Return a new instance of the \class{NNTP} class, representing a
connection to the NNTP server running on host \var{host}, listening at
port \var{port}. The default \var{port} is 119. If the optional
-\var{user} and \var{password} are provided, the
-\samp{AUTHINFO USER} and \samp{AUTHINFO PASS} commands are used to
+\var{user} and \var{password} are provided,
+or if suitable credentials are present in \file{~/.netrc},
+the \samp{AUTHINFO USER} and \samp{AUTHINFO PASS} commands are used to
identify and authenticate the user to the server. If the optional
flag \var{readermode} is true, then a \samp{mode reader} command is
sent before authentication is performed. Reader mode is sometimes