NZBcc sez 100% (or nearly) but files arn't really there

Ever since NZBcc came out, one of the 'internet trutherisms' has been that one can get a 100% (or nearly so) completion on an nzb, yet the files aren't actually 'present' (via DMCA takedown or whatever) so when on tries to download the files in that nzb, one ends up with zilch.

Since that came out of the woodwork, I've searched high and low for at least the last 2+ years for such an example, to no avail. Folks are still saying 'yep, I had this happen to me on x server/service, y years ago, but can't remember exactly' or some such. Some folks claim it happens with Giganews, others with Astraweb. Others with some other usenet plant.

So here's the deal Give me an example, say something posted in the last 30 days, that you find NZBcc reports as fairly complete (say something 98% or so, not even the 100% folks have claimed) that when one tries to d/l, comes up empty. Keep it to the major plants, say Astra, Giga, Blocknews (all US).

If you don't want to 'give it away'. send a PM. Identify the filename, make sure it can be found on either (or both) NZBindex or Binsearch (so that it's real, not something made up).

If folks want to fill this thread up with 'I heard xxxx back in yyyy that zzzz is what happened' there's no way to really stop you.

Can't you just post a straight answer in the right topic ?

Astraweb have in the past, at least when i was with them a few years back, replaced articles with text files that were DMCA'd. Whether they still do that I don't know. When I did run a nzb checker on a Astraweb file, it would report 100% there when it really wasn't. Hypatia and enerdude have posted the same, Hypatia on the Newsbin forums but Newsbin deleted it. They only keep 1 page worth of threads now, go figure.

https://forums.sabnzbd.org/viewtopic.php?t=11805

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Re: Detecting DMCA text file replacements (astaweb)
Postby Wanderlei » September 27th, 2012, 4:27 am

I am using SABnzbd 0.7.3

I have astraweb as main server with 8 connection and free.xsusenet.com as backup 1 connection.

It only seems to use astraweb connections when checking, then after check it connects to astraweb but drops them and the backupserver chugs away very slowly, it will keep picking astraweb connections and dropping them.

In the past I have had downloads where enough content has been removed to make it unrepairable (but I think was before I enabled checking) More recently though I had download where all the rar files were intact but their contents had been tampered with by astraweb and become impossible to determine what was junk and what wasnt.

They seem to want to make hard for their customers to know what content they have removed, maybe they want people to blow download quota that they have bought of them. Which seems like a underhanded way to treat customers to me.

Is there a easy way to check if content has been tampered with outside of SABnzbd, I used a few 'nzb checker' but they often pass nzb that have content tampered with.

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http://filesharingtalk.com/archive/i.../t-448633.html

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enerdude
05-18-2012, 10:09 AM
More importantly:
how to go around those takedowns ?
how to know about them without having to download the whole stuff?

Use a good NZB completion checker like this one (MUCH quicker for checking completion than actually downloading everything ;) ):

http://www.zoon.dk/2012/05/11/nzb-co...lpha-update-5/
Download link is on the righthand side of the page (NZBcc 1.1.0.0alpha (http://adf.ly/5y3uN))
After installing it, check the settings. Under validation methods, make sure "use article head" is ticked because this is more accurate. Then just add a news server, load an nzb you wanna test for completion and bob's your uncle!

I did some testing (using a random UFC nzb) seeing that i have access to a few different usenet accounts....

Details:

Release: UFC 145 Jones vs Evans PPV HDTV XviD aAF
Link on nzbmatrix for those interested: http://nzbmatrix.com/nzb-details.php?id=1254654&hit=1
Age of nzb (as of today when the test was done): 25 days

BTW, according to nzb contents this release was originally uploaded using astraweb.

Results using nzb completion checker:



Astraweb (eu.news.astraweb.com):


100% completion but this is false cause what astraweb has done is to keep the articles but fill their content with "Content removed due to DMCA."


So if nzb completion checker ever gives you good completion of an UFC nzb, first try and download one rar archive (and the first .par maybe if you wanna check the file using a par checker) from the nzb and check if the contents is txt and contains such a DMCA message.

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So it's been just shy of two weeks, and no takers.

Of course, it's totally possible that there have been, in the dim past (like two years ago) such things happen, but one of the possibilities is right there in front of ones face, where NZBcc does take not that if one uses the STAT command to check things, that some servers out there (BTW, none that I've found so far, but there are tons that I don't check, particularly the 'independent' dutch providers and such, but certainly none of the 'biggies'.

Meanwhile, there have been tons of postings that I know were 'targeted' and taken down, that do report zero, but also have been either re-posted or posted in a different format that haven't been touched.

The handwriting has been on the wall for quite a while, it's easy to avoid.

It's also possible nobody cares.

I would *guess* most people just download a couple of rars from the set, make sure they're ok, download the rest and wil never use a completion checker.

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Originally Posted by chakara

It's also possible nobody cares.

I would *guess* most people just download a couple of rars from the set, make sure they're ok, download the rest and wil never use a completion checker.

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Maybe, BUT, this started simply because someone, upon was complaining (yet again) about the takedowns, and came up with the "NZBcc doesn't work because providers are filling the parts with spam" or some such. In short, what I called out as an 'internet fallacy' as I had never actually seen this although it's something that is repeated over and over again.

I check most everything with NZBcc before d/l'ing. I use it to check (and re-check) things I post back several years (sometimes back as far as 'Day One' of most usenet providers, i.e. Aug08) and doing so not only checks things out, but is a great way to 'catch' providers who's plant's are beginning to get 'wobbly'.

So, hopefully, this thread will exist (at least until the next major FST crash) so maybe someone will trip across this on whatever usenet plant out there.

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Originally Posted by Beck38

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chakara

It's also possible nobody cares.

I would *guess* most people just download a couple of rars from the set, make sure they're ok, download the rest and wil never use a completion checker.

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Maybe, BUT, this started simply because someone, upon was complaining (yet again) about the takedowns, and came up with the "NZBcc doesn't work because providers are filling the parts with spam" or some such. In short, what I called out as an 'internet fallacy' as I had never actually seen this although it's something that is repeated over and over again.

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Never said, "providers", bud. I said Astraweb replaces the files with txt, thus fooling checkers. I know its hard to get that through your thick skull with that ego of yours but it is what it is. Funny I gave examples of others pointing that out but you chose to ignore that.

@sandman: According to astraweb's helpdesk, they no longer replace the body of the article, at least not since people requested they stop. Perhaps that is why Beck38 doesn't see what you are reporting.
Don't shoot the messenger. Just email astraweb and ask.

You have given ZERO examples ZERO.

man you need to send me some of the shit you are having, looks like a blast

they did replace files with DMCA txt files and checkers couldn't detect it (STAT\HEAD) but it was a long time ago and they quickly stopped doing it

nowadays every nntp provider deletes all files if this or that releases gets flagged.

if one wants to check files via nzb checker HEAD method is recommended.

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Originally Posted by Hypatia

they did replace files with DMCA txt files and checkers couldn't detect it (STAT\HEAD) but it was a long time ago and they quickly stopped doing it

nowadays every nntp provider deletes all files if this or that releases gets flagged.

if one wants to check files via nzb checker HEAD method is recommended.

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Precisely.

Like I said in my earlier post, I didn't know if they STILL did it but they DID do it. So shit you posted years ago, might not even be complete if they replaced those files with the DMCA txt even though they stopped doing that later on.

You DO know that there are tons of websites devoted simply to wacky thinking you display (always 'they', always no actual verifiable examples ever given, etc.), many of them spelling out exactly the kind of mental disease (or defect) that it originates from.

One only has to look (mainly) at the political class around the globe to find copious examples far worse than yours (and they generate an entire class of comics who make a decent living pointing them out).

The fact remains that (unlike many or probably most) my 'routine' of 'back checking' is pretty much about as bullet-proof as one could design it, and has led to many examples of usenet plants 'going off the rails', well documented both here (when it gets REALLY bad like when months go 'missing') and in emails to and from many of the operators of such plants.

Yes, there is the possibility that 'way back' there might be some posting that got whacked and that checking may have fallen through the cracks. But unlike most (especially out of Europe) I don't skimp on PARS (I continually run into BD50 postings with <1-2% which, given the vagaries of the usenet bucket brigade transmission come perilously close to not repairing), but as I've commented so many time my fingers are tired... I don't post Organized Crime targeted material (i.e. 'pro-wrestling' or 'P0rn').

And that any large-scale 'chunks' taken out and replaced by some kind of 'cheap filler' will be caught by this system, and any comments as to otherwise, posted on any of those newsgroups (the mass public is the best checker), will be attended to promptly, as everything I've ever posted is sitting right behind me in a multi-terabyte RAID-NAS that enables me to stream, at will, anything I've ever touched.

If you say so... :rolleyes: