newsbin.com

=> I've given information to hopefully help understand the 'why' of this problem and what I've already looked at - and for - and to potentially assist in making the interface/web information/Wiki all more helpful, but since I know Quade does not like large amounts of text, I've highlighted the main information in blue. Quade, you may want to find out more info (on things I looked for and have done) in the additional information. Otherwise, others involved in interface/web info/Wiki may use the rest of it to improve those things so the information can be more easily located. <=

I am frustrated with the substantial number of 'red line' piece failures I've gotten of late in file parts (same problem with three consecutive newsservers, such that I've given up thinking a different newsserver would make a difference anymore). However, in Newsbin I'm more frustrated that each 'red piece' requires me to manually select that now-stalled RAR (or sometimes PAR) file and manually tell it to "Assemble Incompletes" so that either more PARs can get downloaded or else the file can ultimately be unRARed. [I've found that if these have been stalled for a while sometimes Newsbin simply won't try to do anything with them anymore, thus requiring me to manually choose to pick and download more PARs, then manually fix the files, then finally manually unRAR them. The change from v3 to v4 (or was it v4 to v5) was supposed to reduce the amount of interaction with the program. It doesn't seem to have had that effect.]

I did a search through the Newsbin Configuration pages and could find nothing that seemed to relate to 'Assemble Incompletes'. Then I searched the Wiki to even find out what the red lines meant so I could look for that. After a couple failed tries of different word combinations for that I was able to find enough clues to know to look for "Relaxed yEnc Checking". Then when I searched the Configuration again I found that apparently that option was lost between v5 and v6. [What I'm trying to say with this paragraph is: "even finding related information was quite difficult and what I did find was time-consuming to find". If I were a new user of Newsbin, I'd've quite possibly given up and looked for another program to perform the same function.]

So now I can't seem to find any way to have Newsbin v6.42 automatically assemble RARs and PARs when there are (red stripe) yEnc/piece failures in them. This is very frustrating, as it makes using Newsbin a very attention-demanding program.

Is there a way for v6 to 'assemble incomplete' RARs and PARs when it has determined that there are pieces that failed CRC checks in them? It is frustrating to have to give this much attention to such a large number of downloads.

Especially if there is no secondary server that can be checked for the piece, it appears there is no reason to hold a PAR or RAR with 'CRC failed' pieces having failed (if the piece is not on the server, or else the server returned an error message and "Max Retries" has been exceeded). So to me there seems to be no reason for it to not be considered automatically "missing" and the red pieces getting treated like they are black pieces, so that the program will proceed to assemble what it can. [If there's no way to do that now, perhaps that could be an option in a future release?]

Any ideas on how to avoid the manually finishing each and every PAR/RAR manually for so many items?

Thank you!

How many retries do you have set? Retries determine when it gives up and considers assembling. It won't assemble though unless is has at least 90% of the PAR chunks needed to complete the files.

It's really pretty simple.

1 - Download the set till nothing more downloads.

2 - Retry N times. New chunks downloaded will reset the retry back to zero.

3 - On the Nth retry, check how much data is available. If it seems to be 90% of what's needed, assemble the files then download the pars.

The magic number of 90%.

I don't have any issue with it not assembling. I test this with every version so, I'm not clear why you're having problems. By default, yEnc CRC errors are reported but, otherwise ignored. Understand too, it only does this when autopar is turned on. I'm pretty sure you have it turned on but, I wanted to get that out there.

I don't doubt you're having problems, I just don't know why you're having these particular problems. It ought to be pretty easy to determine what's going on. I can say this too, I don't remember the last time I had a yEnc CRC error. A yEnc error means the data is either bad on the server or damaged in transport. TCP is a reliable protocol, you don't get bad data over a TCP connection unless something like a firewall messes with it.

[NETWORK]
FailYencCRC = 0

If you remove this entry or set it to zero, it'll ignore yEncCRC errors That's the default. At least in 6.50 it is. If you're getting a bunch of these, it's a sign of some other problem. I'm not getting any to speak of. You could email me an NZB that causes yEnc errors and I could try it too. They should be very rare. Your comment about crc errors suggests to me that the crc errors are the crux of the problem.

DON'T TRY ANYTHING FURTHER ON THIS FOR NOW (and don't bother reading this post, unless I remove this line)! I'll explain in another post shortly, after a quick test of function.





I have autoPAR on, and I have had 'number of retries' set to 3 (but just changed that to '1' so as to reduce delays even further since rarely will I get pieces on repeat tries... but that seems to have had little effect on Newsbin simply moving on from the unfinished downloads).

Yet still it backs up until there have at times been a dozen unfinished files in the program (and therefore many dozen ".nb2" files in the download directory).

When I manually use 'Assemble Incompletes' Newsbin usually starts downloading another PAR file. But sometimes it won't, even if there are more than enough PARs to cover the missing pieces (even ONE missing piece has stalled the entire process). Which I guess leads to another important bit of info: when I manually do the 'Assemble Incompletes', manually run QuickPAR if Newsbin has stalled on the download, I can get files that will unRAR manually. [In other words: there is enough to finish them off even if Newsbin has stalled on it.]


A related - but possibly not essential - bit of information (related to what I wrote in the above paragraph on using QuickPAR): sometimes when clicking 'Assemble Incompletes' for parts, Newsbin will grey out the download progress bar, but on the hard drive, the file will remain an ".nb2" file. At those times I have to exit Newsbin (because the files are described by Win7 as 'in use' so can't be copied), copy the ".nb2"file (cutting off the beginning 'post name' data, and the ending '_yEnc.nb2'), only then can I run QuickPAR and get it to register those files as being present. [I learned to use 'copy' rather than just renaming so when I restarted Newsbin it wouldn't start redownloading them.]


To your "I don't remember the last time I had a yEnc CRC error" possibly I'm mistaken in what the little red stripes (pieces) mean in the download status bars for each individual RAR or PAR? I only found the 'yEnc CRC error' when trying to search for "download current progress bar red" [or some combination of those] either here in the forum, or on the Wiki. Possibly a red piece no longer represents that any longer?


As you asked, I tried to PM an NZB or with the problem, but the site says, "The extension nzb is not allowed" on the PM page when I tried. I was also going to include a JPG of Newsbin having stalled with a single piece missing from a PAR file (after me having to manually use 'Assemble Incomplete' for all the RAR files in it), with Newsbin having moved on to the next download with the previous one not repairing/assembling even with just one red piece still showing - with that PAR with the red piece showing as "downloading" still [endlessly] but the PM won't allow a ".jpg" extension, or a ".rar" one when I tried just RARing it.

I was trying to gather as much data as possible to PM. And when I looked under "Servers" (a tab I usually have hidden) it showed that when I last switched servers I did NOT disable the former one (probably because I still had a couple paid weeks to go on it and had changed it's designation to 'Slave/Fills Only' and was using it for fills since I'd paid for that month already).

I think it is QUITE possible that - with my previous newsprovider still listed as an ACTIVE server, though a 'fill' server, but which would now be refusing connections - Newsbin might have been continuing to try to use the 'fill' server. Since that server would never respond, Newsbin continued to try to contact it (sign in) endlessly. [If I gave it any thought at the time (which I'm not sure I was capable of then) I suspect I would have thought Newsbin would ignore any server not responding, or else I probably would have disabled the server right when I shifted to the other.]

I have now deleted both prior newsproviders (even though the other was already disabled, deleting made more sense). I let a couple things download and it appears to act as you said it should/and does for you. In other words: it assembles the incompletes automatically and gets appropriate PARs to finish them.

I am VERY sorry to have (again) wasted a lot of your energy and time on something that was 'human error' on my part (my not remembering to go back and disable the old server after a hard drive crash recently messed with my attention and ability to focus).

Once again my brain damage not only causes me extensive extra effort, but causes me to screw up so that I involve others and waste their time and energy. I am very sorry.

ts@newsbin.com

Newsbin might have been continuing to try to use the 'fill' server. Since that server would never respond, Newsbin continued to try to contact it (sign in) endlessly. [If I gave it any thought at the time (which I'm not sure I was capable of then) I suspect I would have thought Newsbin would ignore any server not responding, or else I probably would have disabled the server right when I shifted to the other.]

If you use a dead news server. It'll take forever to fail the chunks. Glad you seemed to find the solution. Deleting or disabling (uncheck) bad news servers will both work.