[Pan-users] Re: Problems with some replies

[Duncan]

Jim Henderson <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:01:34
+0000:

> On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:50:40 -0600, HarryB wrote:
> 
>> New Pan (v0.132) user, running under Debian 4.0 and KDE 3.5.10.
>> 
>> I have been able to post a new message to the newsgroup
>> rec.bicycles.tech and one or two replies, but additional replies fail
>> because the server rejects them and returns the following error: "441
>> Posting Failed (Rejected by POST filter)" .
>> 
>> I tried the same in 0.test and the results were the same: I could post
>> at least one reply to my initial message, but subsequent replies
>> failed.
>> 
>> So, I booted into Windows and fired up Free Agent, my old newsreader. I
>> was able to reply without a problem. So, it appears that the problem is
>> with Pan and not my news server, bellsouth.net.
>> 
>> What doesn't my news server like about Pan's replies?
> 
> You'll probably have to ask the provider.  Most NNTP servers can apply a
> script against headers and message contents and reject based on content
> - only the provider can tell you why your post was rejected since they
> maintain the filter.

Seconded.

That's a filter on the server side, not pan, tho it's plausible the 
filter is triggering on a header pan uses that Free Agent doesn't.

One header difference between pan and what I know of Agent is the way 
they create their own Message-ID.  Free Agent (well, at least Forte Agent 
and I'd assume Free Agent a swell) generates a random number and adds 
@4ax.com.  Pan in its current implementation starts with pan. , adds the 
date and time (numeric yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss), and finally adds the 
@domain.name portion of the from email address you used to post the 
message, so the total string format looks like this: 
address@hidden .

Perhaps the posting filter is keying in on the references header and 
doesn't like something in the domain name part of the string repeated 
more than a couple times, as it would be as the thread gets longer.  If 
you've munged your from address and/or there's something that looks like 
sex or p3ni5 si23 or some such in that domain name, it could be deciding 
the post is spam based on more than two occurrences of that string in any 
header.

Also check any custom headers you may generate, and compare from 
addresses, etc.  Who knows what it's triggering on?

Besides asking them about it, there are a couple ways you can trouble 
shoot.  The most obvious would be an original post from FA, then replies 
from pan, and of course the reverse (original from pan, replies from FA), 
then mixed replies (pan/FA/pan/FA..., FA/FA/pan/FA/pan/FA/pan..., etc).  
You can also use pan's draft message feature, saving the draft, opening 
it with a text editor and modifying it (say removing a a message-id or 
two from the references header, if testing the above idea), saving it, 
then opening that draft in pan and sending it.  Finally, note that pan is 
available for MSWindows as well, and I believe I've seen reports that 
Free Agent works when run in WINE on Linux, so you can test posting from 
pan on MSWindows and FA in WINE on Linux as well.  Not that such should 
make a difference in what the server side sees and therefore can filter, 
but it's a possibility for troubleshooting, none-the-less.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman