Search service down?

03 Oct 23: One server has been relocated, the server currently doesn't have a public IP address in the meantime. I wrote some additional tunnel code running separately to handle this. When the server is engaged the connection is 5600+ days uniform (since around 24 July 2008). In the unlikely case I disengaged the server because of some problem the retention is 1200-3800 days depending on newsgroup. If you experience any issue please let me know.

29 Nov 23: Because of encrypted and obfuscated posts flood mass posted by a few nzb indexing websites using usenet servers as private storage for their members to download the posts - the situation with the content is pretty chaotic since their purpose is to post in such a way, so users must use their website exclusively, when the website disappears - the encrypted posts just eat usenet providers' hard disk space uselessly. If you can't find something specific please let me know at alexbirj at gmail dot com what exactly you can't find for me to check how it is possible to retain the posts. Non-obfuscated posts shouldn't be affected at all, let me know if you notice anything missing.

29 Nov 23: The search protocol had to be upgraded to extend 3 byte (16M+) limit on the server side for number of sets per instance, so at least the version 5.8.3 is needed to access it, otherwise should be no any difference.

21 Jun 24: The search protocol had to be upgraded again to be able to properly process the trial version searches on the tunneled server (see the first note above).
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wa5rrh
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Search service down?

Post by wa5rrh »

connection actively refused..... I reset configuration, and am still getting error 10061. What's up?
alex
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Post by alex »

i don't see any problem, server appears to be up continuously since the last maintenance when i restarted it quite a time ago.

do you still experience this?

maybe connectivity from your ISP is / was somehow temporarily affected.
wa5rrh
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Post by wa5rrh »

Yes - still can't connect. I suppose it could be an ISP problem, but this seems to be the only thing affected.
alex
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Post by alex »

try ping (see pm)

if none works it is most likely your firewall or router to blame.

if one works and another doesn't it may be temporary connectivity problem from your ISP to the server, usually they are resolved at most within few hours.
wa5rrh
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Post by wa5rrh »

Both URLs ping ok.

Still can't connect this morning.
Josef K
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Post by Josef K »

When did you last do a search? I had to add a new IP to my firewall recently when I did a search so if you haven't searched in the past few days it could be that. Check your firewall if you have one: either disable it temporarily, allow UE full access or remove UE from the rules and try again. If you have a router, remove that and connect directly if you can to test.
alex
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Post by alex »

yes, it must be some problem with router or firewall then.

i've sent you pm with more concrete diagnostics checks, something must not work with them. again the question is whether everything or only part doesn't work.
wa5rrh
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Location: Oklahoma
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Post by wa5rrh »

Found that I could telnet from my Lilnux machine, but not from Windows.
Both, of course, go through same firewall and router.

Noticed I had put dyndns entries in the "hosts" file on the Windows box a while back... why? I don't know (probably trying to get things to run a wee bit faster), I don't even remember doing it. They're gone now and all is well.

Thanks, y'all.
alex
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Post by alex »

maybe i'll connect the search service ip resolution to UE caching dns capability as with news servers with resetting resolved ip after a socket error but using once resolved dns during current session as long as all is ok.
KillerBob
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Location: Switzerland

Post by KillerBob »

I am trying to use UE on my work PC, and I can download headers from GigaNews, using port 443 (SSL and open on our work network), but my searches are failing:

Search failed - A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time

Is this a setup issue, or the search service not working?

KB
Josef K
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Post by Josef K »

The ports in use by the Search Service are (or at least were) 2020, 2021 and 2022. Check that they are open in any firewalls on the network. It's a pity UE doesn't use something common like port 80 to simplify matters.
KillerBob
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Location: Switzerland

Post by KillerBob »

Those ports are closed in our enviroment:(

Is there a way to change the port for the Search Service?

KB
Josef K
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Post by Josef K »

KillerBob wrote:Is there a way to change the port for the Search Service?
There used to be but you could only change between the three I mentioned earlier anyway. Now it's all done dynamically. There may be some way of doing it through a proxy and port forwarding or the like. However, this would be a workaround and may or may not be reliable and, at best, slow.

The only sure way of doing this would be for the Search Service to use a more commonly open port. The advantage to using an HTTP port would be that you could then add UE.exe to a firewall using a web browser template (of which most firewalls have built in) which would then not be picky when it comes to IP address changes.
alex
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Post by alex »

search service ports may change.

in principle i can engage any ports, but as it set now it is around 2020+.

it is possible to direct all search service requests through a proxy, properties->proxies, search service in the access proxies pane.

e.g. you can run a socks proxy server on your home computer using a port which is accessible from your work computer.

if it would be an option to use an optional set of ports it would be essentially the same as if you run a proxy yourself.
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