Throttled by Netscape News



Q Using Netscape 3 I cannot post to newsgroups, and using Communicator 4 for News I get the following message when I try to post messages to newsgroups:
"A News (NNTP) error occurred.
400 No Space Left on device writing
article file...throttling"
I have set everything up exactly in accordance with the ISP published instructions, and have checked Netscape's site help which suggests this problem is due to a server fault.
Please advise how this problem can be fixed, and is it a problem at the ISP's end or mine?
- John Holster

ANow that's the type of message that can take the zing out of your day! You are quite right though, this error message is caused by a server fault, and is a problem at your ISP's end. There is nothing wrong with your computer or your Internet connection. Your ISP's news server has simply run out of disk space and is unable to receive new news messages that are posted to it. When you post an article to a newsgroup, your news program sends the article to your ISP's news server, which in turn sends copies to all the other news servers on the network that support that newsgroup. "Throttling" sounds quite severe, but just means that the data transfer processes on your ISP's news server (such as posting or serving articles), are being slowed down or paused until the problem is cleared. Although you cannot post articles while the server is "throttled", you will probably still be able to read news articles. Throttling is usually a temporary condition and the news server may automatically free up disk space by expiring some existing articles. Try waiting a few minutes before reposting your article, and if the problem persists contact your ISP.
- Belinda Taylor


Category: Internet
Issue: Apr 1998

These Web pages are produced by Australian PC World © 1997 IDG Communications