to authenticate with
        - password: password to use with username
        - readermode: if true, send 'mode reader' command after
                      connecting.
        - usenetrc: allow loading username and password from ~/.netrc file
                    if not specified explicitly
        - timeout: timeout (in seconds) used for socket connections

        readermode is sometimes necessary if you are connecting to an
        NNTP server on the local machine and intend to call
        reader-specific commands, such as `group'.  If you get
        unexpected NNTPPermanentErrors, you might need to set
        readermode.
        N