Astraweb:Large gaps in articles on many items between approximately 160-250+ days

[Hypatia]

Well, when i got too many releases downloaded incomplete i had to investigate a bit

It turns our Astrawed has a large articles gap on many items in ~160-250+ days, maybe more, i just didnt have patience to test it
The age is approximate because its hard to determine the exact dates when the shit hit the fan

eu.news.astraweb.com

Most damaged files i found are at 200+ days, some are at ~160 days. It depends on cthulhu knows what

Here are about 20 examples, I just dont have time to check more. SOme of them can be barely repaired but some have ridiculous ammount of incompletes

the percentage for several items might seem not that large, but in reality it is

I dont remember what hit them back then but it did hard.
Im sending them email in order to get an answer whether they are going to backfill all these gaps....

[Beck38]

That is suspiciously around the 'April' gaps that were fixed some time ago. You aren't using Astra/US as your first line fills server because of.... what?

I haven't seen anything rear it's ugly head, but I don't use the Eu server as a primary (it's on the other side of the planet from me, and the US is essentially 'just down the block') but do of course as a primary 'fills'.

If I get a chance sometime today I'll do some checking on the Astra/US on 'known good' (at least they were right after being posted) and see if I see anything, but I'm kinda right in the middle of some really heavy transfers that are taking precedence on my bandwidth at the moment, and I almost screwed up big time on it the other night but caught myself 'just in time' and am trying to make up time right now.

[mjmacky]

I remember having problems with GoT releases, which I was grabbing after the fact. I remember it was sitting at the end (chronologically) of a range of posts full of unrepairable gaps. Looking now, the first few episodes sit in the 180-160 day range. I never tried to grab those files again after it was supposedly "fixed" since I had already resorted to web-dl

[mesaman]

Articles missing from Astraweb EU are also missing from US. I don't understand the practice of downloading without a backup server enabled. Is it because you want to complain? For that age range, the free XSusenet server will do.

[Hypatia]

You aren't using Astra/US as your first line fills server because of.... what?

when it turned out that US server didnt help much ive stopped using it

you want to complain?

you damn right i want to complain about the service i pay for gone shit because they had several technical mass glitches yet again without actually filling these huge gaps.

even infamous newshosting has become better in terms of general completion

For that age range, the free XSusenet server will do

within xx days it wont work anymore

[cola]

Might as well get a cheap block account.

[Beck38]

when it turned out that US server didnt help much ive stopped using it

Gotcha, so any 'review' I do on the US should show some 'gaps' as well, which is kinda good (as getting throughput from the EU is, as I said, a bit harder, in fact, throughput across the US and then across the Atlantic submarine cables is about 1/4th the speed I can get from the US server).

I've been using Blocknews for quite a while now, I nibble away at a 100G block very slowly but surely. Very inexpensive.

But you're right, something (once again?!?!?) may be going on with Mr. Astra. One of the things we all found out with the 'April 2011' incident was that they A/B the two server plants trying to eliminate reception gaps from other servers (bad propagation), but it had the effect, however, of also propagating 'holes' (fades I call them) as well. I wrote a fairly long dissertation to them at the time telling them their basic idea was sound, but that they needed more (error) checking to make sure they weren't propagating those 'fades'/holes/whatever.

FYI, I'm an old microwave/satellite engineer, which is why I call them 'fades', like the signal fades like olde style analog TV/Radio, as the electromagnetic propagation fades into the ground or out into space or wherever, or multipathing 'nulls' out the signal resulting in fade-outs of reception at the other end. Of course, with digital these days, the signal degrades (which you don't see) until it reaches the digital threshold and the signal disappears altogether.

But we 'see' that as simply data not there. Like I've said before, the RFC for usenet needs to be updated with some better level of server to server link system, or operators need to pay better attention to their plants (or both).

[Hypatia]

*looking over all this wall of text filled with so many intelligent words*
i like when you talk dirty, Beck.

[Hypatia]

ROFL.... 129 days ago 26Gb post..
i needed to get a remux of a certain movie.. anyways, it turned out i had to use my friend's NH account to get it.

here are my results:

ASTRAWEB :

Files found: 279
Message-ID's required: 26415
Message-ID's found: 26415
Message-ID's missing from the NZB: 0 (0%)
The files were posted 129 day(s) ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Initializing newsserver: eu.news.astraweb.com


Parts checked: 26415
Undownloadable parts: 1544
5.85% of the data can't be downloaded!

NEWSHOSTING(Sic!):
Files found: 279
Message-ID's required: 26415
Message-ID's found: 26415
Message-ID's missing from the NZB: 0 (0%)
The files were posted 129 day(s) ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Initializing newsserver: unlimited.newshosting.com
Terminating newsserver: unlimited.newshosting.com
----------------------------------------------------------------


Parts checked: 26415
Undownloadable parts: 0
All OK!

ASTRAWEB
NZB file: H:\japhson-conanthedestroyer-720p.nzb
Files found: 107
Message-ID's required: 19824
Message-ID's found: 19824
Message-ID's missing from the NZB: 0 (0%)
The files were posted 128 day(s) ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------


Parts checked: 19824
Undownloadable parts: 1472
7.43% of the data can't be downloaded!

I guess i have to take my words back.. it doesnt start from 160+ days and above.... alas

[Beck38]

5.85% of the data can't be downloaded!

Which is kinda, even in this day of numbing speed and usually excellent retention/propagation, I still 'cling' to 10% pars generation as the minimum of everything I post, ramping up to 20% on rar archives < DVD9 size (~8GB).

The time and bits are really minimal, again at the speeds available today, which in the US, is nothing like that available at very cheap coin in Britain or most places on the 'continent'. Then a gain, I can fill up the tank in the car and head in a couple of directions from where I live (once I get 'out of town') and run out of gas before I find a wide spot in the road with >100 folks living in it.