Can't connect to Astraweb

I'm wondering if anyone can give me any idea's as to why I can't connect to Astraweb.

I've had a giganews account without issue for months, but given the lower prices and increasing retention I decided to join astraweb.

I'm trying to connect to this server

eu.secure.news.astraweb.com

I have the correct port (have tried 443 and 563), both worked fine for around ten minutes then I got the download stopped and grabit just stated 'connecting', I restarted grabit and got a 'unable to connect to eu.secure.news.astraweb.com' error. Same thing happened on both ports.

As I said, I've never had any issues with giganews but I didn't have SSL on my giganews account.

Could it be my ISP stopping the SSL connection? (I'm on virginmedia's 10meg conection)

I also noticed when it was connected that not all articles downloaded, one or two would shoe downloaded' but not actually download, I'd have to restart grabit and use my giganews account to download them.

What client are you using?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skizo

What client are you using?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Reverse_sides

I restarted grabit and got a 'unable to connect to eu.secure.news.astraweb.com' error.

---

:P

However I have the same problem with the connections too. Using the same server and same ISP. Never really thought much of it before since usually when it happens I have one or two connections still working and keeps it going fine or it just takes a minute or two to sort itself out. No problems with articles not being downloaded though :)

Both alt.binz and NewsBin have problems connecting. Heres a log from NewsBin:

[19:16:56] Level: ERROR MODULE=NNTPServerWorker, MSG=Failed to contact Server: Astraweb - Will retry eventually
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR MODULE=NNTPServerWorker, MSG=Failed to contact Server: Astraweb - Will retry eventually
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR MODULE=NNTPServerWorker, MSG=Failed to contact Server: Astraweb - Will retry eventually
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR SERVER=eu.secure.news.astraweb.com, MSG=Unable to read Greetings from Server: Unspecified Network Error
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR SERVER=eu.secure.news.astraweb.com, MSG=Unable to read Greetings from Server: Unspecified Network Error
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR MODULE=InterSocket, MSG=Error: SSL Negotiation Failed, Host: eu.secure.news.astraweb.com - ConnectSSL
[19:16:56] Level: ERROR MODULE=InterSocket, MSG=SSL Connection Failed: 0 - Line: 414
[19:16:41] Level: HIGH MSG=High Speed File Creation Mode: Enabled

Might email astraweb support about it, don't think it would be Virgin Media causing the problem. Normal astraweb servers seem fine btw :)

grabit 1.7.2

Just found this on the astraweb site:

You might have problems connecting to our SSL servers if you're using GrabIt (version 1.7.2 beta 3 and below?).
We've had many users report that GrabIt has intermittent problems connecting to any SSL servers, whether
connecting to Astraweb or another usenet provider.
If you are experiencing this, then either do not use SSL with GrabIt or try another news reader from our
recommended list. At this stage we can not confirm whether GrabIt works properly in non-SSL mode. If
in doubt, use another news reader.
For all questions relating to GrabIt, contact the GrabIt author or check their website forum.


But as you said, you're having trouble with both alt.binz and newsbin.

Newsleecher did this to me too, but because I had too many connections on my pathetic high speed line, and NL would just stop working, disconnect.

I have set it to 10 connection, and according to astraweb my account can have 20 connection, so I'm only using half. I've always used 10 on giganews too so figured I'd just stick with that.

I couldn't get grabit to connect to SSL at all when I switched to astraweb so I went ahead and switched to newsleecher and haven't had a problem since.

Thanks, but I'm not really prepared to pay $20 a year for a newsreader, so switching to newsleecher is out.

If I remember correctly I never had any problems with SABnzbd and the astraweb secure server, you could try that :)

Do you have SSL? Have you tried removing "eu.secure." from the server address?

It's a long time since I've used Grabit... is there a check box for SSL?

Have you tried a different client such as Alt.Binz to see if that works?