6.30 Final - Disable X-Features Keeps Toggling Itself On

[MichaelW_]

Downloading from Usenetserver - Every time I refresh headers the disable X-Features keeps toggling itself on. No logging errors and if I un-toggle it before getting headers then it downloads headers fine (and fast). After headers, it seems to toggle back to disabled, and this is annoying. Any ideas?

[DThor]

Wow, that's odd. Did you alter it to what you wanted, quit and restarted newsbin and verified that it saved properly? I've not been aware of any settings that can be altered at all by anything other than explicitly entering it into your options /server settings. When I get a moment near the computer I'll try this.

DT

[mimauk]

I get this happening with one of my servers - Virginmedia - as well. It is the reason why I have always presumed they don't compress the headers that I have mentioned in my other posts. The Easynews servers always remain unchecked.

I can uncheck the ''disable X features'' box and close NB down - when I open NB again and check the settings it is still unchecked, but as soon as I download any headers the box is checked. This has been happening for some time, as I can remember trying to uncheck the box last year. I just presumed NB picked up a signal from the server.

[Quade]

I'll check it out. Thanks.

Re-reading this. It's normal for Newsbin to disable XFeatures if the server reports it doesn't support it. Virgin Media for instance, I'm almost certain they don't support it. Usenetserver, I'm not sure. If you see XFeatures disable itself, it's because Newsbin tried the command, noticed it wasn't supported and turned it off. Some servers disconnect and otherwise become unhappy when hit with a command they don't know. That's why it turns itself off.

You could try turning one "Show server Command", uncheck disable XFeatures and then try some header downloads then watch the logs.

[mimauk]

Here's the logs from the Virgin media server.

15:16:28] HIGH - Par2Repair - Single-core 1.0
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - XFEATURE COMPRESS GZIP

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 400 Unrecognized command
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - DATE

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 111 20120302151316
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - GROUP alt.binaries.xxxxx

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 211 45841 9636470 9682310 alt.binaries.xxxxx
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - XOVER 9636470-9682310

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 224 Overview Information Follows

[mimauk]

Just noticed on the first line of the log it says

15:16:28] HIGH - Par2Repair - Single-core 1.0

My machine is an AMD 4 core does that mean NB only uses one core?

[Quade]

15:16:28] HIGH - Par2Repair - Single-core 1.0
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - XFEATURE COMPRESS GZIP

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 400 Unrecognized command

Newsbin is turning XFeatures off because virgin doesn't support them.

The installer always installs single core for AMD. You can manually update to multi-core.

http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/MulticorePAR630.rar

We've had some issue in the past with multi-core on AMD so, we make it a manual process now.

[mimauk]

Do I just copy the files into the Data folder ?

[itimpi]

I would expect you to have to copy then to the Program folder.

[MichaelW_]

15:16:28] HIGH - Par2Repair - Single-core 1.0
[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - XFEATURE COMPRESS GZIP

[15:16:58] HIGH NNTPSocket - 400 Unrecognized command

Newsbin is turning XFeatures off because virgin doesn't support them.

Usernetserver gives me no such error

[14:42:15] DEBUG NNTPServerWorker - DownloadRecords - Total XOVER Size:alt.binaries.multimedia - 945106603:945109515
[14:42:16] DEBUG - Update Worker Command
[14:42:16] DEBUG NNTPServerWorker - XOVER: alt.binaries.multimedia 945106603:945109515
[14:42:18] DEBUG - Checking Autodownload: alt.binaries.multimedia
[14:42:18] DEBUG - Update Worker Command

And if I implicitly go in and enable it by unchecking the box, it is 20x faster in downloading headers, but re-disables it on the next header download.

[Quade]

Something is turning it off that's specific to that server. I use XFeatures pretty much exclusively. I wonder if they have it implemented on only some of their servers? So, Newsbin disables because one of the N servers they have returns an error?

I'll have to think about that.

[MichaelW_]

Something is turning it off that's specific to that server. I use XFeatures pretty much exclusively. I wonder if they have it implemented on only some of their servers? So, Newsbin disables because one of the N servers they have returns an error?

I'll have to think about that.

Wouldn't I see an error in the log if they did reject it though? I haven't seen a single error in weeks, and still it shuts Xfeatures off.

[MichaelW_]

Something is turning it off that's specific to that server. I use XFeatures pretty much exclusively. I wonder if they have it implemented on only some of their servers? So, Newsbin disables because one of the N servers they have returns an error?

I'll have to think about that.

Quade-
I continued having the problem in 6.30 Final. I now downgraded to 6.3b5, and the problem has gone away. I am getting the fast header downloads I am used to and it no longer toggles off, so it seems something between b5 and final got borked somewhere.

[EssCee]

Quade,
i'm also suffering with this problem and using newshosting (who provides Virgin Media their news service).

Only problem for me is that I haven't got the 6.30 Beta 5 installer anymore. Is it possible to upload the 64bit version installer somewhere for me?

As a side idea, could we have a forum (for registered users) that contains all the old versions
OR
the ability to download any of the older version on the website?

Many thanks,
Simon.

[Quade]

In 6.31, I'm removing the automatic disable. Clearly it's a problem.

Have you looked in the download section of the website?

http://www.newsbin.com/freetrial.php

Scroll down.

Use the web form on the main site to send us a message with your email address. I'll get Dex a 6.31 with this disabled and you can try it out.

[EssCee]

Wow! Now that's a fast response!

I'll admit it, the never though of scrolling that far done

I've also dropped you a message on the web form with my email.

Many thanks,
Simon.

[Quade]

I sent him one. I'm running some tests on it. It was a one line change though 6.31 has a couple changes for the people who turn off autopar too.

[Shine]

This may be too late since 6.31RC is already available - but another workaround is to use SSL. NB automatically uses Zlib compression when you turn on SSL.

Wondering what's faster, though - XZVER/XZHDR (which is Zlib anyway) or global Zlib compression for the whole connection...

[Quade]

Most news servers have disabled ZLib over SSL. The reason is that a majority of what's downloaded is per-compressed so, compressing the SSL data results in minimal size reductions with significant additional load on the servers.

It's true that if your server supports Zlib over SSL, the speed would be about the same as XFeatures. What XFeatures is, is selective compression. It just compresses text replies from the server which can see as much as 10:1 compression.

The change in Newsbin still lets you disable XFeatures, it just won't disable it automatically. If your news server supports ZLib over SSL, I'd just disable XFeatures as you're suggesting.

[Shine]

This is interesting (although drifting off-topic)... How do I find out whether the server supports Zlib? Does the following log entry mean that Zlib is actually being used? Or does it just mean NB supports it and will use it IF the server agrees?

[14:17:32] HIGH InterSocket - SSL Zlib Compression Added

Since I'm getting this log entry for each SSL connection to Astraweb, Newshosting and XS Usenet (haven't tried others).


Edit: Found it! If you change Advanced -> Status Tab Logging to "Verbose", you get an additional log entry telling you the encryption and Zlib state of your SSL connection! So it turns out only Astraweb doesn't support Zlib compression, while the others do. On the other hand, Astra supports XFEATURE compression (XZVER/XZHDR), while the others don't.

[17:01:19] LOW InterSocket - SSL Connection Server: news.newshosting.com Stats: ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA zlib compression 256 TLSv1/SSLv3
[17:01:24] LOW InterSocket - SSL Connection Server: ssl-eu.astraweb.com Stats: RC4-SHA 128 TLSv1/SSLv3

[Quade]

That message means Newsbin adding support for ZLib internally. Newsbin has to tell the SSL library to use Zlib. It's the server though that enables and disables it on a per connection basis.

Newsbin says to the server when it connects: "I support Zlib"

The server then either says "Use ZLIB" or doesn't.

[MichaelW_]

Quade- I just upgraded to 6.31 RC2 and it has definitely fixed the header compression issues. It no longer toggles off by itself, and I am most certainly getting the xfeatures compression on each header download.

[Quade]

Thanks for the feedback.