newsbin.com

For a few months now I've been seeing a lot of incompletes (Any 6.5 build) after downloading new headers from various groups. Upon investigation, using binsearch for example, a created nzb from binsearch downloads the file just fine. The same file in NBP needs repairing, which in most cases is not a problem. How come incompletes are in most cases not incomplete (only showing to be), or is this something that needs further investigation?

What news server are you using?

I'm using sunnyusenet.com, who is getting its data from one of the big three providers. (no errors on that end) The problem is not in that the data is not there, it's showing that the post is incomplete, which it is not.

Here's an experiment.

1 - Set the "Download Age" to 10

2 - Right click the group "Post Storage/Use Download Age"

3 - Download headers.

After it's done and the import is complete (the number in parens at the bottom on the status bar goes to zero). Recheck completion.

What I suspect is that you're downloading headers from multiple back ends (not something you'd see) and that they're not all perfectly synchronized so, you loose some posts with each header download.

Until the number in parens on the status bar hits zero, you won't have all available headers in the group.

There's an option to work around this but, I'd like to see if the experiment works first before I suggest it. Also make sure the import is completing.

Quade, there is certainly an improvement visible. A quick check however shows that athough incomplete is showing they still are not. Going for door number 2. Tried also with a group I haven't used in the last 2 weeks, so everything should be fine which it isn't.

Peter

I download headers every day so, I don't think there's a problem with header downloading in the program. So, what I think is that the server isn't delivering all the headers or something is happening with import. I'm inclined to blame the server initially. Files are incomplete or complete based on what the server tells Newsbin. If you did my experiment and there are still more than say 2% incompletes in the last 10 days (not the newest time because files might still be in the midst of posting), then I'm thinking it's a header delivery problem.

Is the number in parens in the status bar going to zero?

As an experiment, I might try a trial account with some other server. Giganews or maybe tweaknews, then try the same exact experiment over again with the 10 day download age.

You could also search for the files in our search engine and see if they're complete there. If they're complete in our search engine, they should be complete with your headers. NZB sites and our search engine, aren't using a server like yours for headers.

I think the actual problem is up on the air just yet.

Quade, using the internal search-engine al incomplete posts are as expected complete. I'll go back to the guys from Sunny and ask them to investigate a bit more on the issue.

Thanks Peter.

Nearly every download so far with version 6.53 has every file incomplete - even the pars from posts less than two months old. With previous versions I could download stuff nearly two years old. WTF? Going back to an older version.

Sorry, just tried v6.34 with 7 day old post and it's giving me incomplete too. Obviouslly not NB's fault. My apologies.

Are you using Astraweb? I'm having problems getting complete files off Astraweb US myself. Haven't tried the euro server.

Hi Quade
Just did some checking and apparently my ISP has updated it's news service which I am going to try. They say this "We generally carry everything Supernews has". Will let you know after further investigation. Your reply has helped me in that I did not know this was updated until your reply prompted me to check. Thanks mate.

Just a suggestion which may or may not work. I had this same thing happening to me using Astraweb servers and what I did was (using Newsbin Pro 6.53 b3311) click on Options on the main tab then "Options" again. Max Retries was set to something like 2 I believe, I set it to 10000 and it's been working great ever since. I know 10,000 is overkill but I set it to that number when troubleshooting and just left it alone once it worked.

Set my retries to 50 and added a couple of free newservers.
Ones marked with a * are ones I have added.
XS Usenet is a great backup fill in - not fast and only 2 connections, but it's free.
More info here. usenetreviewz.com/xsusenet-review/
Not getting any more incompletes now.
*free.xsusenet.com
*news.readfreenews.net
*freenews.netfront.net
textnews.news.cambrium.nl
*allnews.readfreenews.net
news.f.de.plusline.net
freetext.usenetserver.com
dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu
pubnews.gradwell.net
news.vsi.ru
news.grc.com
w3bhost.de

Set my retries to 50 and added a couple of free newservers.

This means you've effectively disabled automatic assembly of incompletes. Maybe that's what you want.

Quade wrote:

Set my retries to 50 and added a couple of free newservers.

This means you've effectively disabled automatic assembly of incompletes. Maybe that's what you want.

No I didn't mean to do that at all - I'll check it out. Thanks mate.

Cannot find any Option in v6.54 to automatically assemble incompletes. However there is an Agressive Assembly mode ( bypass retries and assemble when you have enough PARS) is this what you mean?

No. Automatic Assembly of Incompletes is meant to be automatic when the retry count expires. Setting the count to a high value effectively disables this as the count never expires (intervals between retries get progressively longer as the count gets incremented).

Ok thanks for that I will reset to default.