JBinup Problems

**Beck38** · 07-27-2010, 03:38 PM

I know this program is still 'beta', and I've done various tests on small to very large postings, but...

It appears to have major problems in 'validating' some parts here and there. At first, I was able to simply 'set status to... upload successful' in order to get the program to generate the nzb, simply because no matter how many times it 'attempted' to re-upload a particular part, it would simply fail again.

Now I've run into an upload failure that won't 'cure' by setting the thing to 'upload successful' as that option is 'greyed out'. Once again, no matter how many times I try to get it to re-upload, it fails once again.

Anybody know the 'trick' to get it to first, generate the nzb without all the parts perfectly 'aligned' (in usenet, there is NO SUCH THING as 'perfect'!), or another trick to get the program to somehow accept a failed upload and generate the nzb.

Really at a loss here.

**mesaman** · 07-27-2010, 04:02 PM

Try the english language support forum at: http://forum.jbinup.com/

**Beck38** · 07-28-2010, 01:42 AM

No such help there.

I've come to the conclusion that whoever is running this program has 'farmed out' the programming duties, as I'm getting several icons that nobody there seems to recognize. 'Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing' syndrome.

I'll continue beating on it, but it's pretty close to getting shelved and PowerPost getting taken off the shelf and pressed back into duty.

**Beck38** · 07-28-2010, 01:47 AM

This site s/w is double posting; hopefully, this will not double-post as well

**ericab** · 07-28-2010, 06:14 PM

Lol...

**Beck38** · 07-28-2010, 09:42 PM

Some preliminary deeper testing of JBinup has shown that the problem is really deep in the logic of the program; doing some basic testing where the posts have a particular data stream in them (easily done by generating files with specific stream sequences) posting failure(s) can be induced.

Taking the same stream and posting it with that old standby, PowerPost, does not yield the same errors (random skipping of particular parts of a multi-part message).

Of course, when JBinup does it, it won't 'qualify' the posting, no matter how many times one re-posts it, and of course, without doing so, one can't get the program to generate the nzb. At a minimum, what they need to do is allow users to generate a 'pre-posting' nzb in addition to the 'post-post' 'qualified' one. But hey, that's just a suggestion.

Some testing will continue, but I've pretty much confirmed the error(s), and where they're coming from.

**zot** · 07-29-2010, 03:09 AM

Since I keep several block accounts open, I've noticed that a LOT of bugs happen only with a particular combination of software and provider. Swapping out one or the other often solves the problem.

It might seem a bit odd with such an ancient protocol as Usenet, which we'd expect to be a universal standard by now, but it seems that every provider tweaks their servers a little differently, leaving newsreader developers scratching their heads, and putting the onus on them for having to adapt to the whims of various server admins. So I never assume that the fault lies completely at my end.

Of course there are other factors that can cause bug-outs like article size, or the subject title's length or use of non-recognized characters.

**Beck38** · 07-29-2010, 10:46 PM

One particular problem, that does cover quite a few threads on their message board, is getting 'confirmation' when the posting server is changing or modifying the message-ID,

It's been just about forever since I actually last ran a usenet server (circa 1996), but lots of operators even back then (way before digital video started swamping things), that the ID message string was too small. Now were well beyond that point, where some operators have long ago modified their programs (the usenet operating rules having been changed) to handle many more (10^whatever) ID's.

Some didn't move fast enough, and are still trying to 'catch up'. Astraweb is probably the most major of those, and JBinUp ran right into problems with them.

But you're right, 'one would think' as old (and a bit creaky) as all this is.... but one does have to remember that it wasn't designed to do binary transfers in the first place; judicious use of pars and posting folks 'watching' their uploads (from downstream of where they're posting at) in simply good practice.