Slow and inconsistent speeds with Astraweb

Hi guys,

Sometimes my Usetnet works fine, and others it's like this (check the graph)

http://i49.tinypic.com/2qkv1is.jpg

My connection usually goes at around 280kbps consistently, but sometimes like now it'll go to 60 then 0, then 50 then 0, then 70 then 0 and just repeat, and I have no idea what's causing it or how to fix it - I've disabled Peerblock but had no luck, I've disabled windows firewall etc.

I don't think it's my connection (Entanet) as if I load torrents they're consistent and max out my connection.

Any suggestions would be fantastic, thank you :(

How many connection are you using? If you using max connections that why, use less...

Or try a different client.

I'm using three but just moved it down to 2 and the same problem :(

I think I'm done with Newsgroups anyway unfortunately - way too much hassle, and for example I just downloaded a 5GB HD file (took forever on my connection) and it won't extract because it's missing 7 blocks or something, very frustrating :(

I use Astraweb with no prob. have it set to 5 connections.

did ya use quickpar to fix the blocks? http://www.quickpar.co.uk/ that works for me if needed

Yeah I tried quickpar thanks - that's the one that said I had something like 1,582 blocks and was 7 blocks short!

Grabit has now completely lost the plot and won't stop trying to repair it (and failing) and then trying again 5 minutes later, hmm.

Back to torrents for me then unfortunately :(

I've notice that sometime on win7 grabit gets funky and I need to exit out (saving the batch) and restarting it then its fine.

You are not the only one with issues. There are several threads on other sites mentioning similar problems with astraweb. A lengthy one on NZB Matrix is a good one to read through. People are trying to blame an increase in customers but i think that is inexcusable as this will not cause incompletes on every post during download. Others say they get slow speeds. I hope for many peoples sake, history is not repeating itself for astraweb. Time will tell.

astrweb + sab for me work perfectly and use euro server for backup in case for missing file

Thanks guys, I'm going to be honest the slow and inconsistent speeds were bad enough but the fact I've lost 5GB of data now is pretty much the final straw for me.

It's sad but I'm going back to torrents now :( Will have to re-download that 5GB thing again too it seems... 12 hours later...

I really think you need to try another newsreader, something just doesn't seem right. I'm getting full speeds, with very few incompletes using alt.binz.

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Originally Posted by EyeBaller

I really think you need to try another newsreader, something just doesn't seem right. I'm getting full speeds, with very few incompletes using alt.binz.

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yes, think you should try that 1st, I'm not heaving any probs.

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Originally Posted by blizeH

Hi guys,

Sometimes my Usetnet works fine, and others it's like this

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Nowhere do you actually list where you are, or what path the data takes to get to you.

P2P is a complete mess, has been for almost 10 years; if you get better, more power to you until you get a knock on your door, your line gets cut, or you become a 'guest' of the local constabulary.

Simple tracing of the route will show you any problems; Astraweb primarily uses LimeLight networks as their main 'feed', and it tends to get overburdened at times around San Jose, where Astraweb is located. If your newsreader supports multi-feeds, put in the EU/Astra server as a secondary, do a tracert on it as well and see what path it takes to get there.

I believe a couple of other folks mentioned this as well.

Thanks - I did try the european servers, the ssl servers and all sorts of different things.

I've just checked and only a few things I've downloaded actually aren't corrupt in some way (some videos play fine mostly but will have moments where the picture breaks up for a bit until I run quickpar) and generally, to be honest in years I've never had a problem with torrents :(

Shame there's no a hybrid of torrents and newsgroups, like you pay someone to download stuff from their server instead of P2P, but it uses the torrent technology :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blizeH

Thanks - I did try the european servers, the ssl servers and all sorts of different things.

I've just checked and only a few things I've downloaded actually aren't corrupt in some way (some videos play fine mostly but will have moments where the picture breaks up for a bit until I run quickpar) and generally, to be honest in years I've never had a problem with torrents :(

Shame there's no a hybrid of torrents and newsgroups, like you pay someone to download stuff from their server instead of P2P, but it uses the torrent technology :(

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The bolded part makes no sense. What are you doing exactly? You download the files, grabit should auto-check the par2 and then repair if needed. Then extract the .avi/.mkv from the rars. And play that file.

Again, if you can't get this to work, try another newsreader. Alt.Binz or sabnzbd is recommended.

or Newsleecher, and Usenet is nothing like Torrents, Usenet has been around since day 1 when the Internet was invented, wiki it.

Thanks for the replies guys - I think to be honest with that it was my fault, since I tried to extract them using 7zip which doesn't use the PAR files of course.

I think Grabit sometimes extracts files fine, but only if there's an original .rar - with these in particular there wasn't a .rar file, it just started .001 etc so I think Grabit ignored these.

I may have one more go with Alt.Binz and hope it doesn't corrupt everything again. But the last three things I've downloaded wouldn't extract using either Grabit or Quickpar as it said there weren't enough blocks. I'm also ditching Astraweb and will try Hit News

Thanks again

Remember that Hitnews only has 200 days retention, Astraweb has nearly 500. (And it's normally just the oldest 20-25% of files on a server that suffer incompletes, so most of the stuff that's incomplete on Astraweb is probably not even carried on Hitnews) But Hitnews/Xennews offers a free (no strings attached) trial, so there's nothing to lose signing up to hunting for missing articles.

Here's something else to consider. First, look at the sizes of all the rar files in the set. Except for the last one, they should all be the same size, and any that are smaller are missing articles. I would try re-downloading the smaller/incomplete rars using the other server. Often one server will have incompletes while the other server will be OK. I've generally found much better completion on the Amsterdam servers compared to the US servers, and this was especially noticeable on older files on Highwinds servers 2 or 3 years ago when they were using UNS's Atlanta server. Often I'd re-downlaod the same rarfile that was incomplete on the US server and it would be complete on the Amsterdam server. (just my experience, maybe others can say the opposite happened with them)

Also, if you'd rather not have to do this manually, many binary grabbers (other than Grabit) can be set up to automatically switch to another server for fills when incompletes are encountered on the primary server. As no single usenet provider is perfect, a good insurance against incompletes is to have an additional block account that feeds from another backend provider, such as www.usenet-news.net (Highwinds backend) or www.Blocknews.net (Readnews backend). [As little as $2 to buy a block of gigs that never expire.] Then if the same files show incomplete on another server, there's a good chance it was a posting problem and the files may be incomplete on every usenet server in the world.

Thanks dude - the 200 days retention could be a big issue I guess, is it common to download something older than 200 days? I guess so, otherwise Astra would offer it :( May have to pay the extra and not use Hitnews then, d'oh.

I must say quickly that since using Alt.Binz I haven't had a single problem! IT was Grabit that was the problem it seems, not Astraweb.

Alt.Binz is amazing though, so much better so I'm glad it works okay.

Thanks dude - the 200 days retention could be a big issue I guess, is it common to download something older than 200 days? I guess so, otherwise Astra would offer it :( May have to pay the extra and not use Hitnews then, d'oh.

I must say quickly that since using Alt.Binz I haven't had a single problem! IT was Grabit that was the problem it seems, not Astraweb.

Alt.Binz is amazing though, so much better so I'm glad it works okay.

Yes you are going to very often be downloading stuff much older then 200 days if you use a search site like nzbindex.

Id say around half the stuff I grab is over 200 days old.

Ah okay, thanks dude - I'll stick with Astra then!

Still having huge problems with my downloads though. Got something here for example, needs another 18 blocks it says, and Alt.Binz wouldn't automatically extract it like some of the others.

Is there anyway either in Quickpar or Alt.binz to fix them? I notice a lot have rar.1 on the end, and are red in Alt.binz...

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Originally Posted by blizeH

Ah okay, thanks dude - I'll stick with Astra then!

Still having huge problems with my downloads though. Got something here for example, needs another 18 blocks it says, and Alt.Binz wouldn't automatically extract it like some of the others.

Is there anyway either in Quickpar or Alt.binz to fix them? I notice a lot have rar.1 on the end, and are red in Alt.binz...

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You need the par2's if you are missing blocks. Most uploaders upload them but not always. Not sure about altbinz, but newsleecher will automatically download the par2's that it needs and repair it. As long as they are in the queue. (I believe altbinz can too but dont quote me)

And yes quickpar can do this as well but again you need the pars.

Question. What are you downloading? Is it weird obscure stuff? Way old stuff? Are you using search and not grabbing the pars?

Just asking because I have been using newsgroups again just for the last month. Downloaded about 300 gigs and have not got anything yet that couldn't be repaired.

Thanks for the replies - I do have a par2 file but it's not quite enough it seems, too many of the chunks are missing blocks - guess I'll try again from the start!

fwiw I'm grabbing Friday Night Lights Season 2... it's the first episode that's corrupt, but the other 11 or so episodes downloaded and UnRAR'd automatically without a hitch. The file is about 200 days old on Newzbin apparently. I'll try again, fingers crossed :)

edit: Could it be downloading in parts, ie closing down Alt.binz a few times before it's all complete that corrupts it? My internet isn't fast enough to download loads in one sitting

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blizeH

edit: Could it be downloading in parts, ie closing down Alt.binz a few times before it's all complete that corrupts it? My internet isn't fast enough to download loads in one sitting

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I usually close it a couple of times a day for different reasons without any problems. Even after 4 power surges this weekend Alt.Binz was doing it's job.
I never disconnect or pause the download before I shut it down either.

I just took a close look at S02E01.HDTV.part01.rar and discovered that the 3 pieces which were missing from any Astraweb server (35, 36, 37) were missing from all Astraweb servers (US, EU, US-SSL, EU-SSL). So a cheap block account for automatic fills should be a non-Astraweb server such as one belonging to Highwinds.

Since months no problems with Astraweb. Habe tested UsenetNow, Supernews, Newsdemon :sick:, and other. but Astraweb offers me the best availbility (Speed 50 Mbit/sec) of files.

Ahh, thank you guys! And mesa thanks so much for looking into that - shame that it's corrupt! Is it easy enough to set it to grab corrupt blocks from elsewhere? Is it possible that the source files are corrupt too? Tempted just to resort to torrents for stuff like this you think?

Thanks again

Not incomplete in Supersearch...here's a NZB that complete see if it downloads...attached is the NZB.

Torrents serve there purpose, but I would never turn to torrent for anything anymore, if I can't find one thing I'll hit a free DDL site and upload it back to Usenet.

But a much simpler, simpler, solution would be to join EFNET iRC (any random server) and then join #alt.binaries.teevee and then once in do !help and learn how to request and request that episode or whatever your looking for TV wise.