Ngroups issues: Old stuff is downloaded very slow

**Hypatia** · 11-23-2010, 08:41 AM

Ive just decided to give ngroup a test drive and found out some bad stuff.

1)
- When u download smth new- the speed is OK
- when you download something old the speed is CRAP.(400+ KB instead of 5.5MB on new stuff)

2) They dont support compressed headers

Does anyone else have the first issue?
Try downloading something from 800+ days

**zot** · 11-23-2010, 01:27 PM

Although I've been using Ngroups/Usenet-News for several years, I've not logged in since they recently switched from Highwinds service to Readnews. Since they are now using the same readnews backend as UsenetNow/Blocknews, my experience is from that provider, but I assume that all server-related issues apply to Ngroups equally.

Slow speeds on old files

My experience has been that slow speeds on old files (anything more than a few weeks old) has always been a temporary problem, and -at least for me- can be easily remedied by simply using more connections.

It is a symptom that comes and goes. It used to be much more common on Readnews. I've noticed the same thing happen before on Astraweb and Highwinds, but to a lesser extent. They obviously store their old articles on slower servers.

I did some experimenting on Blocknews about 9 months ago when there was a slowdown on old articles lasting (at least) several days. Although on 'good days' I might max out on 3 or 4 connections downloading an old file (same as a new file), while on 'bad days' it might take 15 or 20 connections to get maximum speed on old files.

One day the speed was very slow. Then the next day I learned that Blocknews/Readnews retention had suddenly increased by several months. (This was several months worth of retention that was definitely not there a few days earlier when I was downloading test files checking retention and speed.)

compressed headers

There are three primary header compression methods:

1. ZLIB over SSL (first used by Newshosting)
2. XFEATURE (Giganews)
3. XZVER/XZHDR (Astraweb)

and to make things even more confusing the various NNTP servers implement them slightly differently. Highwinds-owned providers Easynews, Usenetserver, and Newshosting all used different compression methods. There has been constant evolution during the last 2 years - and just when you might have thought you had everything figured out, things changed again ... and again.

What newsreader are you using, Hypatia? The only newsreader I know of that supports all compression methods (and does it well) is Usenet Explorer, though I'd put Newsbin Pro in close second place. I don't know what protocols Newsleecher supports, as they were very late to adopt compression support.

The last time I checked, Blocknews/Readnews used zlib over ssl as their header compression method, but I don't know if that is still the case. (their tech support person at the time had no idea what header compression even was)

Why do you say that Ngroups does not support compressed headers? If this is something that tech support told you, don't believe it. I've been told that by tech support guys, only to discover for myself that the opposite was true when I checked for myself.

Next week when I have time I'll try to look into this and find out more about what the situation is, as I'm rather out of date in what (I think) I know and I'm sure that much has changed since then. My understanding is that Giganews published their originally-proprietary xfeature specs and this protocol may be slowly becoming the new industry-wide standard for header compression.

**Hypatia** · 11-23-2010, 07:57 PM

Thanx for the reply

can be easily remedied by simply using more connections.

Not thew case here unfortunately =(

And it looks kinda strange. Ive just tried again with 13 active connections and when you look at these connections you see that only several of them are used while others dont work, they are active but nothing goes in .Its only within a minute or two they get active and start participating in download process.. but on a low speed anyway\\

What newsreader are you using, Hypatia? The only newsreader I know of that supports all compression methods (and does it well) is Usenet Explorer,

Bingo! I got Usenet Explorer( my favourite one)
Also i have newsbin and newsleecher=)

But i tried ngroups only with newsleecher\newsbin since i already had stuff being downloaded at that time with UE . Gonna check it out with it later

Next week when I have time I'll try to look into this and find out more about what the situation is

It would be nice

**JustDOSE** · 11-24-2010, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by Hypatia

- when you download something old the speed is CRAP.(400+ KB instead of 5.5MB on new stuff)
Does anyone else have the first issue?
Try downloading something from 800+ days

lmfao.... NO
giganews works perfecto for me son