Can't connect to Astraweb

L

lacrossegal511

New member
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.
 
Yes I have SSL, all astraweb account have ssl according to the astraweb site.

I have tried removing the secure part and just using the normal server and it works fine, but since SSL is an option, I'd like to use it. Ad am curious why I'm having problems doing so.

Haven't tried another reader yet, I plan on doing so later tonight.
 
It seems Grabit doesn't support SSL. Have a read here.

My suggestion would be to use Alt.Binz instead, but if you really like Grabit, that's the fix.
 
Reverse_sides said:
I restarted grabit and got a 'unable to connect to eu.secure.news.astraweb.com' error.
Click to expand...

: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 :)
 
I just added a Newsleecer there for ya :) The newest version of Alt.binz doesn't download properly, it's a nice "addition" the author added in for people who didn't pay for it.
 
I tried the latest version of alt.binz (0.28.3) and the one direct from the website (0.25.0), the latest version wouldn't even unrar files after download, and the older version still wont delete the archives after a successful unrar. It's a nice program, very light on resources but it doesn't do everything I want.

Can anyone recommend another free program I can try?
 
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.
 
I tried alt.binz and had no problems at all. But I can't seem to get alt.binz to delete the archive after it unrars the file, even though I have the option ticked.

Might not sound like a huge issue but it's annoying having to go into the folder after every download and delete all the archive files. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I do have the option to 'delete archive after unrar' ticked.
 
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.
 
What version of alt.binz are using? 0.2.5 that you downloaded from the site, or the latest version off of Usenet(which I think is 0.2.8)? If you're using 0.2.5 get the latest version and try that.
 
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.
 
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