MesNews TLS version and Astraweb issue

Hello again
I am trying to dump Giganews once and for all but not going so well at the moment.
Using MesNews v1.08.06.00
Anybody happen to know what version of TLS it is using? Astraweb says 1.0 & 1.1 not supported, 1.2 and up needed. I am downloading fine, is there something here that would prevent me from posting? Not sure how that should matter, but... .. .
Signed up for Astraweb and get only 440 when I try to reply or create an original article. Sending a ticket to their support was fruitless... have they become unreachable like GN and Newshosting seems to be?
I participate in a few mild binary discussions and only seldom grab a few hundred k's of posts, but for the most part don't use but a few (2 or 3?) gigs a year, so I signed up for a block of 20 or 25 or whatever it is and thought that may be the issue, so I upgraded to the $15 for a month just to find out and still only get 440 posting not allowed errors.
Is it Astraweb that is the issue or my MesNews that works fine on GN, except that the wheels have come off at GN after decades of using them when 'everything just worked'.
Thoughts on the situation?
TIA