missing blocks and different servers

[blazer22]

I just started on usenet by signing up with Astraweb and downloading with Altbinz. It seems when I download older nzb files (200+ days or so) a lot of blocks are missing and the file is unable to be repaired with the par2 files. My question is: If I switch to another one of Astrawebs's servers (they give me 5 or so to choose from), will this have any effect on my file completion?

I suppose I could test it out myself but I'd rather not if it's a waste of time.


Any insights are appreciated.

[Beck38]

Try the Eu/Astraweb if you have missing parts on the US server. Works for me.

[SonsOfLiberty]

That's a rare case where something like that would happen, I'm downloading something that is 398 Days right now and only has like 10 or so missing blocks....so they were probably broken when they first got uploaded.

[blazer22]

Thanks for the input.

FYI I did try a european server and one of the files that was missing around 400 blocks on the U.S. server was able to download and repair with no problem on the europe server. Speeds were slightly slower but not much. THanks again.

[mesaman]

Use a multiserver newsreader and have a 2nd Astraweb server as a backup for the other.

US + US SSL

or

US SSL + EU SSL

etc.

[best]

Use a multiserver newsreader and have a 2nd Astraweb server as a backup for the other.

US + US SSL

or

US SSL + EU SSL

etc.

Thx for the tips

I thought the back up server only works when the first server down not when there is a missing block.

[ericab]

it depends on the client you are using.

not all are created equal :)

[blazer22]

Use a multiserver newsreader and have a 2nd Astraweb server as a backup for the other.

US + US SSL

or

US SSL + EU SSL

etc.

I assume I could do this with Altbinz...correct?

[SonsOfLiberty]

You can have backup servers added with any client.

[mesaman]

I think Grabit is limited in what it can do. It can't be configured to automatically switch to a backup server if the primary server sends "430 No such article". Unfortunately, a lot of people still use Grabit.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Because it's free, but there are other free clients if you do not want to pay, eg... Alt.binz, and SABNZbd to name 2, there are more free ons' can't think of em right off hand, and there are some good pay ones, Newsleecher and Newsbin and I think from appearance and options Usenet Explorer is one of the best.

[zot]

Another thing worth mentioning is that I've found a lot of times the problem with bad completion is not the server itself -- sometimes file corruption occurs during the process of downloading. It has happened to me in the past that in a downloading session nearly every rar would be incomplete. I would try doing different things while re-downloading them. Like changing to a different news client, switching to non-SSL server. Using just one connection. Stopping all other P2P. It often makes a big difference.

Sometimes re-downloading the same file again doing nothing different would get a perfect file the second time.

I also discovered that a poor WI-FI connection will cause incompletes.

[mesaman]

zot, that system sounds like an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot. Antivirus interference, unreliable Wi-Fi connections, pipe saturated by P2P connections...

I can honestly say that if I ever had an incomplete file via newsgroups, I was able to track down the cause, sometimes only by poring over NNTP session log files until my vision got blurry.

[padawan]

I'm trying to grab true.blood.211.720p-dimension and true.blood.210.720p-dimension (both posted by a.b.mm@efnet) off of the us and eu ssl servers of astraweb and almost every file is incomplete (age is under 200days).

If somebody could check and please give me advice on how i can d/l this on SSL, thanks :)

[hdjunky]

I'm trying to grab true.blood.211.720p-dimension and true.blood.210.720p-dimension (both posted by a.b.mm@efnet) off of the us and eu ssl servers of astraweb and almost every file is incomplete (age is under 200days).

If somebody could check and please give me advice on how i can d/l this on SSL, thanks :)


You can't! Astraweb is borked for a lack of better words. There is discussions about it on other sites as well. I think the general consensus is some things/anything over 180 days to 280 days or around there is effed up to the point of no repair. Some have even said anything over 450 days to. I am surprised there is no discussion about it here, but then again, the positive Astraweb force is strong here. :D:whistling

If you really want it and anything else in that date range you will need to get either a separate account to use as a fill account or buy a block account for fills and set it up in your newsreader, a tutorial to set this up shouldnt be hard to find, they have been getting a lot of reading as of late!

[padawan]

cheers. i went with astraweb because everybody and their dog was telling how awesome it is. okay, not everybody :D

gonna try supernews next month, i can live with their lower retention as long as they also provide what they promise

edit:
to clarify:
this is not the first time i came across incompletes and i'm afraid it won't be the last time. if this was the first time or if a few pars could fix it, no problem. one reason i pay for this stuff, i want fire and forget and not to worry about incompletes, no matter which age (as long as within their retention). if another provider can provide me with this, then good for him, i'll gladly switch.

[mesaman]

Maybe that post will cause padawan to 'give up and go back to torrents', I hope not.

On Astraweb, 211.rar is missing 48 of 130 articles or 37%.

Giganews got a DMCA takedown notice for that post. Since Supernews is part of Giganews, the post is probably incomplete on Supernews as well. They remove only the first article of each file, but sometimes there aren't enough recovery blocks posted.

In another thread padawan reveals that the newsreader 'Newsbin Pro' is used.
Read this disgusting topic on the Newsbin Pro board about how the wise(?) programmers stripped away fill servers' ability to only download articles that are missing on the primary server:
http://forums.newsbin.com/viewtopic.php?t=25404

[padawan]

hi mesaman, thank you for your answer. i also found some other threads about this specific problem on google.

i guess i'm gonna get a block-account as hdjunky suggested. is usenet-news a good choice? it seems they are with highwinds and that is different then astraweb, right?

[mesaman]

Highwinds is getting DMCA takedown notices for HBO shows, but so far Blocknews.net doesn't seem to be affected.

[hdjunky]

i guess i'm gonna get a block-account as hdjunky suggested. is usenet-news a good choice? it seems they are with highwinds and that is different then astraweb, right?

Usenetnews is good but a bit more expensive than blocknews i suppose you can not go wrong either way though, but i didnt know that about the HBO shows and highwinds, good to know!



Read this disgusting topic on the Newsbin Pro board about how the wise(?) programmers stripped away fill servers' ability to only download articles that are missing on the primary server:
http://forums.newsbin.com/viewtopic.php?t=25404

That is ridiculous and a very needed feature in a news reader now a days. Why would they take it out is beyond me!

[SonsOfLiberty]

I'm trying to grab true.blood.211.720p-dimension and true.blood.210.720p-dimension (both posted by a.b.mm@efnet) off of the us and eu ssl servers of astraweb and almost every file is incomplete (age is under 200days).

If somebody could check and please give me advice on how i can d/l this on SSL, thanks :)

Have you tried it with the other servers? The NON-SSL ones?

[padawan]

yeah tried. no luck

[zot]

zot, that system sounds like an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot. Antivirus interference, unreliable Wi-Fi connections, pipe saturated by P2P connections...

I can honestly say that if I ever had an incomplete file via newsgroups, I was able to track down the cause, sometimes only by poring over NNTP session log files until my vision got blurry.

No not really, I just like to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat sometimes. ...</p>

Since I keep several block accounts (using different backend servers), any incompletes I ever run into can easily be fixed, and simply setting up a newsreader that supports secondary fill servers will mean I'll never even know that incompletes ever happened. :)

From what I've seen, Usenet Explorer is one newsreader that appears to have the best and most advanced fill-server setup, as it lets you prioritize all the servers. Although several other newsreaders have backup-server capability, I don't know of any that let you set up a "backup-to-a-backup", as UE does. For instance, having the US server as 1st priority, letting the EU server be the first backup, and in case the article is incomplete there also, using a block account from another provider as the 3rd (backup) server.

[mesaman]

Astraweb has fixed their completion issues.

[padawan]

yep, they did indeed ! nice :D
astraweb 100% recommended by me now :D

[hidalgo]

I confirm, issues with incompletes seems to have been nicely fixed or well improved!

[SonsOfLiberty]

:lol: people are saying it's a fluke, people are still having issues, here and there, I tested one NZB that I tried the other day that was bad and it was good.....today.

Although many people have told me it depends on the day/time you download, seems some people just deleted what had download (most of the time a couple RARS) and re-loaded the NZB and worked, go figure.

It must have been a top-secret problem...no news about it, or they read forums like "ours" :lol:

http://helpdesk.astraweb.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=view

[padawan]

It must have been a top-secret problem...no news about it, or they read forums like "ours" :lol:

actually i wrote them a support ticket about my download troubles yesterday and they told me they would look into it :D

astraweb, i'm gladly suprised :fst: