telnet to newsgroup

telnet to newsgroup

[John]

Hello. I read on another list about how one (presumably) Linux user connects
to newsgroups using one of two different methods on the command line. If I
am not mistaken, both use telnet.  The two different commands he used to
illustrate them are these:

You can use STARTTLS on the nntp port (119):

  $ echo -e 'HELP\nQUIT\n' | nc news.gmane.org nntp | grep TLS
    STARTTLS
  $

or you can connect to the nntps port (563):

  $ gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200
  200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)
  QUIT
  $


The second of these is using a program called "gnutls-cli", which is that is
available to cygwin. I have cygwin on my system and I tied using the command
at the Windows command prompt exactly like this:

gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200

It did not work but I got an error back:

 "Cannot resolve news.gmane.org:nntps: servname not supported
for the ai_socktype."

What am I missing in order to make this work?  Thanks.





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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[Andrew DeFaria]

On 4/5/2012 10:14 AM, John wrote:
> Hello. I read on another list about how one (presumably) Linux user connects
> to newsgroups using one of two different methods on the command line. If I
> am not mistaken, both use telnet.  The two different commands he used to
> illustrate them are these:
>
> You can use STARTTLS on the nntp port (119):
>
>    $ echo -e 'HELP\nQUIT\n' | nc news.gmane.org nntp | grep TLS
>      STARTTLS
>    $
>
> or you can connect to the nntps port (563):
>
>    $ gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200
>    200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)
>    QUIT
>    $
>
>
> The second of these is using a program called "gnutls-cli", which is that is
> available to cygwin. I have cygwin on my system and I tied using the command
> at the Windows command prompt exactly like this:
>
> gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200
>
> It did not work but I got an error back:
>
>   "Cannot resolve news.gmane.org:nntps: servname not supported
> for the ai_socktype."
>
> What am I missing in order to make this work?  Thanks.

Cygwin creates a symlink for /etc/services -> 
/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/services. I don't find an entry 
for nttps in /etc/services, really 
WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\services. I do find it on Linux:

    Linux:grep nttps /etc/services
    nntps           563/tcp                         # NNTP over SSL

    Cygwin:grep nttps /etc/services
    Cygwin:

You could try adding the line to /etc/services or somehow specifying 
port 563 to gnutls-cli.
-- 
Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
Cranial-rectal inversion disorder - a condition where one's head is 
where one's butt should be and vice-versa, causing an otherwise sensible 
person to make an ass of himself.


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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[John]

"Andrew DeFaria" <Andrew@DeFaria.com> wrote in message 
news:jlklph$5tk$1@dough.gmane.org...
> On 4/5/2012 10:14 AM, John wrote:
>> Hello. I read on another list about how one (presumably) Linux user 
>> connects
>> to newsgroups using one of two different methods on the command line. If 
>> I
>> am not mistaken, both use telnet.  The two different commands he used to
>> illustrate them are these:
>>
>> You can use STARTTLS on the nntp port (119):
>>
>>    $ echo -e 'HELP\nQUIT\n' | nc news.gmane.org nntp | grep TLS
>>      STARTTLS
>>    $
>>
>> or you can connect to the nntps port (563):
>>
>>    $ gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200
>>    200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting 
>> ok)
>>    QUIT
>>    $
>>
>>
>> The second of these is using a program called "gnutls-cli", which is that 
>> is
>> available to cygwin. I have cygwin on my system and I tied using the 
>> command
>> at the Windows command prompt exactly like this:
>>
>> gnutls-cli --insecure -p nntps news.gmane.org | grep 200
>>
>> It did not work but I got an error back:
>>
>>   "Cannot resolve news.gmane.org:nntps: servname not supported
>> for the ai_socktype."
>>
>> What am I missing in order to make this work?  Thanks.
>
> Cygwin creates a symlink for /etc/services -> 
> /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/services. I don't find an entry 
> for nttps in /etc/services, really WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\services. 
> I do find it on Linux:
>
>    Linux:grep nttps /etc/services
>    nntps           563/tcp                         # NNTP over SSL
>
>    Cygwin:grep nttps /etc/services
>    Cygwin:
>
> You could try adding the line to /etc/services or somehow specifying port 
> 563 to gnutls-cli.

Okay, I substituted 563 for nntps in the command like this:

gnutls-cli --insecure -p 563 news.gmane.org | grep 200

And it now works correctly. Exactly the same response from his linux system 
was returned in my cygwin environment:

200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)

Am I understanding that this is an encrypted Telnet connection to gmane's 
news server? Is the reason for the option "--insecure" needed because this 
is not an authenticated logon? Thanks.




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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[Andrew DeFaria]

On 4/5/2012 4:40 PM, John wrote:
> Okay, I substituted 563 for nntps in the command like this:
>
> gnutls-cli --insecure -p 563 news.gmane.org | grep 200
>
> And it now works correctly. Exactly the same response from his linux system
> was returned in my cygwin environment:
>
> 200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)
Good.
> Am I understanding that this is an encrypted Telnet connection to gmane's news server? Is the reason for the option "--insecure" needed because this is not an authenticated logon? Thanks.
It's not a telnet connection. You're not using telnet! You're using 
gnutls-cli, which is not telnet. As for what gnutls-cli's --insecure 
option means you should consult it's man page. I don't have gnutls-cli 
installed but this (http://linux.die.net/man/1/gnutls-cli) says:

--insecure
   Don't abort program if server certificates can't be validated.

-- 
Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
Disk Full - Press F1 to belch.


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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[John]

"Andrew DeFaria" <Andrew@DeFaria.com> wrote in message 
news:jllkeo$sjk$1@dough.gmane.org...
> On 4/5/2012 4:40 PM, John wrote:
>> Okay, I substituted 563 for nntps in the command like this:
>>
>> gnutls-cli --insecure -p 563 news.gmane.org | grep 200
>>
>> And it now works correctly. Exactly the same response from his linux 
>> system
>> was returned in my cygwin environment:
>>
>> 200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)
> Good.
>> Am I understanding that this is an encrypted Telnet connection to gmane's 
>> news server? Is the reason for the option "--insecure" needed because 
>> this is not an authenticated logon? Thanks.
> It's not a telnet connection. You're not using telnet! You're using 
> gnutls-cli, which is not telnet.

Fair enough, I like clarity too.  More precisely I could say that it is a 
secure form of telnet-like communication, similar to OpenSSL or Putty, 
perhaps. What do you think? How could I determine whether the cygwin version 
of it is making use of the latest version of GnuTLS, as shown here:

https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/

Thanks for the link to the manual. I saw that earlier, but it is quite short 
and does not much explain the program thoroughly.  I do appreciate the 
assistance anyway. Take care. 




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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[Christopher Faylor]

On Thu, Apr 05, 2012 at 11:35:33PM -0500, John wrote:
>"Andrew DeFaria" <Andrew@DeFaria.com> wrote in message 
>news:jllkeo$sjk$1@dough.gmane.org...
>> On 4/5/2012 4:40 PM, John wrote:
>>> Okay, I substituted 563 for nntps in the command like this:
>>>
>>> gnutls-cli --insecure -p 563 news.gmane.org | grep 200
>>>
>>> And it now works correctly. Exactly the same response from his linux 
>>> system
>>> was returned in my cygwin environment:
>>>
>>> 200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)
>> Good.
>>> Am I understanding that this is an encrypted Telnet connection to gmane's 
>>> news server? Is the reason for the option "--insecure" needed because 
>>> this is not an authenticated logon? Thanks.
>> It's not a telnet connection. You're not using telnet! You're using 
>> gnutls-cli, which is not telnet.
>
>Fair enough, I like clarity too.  More precisely I could say that it is a 
>secure form of telnet-like communication, similar to OpenSSL or Putty, 
>perhaps. What do you think?

I think you should stick to just describing what you're trying to do.

You're trying to connect to gmane on port 563 using gnutls-cli.  Adding
telnet or telnet-like doesn't clarify anything.

>How could I determine whether the cygwin version 
>of it is making use of the latest version of GnuTLS, as shown here:
>
>https://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/

man cygcheck

List the modules on your system and note the version number.

cgf

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Re: telnet to newsgroup

[Andrew DeFaria]

On 04/05/2012 09:35 PM, John wrote:
>> It's not a telnet connection. You're not using telnet! You're using
>> gnutls-cli, which is not telnet.
> Fair enough, I like clarity too.  More precisely I could say that it is a
> secure form of telnet-like communication, similar to OpenSSL or Putty,
> perhaps. What do you think?
I think that telnet is telnet(1) or /bin/telnet and it normally connects 
to another machine starting up an interactive shell session but it can 
also connect to any other port and as such generally serves as a way to 
have a primitive "conversation" with a "listener" (AKA service) on the 
other end hence the telnet <machine> 25 or telnet <machine> 80. But it 
is not similar to OpenSSH or Putty. While you could ssh to a non 
standard port I believe ssh will, at least by default, encrypt traffic 
thus making it utterly useless as a primitive "I'll just connect to the 
SMTP port of that machine and speak 'SMTP' to it" usage.

Hey, you asked what I thought...
-- 
Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
The 2 most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.


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