V6 Stalling.

[vyvx]

Hi,

I have two Usenet accounts, one with astraweb one with giganews. Now I have a astraweb set as a normal server and giganews set as a fill server.

I have 8 connections on both of them, It was working fine last night. Now what happens is that it stalls when its downloading ( ie downloads at 750kbps ( my max )) then stops all together, I have to restart newsbin to get it to go again. I'm trying to resume a already started collection.

Any help would be much apreciated.

Thanks!

[Quade]

Try 6.2B1. Let me know if it does the same thing.

[vyvx]

Downloaded the beta, 6.20B1 and still had the problem.

I had to restart my PC. It's working now.

Maybe try hunt this bug down? I had full internet connectivity every other application was working.

Can you please implement showing a percentage and a download speed over the bars in current progress? That would be a really good addition.

Thank you.

[Quade]

I had to restart my PC. It's working now.

If it's working after a re-boot. It suggests the problem isn't in Newsbin. I downloaded about 5 gigs last night, same servers with no stalling. At this point, I'd probably call it a mystery since there don't seem to be any error messages.

[Arbie]

For what it's worth, I have the same symptoms. Master - Astraweb; Fills = Giganews. Many files will only partially download and then stall. Restarting NBP usually gets them going again but often from the beginning of the file... then they stall again at the same places. Lots of these files are older (500+) days, but not always. It can happen with files as recent as 60 or 100 days.

Same old problem with needed PARs often partially downloading.

I'm running v6.11 but don't know the build right now. I've tried several recent V6's with the same results.

This is just a data point for you since I don't now have time to detail which exact files are hanging and what the indicators are.

And a 2 cents - I regret that we can't delete parts of a package from the download list. Trying to recover from partial downloads I often need only a few RAR parts, but when I try to delete the others the whole thing gets deleted. I'm sure this used to be different. So I have to go back to Grabit which will allow selecting parts.

Thx -

Arbie

[Quade]

You can download selected parts easily enough. If using an NZB, use the "Load NZB" button then expand the set and add just what you want. If using "Search" or headers, the technique is the same. Expand and add just the pars for instance. Deleting individual items is on my todo list. Not sure it'll make 6.2. I'd run 6.2. It's better than 6.11.

Might be interesting to disable AW and try it giganews only. Do you see errors in the logging tab? Lately it seems most of our tech support is caused by Avast, Kaspersky and the like. You'll get a stream of connect errors when they get in the way.

[Arbie]

OK, I now have a snapshot of a multiple stall. You can download the screenshot, NZB, and log excerpt at:

https://rapidshare.com/files/1608772139 ... _stall.rar

On Newsbin Pro (v 6.20B3 Build 1447) my primary server is Astraweb, with slave-fill server Giganews. On Grabit my default server is Astraweb, secondary is Giganews. All connections are via SSL. Results are unaffected by enabling / disabling my AVG anti-virus, and also unaffected by swapping the status of Astraweb or Gignews, or just using Giganews. I also think they're unaffected by SSL vs non-SSL, since I have switched that too in the recent past to see if it helps. I'm on Win XP Pro.

The purple bars are files that got about half-way through and just stalled on Newsbin Pro. When I created an NZB of these in Newsbin (good feature) and fed it to Grabit, all the files downloaded promptly without errors (from Astraweb).

These particular files are 600+ days old, and the log shows that NBP got, or thinks it got, quite a few bogus "don't have the file" notices from the servers. However, the files really were there because Grabit got them a few minutes later. My uninformed guess is - maybe NBP is misinterpreting these messages?

Thanks for all the work

Arbie

[Quade]

What happens if you disable "Fill" mode on Giganews? Might be something odd going on with fill mode.

[Arbie]

With AVG antivirus disabled...

I think there is more of a clue here. It turns out that the files in the NZB I uploaded are not available on Giganews, only on Astraweb. That's where Grabit was getting them from.

So I tried an NZB with just one of these files in Newsbin Pro, with Astraweb = Active Master / Normal and GN = Active / Slave / Normal (ie I turned off Fill on GN). I still got the same kinds of error messages as in the log I uploaded, and the download would not even start.

Then I disabled Giganews so it appeared as Disabled / Slave / Normal. As soon as I did that (while the download was stalled) I got Critical Error messages such as the following, where I have replaced part of the filename with "xxxxxxxxxxx":

[14:55:50] ERROR NNTPSocket - Socket HandleError - Server:news.giganews.com SendCommand - Server Reports that a Post isn't on the server: 430 no such article
[14:55:51] ERROR NNTPSocket - Socket HandleError - Server:news.giganews.com SendCommand - Server Reports that a Post isn't on the server: 430 no such article
[14:55:51] ERROR Download Engine Giganews - DL_OpenItem -DL_DI - Failed to retrieve Article from Server::Giganews
[14:56:24] ERROR NNTPSocket - NS_Connect - Server:Unknown Address isn't set for server:Giganews
[14:56:24] ERROR - AssembleFiles: No Filename - Filename from subject:[12870]-[FULL]-[#a.b.teevee@EFNet]-[xxxxxxxxxxx.XviD-DIMENSION]-[02/40] - "xxxxxxxxxxx.xvid-dimension.par2" yEnc
[14:56:27] ERROR - AssembleFiles: No Filename - Filename from subject:[12870]-[FULL]-[#a.b.teevee@EFNet]-[xxxxxxxxxxx.XviD-DIMENSION]-[02/40] - "xxxxxxxxxxx.xvid-dimension.par2" yEnc

Several cycles of closing and restarting Newsbin, and trying to Reset the download, failed to start it.

==> Finally, I deleted Giganews completely from the server list. Then Newsbin downloaded the file successfully from Astraweb.


So, I think part of the stalling is due to Newsbin being confused by reports from GN that it doesn't have the file, and this happens even if GN is "disabled".

Other thoughts - I wish Newsbin would give me the option of treating PARs exactly like any other file. They are the worst for not fully downloading even when things are working fine.

Also, there seems to be no way to call up the Critical Errors window once you dismiss it. And I would like to be able to simply minimize it, rather than have to kill it to get it out of the way.

Thx

Arbie

[Arbie]

OK, I have now done a complete uninstall of Newbin Pro (everything off the drives and out of the registry, and a reinstall using 6.20RC1 b1494). The problems outlined above are still occurring. With more testing - and a renewal of my vow to never be a software developer - I have a repeatable failure at least within my environment.

If both Astraweb and Giganews have a file, it will download OK with either server as Master and the other as Slave / Fill. However, if Giganews is the Master, PARs are reported as damaged during the download. For some reason, even if Astraweb doesn't appear at all on the server list, the logging window says all files are coming from eu.news.astraweb.com.

If Giganews does not have the file, the file will not download under any combination of server settings if Giganews appears on the server list. That means Giganews has to be deleted, not disabled. Then, if Astraweb has the file, it will begin downloading it.

I'm using SSL, with the port set to 443 for Astraweb and 563 for Giganews.

Inconsistency: In the Server screen, you can't "Add Server" unless you've got one highlighted. And then the "Add Server" command works the same as the "Server Options" command. So it sets you up to change the properties of an existing server - not to enter properties of a new one. If you're in a hurry you may change stuff you wanted to keep...

Thx

Arbie

[Quade]

RC2 is going up tonight. See if it does the same thing. If it does, I'll look deeper. If not, I'll be happy. Certain things get disabled when there's only one server. For example the "Typical Retention" gets disabled and fill modes all turn off.

[itimpi]

For some reason, even if Astraweb doesn't appear at all on the server list, the logging window says all files are coming from eu.news.astraweb.com.

I suspect that you may actually just be seeing Astraweb mentioned in the message-id field? This is set when a post is uploaded and never changed even when the post is replicated to other servers. In generating the message-id field Astraweb tend to include their server name as part of the string in the field. It could just be therefore that the post was uploaded to the eu.news.astraweb.com server?

This could explain also why you might be seeing Astraweb with the posts and not Giganews? Particularly if they are new posts that were uploaded through Astraweb and have not yet been replicated to Giganews.

[Quade]

I suspect that you may actually just be seeing Astraweb mentioned in the message-id field?

Ah, that's a good point. It's pretty common too.

[Arbie]

OK, Release Candidate 2 has fixed the problem where the mere presence of Giganews (if it didn't have the files) would prevent downloading them from Astraweb.

A couple of editorial suggestions on the Server Options: "Set Slave Mode" would be better as "Set Master / Slave". And "Set Fill Server Mode" might be better as "Set Fill / No Fill"

Thx

Arbie

[Arbie]

https://rapidshare.com/files/2970289999 ... d_file.jpg

There may still be a problem with Giganews properly acting as a fill server, leading to what appears to be a stall. The link above is to a screenshot of this happening. Astraweb segments are in gold, Giganews in red. The post properties window says all parts are available, and the segment display shows that GN did the fills - but the byte count shows the file is incomplete, and download speed has dropped to zero.

Also note that the overall progress bar is blank. This file (and others like it) had been in the failed files list as spam. I tried to bring them back onto the Download List using "Bypass Filters", but that doesn't work. I had to actively shut off spam checking before they would move. When they did go back on, progress was not recorded properly - it just stayed blank.

Thx
Arbie