Well, it's not exactly the same error, but it's still "sporadic failure" of test_nntp. Example:

http://buildbot.python.org/all/builders/x86%20Windows7%203.x/builds/8578/steps/test/logs/stdio


======================================================================
ERROR: test_zlogin (test.test_nntplib.NetworkedNNTPTests)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\test\test_nntplib.py", line 251, in wrapped
    meth(self)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\test\test_nntplib.py", line 229, in test_zlogin
    user=baduser, password=badpw, usenetrc=False)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\unittest\case.py", line 704, in assertRaises
    return context.handle('assertRaises', callableObj, args, kwargs)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\unittest\case.py", line 162, in handle
    callable_obj(*args, **kwargs)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\nntplib.py", line 963, in login
    resp = self._shortcmd('authinfo user ' + user)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\nntplib.py", line 512, in _shortcmd
    return self._getresp()
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\nntplib.py", line 450, in _getresp
    resp = self._getline()
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\nntplib.py", line 433, in _getline
    line = self.file.readline(_MAXLINE +1)
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows7\build\lib\socket.py", line 514, in readinto
    raise OSError("cannot read from timed out object")
OSError: cannot read from timed out object