Astraweb Error Compilation

[shaina]

Beck38....

Just on Kickass Torrents (public, and IPT has as well) there is over 10,000 1080p movies that were posted there(or whatever you call it when they load onto torrents), so time to update your knowledge on Torrents...
But they are all re encodes not too many true BD rips(you know the 30-60gig rips) , plus who the hell wants to bog up there internet that long to get that format on torrents, good luck to them, I am not interested in that...

But in instance even tonight.. I tried to get a tv show episode I missed a few weeks ago and using giganews it was a no go(alt.binaries.teevee). I just looked up on Kickass torrents, and it did take longer to download but I got it...I usually download daily but a few do slip by.
Right now I am only running Giganews , but if I really want something I can't download, and it is a bigger collection of files, I will pay for another offshore Usenet. I have used Eweka and Xs usenet, and they usually pick up what Giga misses, and I mentioned Giga is only $20US a month, how much less is Astra??

You have mentioned again that you do upload to groups... I know it is a touchy subject for you but if they are still there you are obviously uploading for a Private NZB site, are you willing to reveal that or share??

Plus members of the NZB private sites are now doing a lot of double postings in different Binary Groups for members to have a chance to get the files for a longer period of time, and they were talking about a lot of the big pirate's are still using IRC...
There was a few others offshore accounts that were mentioned at my other paid NZB sites I may try but I have no need at this point..

I just picked up on your post that said most of the retention means zero, I agree with you, especially if the files are corrupt or degraded, and it seems to be happening a lot more now then it did in the earlier days of Usenet..
You also said Giganews repaired the problem quickly... What did you say to the person(I have used online chat plus sent tickets in) to correct retention??
Every once and a while I will have a connection issue with them that is fixed really quick, but when I have asked them I can't access files in a Binary Group, they usually don't say much or say they are not responsible for what is uploaded in a groups...

There was a few others offshore accounts that were mentioned at my other paid NZB sites I may try but I have no need at this point..


Thanks again Beck38....









There was a few others offshore accounts that were mentioned at my other paid NZB sites I may try but I have no need at this point..

[Beck38]

I gave Giganews the same info that Astra got, the posting date that things got flaky, and at what point back they seemed to get okay.

Cost differential between GN and Astra is about $150/yr., comparing the GN 'Platinum' (max retention, 20 connections) v. Astra 'Unlimited DSL' (also 20 connections), IF one gets an Astra 'deal' of $8/month. Some folks have problems getting maximum throughput with 20 connections, I easily 'swamp' my ISP bandwidth with 15, in my tests I easily get 100Mb/s with as few as 12.

Giganews is a bit slower; they also have what might be termed 'hyper-ports' from major cities that give folks a direct connection to the server plant in LA., but the 20 connections with the 'Platinum' level just barely gets the throughput up to around 80Mb/s on a 'good' day, which is why they offer 50 connections with their 'Diamond' plan (some $260+ above Astra's).

The retention on the last posting (26Jul) seems to be holding, after a slight dip at 5 days in, it actually appears to have 'cured' itself a bit. But the 1Aug posting is still very bad, as is all those previous to it, I see no improvement going back to the first of the year.

[shaina]

I gave Giganews the same info that Astra got, the posting date that things got flaky, and at what point back they seemed to get okay.
Cost differential between GN and Astra is about $150/yr., comparing the GN 'Platinum' (max retention, 20 connections) v. Astra 'Unlimited DSL' (also 20 connections), IF one gets an Astra 'deal' of $8/month. Some folks have problems getting maximum throughput with 20 connections, I easily 'swamp' my ISP bandwidth with 15, in my tests I easily get 100Mb/s with as few as 12.
Giganews is a bit slower; they also have what might be termed 'hyper-ports' from major cities that give folks a direct connection to the server plant in LA., but the 20 connections with the 'Platinum' level just barely gets the throughput up to around 80Mb/s on a 'good' day, which is why they offer 50 connections with their 'Diamond' plan (some $260+ above Astra's).
The retention on the last posting (26Jul) seems to be holding, after a slight dip at 5 days in, it actually appears to have 'cured' itself a bit. But the 1Aug posting is still very bad, as is all those previous to it, I see no improvement going back to the first of the year.

Like I said I am in Ontario Canada and I have the Giganews Platinum plan (ran a promo with 25 connections wide open), and to me if I use 10 or 25 connections there is not that much difference in download speed for me, and It is higher than 80mbps(the plan is still open bandwidth) depending on what binary group it is being downloaded from changes the speed it is showing on the program(Alt Binz), but I have never come close in maxing out my ISP speeds (250Mbps plus). But I am using Alt Binz (yes it is old but I like it), and I have tried other Usenet downloaders and the speeds show they are downloading faster but the time completion is almost the same as the other programs (I still extract manually no auto stuff) it just shows a different download speed, so I could never answer honestly on the true speeds or bandwidth it is using.

And you saying about where the Usenet plants are located(eg. Giganews) do make a difference in the speeds, they never advertise/tell you that, not even in fine print.

And to get the $8 dollar deal with Astra you have to purchase a year of service(normally $12-$15), and as I said to save money in Usenet, and be locked into an unreliable/temperamental service like Usenet, I would never do. Not saying $150 or so isn't a lot but you end up paying more when you are locked into a shitty service, and have to get out or now end up with 3 providers instead of 2 (which they are now recommending 3 anyways to get no loss in downloading).

Again I will ask(nicely), the files your are testing are yours you uploaded, you are still not willing to share on the uploaded locations
So sharing the fruits of 1080p uploads from you are off limits for the regular folks right??
Just mentioning it again because you won't give an answer on that, but you do mention your uploads are more reliable

Shay

[Beck38]

All the files tested were ones I uploaded (to Astra/US, and went through a test routine on all), and if one were 'quick on the draw' the $8/month deal is available 'month to month' when they run (or ran) 'deals'. That's what I'm locked in at, payment through paypal.

All the uploads are properly 'scrambled' (filename as well as rar/passworded) but extremely easy to 'decode' if one has about one nano-watt of brainpower to use. I'm sure you've tripped over all the different 'easy' filename scrambling (reverse letters, you name it), I came up with one that is even easier than that (take the filename and run it through 'the google') and process the download as you normally would and the rar/password (again) becomes very apparent.

Reliable? No more so that anyone else, but I do monitor NZBIndex and Binsearch to see if they capture 100% (or nearly so) of the parts posted, and run download checks on various servers (again, Astra and Giga primarily). I also don't try and 'skimp' on pars, never going below 10% and with smaller rar packages (<10GB) going up to 20%. So it takes an extra few minutes to generate, and a few more to post, no big deal.

In the last 15 years of using Astra, I've caught their plants (both US and EU) 'fading' a good half dozen times, and during the same period caught Giganews once.

This current Astra loss is affecting newer posted items, but I'm re-running a 'long duration' test right now, and it appears that a fairly high loss exists even going back several years, which when I first became away of the problem some 2 months ago, there was a distinct 'cliff' to the loss right around 6+ months previous, where things all of a sudden got very good (<1% errors). Re-running that now is showing upwards of 10% loss on things as far back as 2-3 years, I'm running more tests going back further right now. As always, I test the 'bad' files on Giganews and/or Blocknews, and they come back 100%.

UPDATE:
Every time I've ever seen a large scale 'fade' on any retention (particularly Astra), there has been a 'cliff' point where the fades disappear; at the first week in August, I found that point to be about 5-6 months back of where the fading started, i.e., it started about 2 weeks previous to that August point, and pretty much disappeared by the end of January (2015) and things posted in late 2014 (Nov/Dec) were coming in at near 100%.

That's all gone. Although there are 'good patches' of an occasional fair (<5% corruption) nzb retrieval, going back 4+ years and the majority of files are corrupted to the 15-25+% level. The US plant also appears to not maintain good connectivity, dropping the number of connections you have set (I set the number of connections to 15, which gives me max 100Mb/s, and it drops to as low as 3-4) slowing significantly the throughput.

I think at this point, with my ticket at Astra still open, that I'm moving base operations to Giganews, and folks who aren't 'locked-in' to Astra start seriously thinking about jumping ship.

[shaina]

Beck38...

That is amazing you got a $8 on a monthly basis is amazing.... I think the cheapest I paid was $10(most of them were) and at the time Giga was $15(not unlimited). It was always more than every one else, and if the speeds dropped that bad on Giga it would be fixed fast, and all the years I have used them the speeds have never done that, there was connection problems but once that was fixed the speeds were always consistent, plus I thought it was a scam when Supernews popped up and they were running a greedy launch to get into the price wars, and pick up people from Astra, because there was a period that there takedowns were much less then Giga, but now seeing your testing , I am sticking with Giga and just pick up a offshore account if needed.

But really in your opinion... What really could be causing it?? If the uploader is possibly using Astra to upload to the servers(binary groups), I would assume he can see the files are not complete, and if I remember the good posters would go back and load more par files, so it is funny that it works on some Usenet providers with ease and some, well you showed us that. And some of the regular uploaders must have incredible upload speeds, because they are uploading all the files in minutes....(like open pipe connections up and down). To me I have to say it is strange that it is happening, and I assume the Binary Group is the same for all the providers right??

Again myself being persistent and kind of pushy would you mention the group or the name you are posting with (I do accept PM's ). There just may be a few that are gone from other posters and be nice to get

And again I think it is going to be hard for a lot of people that are locked in or paid for the year in advance, I guess you just have to say bye or keep it as a spare and join one or two more Usenet providers to pick up the slack...and if I was not locked in I would have dropped there ass and moved on to someone else in less than a week of that crap. I refuse to pay money for shitty service no matter what excuse they use. People just forget they can always cancel the new provider and go back anytime they want...

Thanks Beck38

[Beck38]

Several years ago, apparently when Astra was needing some more monthly folks, they'd run the $8/month thing just about every other month. I'll keep it for a bit more time, but more to see what happens in the next 6 months or so.

I've just about come to the conclusion they don't know what's going on, and don't have the smarts to really come to grips with the actual problem. I think that the s/w they are running is old, creaky, and at this point a patchwork of 'fixes' and such, and they've let the folks who were there a bit closer to the start of it all (say, 10+ years ago or so) take a hike, so their possibility in running the problem down is pretty slim at best. I've been on projects with companies that did exactly that (get rid of the older, expensive people and hire folks off the street to do the job) but they ended up redoing their entire system 2-3 years later since all those newbies couldn't tie their shoelaces. The cost, of course, was much greater in the long-run, but the 'executives' that made that initial decision had gotten their bonuses and moved on down the road.

But it does come back and bite them in the rear. From all the complaints here and elsewhere over the last couple of months, Astra may end up really damaging their user-base.

[shaina]

Beck38

It is funny that you would figure with all the competition in this business they would train the front staff to be more helpful and try to resolve problems. It is not like a ISP company that there may be 3-5 choices If!! and that is it, and in those instances I never speak to the first person who answers on the other end. Usually the first thing out of my mouth is hello, confirm my personal information, give my Pin ID(some make and request), and put me right through to retention (cancellation!!), they have all the true deals and power and do care to keep you as a customer by trying to resolve any problems you really have. But that isn't so in Usenet so those front people are the most important, and they are too stupid to realize it.. Oh well, plus I know with some of the providers I used in the past said if you come back within a certain period they will honor your original price you were paying.
For Instance..... I was paying $25 for Giga and they ran a promo on one of the judging sites for $20 , so they dropped my monthly price and game me a few months free, plus if I did leave them for a few months they always reinstated my lowest price, and if they added new features I got those added automatically.

Again I agree with you on Astra, but the problem is it will be too late because of the front people not giving 2 shits if you stay or cancel and the new people in some the positions hired are called lackies and the higher up jobs are consultants paper pushers/ass kissers that have no idea what is going on.

I will tell you a true story that happened this year.... My sons girlfriend just graduated her 4th year of university(graduated computer programing and graphics engineering), she was flown down to Seattle, Amazons Headquarters, and was offered a 2 year contract over $100,000.00 plus moving expenses and bonuses a year without blinking.
You have to ask yourself Why??
It is very simple the older people there have consulting experience to run a project but have no idea what the project is about, call them the paper pushers!!.
Now these young hungry people coming out of university can be molded and at least have knowledge on what is being designed or they can troubleshoot.
She did turn it down because she is now doing her Masters, but they said there will be other positions around the world and didn't shut the door on her..

But even the front people that make less have to be motivated to work and if a company doesn't do there homework they are fucked. IBM not long ago just got rid of all the older consultants and project managers (buyouts), because all they did was performance reports and had no clue or knowledge of what the project entails, be it software writing or building a prototype of something. These kids coming out of College and University have more knowledge in 4 years then they had in there lifetime...

I do think Astra will be ok and sooner or later and get there shit together, and they will run a promo out there and get customers back. But I guess time will tell.....

Shay

[stryk]

Holy shit this thread is incredible! I'm kinda sad I only just discovered it, but I don't often visit the forums. Although I ditched Astra several months back (gleefully), this is still a very interesting read.

Beck38, you obviously put in a lot of time & effort on this, thank you for sharing your results.

[Beck38]

Unfortunately, all this kinda happened right in the middle of me moving, so it basically blindsided me when I got things set back up and running (luckily, same ISP although I moved 100+ miles).

Right at the same time Astra took a dump, so did Giganews/Supernews, and as it sits right now none of them (except slight improvement at Supernews) have recovered at all, and Giganews has gotten worse (posted articles begin to degrade at 2 weeks old).

For those who 'look down' at the Highwinds providers (Newshosting through Blocknews et. al.) they are clean as a whistle all the way back to early 2009. So for those who need a good fills provider, there is no better than Blocknews or Usenet-News or any of the Highwinds blocks. For those who can 'jump ship' on Giganews/Astra, there is no better than Newshosting/UNS, although the Newshosting search engine (provided through their own 'Usenet Browser' app, has proved to be better than the 'built in' searcher in UNS. Compares favorably to Giganews' 'Mimo'.

I'll keep a lookout on Giganews/Astraweb to see if they ever improve, but at 3 months into this, it appear they simply don't care.

[St0ry]

Anyone else experiencing severe completion issues with Astra starting a couple days ago? Not a huge issue as I have a fairly reliable EU backup but is significantly slower.

It may be time for me to look into another provider...