Astraweb Error Compilation

[pworm]

Beck38, I suffer from Astraweb's mediocre performance as well and I appreciate all your efforts very much! Thanks a lot.

[shaina]

Beck38...

It is really appreciated on all the hard work and spare time you have to do this study on Astraweb, but if anybody is not locked into a long term deal (which is nuts to do it the way UseNet is today and hope you agree??), why the heck would you even stay with the provider??
I am and always will stick with Giganews , and yes after so many days things start do degrade or disappear(in some cases), but Usenet today, you really have to budget to have 2 providers (one in the US and one offshore), if you look back and want something posted lets say 1 year ago. And that would also depend on what binary group it was posted in, plus or if it was removed, which I am still skeptical of , considering that one provider it is gone or downloading with lots of errors, and the same NZB used with another UseNet provider it is all there and have no problems downloading. But the automatic response is it is gone and someone requested it DMCA.
You really do have to budget today to use Usenet, I really don't think there is any way around that unless you choose to move to Torrents.
And the big problem with any of these Usenet providers is..... They really don't give a shit!!!
Giganews may answer you and see if there is a connection problem but really do they have anything to do with what is being posted or taken down (I mean the operator you speak to)?? I would think not...
I went back and forth with Astraweb for a while, and finally said I had enough, and to save what ever to be locked into a long term with anyone in this Usenet business is just ridiculous...And you do have to raise your budget for using Usenet today as well.....
Again what you are reporting is very interesting and appreciated, but in reality anyone who stays with a provider that they are not getting there needs or wants from the service.... Cancel there Ass and try a new one. It is not like there is a shortage of them right??

The next question is what alternative would you suggest?? Us or Offshore??
That to me would be better information, plus I am always willing to try out new providers.....

PS. Some private NZB sites also re upload files(members rename them plus do some of there own re encodes) to other binary groups as well, to try to hide them and still give you access(as long as your Usenet provider has/gives access to that binary group (another issue with some providers) before they are found and either removed or blocked access (like I said I am still skeptical on the full removal of the files or just blocked access).

[Beck38]

The basic problem is, despite what a lot of folks (even IN the US think) a large majority of the US population lives not on the east coast (where many usenet plants, huddled around 'telecom row' in east Virginia/DC are), but on the west coast. If one watched US television news, for example, and where the political 'centers' are, one would come away with the idea that Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have huge populations and the majority of electoral college votes, yet nothing would be further from the truth. (I'm old enough to remember 50 years ago before all the gerrymandering, and states like Washington, Oregon, and California were the last primary states, and made a difference; I might add those states have more electoral votes and larger populations than ANY of the so-called 'primary' states that run the parties now).

So as it stands, there are two major providers on the west coast, Giganews (LA) and Astraweb (San Jose). Pricing wise, one is 3-4 times as expensive as the other. Yes, one can use one of those Virginia-based plants, but one's 'bits' need to travel 4000 miles cross-continent; when the ISP speeds were 'slow', it probably didn't make much difference, but with 50-100Mb/s being the 'standard' these days, getting that performance is hard to impossible; if one was thinking that getting things from Europe (Amsterdam) was any better, forget it: I get, on average, around 20Mb/s yanking bits 'across the pond' and then across the continent.

So, it comes down to how much time (and effort) one want's to go through to (perhaps) grab what one wants to.

Astra is cheap, pure and simple. It would be nice if Supernews was still on the west coast, like it was 20 years ago (Mountain View, CA). But it's now in Virginia as well. Again, too much is 'eastern centric'.

Just for fun, I just re-ran a d/l from Blocknews (hq in Virginia) and the speed to the west coast (San Jose/Santa Clara) was 40Mb/s at best, where Astra easily swamps out my ISP bandwidth at 100+Mb/s. So things would take over twice as long traveling across the continent.

So, even forgetting about the price differential, that 1/3rd of the US really can't use those eastern centric plants.

[shaina]

Beck38....

Why are we now talking about speeds?? I am in Canada and I never come close to maxing out my ISP (250Mbps and get 80-120 on average, but that could be because of my older pc to process the downloads even know it is a gigabit Ethernet connection), who really cares?? it is still faster than Torrents....

Yes speeds do matter in a small part (how many connections are you testing??), but the retention far out ways the speed, if you cant find the best of both worlds right??

And doesn't Giganews have junction or port locations all over the place/world (may be wording that wrong my apologies), and to be honest I really don't care.....
To me some information is really not needed, I use them, they fill my needs, and I stick with them(tried a bunch and always go back to them and I pay $19.99 US a month with all the unlimited crap. I didn't know astraweb has that much cheaper price??)
As the Usenet providers out of the Amsterdam and Netherlands there is a speed difference but not a huge difference (Maybe in Canada it is different giving you the benefit of the doubt). But the retention can be day and night for older files in certain Binary Groups that I can tell you, especially being in this game just as long as you, and seeing the changes over the years..
Again if you are a regular user and you do most of your downloading daily, and I would think most people do that are heavy users of Usenet. Any big provider is pretty much the same, but your testing and weeks later without pars in the Big Binary Groups you do see depletion on files and it seems the offshore providers do get access or better retention, Why?? I have no bloody Clue nor do I care. My purpose is to get what I want in the easiest way possible, and I am now seeing a bigger cost to do that, that's all!!.
Now if a friend asked me to see if I could get something, and it was not re uploaded and it is posted a while back, and can tell you without a doubt depending on the Binary Group it was posted in, Giganews doesn't always grab the files, but my offshore account does, hence the extra cost...
Now my comment that if I Send a ticket into Giganews and yes they do respond fast (live chat access!!), if my speeds are good and the connection is strong, that is as far as it goes with them, they don't give a crap what is in the Binary Groups nor if you can get the files or not.
For you worrying about East Coast and West Coast means nothing to me... Someone uploads the files to the Binary Group, and I want a provider that will give me the ease to get them without doing more work (getting lazier from the old days loading headers and jamming up my PC with Xnews), if the speed is a little slower, oh well, that I will live with, but loading all the par files to fix the broken ones all the time or not able to get the files at all, that is a pain in the Ass!!!!.

Again Supernews is part of Giganews and I used them for a while, the speeds were good but the reliability is still much better with Giganews....and why or technical crap means nothing to me I used them both and Giganews was better for me...

I know you are a smart guy, but I am going to ask you when you do the speed tests you are actually downloading something and not just testing the connection right?? I do know in my experience that downloading from different Binary Groups do change the download speeds as well, and I assume it is the same for you right??
I did subscribe to a offshore account and it offered a 50Mbps deal, and I felt that was enough for me at the time for my backup provider, and that maxed out on most of the Binary Group downloads, and sometimes went over, so I don't really know how accurate Downloader I use really is...

Do you have any other offshore Usenet providers you would recommend?? Again speed is second to retention....

[megabyteme]

-

Stevie: Trevor, I'm worried about you.
Trevor Reznik: Don't worry. No one ever died of insomnia.
Stevie: [giggles] I hope not. You're my best client. Can't afford to lose you.
Trevor Reznik: Gee, thanks.

-

[Beck38]

Beck38....

I do know in my experience that downloading from different Binary Groups do change the download speeds as well, and I assume it is the same for you right??

All modern usenet s/w has no differentiation between newsgroups, they are all handled the same. Way back 15+ years ago that was true, not now unless that plant is running a VERY old s/w.

I've never seen any plant where there is much of any difference in d/l speeds due to the newsgroup, in at least that 15+ years. In fact, I don't believe I've seen much difference at all in the AGE of the files, I d/l things in the 5+ years range all the time, and have no problem swamping my link.

[shaina]

Beck38....

I do know in my experience that downloading from different Binary Groups do change the download speeds as well, and I assume it is the same for you right??

All modern usenet s/w has no differentiation between newsgroups, they are all handled the same. Way back 15+ years ago that was true, not now unless that plant is running a VERY old s/w.
I've never seen any plant where there is much of any difference in d/l speeds due to the newsgroup, in at least that 15+ years. In fact, I don't believe I've seen much difference at all in the AGE of the files, I d/l things in the 5+ years range all the time, and have no problem swamping my link.

In your wording I can assume you mean a Binary Group(example alt.binaries.triballs), I have in Canada especially the bigger more popular ones the people frequently upload too.. and when the files are uploaded to a lesser one used I see a slight increase in speed (a difference of maybe a minute or so on a bigger file to be completed)
And to be honest I have never seen the plant or server farms where the files are actually stored.. and nor do I care...

Now you mention going back 5 years and the retention is still good??(you say d/l things I assume you mean upload right??) What binary group are you downloading the files from that they are still whole and not degrading?? is it text files or actually binary files??
and What Usenet provider are you using to get them?? Is it a US or Offshore provider??

Simple Questions .... I would appreciate simple answers not technical jargon that is not necessary to know

Thanks

[Beck38]

Virtually all providers list the retention level, most right on the front page of their web sites. For instance, Astra 'claims' 2572, Giganews 2367, Blocknews 2400(+) days; that all generally works out to March 2009 or earlier (Astra works out to August, 2008, which is actually when most plants issued press releases saying they weren't going to let any binaries 'roll off'. Most plants have text retention about double that, so we're talking about 16+ years back.

As I've said on many occasions, this amount of retention is not matched by the public search engines (NZBIndex/Binsearch) out there (3+ years at best) so one has to use other means to grab the nzb's. Many Newsreaders have built-in searchers, which are linked to one provider or another usually (example: Newsrover uses Giganews, but if one has a GN account, their 'MIMO' can be used to do the same).

Use the Google to find the specs on usenet plant s/w, it will give you information on how it works.

I grab nzb's that are several years old all the time, and well within the retention of all the premium providers, all the time. That's the beauty of Usenet, as opposed to torrents. Of course, if all you are interested in is the latest low-quality TV shows and Hollywood junk, then going that route will probably work better in the short term.

[shaina]

Beck38....

I agree with you, but private NZB sites do offer NZB's or call them links to access files further back, but using Giganews and going back even 2 years, there are times that the files are just not accessible, but a offshore account seems to download them fine, and that is using the same NZB Link, why or how it works again, I don't care, all i care about, that it does work.

As for torrents... To me they seem to get the pirated shit faster than Usenet does, the only advantages to Usenet for me is, if it is a older movie or tv show, game etc. I am looking for, if there is no seeders on Torrents, you are screwed, with Usenet you have more direct access and don't have to rely on anybody once it is uploaded to a server, and that does add extra costs.
But your comment on retrieving Usenet files I do agree the best way to search or access Is by a Header or File name using Newsrover type programs, but I have just become lazy and use/rely more on the NZB way to get what I am looking for, plus some of the ways the uploaders are naming these files are not as easy to spot or know what they are unless a NFO is attached with them. I now leave it to people that have the patience to do the raw searches for me and it is much appreciated.

And you do know that Torrents also have 1080 versions of everything as well right?? Anything you get on Usenet is all available on Torrents plus more(remember my first choice is Usenet).. Now downloading at speeds I like, well Usenet just blows it away...

Now I noticed you mentioned Astra, Giganews and Blocknews ....Have you tried any others you may want to share or recommend??

[Beck38]

And you do know that Torrents also have 1080 versions of everything as well right??

They absolutely DO NOT. Of everything I d/l, maybe, at best, 1 out of 1000 is available in 1080P on torrents (notice I said 1080P, NOT 1080i), most are in 720P.

There are a fair number of folks who 'cross-post' things from torrents to usenet, but again, usually are all 720P resolution. I post around 2-4 1080P/HDaudio movies per week to usenet, when I'm in 'full production' (everything I've ever processed is on a RAID array), and in the last 6+ years I've yet to see any of them show up on any torrents (when I look for them); now, I could easily miss them, I'll grant you that, but as they are all 1080P/HDaudio, torrent folks (who have, again, apparently the hots for 720P video) they are probably simply passed over.

Of all that I have, zero have been 'taken down' over the past 6-7 years (the way they are hidden is extremely simple yet effective). I re-test the nzb's all the time, randomly, and that's how I find 'gaps' and 'fades' in poorly run server plants (unfortunately, like Astra), but have over the years identified such even on Giganews (but is extremely rare, and when I do, they have jumped on it and repaired the problem quickly).

I've used other plants than Astra, Giga, and Blocknews 'back in the day', but they are the only ones I use consistently these days, although I do have some blocks left on Usenet-News as well as others, that once in a while I'll check just for fun.

I came to the conclusion long ago that folks who get things taken down (quickly or slowly) simply don't do two things, they don't sit down and figure out good schemes to hide things efficiently, and don't check their postings to see when/if they get taken down, and change their hiding scheme and re-post. Most simply get into this 'wack a mole' routine where they figure folks have a 'quick d/l' setup that will grab the files quickly before it gets pulled down, and if you don't run a machine 24/7 you're just simply out of luck because it will never be re-posted. Which means that all this huge amount of retention means zero.