At the end of September my usenet provider aioe disappeared, taking my
newsgroups with it. No problem thought I, just use another provider. The
problem is that when I attempt to set up newsgroups, I'm asked to
provide my name, which I remember quite well, my email address, which
I'm also familiar with, then the usenet service provider. As soon as I
enter this, the""next" button greys out, and I can go no further. This
happens with any usenet provider, and with both Thunderbird and Sea
Monkey. The first advice I had was tick the always require
authentication box. I did, but it made no difference. Any thoughts?

Steve Hague wrote:

> just use another provider.

Which new provider have you chosen?

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>Steve Hague wrote:
>
>> just use another provider.
>
>Which new provider have you chosen?

Just a hunch:

Injection-Info: dont-email.me;
posting-host="52c24f42e9e19fd0242a5c74bf806d6f";
logging-data="3184992";
mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";
posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+LPLq4h309MwQD6TPh+NelK4kbll5LiJs="

--
Joel Crump

Steve Hague wrote:

> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
> button greys out

Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...

Steve Hague <stevehague82@gmail.com> wrote:

> At the end of September my usenet provider aioe disappeared, taking my
> newsgroups with it. No problem thought I, just use another provider. The
> problem is that when I attempt to set up newsgroups, I'm asked to
> provide my name, which I remember quite well, my email address, which
> I'm also familiar with, then the usenet service provider. As soon as I
> enter this, the""next" button greys out, and I can go no further. This
> happens with any usenet provider, and with both Thunderbird and Sea
> Monkey. The first advice I had was tick the always require
> authentication box. I did, but it made no difference. Any thoughts?

But you are here posting in Usenet using Eternal-September. So, you've
got an account setup that works. Are you trying to add a backup server?

AIOE has been deed since Feb, if not Jan, of 2023.

That you are here using Thunderbird does not mean that is within which
you are trying to add another Usenet provider. Is it Thunderbird, or
some other NNTP client, that you're having trouble with adding another
server?

Some Usenet providers don't require you to login, so you don't need an
account with them (they are UNregistered free providers and prone to use
by many undesirables). Some Usenet providers are free, but require you
create an account with them. Tell us which you tried. Unlike the
advice you got elsewhere, authentication is not required and cannot be
used when connecting to an unregistered provider.

Are you adding a newsgroups account, or mistakeningly adding an e-mail
account? My guess the Next button greys out is there is some
configuration information you have not specified. Greying out usually
means what has been entered is incomplete or unacceptable. You say the
Next button gets grayed out the moment you complete entering the host
for the NNTP server. What are you entering for the FQDN (fully
qualified domain name) for the NNTP server? Since you are trying to
access a Usenet provider, the FQDN for it is not private (anyone can use
it), so tell us what you enter.

Are you specifying port 119, or are you trying to use a different port
for SSL/TLS connects specified by the provider for secure connects
(which only have use when logging in which means using a registered
provider to protect your login since everything you post in Usenet is
public)?

Are you entering the correct hostname for the other Usenet providers?
www.eternal-september.org, for example, is the FQDN for the ES web site
but their NNTP host is at news.eternal-september.org. You're posting
using ES, so you got that right, but don't know which other Usenet
providers you tried.

There is a newsgroup just for the Thunderbird community over at ---.
..------------------------------------------------------------------'
'---> alt.comp.software.thunderbird
They would know more on how to configure Tbird for a newsgroups account.

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

> Steve Hague wrote:
>
>> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
>> button greys out
>
> Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
> the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
> server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
> otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...

Ah, that might be it. There is no point in creating multiple account in
Tbird pointing to the same NNTP server. If the OP's wants to nymshift
(usually having untoward intent), Tbird has identities.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-identities

Once discovered, I filter out nymshifters, like Good Guy, Boater Dave,
and many other nymshifters. If often doesn't take long to detect a
nymshifter.

On 17/10/2023 17:39, Andy Burns wrote:
> Steve Hague wrote:
>
>> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
>> button greys out
>
> Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
> the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
> server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
> otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...
>
I'm running eternal September, but I've tried news.individual.net, same
result. Mail works fine, it's just usenet that doesn't work. I set up
usegroups on my back up laptop using the same settings with no difficulty.

On 17/10/2023 20:19, Steve Hague wrote:
> On 17/10/2023 17:39, Andy Burns wrote:
>> Steve Hague wrote:
>>
>>> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
>>> button greys out
>>
>> Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
>> the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
>> server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
>> otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...
>>
> I'm running eternal September, but I've tried news.individual.net, same
> result. Mail works fine, it's just usenet that doesn't work. I set up
> usegroups on my back up laptop using the same settings with no difficulty.

I use news.individual.net for many years for my usenet news groups, but
never had any problem with it.

Fokke

On Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:19:48 +0100, Steve Hague
<stevehague82@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 17/10/2023 17:39, Andy Burns wrote:
>> Steve Hague wrote:
>>
>>> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
>>> button greys out
>>
>> Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
>> the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
>> server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
>> otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...
>>
>I'm running eternal September, but I've tried news.individual.net, same
>result. Mail works fine, it's just usenet that doesn't work. I set up
>usegroups on my back up laptop using the same settings with no difficulty.

I had the same experience today, trying to set up Eternal September
in Thunderbird 115. What I did, that Thunderbird aparently did not
like, was to give the same account name as the name of the server. In
this case "news.eternal-september.org".
So I deleted the account (the names you see in the left column), and
made a new one with name "Eternal September". Set up the details and
it worked.
I had to google how to delete the account: Click the account name so
it is highlit, press Alt-tab so you see the menu on the top, select
Tools->Account settings. Then almost at the bottom af the left column
find "Account Actions", click it, and click "Remove account".
Then you can start from the beginning setting up an account. Menu
File->New->Newsgroup Account.
The next problem I met was that the list of groups took a long time to
be updated. I waited, nothing happened closed the dialog, looked
again, still nothing. At last some groups entered. I also closed
Thunderbird. Maybe that helped.

To me the userinterface for Thunderbird 115 takes some time to get
used to. I am used to Agent and love it. I only use Thunderbird on a
Linux machine, to get used to it, so I can set it up in case Agent
stops working.

Best regards
--
Jesper Kaas - jesperk@neindanke.online.no

Steve Hague <stevehague82@gmail.com> wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>> Steve Hague wrote:
>>
>>> then the usenet service provider. As soon as I enter this, the""next"
>>> button greys out
>>
>> Thunderbird deliberately won't allow you to create two accounts using
>> the same server, so if you've got a previous account using the same
>> server hostname that does cause it to grey out the "next" button,
>> otherwise sat least tell us what hostname you've entered ...
>
> I'm running eternal September, but I've tried news.individual.net, same
> result. Mail works fine, it's just usenet that doesn't work. I set up
> usegroups on my back up laptop using the same settings with no difficulty.

Hostname: news.individual.net
Port: 119
Username: <whatYouGaveThem>
Password: <whatTheyGaveYou>

MUST have an account to use individual.net. Did you go to their web
site to request an account be created for you? individual.net is /not/
an unregistered Usenet provider. They require you register (login) to
use their service. They are not a free Usenet provider. They require
you to pay (10 euro/year). You request to use their service giving them
the username you want to use, and they send back an e-mail with the
password. It's just like with Eternal-September, except ES is a
registered free Usenet provider while individual.net is a registered
paid Usenet provider.

http://www.individual.net/register.php

Make sure in Tbird you are creating a newsgroup account, not an e-mail
account.

However, not having the correct login credentials added the newsgroup
account in Tbird won't immediately disable the Next button -- which
makes me think you are using Tbird's automatic setup database which has
lists of e-mail providers, not Usenet providers -- when creating the
account. You'll get a connect failure when you attempt to use that
Usenet provider without the proper login credentials to a paid account.

You sure you are creating a newsgroups account, and not an e-mail
account in Tbird? If you are creating a newsgroup account, don't use
some wizard inside of Tbird (which I thought was only for e-mail
providers). Instead manually define the new newsgroup account.