Download Special - Add to top - Big delay now

[rae2]

I like to browse while downloading. I often find a .jpg I'd like to look at and tell NewsBin to DL it as "special" - Add to top... and it would immediately show up at the top of my downloads and IMMEDIATELY begin to download. In this latest "upgrade" (6.58 Build 3289), the file I pick does show up at the top of the DL list, but it takes forever for the system to actually download it. I don't know what you guys did, but put it back to the way it was! When I select a file to "download special, add to top" it means I want whatever NewsBin is currently downloading to IMMEDIATELY suspend and switch to downloading the "top" file. Thank you.

[Quade]

Is it slow to show up or slow to download?

How many connections do you use to the server? You can't interrupt a download in progress so, if you have a bunch of downloads "in the air", until they finish, a new download won't start.

[rae2]

I use 4 connections because I'm on a DSL telephone line system which Bell calls "High Speed" which is a bit of a joke because other than an actually dial-up, this is about as slow as it gets.
That said, NOTHING has changed at my end for many months. I don't know what you mean by "you can't interrupt a download in progress..." because whenever I have selected "Download Special - Add to top" whatever has been downloading (say a bunch of .rar files in a movie) IMMEDIATELY suspend downloading and what I've added to the top of the list (usually a .jpg picture but sometimes even another shorter video file) begins to download. When it completes, the system goes back to downloading what it was doing.

So Quade, I don't understand your posting. I have always been able to interrupt an "in the air" download by selecting a new file "Add to top." However, since the latest "upgrade" I now wait anywhere up to 2 -3 minutes before the selection I've added to the "top" begins to download. Am I making myself clear? The program has changed - nothing at my end or what I've been doing has changed.

[Quade]

IMMEDIATELY

Never happens. If Newsbin is downloading 600K chunks of files, it's not going to start another chunk, like your JPG till the 600K chunks in the air complete. That's just how it works. I'm not saying there's no issue, I'm saying that there is no "immediate", there is no interrupt of individual chunks of a file. The file, which might be made of numerous chunks can be interrupted but, it's not an instantaneous thing. It might seem like it but, it's not. The files moved to top don't start downloading till the the chunks of the file currently in process finish.

You may not care about this level of detail but, that's how it works. What I suspect you're seeing is the new cache that lets some chunks get allocated before use and that have to be cycled through before the new topmost gets processed. It's a function of speed and now that I know you have a slow connection, it sort of makes sense to me.

I'll have to think about it. Slow connections take awhile to burn through the cache. Faster connections, you just don't notice it.

[rae2]

Thanks for the clarification.

There definitely has been a change in the program recently. For as long as I can remember I've been able to "interrupt" a downloading file to, for example, read an .nfo file" from some other file, or to Add to Top a completely different file and the one currently downloading is (to me) immediately put on hold and the one on top begins (to me) immediately to download.

By "file" I mean anything from a .jpg of a few hundred Kb to video of 2GB in some format or other (.rar, .mp4, etc.). I understand these big files are broken into pieces (.rar) but I've been able to watch NewsBin suspend the download of just one of the chunks to obey new instructions to download another file I've moved to a higher priority in the listing of downloads.

This most current version is really annoying me. I'm right now in the middle of a download of a large video - these often take several hours on my DSL hookup. I wanted to read a tiny little .nfo file of another file. I clicked on it using "Add to Top" as I usually do and the download that was running continued to DL for perhaps a minute or more before giving me the .nfo information. In earlier versions this same request would have taken 5 seconds at most.

In earlier versions of Newsbin, when refreshing the headers from some group I visit frequently, the header download would immediately take priority over whatever else was downloading and complete updating before it released the download process back to what was going on before. Not now. Even if there are only 6 new items in the group listing, it can take up to 2-3 minutes for Newsbin to even begin to download those few headers.

All versions of Newsbin have worked fine for me before now. I really haven't had any complaints about how it worked but it's now it's very frustrating. I guess I shouldn't have "fixed" what wasn't broken, eh? Is there any way I can revert back to an earlier version of V6?

[Quade]

How many connections are you using to the server? How fast is your internet?

If I had to guess, I'd guess you're using a bunch of connections and a relatively slow internet connection. If you have 3 Mbps DSL for example, you really should only be using about 2-3 connections. I see people run 50 connections on a small internet connection.

I was just testing. I added about 4 gb of downloaded and then downloaded images to top. There was about a 2 second wait for the file to download.

I'm not arguing about the change. It has changed to take more advantage of fast connections but, your results are so extreme, I'm wondering if this is just revealing a configuration issue. Like 30 connections on a 3 Mbps connection to the internet.

[far canal]

The new "Look Ahead" connections might be causing this problem. I'm showing 20 odd connections, but I'm only using 8 download connections. It appears NB has to work it's way though the current parts and the "look ahead" parts, before it downloads anything that's been put at the top of the list. I'm waiting a couple of minutes to now, when it used to be less than a minute.

[rae2]

Thanks again for your ongoing concern...

I'm connected to Usenet via "secure.usenetserver.com", using 4 connections, priority 1 on SSL port 563

My download speed, as indicated by Newsbin, always tops out at a reasonably steady 1.6Mbps/205Kbps.

I've reset my DL connections to 2(two). Not sure if it will take a restart to actually make a difference and I have to go out right now. Will post any differences I detect later on.

[Quade]

Hmm slower than I thought but, I think my theory is correct.

I'll have to think about it. Maybe I need a "slow download speed" mode with no lookahead

[rae2]

I've been playing around. Tried installing the Rel Candidate 6.3... no change in program downloading behavior.

So I went back through the MOTD archives and DL'd the 6.42 Bld 2148. Bingo! Back to the way I like it.

Which is... while downloading a multi-part video, if I right click on another file - say a .jpg or .nfo or even another big video file in the group listing, -> Download Special -> Add to Top and press Enter,
the selected file IMMEDIATELY appears at the top of the Downloads and IMMEDIATELY begins to download. I'm still set at using 2 connections and that seems fine. Assigning the file to the TOP immediately interrupts and suspends the ongoing download and begins to download the new "top" listing. This is the way the program's been for the past 18 months I've used it until the latest two "upgrades." BTW, by "immediately" I mean there's no delay - no waiting for caches to empty or incomplete parcels to download or whatever. Within ONE SECOND the change occurs.

So... I'm a happy camper now... the old version works exactly as I need it to work. I'm just a user and have little knowledge of programming but I'm sure it's as complicated as hell. I guess when you "improve" one thing another goes into the toilet. Such is life.

Thanks for your time.