Astraweb Crapping Out Lately?

[Beck38]

And a bit more info from 'way back when' (as in 2010):

The percentage of corrupted parts is pretty steady through 2014 and 2013, around 4-6%, so if the included pars are more than that (my usual 10%) then it can be easily recovered). In 2012 to 2010, it seems to drop to 2-3%, and then for whatever reason, drops to zero or almost zero errors by early 2010. Again, it should be noted that in each case, fills from Blocknews/US completed all the archives tested at 100%, or zero errors, so their completion rate continues to be excellent, and it continues to be a top-notch fills provider, at least on the completion (non-takedown of course) providing.

That's as far back as I'll take it for now, as everything from about mid-2011 through late 2009 was coming through at 100% (zero block errors), so it appears that there (somewhere in 2012) is the 'cliff' where things start going a bit south before going completely hosed around 6 months ago (up to ~10 days ago).

My Astraweb ticket is still open (at least not dismissed out of hand) but no response as of yet.

[Beck38]

Ticket still open, no response as of this date/time.

I've posted (on Astra/US) a test file and will monitor it's reception (since it's posted with JBinUP it should on completion generate a NZB) and will check the propagation (which I've never seen a problem on Astra) to both Giganews and Blocknews and of course the two major indexers Binsearch and NZBIndex.

Some 'stuff' I posted some 2-3 weeks and 2-3 months ago is what I used to check the completion (or failure thereof), and this will give me another checkpoint, and I'll probably upload a couple more of the coming days, and watch them like a hawk as well.

And watch the earlier stuff as well, and see if they improve anything.

On thing I've noticed, in using JBinUP on Astra/US, is that the 'lag' time between posting a rar part and the time it gets 'confirmed' is over 30 minutes; on other servers (Giga/Block/AstraEU) the lag is no more than 5 minutes, at the same speed of uploading. That may be another 'clue' as to what's going on, although the 'gaps' on the US/EU servers are pretty identical.

[Stehle]

Beck38 is quite right! I switched to a Frugal server and got fills with absolutely no errors today!

I've always enjoyed Astraweb... BUT I will continue to monitor this thread for his concise analysis, commentary & useful information for the casual as well as the advanced Usenet user.

NOTE: Files that were corrupted on Astra 2 weeks ago are STILL corrupted on Frugal today. I have no explanation for this, but might recommend a block account if these are important.

[hdjunky]

NOTE: Files that were corrupted on Astra 2 weeks ago are STILL corrupted on Frugal today. I have no explanation for this, but might recommend a block account if these are important.

Can you tell if those posts were posted on astraweb originally? Suppose it is possible astraweb fucked it up for everybody.

[Beck38]

All the files that I looked at were originally posted, with JBinUp (so 100% verified on upload) on Astra/US. A couple were posted on Astra/EU and Giganews/US due to posting problems I saw on Astra/US, at the time.

But all were 100% verified on both Astra/US and were also 100% on Binsearch and NZBIndex in the day or two after posting. I have, in the 15 years watching Astra/US, never seen any propagation problems whatsoever (there have been a couple wobbles on that front with Giganews, years and years ago).

The latest problems with Astra/US seem to hit the highest (or lowest) right around Dec 1, 2014 or 8 months back. The 'slope' to that is pretty constant, starting as soon as it's posted, and starting to get really bad as soon as two weeks in.

[Stehle]

No corrupt files to fix on Frugal again today!

(Still using Astra for 680+ day files (audiobooks only), but corruptness is maybe... 5-8% and will repair with pars.)

(They are old!)

@hdjunky: I have no idea on those files origin.

[Hypatia]

Beck thanx for all your work,man.

It is really sad to see how AW has fallen. ..I really don't want to have usenet dominated just by highwinds thugs and giganews\supernews...It's bad for usenet and it's bad for us.