Astraweb (US and EU) Fading

[Beck38]

In doing some of my monthly testing (NZBcc and actual full retrieval) I've found that Astraweb (both US and EU plants) have 'faded' their completion. Again (as in the past) this has been verified on things that were posted to Astra/US and checked fully after that posting and were 100% complete both on the US and EU plant in addition to being checked on 2-3 other plants for propagation (usually Giganews, Blocknews, and UNS) a day or two after posting, then a week or two later, then a month or so later (all at 100%).

However, it appears now that the Astra plants have faded all the data a good 5-6% or so, at least. Giganews and Blocknews have no fade. The fading appears across all newsgroups, and at least back a good 6 months or so, and there appears (so far) to be no big 'drop off' in any data I can find, it's just really a steady 6% or so.

I'll continue to check back further that the 6 months and see if there is any 'holes' in the plants.

But in short, you'll probably be using more of your 'fills' server if Astra is your main feed.

UPDATE: Looks like the affected part is, indeed, the last 6 months or so. Things further back than that appear to be 99+% retrievable. This error has been reported to Astraweb.

[chakara]

Thanks for you work.

I haven't noticed anything, yet as I just click download, go do something else and the copy the mkv, I don't see if it goes though repairing the set ....
What I have noticed are irregular speeds, I should be maxing out my connection and I'm not.

[Beck38]

Be specific on which plant; also, if you have your newsreader set up to pull from one plant, then another (like US first, then EU, or the reverse) or have another 'fills' plant (like Blocknews) you may be eating some blocks from another plant 'automagically' without really noticing.

Also, things that have been posted in the last 4-6 weeks don't seem to be affected, so if you are getting stuff fairly 'new' then you probably don't see the effect.

[Beck38]

Just a bit of an update; things are slowly repairing themselves, although it has a bit of a way to go yet, the more recent stuff (about from the 5-6 week point back to about 10+ weeks or so) have ramped up to 99+% or so, and only from about 3-6 months back is still somewhat dodgy (although quite a bit has gotten to that 99+% point but it's still a bit hit and miss).

So, maybe in another 2-3 weeks it might get fully repaired. Whether this is due to actual work being done, or something 'automatically' happening in the background (since I got the usual reply from Astra that they can't 'see the forest for the trees') is a good question.

[chakara]

Still getting slow speed on the EU. I tried the US but then I get incompletes ....
It's a shame because they've been suprisingly good as far as takedowns are concerned.

[Beck38]

What made this latest 'off the rails' operation stand out was that it appeared that both plants had about the same amount of 'fading'; I'm on the other side of the planet from the EU plant so seeing any speed problems directly on it is problematic at best, but as with any setup, one does need some kind of superior block fills provider, and in this case Blocknews reported in at 100% on all the fades (or appeared to be).

But you might take a look at the route your data is taking to get to that EU plant, there was some major problems with the US a few months ago, where their main feeds (through Level3) were heavily affected due to the Cisco router firmware problems (older models with smaller ram loads that started acting up when the route tables reached a certain point) that I was able to get around somewhat by tweaking my VPN; it was eventually solved when L3 did some upgrade maintenance.

So what's going on in Amsterdam is unknown.

[Beck38]

Still getting slow speed on the EU. I tried the US but then I get incompletes ....
It's a shame because they've been suprisingly good as far as takedowns are concerned.

I was checking some things on the EU server, and found that they seemed to be a bit slow on the posting completion (for whatever reason) but waiting a day or so and it 'caught up' to 99%.

It does appear, however, that the DMCA trolls have backed off quite a bit on most things, compared to a year or two ago. Either that, or they simply have gotten lazy in figuring out all the obfuscation routines.

[dlee021772]

I have noticed that posts are less than 99% during this time period. I had to get a fill-in server account.

[Beck38]

I have noticed that posts are less than 99% during this time period. I had to get a fill-in server account.

Huh? You haven't heard of Par2? Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, should be posting with anything smaller than 10% par2's. And really, for those 'smaller than BD25/25GB' posts, it should be (much) higher.

The internet, and usenet, are not PERFECT transmission (or storage) mediums.