authinfo before mode reader needed

[Slipcon]

My ISP just switched to giganews for NNTP service, and
my gate_news script stopped working - complaining about
authentication needed. I tracked it down to the fact
that giganews' server gives a 480 authentication needed
error on the 'mode reader' command which mailman tries
to send before authentication.

I solved the problem for myself by editing
Mailman/pythonlib/nntplib.py and changing the NNTP
constructor. I simply moved the block that sends the
authinfo commands in front of the block that sends the
'mode reader' command, and everything worked.

I assume this is not the correct fix for this problem,
as other servers may not like the authinfo command
before the mode reader command. Perhaps giganews'
server is broken, but it would be nice to work around
it. Perhaps the authentication should be broken in to
its own subroutine, and have the code try
authentication whenever it gets a 480 authentication
required error.

I'm running mailman 2.0.13 on OpenBSD, with python
1.5.2, if it matters.

Thanks,

Scott

[http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=620208&group_id=103&atid=100103]

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

Look for NNTP_USERNAME and NNTP_PASSWORD in the Defaults.py
file.

[Slipcon (slipcon)]

I think you misunderstood my bug report. I have
NNTP_USERNAME and NNTP_PASSWORD set in mm_cfg.py, and that
was working for many months with my ISP's old new server. I
believe they used supernews. Last week, they switched to
using giganews, and my news gating stopped working.

The code in nntplib.py attempts to issue a "mode reader"
command before doing any authentication. Apparently
supernews' server dealt with that fine - perhaps 'mode
reader' is an unpriviledged command? However, giganews'
server responds to the 'mode reader' command with a 480
authentication required error, which causes a stack trace in
gate_news.

Like I said, I was able to change nntplib.py to do the
authentication BEFORE the mode reader command, and
everything works now.

If this still isn't clear, lets take this to email - I'm not
on any of the mailman lists, so email
<email address hidden> if you need any more details
or logs.

Thanks,

Scott

[Barry Warsaw (barry)]

Ah sorry, I understand now. I think upgrading to Python
2.1.3 or Python 2.2.1 should fix it for you. The nntplib.py
as of Python 2.1 supports readermode both before and after
authorization.