Astraweb's slowdowns & propagation issues in the evening (GMT)

[Hypatia]

Has anyone else been experiencing slowdowns and propagations issues in the evening(GMT time)? On all servers, though ssl ones are a bit better in terms of speed during peak usage times..It has been happening for several months now starting from the day when shit hit the fan on the AW's side we all remember that..it got better since that day but these issues are still unresolved though its nothing like it was back then

When i switch to giganews everything is fine, they ve been rock solid so far..

I autodownload lots of scene stuff via watch filters and got 50mbit line so any problem is easily noticed.
What i see is noticeable slowdowns+ uploaded stuff get processed really slow by their servers.

Once i had to wait up to 20 minutes to get it all completed and get it without article not found errors..
....

[sandman_1]

No problems here with downloading. Once the connections settle down, I usually get 18-19.2Mbps consistantly on a 18Mbps line. Now I can't say anything about uploading because I rarely do that.

[Funkin']

I never have any problems either. Although I don't have a whole lot left on my current block account, so I don't use Astraweb as much as I used to. But I did just use it a couple night ago and my speed was maxed.

[Beck38]

Since I have the 'hammer' down on US-SSL.Astraweb to the tune of some 15GB/day.... no.

Which server are you using (I'll figure Amsterdam?), and have you done a traceroute study as to the path from you to the server...?

There was a bit of a wobble a week or two ago on the US server, but at the same time the EU one was rock steady; then things cleared up and have been fine since.

[Hypatia]

Beck38

As ive mentioned ive tried all of them.. SSL ones are the least of all affected.(general and european)

The issues are there unfortunately. Others people from other forums have noticed it as well...
But u need a good connection 50-100 mbit to notice it,since mentioned 18 mbit doesnt cut it.
and to be able to monitor all this when it happens. And it does.

As for propagation issues considering uploaded stuff its very clear if u use headers. Throughout the day its OK then at a certain hours it starts to fail.SOmetimes the "fail" is so severe it requires repost.
Though if you try fresh nzb at a peak usage time then ull get articles "not found too"///
The period is somewhat short(usually about an hour or even less, sometimes a bit more) in terms of 24 hours day, but its there.

[juo100]

Hyptia long time RSS subscriber first time poster :P

Unlike other posters here I also notice Astraweb will sometimes slow down in the evening, however it is hard for me to work out if its my ISP or Astraweb, however I think sometimes its a bit of both, obviously when I change my port from SSL to 8080 its my ISP, but sometimes ill change the port (or not have downloaded more than my ISP limits me before they cap my connection) and Astraweb will still run slowly.

Im on a 50MBps connection.

Unfortunately I havnt had a chance to test with another provider yet but im thinking about getting a block account with another provider in the New Year.

[Beck38]

The number of folks with the access to speeds that high are around .0001% of the US internet population (My math may be off, but no more than 1 million 'potential' folks). About 10% have access to around 10mb/s downstream, and about 10% of those actually are able to pay for it (so, 1% total). This is the result of the 'free market'. Current FedGov 'goal' is to get 4Mb/s to the entire country by around 2014. (note this is BITS, not BYTES). Then again, I continually have to remind folks that the US land area exceeds the whole of Europe from London to Moscow, with large tracts with the population density of Siberia.

But I monitor 3-4 providers while uploading through Astraweb (server closest to me), and at my slow-ass (to you) speed, propagation is 100% to Giganews and others. But I'm 'lucky' that I have DOCSIS3 speeds. If I lived about 3 miles away, I'd be on FIOS with triple the speed (up and down), for the same price, but they are (according to all local reports) driving that system into the ground with poor maintenance and almost monthly price hikes. So... I 'guess' these would be 'nice' problems to have, but I currently don't have any of them, and I watch things like a hawk.

[sandman_1]

Hyptia long time RSS subscriber first time poster :P

Unlike other posters here I also notice Astraweb will sometimes slow down in the evening, however it is hard for me to work out if its my ISP or Astraweb...


It is most likely your ISP that is throttling NNTP traffic. One of the reasons for using SSL, is not only for security purposes, but also to bypass throttling by an ISP.

[Hypatia]

Oh well.. as for me ive resolved Aw's upload's processing problems quite simply - i got mysef $5 giganews account lol

So, now for $16 a month i got AW for downloads(i'll bear for a while with those issues, besides they dont last long) and my uploads will be always processed as fast as they should with no incompletes whatsoever 24h\day..
And incoming\outcoming connections dont affect each other. Simultaneous upload+download =)
cheers


It is most likely your ISP that is throttling NNTP traffic
No offence, sandman, but ive heard so many times this line you've just put
And it always makes me wonder on the nature of mysterious NNTP throttling where giganews isnt affected yet AW is.
the ways of NNTP are inscrutable
=)

[sandman_1]

It is most likely your ISP that is throttling NNTP traffic
No offence, sandman, but ive heard so many times this line you've just put
And it always makes me wonder on the nature of mysterious NNTP throttling where giganews isnt affected yet AW is.
the ways of NNTP are inscrutable
=)

True, I would admit. However it could be your ISP throttling any traffic during peak hours such as the evening. The crux of the problem, is that I am not having issues, downloading mostly, and you are. So I would assume it is something related to your ISP that is causing the issues. Who is your ISP by the way if you don't mind me asking?

[hdjunky]

Oh well.. as for me ive resolved Aw's upload's processing problems quite simply - i got mysef $5 giganews account lol
=)

Instead of paying them per month you could just get a blocknews account and pay only once ($3 or whatever it is). The block accounts come with unlimited uploading anyways so you will basically have a block account that will never expire.

[Hypatia]

I decided to give it another try with AW in terms of uploading stuff to usenet.
.Oh, boy, i should have done it Blazing fast speeds when uploading- yes..But later on...
I uploaded yet another part of a certain siterip and at the end AW fucked up several posts really badly at the point where repair was pointless. And it wasnt propagation issue.. Just plain fucked up articles.

Switched to my $5 giganews account and it worked as expected..

well,nothing extraordinary. i saw several times guys from EFnet reposting fucked up uploads. though they were not so lucky- it was BDrips lol..
im just glad i didnt post a bluray as i planned lol

AW is OK for downloading stuff, If you upload a LOT then get $5 giganews account

PS


(490 parts, 130 missing)
(477 parts, 140 missing)
(611 parts, 243 missing)

way to go, AW! =)

[anon-y-mouse]

AW is OK for downloading stuff, If you upload a LOT then get $5 giganews account



upload with giganews expect dcma emails i got one for a cover to a game

[Hypatia]

if you are smart you dont get them at all

[sandman_1]

I decided to give it another try with AW in terms of uploading stuff to usenet.
.Oh, boy, i should have done it Blazing speeds when uploading- yes..But later on...
I uploaded yet another part of a certain siterip and at the end AW fucked up several posts really badly at the point where repair was pointless. And it wasnt propagation issue.. Just plain fucked up articles.

Switched to my $5 giganews account and it worked as expected..

well,nothing extraordinary. i saw several times guys from EFnet reposting fucked up uploads. though they were not so lucky- it was BDrips lol..
im just glad i didnt post a bluray as i planned lol

AW is OK for downloading stuff, If you upload a LOT then get $5 giganews account

PS


(490 parts, 130 missing)
(477 parts, 140 missing)
(611 parts, 243 missing)

way to go, AW! =)

Just curious, what do you use to upload posts?

[Hypatia]

nothing fancy, just plain simple and efficient camelsystem powerpost

[sandman_1]

nothing fancy, just plain simple and efficient camelsystem powerpost

I have heard people having issues with Powerpost and Astraweb. I just used Newsbin Pro and uploaded 700MB+ complete. Have you tried another posting program? Maybe Easy Usenet Uploader?

[Hypatia]

EUA and JbinUp dont max out my connection for some reason

Jbinup with 20 connections shows 3+MB(same applies to EUA) while Camel uploads up to 5-6MB with only 12 connections
Besides, i experienced this issue long time ago when i used EUA too. There was a period when AW was really terrible at some point

As for newsreaders they are not made for proper large uploads imho.Because its not their primary function.
i tried once NBPro as an upload tool and didnt like it.
I dont doubt your experience with 700mb upload. Its not like every AW upload turns out to be screwed up, you know. The point is your never know when it hits you =(

[sandman_1]

EUA and JbinUp dont max out my connection for some reason

Jbinup with 20 connections shows 3+MB(same applies to EUA) while Camel uploads up to 5-6MB with only 12 connections
Besides, i experienced this issue long time ago when i used EUA too. There was a period when AW was really terrible at some point

As for newsreaders they are not made for proper large uploads imho.Because its not their primary function.
i tried once NBPro as an upload tool and didnt like it.
I dont doubt your experience with 700mb upload. Its not like every AW upload turns out to be screwed up, you know. The point is your never know when it hits you =(

In the Newsbin Pro forums, there are a couple of people complaining about upload problems with Powerpost and Astraweb in the Astraweb forums. I take you have contacted Astraweb for an explanation? What did they say?

[Hypatia]

I might be mistaken but it seems that reducing posting lines from 5000 to 3000 and par2 block size from 640000 to 384000 accordingly has helped but i cant be sure of course..
We'll see how it is gonna work out.

[sandman_1]

I might be mistaken but it seems that reducing posting lines from 5000 to 3000 and par2 block size from 640000 to 384000 accordingly has helped but i cant be sure of course..
We'll see how it is gonna work out.


This a quote from Stevef, an official Astraweb support guy for the Newsbin forums.


Re: Am I alone on uploading problems ?

Post by stevef » Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:55 pm

If people have problems uploading, then they should submit a ticket describing the problem.
I've seen a few reports on forums about upload issues, none of which give any details of how they're uploading, what software they're using to upload, or anything useful to diagnose any problem. It could very well be a problem with the uploader. There's just not enough info to know. Unless we see ticket submissions about uploading problems, then there is no problem.

I should note that the problems mentioned in this thread have been looked into and dealt with. Any uploading problems mentioned on other forums are the ones I'm referring to about not providing more info.

[Hypatia]

Anyways, today in the evening slow processing of uploaded stuff issue hit AW servers yet again and it was exactly during that time when speed slow down happened.
switched to giga - maxed out my connection again
On the bright side it seems these 2 issues have started hitting AW servers less often than they used to

[sandman_1]

You never answered my question so I assume that you never have contacted Astraweb and tried to resolve your problem. How are they going to fix something for you if you won't tell them what's going on?

[Hypatia]

I sent them 2 emails about slow processing of uploaded stuff in the evening and kinda slow speeds at that period. They told me nothing worth mentioning and didnt even bothered to include in their reply about slow processing of uploaded stuff issue.
I can live with speed slow down besides i've just read that there are some problems with major ISP "pipes" out there here due to the weather conditions affecting our speed to the foreign resources , but slow processing of uploaded stuff issue isnt covered by this. Its their problem. And since they dont wanna talk about ot i assume they know about it as well.

[mesaman]

I believe Steve Foster is more than an official support guy. He might be one or more of the folllowing: Astraweb founder/owner/operator/manager/CTO

[Hypatia]

ive just come back home,

Very bad propagation and processing of the uploaded posts is happening right now


GMT 7:15 PM Tuesday 28 December

TEST # 1
Size 800mb p
Upload Age: 10 min



Parts checked: 1085
Undownloadable parts: 142
13,09% of the data can't be downloaded!


TEST #2

Size: 800mb
Upload Age: 50 min


Still processing.... looks like 90% loss of data yet headers show the whole 800mb file size



Parts checked: 1081
Undownloadable parts: 1018
94,17% of the data can't be downloaded!

Yep. Its official. AW has just completely fucked up 800mb post.


[B]GMT 8:20 PM Tuesday 28 December

Extremely slow processing of uploads and propagation issue have disappeared


Totally unacceptable
If the size of the upload is larger for instance in case of BDRip than its even worse

Giganews doesnt have this issue.

AW has it in the evening.Its Ok during the night, day and morning

[Beck38]

You never did post a tracert listing from you to astraweb, so really nobody has any kind of idea as to what is going on with your link.

Because, during the last 48+ hours, I've uploaded over 50GB to Astraweb (with JBinup using SSL through a VPN service), with ZERO loss or hiccups of any kind to the four servers I monitor for propagation, including GN US/Eur.

So....

[Hypatia]

You never did post a tracert listing from you to astraweb,

no offence, but what ru smoking m8?
there is nothing going on with MY link

propagation issues and slowed upload processing(not just my uploads, all EFnet uploads, everything that is posted during these hours through certain servers) have nothing to do with "tracert" and the information it provides or the LINK itself.
you should know what "article not found" means and what it has to do with THEIR servers not my link.
and u do know how to use headers to monitor your uploads in real time

It has everything to do with their servers being overloaded at this time

There are a number of posts really screwed up today in the evening from different EFnet release teams(for instance efnet Howl 720p amiable)
Deal with it.

The fact is: AW has propagation and slow upload processing issues in the evening. The rest of the day is just fine

My tracert information hasnt changed a bit since the day when i subscribed and when everything was fine and starting from the day when shit hit the fan.


PS

news.astraweb.com

Several uploads from the period of time when shit starts from EFNet Team:

efnet howl 720p amiable


Parts checked: 8424
Undownloadable parts: 2107
25,01% of the data can't be downloaded!


cic-tbalcua


Parts checked: 1083
Undownloadable parts: 100
9,23% of the data can't be downloaded!

cic-tbalcub
cic-tbalcuc

didnt bother to wait till everything is checked out- more than 20 rar files are completely missing


nympho-rrla.cd1

Parts checked: 1085
Undownloadable parts: 34
3,13% of the data can't be downloaded!



and so on and so on.
i just dont have time to do all the dirty work just to prove that is a given FACT

[Beck38]

blah blah blah

Again, obviously it's something with your setup, link, isp, etc. I have NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER with Astraweb. And, if there were problems, I'm sure that there would be tons of folks complaining all over the place, on other boards, and their aren't. That's the big clue as to where the problem lies.

I guess you can keep complaining, but.. until you do some basic troubleshooting, I don't think you'll get very far.

[Hypatia]

blah blah blah

Again, obviously it's something with your setup


folks are complaningon the other forums.
and since the issues take place only within several hours in the evening when majority work. and majority download via nzbs after half an hour approximately after the upload is done or so... do i need to spell the obvious, AW troll?

blab bla bla on the facts of numerous screwed on the SERVER side uploads and visible slowed processing. haha

learn to read and train ur brain, AW fanboy, obviously there is something seriously wrong with ur understanding and logic and also knowledge of how things work.
But i shouldnt be surprised judging by ur utterly stupid suggestion considering tracert on a matter of article not found from all AW servers..


until you do some basic troubleshooting

ive done all the troubleshooting lo.l there are no "trouble@ here, m8

folks from efnet acknowledge the problem

dont take me for a guy like you who doesnt know his way around these matters.

Jerk off on AW till you feel like cuming, mon ami

DIXI


PS Moderators, please, close the thread. I dont need any more bloody stupid morons coming in here
Nowadays they dont teach fucking kids anything anymore.. tracert my ass

[sandman_1]

@Hypatia

:blink: Wow

[heiska]

folks are complaningon the other forums.
and since the issues take place only within several hours in the evening when majority work. and majority download via nzbs after half an hour approximately after the upload is done or so... do i need to spell the obvious, AW troll?

blab bla bla on the facts of numerous screwed on the SERVER side uploads and visible slowed processing. haha

learn to read and train ur brain, AW fanboy, obviously there is something seriously wrong with ur understanding and logic and also knowledge of how things work.
But i shouldnt be surprised judging by ur utterly stupid suggestion considering tracert on a matter of article not found from all AW servers..


until you do some basic troubleshooting

ive done all the troubleshooting lo.l there are no "trouble@ here, m8

folks from efnet acknowledge the problem

dont take me for a guy like you who doesnt know his way around these matters.

Jerk off on AW till you feel like cuming, mon ami

DIXI


PS Moderators, please, close the thread. I dont need any more bloody stupid morons coming in here
Nowadays they dont teach fucking kids anything anymore.. tracert my ass

http://i51.tinypic.com/f77d3.jpg

[Cabalo]

@Hypatia, would you calm down?

The thing is, the last time I had something similar to what you are describing, was actually a problem on my ISP. Weird, no ?
But it all got sorted out in a week or so.

Maybe that's the case, maybe that's not. But one thing is for sure, sooner or later that problem will go away.

[Hypatia]

ASTRAWEB CONFIRMED PROBLEMS AND FIXED IT (for now)

Well..... unlike others who sit on their fat arses and bullshit honest people that everything is OK with AW I contacted the representative of AW on newsbin forums yesterday , presented him the information and the timeframe when shit happens usually, and he acknowledged the problem
.

We made some changes. Let us know if anything is different.
...
It was some changes specific to the software we are using.


So...

SUCK IT UP, BITCHES. :lol:


PS it seems now it is really OK.
For now

[SonsOfLiberty]

ASTRAWEB CONFIRMED PROBLEMS AND FIXED IT (for now)

Well..... unlike others who sit on their fat arses and bullshit honest people that everything is OK with AW I contacted the representative of AW on newsbin forums yesterday , presented him the information and the timeframe when shit happens usually, and he acknowledged the problem
.

We made some changes. Let us know if anything is different.
...
It was some changes specific to the software we are using.


So...

SUCK IT UP, BITCHES. :lol:


PS it seems now it is really OK.
For now


Honestly you making much of nothing here, it's common knowledge that this happens every month with Astraweb, shit happens, and next be smart about posting to Giganews? It does't really matter they still find posts, most people like to post for the people not some hidden random shit that only certain people can find, hell I posted someting via Astraweb and someone got a DMCA via Giganews and it wasn't me :P

I've been posted for 2+ years via Astra and have not had any issues, just some caused by my ISP.

The biggest point I think I seen you describing is the "EFNET" people, the EFNET people aren't people at ALL (sure there are fillers but mainly it's bots), but merely nice IRC bots that we/they have. So, the fucked up posts are not a issue since the files can reposted in a matter of seconds. Why sure it's a annoyance, but since Astrawb is NOT US based like Giganews they are rarely affected by DMCA, unless you count Super Mario Brothers for the Wii :)

[sandman_1]

ASTRAWEB CONFIRMED PROBLEMS AND FIXED IT (for now)

Well..... unlike others who sit on their fat arses and bullshit honest people that everything is OK with AW I contacted the representative of AW on newsbin forums yesterday , presented him the information and the timeframe when shit happens usually, and he acknowledged the problem
.

We made some changes. Let us know if anything is different.
...
It was some changes specific to the software we are using.

So...

SUCK IT UP, BITCHES. :lol:


PS it seems now it is really OK.
For now

Wait are you telling me that actual troubleshooting with a Astraweb Rep fixed your problem? Isn't that what I said to do? :huh:

Also other people might of been fine uploading stuff but that doesn't mean they are wrong and you are right or vice versa.

[Beck38]

Also other people might of been fine uploading stuff but that doesn't mean they are wrong and you are right or vice versa.

At the end of the day, it most probably is a case of the tail wagging the dog, i.e., the provider 'tweaked' their system to accommodate the users s/w, h/w, isp, etc. Throughout it all, the vast number of users saw absolutely nothing going 'off the rails' while they 'crammed and grabbed' (uploaded/downloaded) at will, at the max their link would support.

I went back over my logs of the last 3 days, and found that during uploading over 100GB while downloading 25GB, I encountered one (1) semi-unrecoverable error (uploading), that was eventually recovered by the s/w (JBinUp), with 100% propagation to Giganews, Blocknews, and others. Zero on the downloading (error free, pars not needed).

It may have something to do with the s/w, i.e., JBinUp. Although when it first came out, although it had myriad problems with Astraweb, several fixes made it (at least for me) a very super-stable up-loader. If someone is still using a non-error-correcting program (like Power-Post or any of the clones), they might take a good hard look at it. The only problem I see with it is (at present), if the link to the server is particularly long or has large delay's/hops (like going half-way across the globe), it still can have problems.

But that is doing some extensive testing on it, from someone who ran a usenet server plant for close to three years, not to mention going all the way back to my Signal Corps days when the DCA took over Arpanet in the mid-70's.

At some point, if the folks running the plants take their eyes off the ball (while upgrading or whatever), there may be some serious problems, like circa late 2008 when it seemed everyone was while upgrading their plants to 'never rolling anything off' their servers. But that hasn't happened yet, as far as I can see.