port 119 help please

[the ghost]

a few days ago this started to happen when  using a progam to download files it uses port 119 in side the program they say it the better set up fpor downloading from them.
everything fine fro over 6 months now i get error message this there reply (company)The error code 10061 means "Connection Refused". It can either be
returned by a local firewall rejecting the connection, the news server itself, or anything in between. Have you updated or installed any
firewall or antivirus software on your machine since this started happening?

my reply I have not installed anything new on our pc. I am using Avast pro antivirus and have been for say 6 months without a problem it just started a couple of days ago.
Found another part on your forums about the port number change. I changed it to 23 and it let me download again after it finished downloading it shut newzbin down and restarted it changed the port back to 119 and it let me download again but after about 25 mins of downloading it stopped the last few files from downloading.I checked the status and it was the same reply so changed the port back to23 and downloaded straight away. Something on this pc does not like the port 119  so I will continue to use port 2 3for now.

there reply It is Avast doing it. We've had similar reports that was traced to that software.
If it did an automatic update in the background, that could have changed some setting that caused this to start happening.
There should be a way to configure it to either ignore NewsBin or to allow port 119.


if this is true were can i find how to let Avast let me use the port 119 i looked  everyware but i may have over looked it

help any one

just a quick thought could it be windows fire wall that doing it i just rememberd about it on pc so added it to the allow program just in case  i will kep you informed

[DavidR]

Port 119 is the standard port for NNTP use (newsnet stuff) and protocol.

scanning incoming and outgoing news - i.e. messages from Usenet newsgroups (NNTP protocol).

avast has no problem in using port 119 in fact it monitors it with the Internet Mail shield, but it is expecting any traffic on that port top be using NNTP protocol or the process will effectively fail.

So basically don't us port 119 for non-standard use, e.g. not for news or using an unexpected protocol.

[the ghost]

Fair enough to your answer
BUT why can i not use it as used it lots for many months maybe years. it only happend in the last 3 weeks.But the other ports let me. ?

[DavidR]

Simple really because that port is monitored by avast and it is expecting NNTP protocol traffic which it isn't getting when you use that port for a non-standard NNTP use.

avast for many months and years hasn't changed the monitoring of port 119 and for years it has been expecting NNTP traffic and would have failed then just as it has now. So all I can think of is that you disabled NNTP port 119 scanning in the Internet Mail provider, but after the update is is somehow enabled again. I don't know, I just know that this will happen when using ports 110 pop3, 25smtp, 11p nntp or 143 imap for any use other than that associated with the expected protocol it will fail in avast.

[the ghost]

thanx dave now to find out how to turn it of in avast

[DavidR]

If you don't use news/usenet then it isn't an issue, but if you do you should simply choose anothe non-standard port for your downloads.

Internet Mail, Customize, NNTP tab, and uncheck scan inbound/outbound news.