"dead network" when connecting to news server

chris · Post by **chris** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:18 am

Hi all,

I just started looking into Usenet Explorer, its feature set looks very promising!

I do however have problems connecting to my ISP's news server. When adding the server to the server list and choosing "Open&get newsgroup list", a green dot is drawn on the server's icon that turns red immediately after. Furthermore, a tab at the bottom displays a red question mark and when I click on it, I see a table with in the Error column the following text:

A socket operation encountered a dead network. (System:10050)

I'm using Usenet Explorer 1.9.7, Windows Vista with built-in firewall and McAfee antivirus.

I did manage to access the news server (news.casema.nl) with the same credentials using Thunderbird's news reader.

Any suggestions as to what I can try to get UE working for me?

alex · Post by **alex** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 am

http://www.google.com.ph/search?hl=en&q ... arch&meta=

It is probably McAfee then. Try to tweak McAfee settings if you find any to prevent it to mess with UE using sockets.

Sockets are something very basic, UE using only the simplest mode through synchronous connect/read/write operations, but sometimes bugs in third party software which tap into windows sockets effectively kill the otherwise troubleless connectivity over network, especially for multithreaded programs.

You may try to uncheck "keep alive" in edit menu->properties->general, then the life of the connection is limited to the creating it thread and frequently bugs in the third party software which messes with sockets are not triggered then.

chris · Post by **chris** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:33 pm

The problem has mysteriously disappeared without me touching any setting in any relevant application that I'm aware of. My guess is that this server had some problems.

Anyway, this app seems exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks for the quick reply!

alex · Post by **alex** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:37 am

if the server had a problem and returned a certain socket error, a bug in the antivirus could cause winsock to malfunction with returning another socket error, but it is unlikely the news server could cause the dead network error by itself.

still, if it is a news server problem eventually in any form and everything works properly when the server works ok maybe it doesn't matter then.