was choking my regular mail 
client, so I know the feeling, but it was indeed interesting/educational 
here, besides practical as I did successfully remove the blocking 
message.  It certainly gave me a new appreciation for how things worked 
back in the early days, when people routinely used telnet to fetch mail 
and the like.  I'd hate to have to do that all the time, but it's cool 
that the protocol is simple enough that telnet actually works, and it's 
impressive just how well it /does/ work.  (BTW, the same telnet 
troubleshooting idea can be used, on port 80 of course, to troubleshoot 
web site connections and fetch web pages.)

Still, as I said, now that you've got evolution fetching the group list, 
you know that part /is/ actually working, so it probably won't help with 
your current pan problem any.  As I said, at this point, it looks like 
something to bug, and see what Charles has to say about it.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman