Version 6.60 Beta 3 Available...

[dexter]

Beta 3 has more bug fixes. We also discovered the installer was delivering the wrong par repair dll's so everyone had single-core repair. This installer has multi-core repair again.

Here is a summary of fixes:

• Fixed issue with auto-shutdown happening prematurely.
• Fixed issue where registration wouldn't work in some cases
• Fixed issue when using the delete key to delete files from the Files list was also deleting from disk.
• Fixed issue adding posts to a Custom list.
• Turned on SSL Zlib compression for search data. Should speed up expanding large files and adding large files to the download list
• Fixed counter issue on Server tab. It was counting all entries but should only count the servers.
• Added delete buttons to the Wish List and Failed List tabs.

More info and download link is on the Newsbin Beta Page

NOTE: The Download List is incompatible with anything prior to 6.60! We recommend you finish any queued downloads before installing this beta. This applies to the Wish List and Failed Files list too.

You can either reply to this thread or send us a message through our Technical Support Form with any questions or issues.

[sunishun]

Quade mentioned this in the Beta 1 release post, but I haven't seen anything in the bug list and it's a problem. Sorting the download list doesn't work.

[Quade]

It's still in the release notes as "not working". Should be anyway. I have to figure out how to make it happen. The problem is that most of the download list is in a DB and not RAM anymore.

[kenr]

What is all this in the logging tab:
[10:13:02] LOW Connection Status: SSL Connection Server: news-eu-ssl.newsgroupdirect.com SSL Cert: *.sslusenet.com Stats: DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA 128 TLSv1/SSLv3
repeated 20 times.
This is new with the latest beta.

[Obecalp]

Yeah it'd be nice to be able to remove a lot of the entries which don't seem that pertinent and put them into the verbose option and the low logging or whatever just tells you when something is wrong/broken/missing?

[Quade]

[10:13:02] LOW Connection Status: SSL Connection Server: news-eu-ssl.newsgroupdirect.com SSL Cert: *.sslusenet.com Stats: DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA 128 TLSv1/SSLv3
repeated 20 times.
This is new with the latest beta.

You probably have it set for 20 connections right? That's 20 connections worth of logging.

[gkar]

any news on the stalling issue?

[Quade]

I commented on it in the original post. I think it sounds like an iffy server.

I'm getting no stalling here. My first suggestion would be to cut back on connections and see if the symptoms change. Does is stall if you only use one server?

[gkar]

all is well with one server

only happens when fillservers are turned on(1 connection each), but these servers work fine when back to priority 1

Im now trying all servers set to one connection each. Still seeing over 20 of the green chunks.

If I disable or set fillservers to priority 1, I will see 2 green chunks(2 servers running each to astraweb with 1 connection each)once the system catches up. This is with all files. Even with files that are 100% complete on astraweb(no fillservers needed)

Image of problem(with high level of chunks showing download)more than connections being made



all is well image, correct niumber of chunks being shown downloaded(no fillservers enabled)ignore reds blocks file needs fillservers


The above images aren't ideal as this file needs fillservers, but this happens with all files.

Here is original image i posted shows problem better


what happened to the guy on irc that was having similar problems?

is it possible to get a refund of unused internet search time?(this is an enquiry only)

using astraweb, blocknews tweaknews all these work when used on priority one I can recreate the above problem with any combo of servers. As long as I have fillservers enabled I have issues. But as I said above all servers work fine when used by themselves or when all servers set to priority one/


All this info was provided in original post


EDIt Ive just seen Nb download 1.5GB and still have stalled chunks 15 parts ago. As soon as i disabled the fillservers NB downloaded the stalled chunks. Something is wrong with the way priority is dealt with(at least it is here) I can post u my NBI if u want.

[kenr]

You probably have it set for 20 connections right? That's 20 connections worth of logging.

Yes but I have logging set to Normal not debug so why did it start logging this?

[Quade]

Yes but I have logging set to Normal not debug so why did it start logging this?

They're being logged as "LOW" not debug. I suspect that's why they're getting through. I'll think about it. I like seeing connection status in the logs.

[Quade]

EDIt Ive just seen Nb download 1.5GB and still have stalled chunks 15 parts ago. As soon as i disabled the fillservers NB downloaded the stalled chunks. Something is wrong with the way priority is dealt with(at least it is here) I can post u my NBI if u want.

I'll check it out thanks.

[Quade]

EDIt Ive just seen Nb download 1.5GB and still have stalled chunks 15 parts ago. As soon as i disabled the fillservers NB downloaded the stalled chunks. Something is wrong with the way priority is dealt with(at least it is here) I can post u my NBI if u want.

Here's what I did.

1 - I modified 6.60B3 to fail every 6th chunk of any files I downloaded.
2 - I turned on all 4 servers and set them to different priorities.
3 - I added 15 gigs of downloads and watched them download.

They all downloaded fine.

Some observations of your images.

1 - The files haven't finished downloading. That means no retries. It won't start retrying till all the files have finished downloading as much as they can.
2 - A number of your fill servers are showing "disconnected". Meaning either Newsbin can't or hasn't yet started to connect to them.
3 - Your fill servers only have 1 connection each. That means only one connection at a time can possibly work on all the bad chunks. This will definitely gate the downloads. What you're seeing might simply be a function of everything stalling out behind the two Blocknews servers.
4 - Tweaknews won't get tried until it fails on both blocknews server connections. If either blocknews connections has a hard time connecting this will stall tweaknews because they won't even start if a lower priority server is still trying to download a chunk.

Priorities prevent servers from doing anything. Unless both of your priority 3 servers fail the chunk, the priority 4 server won't even get a chance to try it. I might try reversing the tweak and blocknews priorities and see if the symptoms change.

Like you the person on IRC only has 1 connection for each fill. I'm going to try that next. It will gate the downloads but, that's what it's supposed to do. Prevent downloads from higher priority until lower priority fails.

[Quade]

As an experiment how about setting each of the fill servers to a unique priority? Instead of 1 3,3,4,4 how about 1,3,4,5,6?

[gkar]

thx 4 the feedback. tried setting priorities of other servers makes no diff.

Forgetting about any servers except astraweb. Heres what happened

no fill - both set to priority 1 all is well


with fill astraweb EU set to priority 2


As you can see all chunks are available on USA Server but the green chunks are still being left, and what im calling stalling is taking place. At some point these chunks will download, but can be Gigabytes later.

[Quade]

I see nothing wrong to be honest. What happens when it finishes?

[gkar]

chunks can still be left hanging. NB will just start the next file. Eventually file will download, but can be way through the next file download.
Why is NB generating the extra chunk downloads when a server is set to fill? ~Even when its not used....

[Quade]

Eventually file will download, but can be way through the next file download.

I don't know about for you but, for me, Astra SSL connections just hang for awhile, then timeout and the download continues. That's kinda what this looks like. B3 has a longer read timeout than B2 and before. AW has been this way for awhile. I don't know the cause. Newsbin will ask for a chunk and then the connection hangs. The file eventually completes. It only happens with AW. My Giga connections never hang. Newsbin naturally moves on to the next files. That's what it's designed to do, keep the connections busy and the downloads downloading. Chunk download order isn't something that's really factored in. They download in natural order. When one hangs, the rest of the download continues working its way down the list.

[gkar]

what i dont understand why is this only happening with fill servers enabled. If i download the same file with both astraweb servers set to priority one and no fillservers enabled all is well. No hangs

[Quade]

Don't know. When you have it set to 1 and 2, the #2 server will disconnect and go idle until its needed. Before it can download again, it needs to connect and get ready to download. When they're both set to 1, both servers are kept active so, there's no connection overhead. I simulated your setup but, I suspect my internet connection is faster so, the setup time is much quicker.

[gkar]

i appreciate you trying to get to bottom of this..
what happens if u set your download speed to 4mbs?

[Bismark]

Can we backup NB to version 5.5 after loading 6.6?

I am seeing some strange behavior.

1. Files loaded (such as a set of .rar files) do not show in the file tab until I restart NB, then they show up, thus I cannot use quick unrar.
2. When the NB starts, the File Tab does not show the files in the order they showed when it exited. Specifically, the oldest file shows, not the latest.
3. When .rar files are used to make a the final file, the .rar files show up in a windows file explorer, but are really not there. If I refresh the explorer, they are gone. Never had to do this before.
4. When I select a post and then sort the group by date, size, etc. the selected post is no longer selected and I am at the top of the group, not on the post I selected before I sorted the group.

Thanks for the help.

[Quade]

1. Files loaded (such as a set of .rar files) do not show in the file tab until I restart NB, then they show up, thus I cannot use quick unrar.
2. When the NB starts, the File Tab does not show the files in the order they showed when it exited. Specifically, the oldest file shows, not the latest.

Exit, Delete the file "Downloaded.db3" in the data folder. Restart. It'll start the files list over again.

3 - is a windows problems.

4 - I probably need to fix this. You realize it's a beta right? You report problems and I fix them.

You can run any version you want. If you want trouble-free downloading, I'd avoid the betas or at least wait till they're further along.

[Quade]

In the server really advanced options. How about setting "Use SSLV2" in both astra servers and see if it makes a difference. I seem to see less stalling in that mode.

[Bismark]

Quade,

Yes i realize it is a beta and don't mind testing things, in fact I have many years experience in the computer business and have subjected my customers to betas more than one should.

As to the windows issue, this is clearly a different behavior. Could you look at how you deleted files in previous versions, versus 6.6? I am running windows 7 and have not loaded any fixes in a couple of weeks.

Thanks.

[jlindquist]

I am having a problem with marking headers as read/old. Whenever I do this, the files are all back as new when I reopen NB. Deleting the header is the only thing that works but I dislike doing this since I might want the header later.
I remember a problem like this from ages ago but I can't recall what fixed it.
Thanks for any help, JL

[vspazv]

Search window result list is broken. Seems to be on b1 b2 and b3.

This is with local subject field searches.

1. The list seems to do a refresh at the end of the search but the posts shown change again when you click on the them.

2. After stopping search processing, clearing the list, and clearing the search entry it will refresh and show random posts.

[kirm]

Just run into this issue with the latest beta3. One of the groups that I grab files from has a file list when expanded consisting of nfo file and several of the par files. I click on to dl just the nfo file, but newsbin gives me the nfo file plus all the par files in that particular listing even though I just grab the individual nfo.

In v5.5 it would just give me the nfo file as selected. Being this is the first beta version I have run, I cannot tell if the previous betas had this behavior.

[Quade]

That's pretty much how it works. I pulls the first small par and any other single part chunks and tries to display meaningful information about the contents.

[kirm]

That's pretty much how it works. I pulls the first small par and any other single part chunks and tries to display meaningful information about the contents.

I understand that part, but what I am trying to do is just dl the one nfo file, not any of the pars. It always worked fine in previous versions giving me just the one file requested. Now in beta 3, it will dl all the files in that particular group. I expand the group to see all the files, and dl from the expanded view. Hopefully this explains it a little better. I just want one file, not say 10 that are in the compacted view.

[Quade]

Got it. That's one of the "still brokens" in the release notes. You can't just add a single file from a set of files yet.

[kirm]

That's one of the "still brokens" in the release notes

Thanks Quade, guess I didn't read that one. Got a time frame on this fix?

One thing I really like about this beta build, is when I open up one of my groups, the incomplete files now show with a white background instead of the blue shade that I have set. This makes it so much easier to spot incomplete sets without having to really check out the icons. It kinda jumps out at ya, which is really great for my getting older eyes. Thanks guys.

[bertm]

Newsbin crashes when deleting certain SPAM. I'm sure you're familiar with the fragmented cross-posting of Bob <bob@home>. Maybe the deletes, being in groups outside of the one I am deleting from, causes the crashes? (selection of posts for deletion worked OK. It's the delete all post of poster that crashes.)

Also consider system overload. I wanted to quickly use 6.60 so I cleared my download, wish, and failed tabs. Then I set all groups to a download age of six days. It's worked great because duplicates are filtered out and and any missed posts are found; but, there are a lot of headers to reload.

[Quade]

I wanted to quickly use 6.60 so I cleared my download, wish, and failed tabs. Then I set all groups to a download age of six days.

1 - Newsbin generates a new download list for 6.60 so, you can still have files in the old download list if you want to. Dex's comment just means that 6.60 won't import the old list.

2 - You don't have to do anything with headers. 6.55 and 6.60 use the same header format for the most part. I think I change an index or two.

I've not actually noticed the "bob" spam. Not in the groups I use. How about PMing me a group.

[bertm]

I've not actually noticed the "bob" spam. Not in the groups I use. How about PMing me a group.

Boneless, cores, warez, movies, movies.divx, multimedia

I think it's just posters w/ serious cross-posting.

Another "little" item. In previous versions when a row was highlighted, then a different column sort was selected, the highlighted row stayed in the center of the screen. Now, the highlight is lost so you can't find where you left off. I date sort w/new files a bottom. If the post has many similar rows and I want to put them in their own folder I resort by subject. With the highlighted row lost - I have to hunt for the files again.

[Quade]

Another "little" item. In previous versions when a row was highlighted, then a different column sort was selected, the highlighted row stayed in the center of the screen. Now, the highlight is lost so you can't find where you left off. I date sort w/new files a bottom. If the post has many similar rows and I want to put them in their own folder I resort by subject. With the highlighted row lost - I have to hunt for the files again.

Fixed in B4.

[jackholexxxx]

Will the UnRAR filter be working in B4?

Thanks

[Quade]

B4 splits the meta files out of the compacted set before download so, the regular filename filters will kill them. I think that's what you're looking for.

[jackholexxxx]

Just to clarify, if I have the global filter rejecting the filenames in B4, that should take care of it?

[Quade]

Yes. Because they're not lumped together with the other files now.

[Stuart264]

Quade when will B4 be available?

[Quade]

Probably some time this week. I need to fix a couple things in the remote interface first.

[Stuart264]

Thanks quade, because this "display update pending" error is driving me nuts, I keep on having to close and restart Newsbin to get the downloads to run.

[Quade]

thanks quade, because this "display update pending" error is driving me nuts, I keep on having to close and restart Newsbin to get the downloads to run.

Yeah about that... I've not fixed or figured this out yet. You might want to run 6.55 if it's a real problem. I know it seems to happen when files get sent to the failed list but I'm not sure the cause yet.

[Stuart264]

I have done, I will switch back to the Beta when the v4 is released, the only error message I saw if it helps was to do with the 64 bit "language" dll falling over.

[bertm]

Doesn't seem that anyone has commented about chunks being sent to the recycle bin. Is it only me?

[Quade]

I imagine most people don't use recycle bin. I typically don't. Chunks don't go there anymore in B4.