Usenetserver.com - Incomplete files???

[Heineken77]

Hey Everyone,

I have been having some issues downloading files from usenetserver.com. A lot of the files (practically all of them are incomplete). For example, on one movie (Groundhog Day 1993 1080p BluRay DTS x264 CtrlHD) this is what I find,

NZBmatrix.com lists all the files as being complete.
Server: alt.binaries.hdtv.x264
Added To Usenet: 17/Feb/2009 1:14:46 PM GMT, 472 d (ago).

Initially there was a group of files that downloaded incomplete, and par files would not repair them. I tried redownloading the incompletes and they still would not complete.

So I deleted all the files and tried downloading the entire group of files again, and this time 95% of the files were downloaded incomplete (missing 19-25 blocks on the incomplete files)

I tried downloading them with newsbin pro.

I then switched my server settings to use my astraweb account, and the files downloaded to completion using the same nzb file with no problems.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!!

[zot]

Since you have two accounts, Astraweb and UNS, you should set up Astraweb (I assume it's a block account?) as a fill server, then it will automatically get any articles missing from UNS. Newsbin Pro and many other news clients support fill-servers, though Newsbin no longer supports a "pure" fill-server as they used to.

With a fill-server or slave-server (as Newsbin calls it) --using a different backend provider-- properly set up, you should almost never get incompletes.

I use usenet-news.net block accounts (among others), which feeds from the same US server as UsenetServer, and I've noticed that the EU server has always had better completion and retention than the US server. (That's why I prefer to use the EU server even though it's slower and requires more connections than the US server.) The problem is that UNS customers don't get the option of the EU server, as other Highwinds "resellers" do.

[Heineken77]

Thank you for the reply!
The only issue is that I bought 180gigs with astraweb and I'm almost done it lol.
So, when using astraweb as a slave server, will it download the last say
1mb of files that are incomplete? If so, another 180gb block should suffice for quite awhile no?

Wierd that I never get incompletes with astraweb but I do a lot with usenetserver.

[c0ld]

Thank you for the reply!
So, when using astraweb as a slave server, will it download the last say
1mb of files that are incomplete?

That's a good question. As far as I know, most apps should use fills just for missing articles, not entire incomplete files. I say that merely because they work on an article level when they are pulling the files down and it would be simple to trigger a fill server routine after an 'article not found' response. I'm not sure what they do in reality though.

Wierd that I never get incompletes with astraweb but I do a lot with usenetserver.

There's a huge hint for you..

[mesaman]

Newsbin Pro will not do this, see the discussion:

http://forums.newsbin.com/viewtopic.php?t=25404

[zot]

The ability to fill-in missing articles retroactively depends on how a news client is set up. If the raw downloaded articles are still saved in the cache folder (that's a BIG IF) you can often re-download the set using a different server - and only the missing articles will be re-downloaded.

I don't know if Newzbin Pro can do this. Usenet Explorer will do this if set up properly, but I don't know any other newsreaders that support that kind of configuration to grab fill-in articles in a second pass. Of course, this might be more complicated than most users are willing to go to.

You understand that after the (aprox. 300KB size) articles that compose a single rar (split) file (15MB or 50 MB) are downloaded and decoded (even if some are missing) the articles will be converted into the rar and normally (in most newsreaders default setup) the articles are then immediately deleted after the rar is created. Once that happens there is no going back to "fill" missing articles - incomplete rars can only be fixed by par2s.

After you get another account for fills, the simplest way to fix your existing download is probably to just re-download the 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6 ...) rars that were the MOST incomplete (i.e., rars having the smallest finished size), instead of the whole set. Just enough rars so that the par2s can fix whatever is missing. There is no need to ever re-download the entire set - always keep the good (full-size) rars and only re-download the smaller (incomplete) rars

[Heineken77]

That's a good question. As far as I know, most apps should use fills just for missing articles, not entire incomplete files. I say that merely because they work on an article level when they are pulling the files down and it would be simple to trigger a fill server routine after an 'article not found' response. I'm not sure what they do in reality though.

Wierd that I never get incompletes with astraweb but I do a lot with usenetserver.

There's a huge hint for you..

Thank you for the reply!

Newsbin Pro will not do this, see the discussion:

http://forums.newsbin.com/viewtopic.php?t=25404

At the end of that discussion it actually says that newsbin pro will be able to a fill server. Seems as it was changed by the answer at the end of the thread?

After you get another account for fills, the simplest way to fix your existing download is probably to just re-download the 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6 ...) rars that were the MOST incomplete (i.e., rars having the smallest finished size), instead of the whole set. Just enough rars so that the par2s can fix whatever is missing. There is no need to ever re-download the entire set - always keep the good (full-size) rars and only re-download the smaller (incomplete) rars

Thanks for the info!

[hdjunky]

I think having a backup server is almost a necessity now. If you don't want to shell out more money than you need to especially since a backup account should last a long time with minimal usage check out blocknews and also usenet-news since you can get a good size one for like 3 bucks instead of putting up 25 bucks with astraweb.

[c0ld]

I think having a backup server is almost a necessity now.

I've never needed one.

[phid]

I think having a backup server is almost a necessity now.

I've never needed one.

Usenet Explorer does it, but this is not needed when there are enough par2 files - and repair is done automatically.

Even such cheap $10 providers as astraweb or UNS (look for special offers) are complete enough without need for a backup server.

In the past I used giganews block account for fills - I cancelled it two years ago, giganews were then even less complete than others since it seems copyright notices were served only to them.