Frustrated With Qusnetsoft Newsreader

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

John,

Have you tried msnews.microsoft.com (no username or password required) and
this newsgroup? I don't know if this would make a difference, but maybe
worth a try.

Jon G

"John A. Landry" <NoSpamPlease@ThankYou.Com> wrote in message
news:81dk81pombbqu1cmgb1talm9qkk8ocbm8t@4ax.com...
>I don't know if anyone might have any ideas on a problem I'm having with
> Qusnetsoft 3.X (all 3.X versions act the same).

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Reply to message from John A. Landry <NoSpamPlease@ThankYou.Com> (Tue, 17
May 2005 15:39:13) about "Re: Frustrated With Qusnetsoft Newsreader":


JA> On Tue, 17 May 2005 13:41:12 -0500, in microsoft.public.pocketpc, Jon
JA> G said:

>> Have you tried msnews.microsoft.com (no username or password required)
>> and this newsgroup? I don't know if this would make a difference, but
>> maybe worth a try.

JA> Jon,

JA> Thanks for the suggestion.

JA> Unfortunately that didn't help either. Same thing.

JA> BTW, if and when I do get an error message in the little dialog box
JA> after waiting 5 minutes, it says "503: News server error."

Then it's an error related to your news server. I think that error means
that it's an authentication issue. Often an ISP's new server requires you
to be logged onto the Internet directly through them. If you use another
connection (free wireless) then the server won't let you in.

JPinOH
Jon Porter <jporterDropthis@netwalk.com> Tue, 17 May 2005 19:57:37 -0400

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 2.2.0.8

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Rick Murray <murray@74mail.ru> cried as he was chased by little green
monsters:

>it's means that you get _server_ error, not _reader_ error. in this case
>reader just translated received server error messages. chech your
>authentication and subscribtion settings.

Rick,

I don't always get that 503 error. Most of the time I get the spinning wait
symbol that never ends. The times I've received the 503 error probably was
due to configuration entry mistakes on my part... I've been messing with them
for days.

What's so frustrating is that I've checked, rechecked, and re-entered the
settings, server names, ports, user names, passwords, and news group names
*dozens* of times in both the Qusnetsoft Newsreader and communications
settings in my Pocket-PC!

Believe me, I'm no newbie at this (just the Qusnetsoft Newsreader). I have
paid access to two different news services... both of which work perfectly on
my PC. The same settings just won't work with Qusnetsoft on my Pocket-PC. I
keep thinking there must be something I'm overlooking. [sigh]

I wish there was some way I could see the NNTP traffic to maybe figure out
what's not happening.

Thanks anyway,

John L.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

On Wed, 18 May 2005 10:08:37 +0600, in microsoft.public.pocketpc, Rick
Murray said:

>btw, are you tried to change default codepage for group? I know some
>servers which work incorrect with us-ascii codepage for example.

Rick,

I just tried your suggestion on changing the codepage (from US-ASCII to
something different) and unfortunately that didn't solve the problem
either.

Let me share some tests I've done in the hopes that it might help narrow
down the problem and possibly spur some additional suggestions.

Test 1:

One of the news servers I have paid access to is operated by Earthlink.
Earthlink restricts access to their news server to either their own or
member networks. Because of this restriction, I can't access Earthlink's
news server over my work network (which is not an Earthlink member
network). I can however access it at home over my Qwest telephone DSL
(because apparently Qwest is a member network to Earthlink). If I want to
access the Earthlink news servers at work, I have to use a regular dial-up
connection.

Having said that, if I attempt to connect to one of Earthlink's news
servers (news.west.earthlink.net) with my correct user name and password
through my work's network (either using WiFi or my PDA's cradle connected
to my PC using pass through - doesn't matter) I immediately get the
following expected error in a dialog box which reads: "Error connecting to
network : 502 Permission Denied - Service restricted to Earthlink member
networks - newsupport@Earthlink.Net (Tornado v1.0.5.360)"

If I attempt to connect to Earthlink's news server using a modem card in my
PDA dialed directly into Earthlink, after about 5 minutes of the spinning
wait icon, I get a dialog box with: "Error connecting to network : 503
Program Error or Time Out"

Test 2:

With the PDA in its cradle using pass through to the PC, when I try to
connect to the free new server "msnews.microsoft.com" to retrieve headers
on this group (microsoft.public.pocketpc) using no user name or password,
after about 5 minutes of the spinning wait symbol, I get a dialog box with:
"Error group selecting : 503 connection timed out"

Test 3

I also have a paid account with Forte Inc., which does not restrict news
server connections to any particular network. With the PDA in its cradle
using pass through to the PC, when I try to connect to the paid new server
"news20.forte.com" and my correct user name and password to retrieve
messages for the group "rec.aviation.homebuilt", after about 5 minutes of
the spinning wait symbol, I get a dialog box with: "Error connecting to
network :" (Note there is no error number specified.)

If I attempt to connect to Forte's news server using a modem card in my PDA
dialed into Earthlink, after about 5 minutes of the spinning wait icon, I
get a dialog box with the same error as above: "Error connecting to network
:" (Note there is no error number specified.)

Some thoughts:

Both Earthlink and Forte require my user name to be in the form
username@domain.xxx Is there any chance this format could be causing a
problem with the way the newsreader passes on my user name and/or password
to the news server?

I've also tried changing the option to download headers only, verses
downloading entire message bodies, when synchronizing, and this makes no
difference.

Thanks again for your help,

John L.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

On Wed, 18 May 2005 10:08:37 +0600, in microsoft.public.pocketpc, Rick
Murray said:

>btw, are you tried to change default codepage for group? I know some
>servers which work incorrect with us-ascii codepage for example.

Rick,

Something new to report... good news and bad news...

After searching past newsgroup postings on the subject, I once again
uninstalled the newsreader, deleted all of the registry settings I could
find, did a soft reset, reinstalled the newsreader (v3.3), and now it
synchronizes. Everything seems to work correctly... almost!

I found the main problem preventing the news server synchronization is
indeed the main program "default encoding" when set to US-ASCII. When I
leave it to the installation default, synchronization works! I've also
found the "Western European (Windows)" setting works too, but I haven't
tested any others.

I've also discovered that changing an individual group's codepage default
has no effect whatsoever on synchronizing. It's only the main program
default that matters.

The only other problem I'm now encountering is no matter what size I set
the article download limit to, I only see the first 11 articles in a
newsgroup after the download is complete. Based on the article dates I'm
seeing and the time it takes to download the articles, it seems as though
the full number of articles I'm requesting is in fact being downloaded into
the database. All groups act the same way... only 11 articles each. Could
this be a restriction placed on the unregistered version I'm using? The
"about" screen indicates I have zero days left in my evaluation period.

Thanks in advance,

John L.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Rick Murray <murray@74mail.ru> cried as he was chased by little green
monsters:

>after the testing period expired newsreader switching on limitation to
>showing only 3 groups and no more 11 articles per group.

OK good. I'll register my copy now that I'm sure it works.

Thanks,

John L.