mechblue
join:2008-09-17
Chicago, IL | reply to Jim5
Re: [Newsgroups] "Unable to connect to news.rcn.com:119"
It is back. However as mentioned above, first it said Authentication Required, but after putting in username@rcn.com and emailpassword in the newsreader authentication tab, it works. |
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robg
@UMDNJ.EDU | reply to Jim5
What software are you using to access the newgroups? I am useing Agent forte and can not login. |
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wbertram
join:2005-08-19
Allentown, PA | It is working fine with Mozilla Thunderbird. |
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mjr
Premium
join:2003-09-18
Bethlehem, PA | I get access denied via thunderbird and X-News. |
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chucks
| reply to Jim5
same here, i can access my email from rcn's webmail but using the same credentials does not work for news server. |
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mjr
Premium
join:2003-09-18
Bethlehem, PA | reply to mjr
I've tried with and without the @rcn.com, too, by the way... No workie...
Not sure how much all this matters, if RCN is determined to drop the service, I'm sure this door is going to close soon too. |
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mechblue
join:2008-09-17
Chicago, IL
| reply to Jim5
It still works for me today. Using Xnews, port set to 119 and username@rcn.com and password in the place where it says "News authentication (leave blank unless required by server)" space of the server setup under (Special>Setup Xnews>Servers>Basic). Make sure you have @rcn.com after your username. And that you are using your email password (I know I have a different one for the RCN Selfcare screen). And make sure you specify port 119. Other than that, who knows. But I agree this workaround may end soon too. For those of whom usenet is important, RCN may either lose customers or see the bandwith consumption of the customers it had been serving go up if they elect a paid news service without usage caps. |
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mjr
Premium
join:2003-09-18
Bethlehem, PA | Nah. Still no dice... Tried all of my rcn e-mail addresses with their respective passwords. |
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LeavingRCN
@anonymouse.org
| reply to Jim5
I was surprised when all the sudden news.rcn.com was unavailable and merely assumed it was a temporary issue. After a few days, I called RCN support who informed me that RCN no longer "supports" newsgroups and hung up. Hung up! I called back and asked if RCN bothered to send a notice to their valued customers and another "customer service" agent said no, before hanging up again. I called back again and they are still offering their Internet service as including newsgroups and I pointed that out. Apparently RCN's business practice is to advertise one thing, take your money in advance (Internet service is prepaid at the beginning of your billing month), and then not deliver the promised service.
I was formerly a big RCN fan and encouraged my neighbors to switch from Comcast to support the smaller company who was offering competition.
I still would have been disappointed if RCN had bothered to *notify* me in advance that they were discontinuing part of their Internet service, but at least I would have known. Hanging up on your paying customers is very classy, too and is the final straw. Tomorrow I might wake up and find out that their Internet service has been modified again to 128k bandwidth or they dropped port 80 service. No thanks, RCN. Verizon is coming to install next week. Have a great chapter 7. |
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NotWorking
@rcn.com
| reply to Jim5
I tried the username@rcn.com plus email password, but that fails too.
Reason: 502 Access Denied via @rcn.com auth server
So newsgroups are totally gone. I agree with all the posters here - RCN handled this poorly, they should have at least informed subscribers.
Oh well... will now need to check out what else is available ere in MA... |
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wbertram
join:2005-08-19
Allentown, PA
| reply to mjr
news.rcn.com is stilling working in my location in the LV as of 300PM Sat.
I signed up for the free teranews account and have been running both free.teranews.com and news.rcn.com in parallel to compare news messages on the 6 newsgroups I routinely read. Content appears to be the same on both. free.teranews.comm seems to be a good alternative to news.rcn.com. |
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paddy eng
@shawcable.net
| reply to Jim5
Had the same prob. here on the west coast. Went to the ISP web site and found that they changed their news server. So chk. that out and then go to Tools/accounts/news and delete existing acc.and enter new acc provided by your ISP. Hope this helps, it did for me. |
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Maurice
@rcn.com
| I called RCN tech support today. He said that newsgroups have been unavailable since Sept. 14 and will not be available again. I asked for guidance as to how I could get access to them, and he said he could not help me at all. I insisted that there must be a way and asked him to talk to his supervisor about it, but he answered that it was pointless. I was so angry that I hung up on him. Has anyone been able to find a way of accessing these newsgroups (aside from switching to another ISP provider)? |
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lilhurricane
Crunchin' For Cures
Premium,Mod
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone
clubs: 
 ·Comcast
Host:
TV over IP
Software
RCN
Inside Insight
Team Discovery
1 edit | Most ISP providers are terminating this "feature", Maurice.
wbertram mentioned something above ..might be worth looking into
said by wbertram  :
I signed up for the free teranews account and have been running both free.teranews.com and news.rcn.com in parallel to compare news messages on the 6 newsgroups I routinely read. Content appears to be the same on both. free.teranews.comm seems to be a good alternative to news.rcn.com.
--
~Safe Hex~ Team Discovery ~ Project Hope ~ Like A Hurricane~ |
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BERtrand
@rcn.com
| Why do you put "feature" in scare quotes, lilhurricane?
It's not a feature, it's a core part of a traditional net package. If fewer people (i.e. nobody you know) use it then it is less of a problem to include it. They certainly include a lot of "features" that only customers with certain types of connections can use. |
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lilhurricane
Crunchin' For Cures
Premium,Mod
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone
clubs: | huh? |
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