Giganews is really starting to piss me off

[mbucari1]

Lately I've been trying to download articles above 200 days will very little luck. many of the groups' retention is BELOW 200 days! For example, a.b.e-book.technical only lists headers up to 195 days!! When giganews advertises 240 days, do they mean 240 days for their most popular groups only? If so, their "popular" list must be pretty short considering the previously mentioned group has over 2 million headers!

Anyone else experience this?

[sassan]

I was in the same boat as you and I decided to go to astraweb and never been happier. Get the 11$ unlimited plan

[Broken]

I was having problems with incompletes form giganews a few months ago.
I was pissed off, astraweb was cheap and worth a try, never looked back.

Excellent service, bargain basement prices.


**edit**
i really need to change my sig.

[Beck38]

It's all very newsgroup specific/

When I first noticed it getting really bad about a month or so ago, I did several tests and such; being a bit a an anal retentive kinda person, I save the nzb's I download in a particular folder on my hard drive, and I went back and did some 'tests'.

One of the things I have access to because I use News Rover, is a special server at Giganews, that allows searching for (and nzb packing of), retrieved file parts.

So, I found that many newsgroups were not only not anywhere near the xxx days advertised, but, even worse, had 'gaps' in their coverage, so to speak. I found where in some groups, upwards of 2-3 days of files would be missing; a good example would be a multi-part nzb where rar 1-50 would be there, then 51-130 would be missing, and then 131-179 would exist. Neat, uh?

Although I'd been using GN for well over 3 year without complaint, I too moved to Astraweb (back 'in the day' of chasing fills I had used them). And, the $11/month unlimited deal was just too good to pass up. Luckily, I still had a few bytes left on one of those old 'fill' block accounts, and used it beforehand to do some 'due diligence'.

They are great. Not looking back.

[Skiz]

Lately I've been trying to download articles above 200 days will very little luck. many of the groups' retention is BELOW 200 days! For example, a.b.e-book.technical only lists headers up to 195 days!! When giganews advertises 240 days, do they mean 240 days for their most popular groups only? If so, their "popular" list must be pretty short considering the previously mentioned group has over 2 million headers!

Anyone else experience this?


Honestly, there could be a dozen reason why.

Have you tried simply sending a respectful email to their tech support regarding that particular file? Their tech support typically replies almost immediately.

[SonsOfLiberty]

One of the things I have access to because I use News Rover, is a special server at Giganews, that allows searching for (and nzb packing of), retrieved file parts.
.

Hmmm, so does Newsleecher :) Because the "supersearch" uses that server :pinch:

[mbucari1]

OK, I submitted a ticket to giganews. But at this point I see no reason to stick with GN. I'll wait for their response before I sign up with AW, but I honestly don't know what they could say/do to keep me as a customer.

UPDATE* Here's the response from their tech support



We can confirm that our retention has indeed dipped below 240 days due to
recent heavy posting. Retention is influenced by the vagaries of posting
on Usenet, over which we have no control. The numbers will fluctuate as a
natural consequence. If posting is less heavy in the coming days, you'll
see that number climb. Of course, we are committed to improving our service
all the time. You can expect to see even more service improvements in the
future.

To find out the current Retention of a group you may search the groups we
carry by group name or keyword here:

http://www.giganews.com/newsgroup_search.html

This will find the group and let you know the current retention of the
group. Also please note that retention will vary by group.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please let us know if we
can answer any further questions at all for you.

I understand what their saying, but don't you think that they should be prepared for a flood of posts and have auxiliary storage system in place to keep retention as close to what they advertise as possible? 80% of what they advertise is pretty bad IMO.


So as astraweb's retention grows to 270 days will users be able to download increasingly older files, or will the retention available to users suddenly jump to 270 when their upgrade is complete?

[EyeBaller]

UPDATE* Here's the response from their tech support



To find out the current Retention of a group you may search the groups we
carry by group name or keyword here:

http://www.giganews.com/newsgroup_search.html

This will find the group and let you know the current retention of the
group. Also please note that retention will vary by group.



From a few quick searches there, seems as though most groups are listed as 190+ days retention.. that's well below the 240 advertised, and only 10 more than Astraweb's current retention.. IMO no reason to stay with giganews at this time.

[Skiz]

OK, I submitted a ticket to giganews. But at this point I see no reason to stick with GN. I'll wait for their response before I sign up with AW, but I honestly don't know what they could say/do to keep me as a customer.

UPDATE* Here's the response from their tech support



We can confirm that our retention has indeed dipped below 240 days due to
recent heavy posting. Retention is influenced by the vagaries of posting
on Usenet, over which we have no control. The numbers will fluctuate as a
natural consequence. If posting is less heavy in the coming days, you'll
see that number climb. Of course, we are committed to improving our service
all the time. You can expect to see even more service improvements in the
future.

To find out the current Retention of a group you may search the groups we
carry by group name or keyword here:

http://www.giganews.com/newsgroup_search.html

This will find the group and let you know the current retention of the
group. Also please note that retention will vary by group.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please let us know if we
can answer any further questions at all for you.

I understand what their saying, but don't you think that they should be prepared for a flood of posts and have auxiliary storage system in place to keep retention as close to what they advertise as possible? 80% of what they advertise is pretty bad IMO.


So as astraweb's retention grows to 270 days will users be able to download increasingly older files, or will the retention available to users suddenly jump to 270 when their upgrade is complete?


Interesting. If I were you, I would send an email to Astraweb, quoting what Giganews has sent you and ask if you will get similar results with their service as well, asking for specifics.

[erRor67]

OK, I submitted a ticket to giganews. But at this point I see no reason to stick with GN. I'll wait for their response before I sign up with AW, but I honestly don't know what they could say/do to keep me as a customer.

UPDATE* Here's the response from their tech support



We can confirm that our retention has indeed dipped below 240 days due to
recent heavy posting. Retention is influenced by the vagaries of posting
on Usenet, over which we have no control. The numbers will fluctuate as a
natural consequence. If posting is less heavy in the coming days, you'll
see that number climb. Of course, we are committed to improving our service
all the time. You can expect to see even more service improvements in the
future.

To find out the current Retention of a group you may search the groups we
carry by group name or keyword here:

http://www.giganews.com/newsgroup_search.html

This will find the group and let you know the current retention of the
group. Also please note that retention will vary by group.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please let us know if we
can answer any further questions at all for you.

I understand what their saying, but don't you think that they should be prepared for a flood of posts and have auxiliary storage system in place to keep retention as close to what they advertise as possible? 80% of what they advertise is pretty bad IMO.


So as astraweb's retention grows to 270 days will users be able to download increasingly older files, or will the retention available to users suddenly jump to 270 when their upgrade is complete?

Astraweb's retention is growing one day at a time. Their retention is growing in that they arent deleting anything right now. They are not going to recover deleted articles. Right now its around 180 days. So in 90 days it should be around 270.

[sdwillie]

Astraweb's retention is growing one day at a time. Their retention is growing in that they arent deleting anything right now. They are not going to recover deleted articles. Right now its around 180 days. So in 90 days it should be around 270.

Astraweb will probably run into the same issue Giganews found, namely that their expansion model doesn't account for a sufficient increase in uploads, so it's probably going to take more than 90 days. Right now the biggest difference in retention between Giganews and Astraweb is that Astra delivers what they claim, while Giganews still claims 240 even though they deliver no more than Astra.

[sassan]

Right now I can download files that are as old as 191 days :)

[skindogg]

I'd switch to astra but it doesn't look like they have SSL, unless i'm not seeing it offered. Anyone know if they plan on offering it?

My damn ISP (TWC) started 'optimizing' news traffic during peak times, which is all day every day. gg.

EDIT: nvm it looks like it's included. i can't afford not to switch.

[dutchmaster420]

I'd switch to astra but it doesn't look like they have SSL, unless i'm not seeing it offered. Anyone know if they plan on offering it?

My damn ISP (TWC) started 'optimizing' news traffic during peak times, which is all day every day. gg.

EDIT: nvm it looks like it's included. i can't afford not to switch.


Its right on their main page

http://www.news.astraweb.com/

SSL Enabled - SSL Available now on ALL accounts. No extra charges

[tnt]

@skindogg are you blind :unsure:
http://www.news.astraweb.com/images/main-usenetstats.gif

[cooldude75ph]

I'd switch to astra but it doesn't look like they have SSL, unless i'm not seeing it offered. Anyone know if they plan on offering it?

My damn ISP (TWC) started 'optimizing' news traffic during peak times, which is all day every day. gg.

EDIT: nvm it looks like it's included. i can't afford not to switch.


Its right on their main page

http://www.news.astraweb.com/

SSL Enabled - SSL Available now on ALL accounts. No extra charges

It's one of the pluses that won me over ;)

[Overlord]

I'm pissed off with Giganews, too. If they don't have anywhere near 240 days retention, they should not continue to advertise it, because it's a flat-out lie right now that they have 240 days retention, it's ~210 days tops. I've continuously subscribed to Giganews for almost 10 years now (I signed up in July of 1999) and I'm dumping them as soon as Astranews catches up to Giganews, which would be at the end of my current billing month. There's no reason Giganews can't upgrade their hardware as needed when they're charging $25/mo ($30/mo for ssl).

[premanna]

:mellow: after reading all this i am going to cancel my giganews account(30$) right now and try astra web(11$) for a month :whistling

[dutchmaster420]

giganews better start making some moves...everyone i know who is subscribed with them is jumping ship for astraweb

[Windy72]

giganews better start making some moves...everyone i know who is subscribed with them is jumping ship for astraweb

Jumping ship well that is what pirates do!:frusty:

[abdvdr]

I went to astranews for a few months but came back to giganews because I get a much better ping with fewer jumps and my uploads are significantly faster. Downloads are basically the same, but GN seems a little faster at times. My ping at AN was 85 and GN is 20; uploads at AN 300-350kB but GN its 450-550kB. I wish it didn't cost so much, but I really doubt I'd notice $20 a month.

[vandeth]

I went to astranews for a few months but came back to giganews because I get a much better ping with fewer jumps and my uploads are significantly faster. Downloads are basically the same, but GN seems a little faster at times. My ping at AN was 85 and GN is 20; uploads at AN 300-350kB but GN its 450-550kB. I wish it didn't cost so much, but I really doubt I'd notice $20 a month.

youll notice the $120 a year

[abdvdr]

Actually it would be $240/year. My point is not to be ridiculous about money, but I really do not budget my income with the specificity required to notice $20 in discretionary spending going to X vs. Y.

[sassan]

Did you try diffrent servers? SSL?