Comcast/Xfinity will soon require a newer SSL than the one in Agent
7.2 1218.

I use Agent for light e-mail and a few newsgroups. No binaries, etc.

I wrote to Forte Inc--no response.

No info about whether Agent 8 uses (or can be upgraded to use) the
newer SSL protocols.

Or does Agent need to be discarded and replaced w ith more modern
software?

On Wed, 15 Feb 2023 07:56:09 -0600, jerryab wrote:

> Comcast/Xfinity will soon require a newer SSL than the one in Agent
> 7.2 1218.
>
> I use Agent for light e-mail and a few newsgroups. No binaries, etc.
>
> I wrote to Forte Inc--no response.
>
> No info about whether Agent 8 uses (or can be upgraded to use) the
> newer SSL protocols.
>
> Or does Agent need to be discarded and replaced w ith more modern
> software?

Agent 7.2 needs only a small configuration change. See this post:

* Google Groups: <https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/mJmtMSUqp6M>
* Narkive: <https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/35h3yv8s/notice-agent-and-ssl>
* Usenet: <news:p8hpuglnb0tot2oot3ob7m8n1k940kfgcl@4ax.com>

--
Kind regards
Ralph

🔐🔑🔒🤫

Finally got it. Thank you very much

Turns out the AppData folder was hidden under Users. No idea why. It
simply wasn't there--at first. I changed the view to show everything.
And then there it was. I changed the Agent.ini file using Notepad,
saved it, shut down Agent, and restarted it. Then tried using the
Comcast/Xfinity e-mail test message and it came back PASSED.

IMO, this should have been addressed and fixed by Forte long ago.

Jerry

On Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:26:35 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Wed, 15 Feb 2023 07:56:09 -0600, jerryab wrote:
>
>> Comcast/Xfinity will soon require a newer SSL than the one in Agent
>> 7.2 1218.
>>
>> I use Agent for light e-mail and a few newsgroups. No binaries, etc.
>>
>> I wrote to Forte Inc--no response.
>>
>> No info about whether Agent 8 uses (or can be upgraded to use) the
>> newer SSL protocols.
>>
>> Or does Agent need to be discarded and replaced w ith more modern
>> software?
>
>
>Agent 7.2 needs only a small configuration change. See this post:
>
> * Google Groups: <https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/mJmtMSUqp6M>
> * Narkive: <https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/35h3yv8s/notice-agent-and-ssl>
> * Usenet: <news:p8hpuglnb0tot2oot3ob7m8n1k940kfgcl@4ax.com>

In Message-ID:<945tuhlc7srni4g8h0fdqd5ko2hj8h9d6g@4ax.com>,
jerryab <jerryab@juno.com> wrote:

>I changed the Agent.ini file using Notepad,
>saved it, shut down Agent, and restarted it.

I would never do that. I never edit *any* ini file while the program
using it is active. I'm not in the mood for a search, but I think the
Agent help even says not to do it.

I'd also make a backup copy before updating it.

OTOH, I'm glad nothing went wrong, and that you fixed your problem.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

On Thu, 16 Feb 2023 18:18:08 -0500, Arthur T. <arthur@munged.invalid>
wrote:

>I never edit *any* ini file while the program
>using it is active.
The program was not running. I closed Agent before doing anything with
the program. Then opened the ini file.

I knew what I needed to find, so I scanned the file until I found the
line regarding SSL. I changed the 0 to 10880 and saved it. Closed
everything and then restarted Agent. It ran properly, so I sent the
test e-mail. It was quickly returned stating it now passed their test.

jerryab <jerryab@juno.com> écrivait :

> I changed the Agent.ini file using Notepad,
Never use Notepad to edit configuration files.
Use a real text editor like Notepad++ (Free).

jerryab <jerryab@juno.com> on Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:48:47 -0600 typed in
alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the following:
>Finally got it. Thank you very much
>
>Turns out the AppData folder was hidden under Users. No idea why. It
>simply wasn't there--at first. I changed the view to show everything.
>And then there it was. I changed the Agent.ini file using Notepad,
>saved it, shut down Agent, and restarted it. Then tried using the
>Comcast/Xfinity e-mail test message and it came back PASSED.
>
>IMO, this should have been addressed and fixed by Forte long ago.

I'm not sure Forte is still active in the email or newsreader biz
any more.

--
pyotr filipivich
This Week's Panel: Us & Them - Eliminating Them.
Next Month's Panel: Having eliminated the old Them(tm)
Selecting who insufficiently Woke(tm) as to serve as the new Them(tm)

On Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:26:35 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Wed, 15 Feb 2023 07:56:09 -0600, jerryab wrote:
>
>> Comcast/Xfinity will soon require a newer SSL than the one in Agent
>> 7.2 1218.
>>
>> I use Agent for light e-mail and a few newsgroups. No binaries, etc.
>>
>> I wrote to Forte Inc--no response.
>>
>> No info about whether Agent 8 uses (or can be upgraded to use) the
>> newer SSL protocols.
>>
>> Or does Agent need to be discarded and replaced w ith more modern
>> software?
>
>
>Agent 7.2 needs only a small configuration change. See this post:
>
> * Google Groups: <https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/mJmtMSUqp6M>
> * Narkive: <https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/35h3yv8s/notice-agent-and-ssl>
> * Usenet: <news:p8hpuglnb0tot2oot3ob7m8n1k940kfgcl@4ax.com>

Thanks Ralph, always a great resource.
I use comcast as ISP, UseNetServer.com for Usenet and agent ONLY for
UseNet, is this something that I will need to do in the future? How
might I know when this becomes a problem?

Thanks and best regards,

Rich

On Sat, 25 Feb 2023 11:58:44 -0600, Rich wrote:

> Thanks Ralph, always a great resource.
> I use comcast as ISP, UseNetServer.com for Usenet and agent ONLY for
> UseNet, is this something that I will need to do in the future? How
> might I know when this becomes a problem?

> User-Agent: ForteAgent/7.10.32.1214

It is a problem when you get this error trying to connect to the server

Error: Unable to negotiate an SSL connection with server xxxxxxxxxxx

--
Kind regards
Ralph

𝐺𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑐ℎ 𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑢 𝑏𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑦𝑤𝑦𝑑

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 08:22:09 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Sat, 25 Feb 2023 11:58:44 -0600, Rich wrote:
>
>> Thanks Ralph, always a great resource.
>> I use comcast as ISP, UseNetServer.com for Usenet and agent ONLY for
>> UseNet, is this something that I will need to do in the future? How
>> might I know when this becomes a problem?
>
>> User-Agent: ForteAgent/7.10.32.1214
>
>
>It is a problem when you get this error trying to connect to the server
>
> Error: Unable to negotiate an SSL connection with server xxxxxxxxxxx

Doh!
Thanks again Ralph, you have been a great help for everything Agent
and very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Rich

Thanks for posting this answer.
I had come back from a break and found that email had stopped working from one of my providers - Ionos ex 1&1.
I knew that they were going to switch off the old protocols but was waiting to see if Agent failed before checking further ... and ... it failed.
After a couple of hours looking for configuration options for Winsock etc, I found your post and made the simple change.
All now working again.

I do use another email client to generate a simple archive on the side and could switch to it full time but my fingers know where to type and auto-filing rules put things in the right place and it is hard to give up on an old friend.

Paul

On Saturday, 25 February 2023 at 19:22:16 UTC, Ralph Fox wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jun 2023 05:33:36 -0700 (PDT), Paul Webster
<paul.webster@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thanks for posting this answer.
>I had come back from a break and found that email had stopped working from one of my providers - Ionos ex 1&1.
>I knew that they were going to switch off the old protocols but was waiting to see if Agent failed before checking further ... and ... it failed.
>After a couple of hours looking for configuration options for Winsock etc, I found your post and made the simple change.
>All now working again.
>
>I do use another email client to generate a simple archive on the side and could switch to it full time but my fingers know where to type and auto-filing rules put things in the right place and it is hard to give up on an old friend.

This note might help:

https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/988l85vk

My notes:
1. My ISP hasn't made the switch yet, so I can't verify that it works.
2. My AGENT.INI file is in my Agent directory. There is no Data
subdirectory. But that may just be me, or the version of Agent, or the
vagaries of Windows installation. Just find the file, wherever it is.

The theory is that setting the higher number allows Windows to use TLS
1.2 instead of 1.0.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Sun, 18 Jun 2023 05:33:36 -0700 (PDT), Paul Webster wrote:

> Thanks for posting this answer.
> I had come back from a break and found that email had stopped working from one of my providers - Ionos ex 1&1.
> I knew that they were going to switch off the old protocols but was waiting to see if Agent failed before checking further ... and ... it failed.
> After a couple of hours looking for configuration options for Winsock etc, I found your post and made the simple change.
> All now working again.

You're welcome.