Stupid runs Rampant (Got a Better Idea?)

[Beck38]

Followers here will remember the Giganews screw-ups of a few weeks ago (repeated twice, I guess for 'effect'), where they (for still reasons unknown) changed their peering tables to move this Russian outfit (neva.ru) as their primary feed. That lasted both times for a few days before someone got their head screwed back on straight, and it took several days to 'back-fill' all the messages they had missed in the interim.

Since the last 'off the tracks' operation (and changing their peering back to Astraweb and other US-based plants) things have been running pretty smooth there.

Well, I guess maybe someone somewhere would have to copy their screw-up, and in picking around today (okay, I was actually doing some re-testing of the latest Astra screw-up, and decided to...) check out readnews, which is marketed under the Blocknews and Usenet-news 'names'.

Well, right in the middle of it (is IS Monday, time for idiot operators to swap things around) they changed their peering to.... you guessed it, neva.ru. As a result (and yes, I've checked), they are transmitting all that is being posted to all of their servers out through these ruskies. Where, of course, it appears to be 'stuck' and not propagating out.

So, if you posted anything on a readnews server from around 6 or so hours ago, I'd be checking to see it it actually propagated to anywhere else.

Like I said, I usually don't check these folks for much, but geeze, you'd think they might have notied the Giganews screw-up and made a mental note NOT to have anything to do with the ruskies.

Guess not.

Like I said, I posted some test transmissions, and will continue to check to see if it ever gets out of being 'locked' and failing to propagate. For posters, you should all be checking your transmissions on a server NOT your posting one, and you'll pretty quickly note that things have gone 'off-track'. Maybe at some point it'll get 'flushed out', and I'll amend this notice then.

[PastTense]

Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Or have things really changed in the last few years? I was under the impression that major sites peered with a large number of other sites--so that there are multiple paths both to send and receive posts.

[Beck38]

Theoretically... but think for a minute. You have, I'll assume, multiple servers set up in your news program (primary, several secondaries, etc.).

Usenet is a digital bucket brigade. Server plants are set up with primary peers, secondary peers. Yes, if things get 'stuck' somewhere, eventually (hopefully) it will get propagated through some secondary routing, x hours/days/weeks later.

Say someone uploads a small message, or a large multi-part binary. Now if that single message, or bits and pieces of that large binary 'go missing', what you get (as a receiver) is nothing (on the small message) or 'fades' on the multi-part binary. You d/l, and if you have gotten enough pars to repair it, off you go, or there aren't enough, and you're stuck. You d/l it 2 days later, and there are zero errors. What the **** happened?

Well, the primary peering failed. Something eventually came through on the secondary route. Now, most (!?!) operators put the major servers as their primary, like Astra puts Giga, Giga puts Astra, etc., simply because they are (generally) generating the most posting traffic. Next time you d/l something, check the routing table (at the top of the header in your news reader, hopefully) and take a look at the route the thing took.

However, lazy (my term) operators put their plant into 'auto' mode when it comes to setting up peering, so that as traffic changes, they change with it, or that's the 'theory'. Then you get some plant out there that floods usenet with tons and tons of, for want of a better word, CRAP, and your automated peerage goes and changes to them. Great. So now you've linked up with the world's biggest spam and CRAP generator as it's main peer; a peer, I might add, that takes (at best) a lackadaisical effort toward actually forwarding traffic received from you.

Now, USENET has always been a 'best effort' bucket brigade, but they stretch 'best effort' to the breaking point. After all, their main thing is to pump out all the spam and CRAP as fast as possible and the **** with everything else.

But if you take a look at any of the USENET traffic monitors, they do some heavily slinging. Good operators (I have my doubts any are really left) would, if they put their systems into 'Auto', would put those plants into a 'do not use' file.

Well, it kind of looks like Usenet-News has fairly quickly figured out they messed up. Maybe. Now I'll take a look in a day or so and see if my 'test posts' ever get propagated through the secondary peers. Not holding my breath, but who knows.

[sandman_1]

In the Netherlands, they have peering at the NLIX. It is network strictly for Usenet and all the major providers use it. It is called NextFeed. So anything uploaded to the major players also gets uploaded to the others almost Instantly.

[Hypatia]

Beck, poke these idiots! Send them email or something ;)

[Beck38]

I should have when I first noticed it (early Monday) but waited until late Tuesday to open a ticket.

I had sent many 'test' messages to see how (or really, if) it propagated, and out of a good two dozen, one did; so it was intermittent (but mostly down).

About right after I opened a ticket at Blocknews (okay, 2-3 hours + later) it started working, where all my test posts got through (to GN and Astra). What was 'interesting' was that the posts weren't even showing up on their own server/newsgroup, even through I got a 'post accepted okay' message from my news client.

They never stopped bringing 'stuff' inbound, it was only things posted on the readnews plat that never got out. As far as I know, it's still stuck in there as it hasn't shown up anywhere (so far). Doubt that it will.

This is something I've only seen on the Readnews plant maybe twice before, in the last 5+ years I can remember back. I don't think many use them to post with, but some do, Hopefully, like I said, they 'monitor' there traffic from another server to make sure it's being propagated.

[Hypatia]

When I sometimes post via blocknews I tend to get stupid 404 posting not allowed error.

Usually it takes several minutes to start getting this message.

I remember sending them a ticket back then, they supposedly fixed it. Several days ago I had to upload some stuff via BN and I saw this error again. it doesn't slow down upload by much, but still.

Posting on my account is allowed.

[Beck38]

I usually/sometimes post to readnews EU (small stuff) simply because the dutch instituted a main propagation plant many years ago, and things tend to get out to everyone fairly quickly, as opposed to the US where it's sometimes hit or miss. That's how I found out this recent 'off the tracks'. But it seems to be working okay now.

I sometimes get this 'upload not allowed' error but it goes away upon 'retrying'. I guess for the amount of data posted, that it's really working 'most of the time'; given that several TB/month I run into maybe one good screw-up in that month. Still....

[mjmacky]

Find and post child pornography if you're trying to grab the attention of the host. You're welcome for the brilliant idea.