newsgroup access problems

[Johannes van Vuren]

From my Vista Windows Mail client, I suddenly cant access the news.virginmedia.com server anylonger. I get an 480
authentication required message. Code 800ccca2. My email and internet access works fine.

Any help highly appreciated.

Johannes van Vuren,

Cambridge, UK.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

So did you make sure you have the correct username and password
for that account? You may need to delete the account (if it's corrupted),
restart Windows Mail, then recreate the account.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

It is unlikely it is a Windows Mail problem. If possible, check to see if
the news.virginmedia.com server is having problems.

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Thanks Gary. I didnt need a user name and password last time when it still worked. I have already tried to delete and
recreate the account but still no luck.

Johannes.


So did you make sure you have the correct username and password
for that account? You may need to delete the account (if it's corrupted),
restart Windows Mail, then recreate the account.

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Thanks Sam. The support guys at Virgin Media tells me there is nothing wrong with the server. They have recreated my
account in their labs and it worked at their end. No one lese seem to have problems with the server. My guess is the
server does not recognise my IP address in its access control list. Is this possible?

Johannes.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Apparently some ISPs still don't use a username/password
method of controlling access to their news server. They use
the (cheaper to implement) method of verifying you are connected
within their IP range. Was your Internet connection coming
from Virgin when you got that error message?

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Yes, my connection is made through Virgin.


Apparently some ISPs still don't use a username/password
method of controlling access to their news server. They use
the (cheaper to implement) method of verifying you are connected
within their IP range. Was your Internet connection coming
from Virgin when you got that error message?

 

[Sam Hobbs]

I don't know.

You can sometimes get more information about an error by searching for it.
Note that the error message does not say 800ccca2; it says 0x800ccca2 with a
"0x" at the beginning, where the first character is a zero, not a letter.
There is a technical reason for what the "0x" is but that is not important.
So search TechNet for 0x800ccca2, as in:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Search/en-US/?query=0x800ccca2 &ac=8

For this error, there is not much help in TechNet; just a document that says
that error 0x800ccca2 is "LIST command to server failed". I don't find many
messages or anything about that error code, so that indicates it is not
common. It also indicates to me that it is a server problem, but that is a
guess; very much just a guess.

I assume that "LIST command to server failed" means that Windows Mail was
trying to get a list of news messages but was unable to. I assume that since
it is trying to get a list of messages, any typical potential problems with
security has already been eliminated.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

I searched the internet and found:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/interstellar.logic/news2.html

I don't know if that will help but it might.

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Hi Sam,
Thanks for your further help. Thinking that the newsgroups database on my client is corrupted, I have deleted all my
subscribed groups and tried to recreate them, but to no avail. Seems as if my client do access the server, but the LIST
command to the server is failing.

Actually, there is no 0x in the error code I get. Below, I quote the full error window I get.

Windows mail was unable to retrieve a list of newsgroups available on the server "news.virginmedia.com"
480 authentication required
configuration:
account: JvVNews
server: news.virginmedia.com
protocol: NNTP
port: 119
secure (SSL): 0
error number: 480
code: 800ccca2

 

[Sam Hobbs]

I suspect that the message is not issued from a Microsoft software. One clue
is that as I have said, Microsoft uses the "0x" prefix. Another clue is the
"secure (SSL): 0" part; Microsoft usually uses "Yes" or "No" and a 0 is
probably No (false). Perhaps though it is remnants of old code from OE and
it just just not conform to the current format.

Note that regardless of what software is saying this, the "480
authentication required" part implies that authentication has not been
successful. By searching the internet for "800ccca2 error 480" I found:

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t219182-error-code.html

http://www.anetforums.com/posts.aspx?ThreadIndex=5226

I don't know if they are relevant to you but they might be.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

Also see:
http://objectmix.com/clipper/165896-re-grafx-news-servers-visual-objects.html
Where the problem was there was a mis-communication of the password.

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Thanks. I have already checked out the web pages you mention. No help there Im afraid. The strange thing is, I can get
access to the Microsoft communities and the Opera NG servers without any problem.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

No, the format of the OP's error message is correct for
Windows Live Mail. Yes, it looks different than the equivalent
Windows Mail error message.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

Check again; I did.

The vast majority of messages from Windows Mail use "Yes" and "No" for
"Secure (SSL)", or the language's equivalent.

All other error codes have the "0x" prefix. It is critical you know that,
since if you search for an error code without the prefix, you will find
little or nothing. For example, if you search TechNet, you won't get results
for 800ccca2 but you will get one result for 0x800ccca2. The 0x is the C/C++
language's syntax for hexadecimal literals. For VB the prefix is "&h".
Microsoft uses the 0x for error codes in hexadecimal format in the knowledge
base and other documentation. If you search the newsgroup's previous
messages for "800C" you will get the ones with error codes in them.

Those are the only two details that gave me the impression the message is
not from Microsoft. Since the 800ccca2 in this error message does not have
the 0x prefix, assuming it is from Microsoft's code, it is probably very old
code that has existed since early days of Outlook Express.

 

[Johannes van Vuren]

Glad to report that access to the virginmedia newsgroup server is OK again. I have no idea how it happened.

Johannes.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for that update. Sounds like it was a temporary server problem.