paused PARs

[coyote2]

As sometimes happens, a fileset was in Retry for perhaps an hour. This time instead of Deleting it, I clicked the + to expand it. I found all the PAR files were Paused. Unsure what to do, I right-clicked and "Resume Download" them. They promptly downloaded and the next thing I knew the fileset was un-RAR'ed successfully.

Any advice on either what to do in such a situation, or on Settings to avoid needing to do anything?

Thank you!

[Quade]

What version were you using? You can tell Newsbin not to pause the pars in 6.31. It's the option above "Aggressive Assembly" mode in the autopar options.

[itimpi]

Any advice on either what to do in such a situation, or on Settings to avoid needing to do anything

You might try hitting the Properties button for the set to see what Newsbin is waiting for? Note that it if it is a newish post (less than 48 hours old) then Newsbin may be waiting for missing files/parts to appear. In this is the case and you have a reliable server then enabling the new Aggressive Assembly mode setting in Options->Autopar Options might be a good idea.

[coyote2]

What version were you using?

6.31 Build 1877

You can tell Newsbin not to pause the pars in 6.31. It's the option above "Aggressive Assembly" mode in the autopar options.

Any advice on either what to do in such a situation, or on Settings to avoid needing to do anything

You might try hitting the Properties button for the set to see what Newsbin is waiting for? Note that it if it is a newish post (less than 48 hours old) then Newsbin may be waiting for missing files/parts to appear. In this is the case and you have a reliable server then enabling the new Aggressive Assembly mode setting in Options->Autopar Options might be a good idea.

Thanks to you both! The set was weeks old. I have enabled "Aggressive Assembly" mode now; I was aware that Setting had been added, but I wasn't clear on whether enabling it would cause, or solve, problems for me.

[itimpi]

Thanks to you both! The set was weeks old. I have enabled "Aggressive Assembly" mode now; I was aware that Setting had been added, but I wasn't clear on whether enabling it would cause, or solve, problems for me.

The Agressive mode should not be required on older posts. It is intended primarily for newer posts where the PAR2 files are posted ahead of the complete rar set so that one can avoid waiting for all the .rar files to be posted if you have sufficient PAR2 files.

That begs the question of why the post you were having a problem with did not automatically unpause the required PAR2 files and download them.

[coyote2]

Thanks to you both! The set was weeks old. I have enabled "Aggressive Assembly" mode now; I was aware that Setting had been added, but I wasn't clear on whether enabling it would cause, or solve, problems for me.

The Agressive mode should not be required on older posts. It is intended primarily for newer posts where the PAR2 files are posted ahead of the complete rar set so that one can avoid waiting for all the .rar files to be posted if you have sufficient PAR2 files.

That begs the question of why the post you were having a problem with did not automatically unpause the required PAR2 files and download them.

I did find that puzzling. If there's a next time I'll look at the Properties of the files to get more info.

[coyote2]

Thanks to you both! The set was weeks old. I have enabled "Aggressive Assembly" mode now; I was aware that Setting had been added, but I wasn't clear on whether enabling it would cause, or solve, problems for me.

The Agressive mode should not be required on older posts. It is intended primarily for newer posts where the PAR2 files are posted ahead of the complete rar set so that one can avoid waiting for all the .rar files to be posted if you have sufficient PAR2 files.

That begs the question of why the post you were having a problem with did not automatically unpause the required PAR2 files and download them.

I did find that puzzling. If there's a next time I'll look at the Properties of the files to get more info.

Full of hope with "Aggressive Assembly" mode enabled, I started downloading some filesets (I use giganews). All 5 of them stalled (stopped downloading for hours) with all the PAR files paused.

However, I was even more confused when I exited and re-started Newsbin, and some more downloading occurred. Here are some screenshots:

[Quade]

Looks to me like you might have multiple servers and one of the servers is crappy. See all the red? I'll bet you have a constant stream of failure messages in the logging tab too. So, problem #1 is that you have a shitty server in the mix. That means you don't want to use Aggressive mode. If you only have one server and the bars are turning red like this, you have a big problem and I'm not surprised things aren't working for you.

All that red means that the download is failing. You could hit the + icon and see exactly how bad each file is failing too.

So, you need to turn aggressive mode off. It's only for good servers. Looking at your pictures, at all the red, I'd say the files you're downloading are probably unfixable. The core problem is the red bars so, it's pointless to even look at autopar or assembly until you figure out where all the errors are coming from and dealing with them. My servers are near perfect, I seldom see red bars so, aggressive mode works for me.

So, what servers are you using and what do you see in the logging tab when these red bars appear? I'd suggest starting a download, hitting the + icon to look at the files and see what it looks like. See where the red error bars are happening. Then when it downloads as far as it can, right click and select properties on the parent item to see what the par state is.

On the files you already have, I'd suggest you check the par state. See how many blocks you have and how many you need.

[coyote2]

Looks to me like you might have multiple servers and one of the servers is crappy. See all the red? I'll bet you have a constant stream of failure messages in the logging tab too. So, problem #1 is that you have a shitty server in the mix. That means you don't want to use Aggressive mode. If you only have one server and the bars are turning red like this, you have a big problem and I'm not surprised things aren't working for you.

All that red means that the download is failing. You could hit the + icon and see exactly how bad each file is failing too.

So, you need to turn aggressive mode off. It's only for good servers. Looking at your pictures, at all the red, I'd say the files you're downloading are probably unfixable. The core problem is the red bars so, it's pointless to even look at autopar or assembly until you figure out where all the errors are coming from and dealing with them. My servers are near perfect, I seldom see red bars so, aggressive mode works for me.

So, what servers are you using and what do you see in the logging tab when these red bars appear? I'd suggest starting a download, hitting the + icon to look at the files and see what it looks like. See where the red error bars are happening. Then when it downloads as far as it can, right click and select properties on the parent item to see what the par state is.

On the files you already have, I'd suggest you check the par state. See how many blocks you have and how many you need.

Thank you very much for your reply, Quade!

I thought giganews servers were good. (I do see that I forgot to reduce "Connections" to "20" when I downgraded to Platinum.) Does this change your advice about Aggressive mode, etc.

Incidentally, Newsbin crashed for the first time ever for me this morning. Perhaps this is a meaningless coincidence (I only mention it because I'm so lost); or should I un-/re-install?

Alternatively, if your advice still stands knowing that I'm using news.giganews.com, I'll implement your advice about the Agressive mode setting and examining the state of files.

[Quade]

- Too many connections. Set it to 10-20 then restart and I'll bet your red bars go away (if they're caused by connection errors).

When you run your connections right at the limit it's error prone, consumes more resources and in most cases is no faster and sometimes slower than fewer connections. How fast is your net connection? I can max out 100 mbps with 10 connections.

- Try enabling SSL.

- Giganews is US based so, they comply with the DMCA. Meaning sometimes files you try to download have been removed. You can get red bars from this too. DMCA downloads are hit or miss. You might get enough chunks to fix the files, then again you might not. If you hit the + button and the first chunk of every file is red or black, this is DMCA. When the download completes, you need to check the PAR state. Right click properties on the parent item. If you don't have enough chunks and par repair chunk, the file is junk.


I'd say your core problem right now isn't autopar or retries. It's getting enough of the file to repair and unrar. It looks like you're right on the edge.

[coyote2]

- Too many connections. Set it to 10-20 then restart and I'll bet your red bars go away (if they're caused by connection errors).

When you run your connections right at the limit it's error prone, consumes more resources and in most cases is no faster and sometimes slower than fewer connections. How fast is your net connection? I can max out 100 mbps with 10 connections.

- Try enabling SSL.

Yay!!

I set Connections=10 and enabled SSL. Now when I click + on a fileset, all the Progress bars are Green!

However, my d/l speed has become a problem when I use (as I always do) Newsbin's Speed Limiter. (I've always wondered why to limit Newsbin to 11Mbps [of my connection's promised 12Mbps], I've had to set the Speed Limiter to 8.7Mbps]. Anyway...)

Now with limiter off I'm getting a smoothly consistent 13.5Mbps (though for about a minute it's triple that, thanks to Comcast's [for me nearly useless] temporary 'boost' effect). With the limiter on, however, (no matter what I set the limit to) the download speed varies between 2Mbps and 5Mbps, with occasional surged up into double digit Mbps).

Should I disable SSL? And/or should I increase connections a bit?

[Quade]

I've been told that disabling SSL makes the limiter more accurate. I haven't had a chance to look into it yet.

I was suggesting SSL as a way to send the data in a way that your Virus scanner/firewall didn't mess with. You don't need it normally.

How about dropping the connections back more and not using the limiter at all? Using the limiter and a bunch of connections is like driving with one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas. What I find is that with limited connections, I don't need the limiter because net sharing works much better.

[coyote2]

It seems that my Auto-UnRAR is kinda lazy. I just expanded a fileset that had sat idle for hours; it had just a few tiny red marks in the RARs, and it had all the PARs. So I clicked "Retry Download" and it promptly UnRAR'ed successfully. Is there a better setting to avoid such manual intervention, please?

[Quade]

You could try checking "Disable par unpausing".

[coyote2]

Most of the stuff in this thread I posted is no longer an issue, but sometimes, like today, a fileset for download stops downloading and just sits there for hours. Until I click "Retry Download". Which sometimes works (i.e. some downloading occurs then the file Unrars). Is it possible to get Newsbin to retry itself, please?

(This time I didn't bother to look at the details of the fileset which had stalled, so I can't say more. My settings are in the jpegs upthread.)

[Quade]

What version are you using right now? How many retries do you have set? Retries determine how long Newsbin sits there before assembling partial files. I have mine set to 2 which works out to a couple minutes.

[coyote2]

What version are you using right now? How many retries do you have set? Retries determine how long Newsbin sits there before assembling partial files. I have mine set to 2 which works out to a couple minutes.

6.34 build 1886
Options | Setup | Max Retries = 2

[gkar]

sorry to hijack thread.. having same issue with latest beta. turned on aggressive mode to get round it.

[coyote2]

sorry to hijack thread.. having same issue with latest beta. turned on aggressive mode to get round it.

I've already got Aggressive Assembly mode enabled. (I haven't changed that since I posted the jpeg of that options screenshot upthread.)

[gkar]

aye i noticed that after id posted.