newsbin.com

by **dexter** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:55 pm

Couple of quick fixes to take us through the weekend

Fix for not re-using the newest chunks. Was causing high memory usage in some cases.
Fixed crash issue found when Typical Retention is used.

The 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.

by **BZee** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:15 am

Beta 7

Wishlist not working. I can sent files to the wishlist. Selecting All ( Ctrl-a) and "Download - Bypass Filters" downloads 7 files - the rest say "Display Update Pending" and a number. Can't get these to download - have to clear list.

Status line: Size of data waiting and time to finish are not working. Oops! just checked again and they are now working - I'll monitor during future sessions.

by **BZee** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:18 pm

Beta 7

Test download seems better but I still can not get it to download after the test. Went back to Newsbin 6.54 - Test download works.

by **Quade** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 1:20 pm

Test works, conversion to regular file download doesn't. it's on my list. Thanks.

by **bertm** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 4:31 pm

First, I'm a old holdout still on XP.

With the last two Betas Newsbin seems to have a problem with "Chunks." I mentioned prior about seeing "Chunks" in the recycle bin - now I have to manually delete them from the "Chunks" folder.

by **Quade** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:27 pm

They delete automatically when they get 3 days old. Any files you manually assemble will leave chunks behind which will get deleted during the periodic data folder purge. Files that complete properly get their chunks deleted. I doubt any issue has anything to do with XP.

XP is fully support to at least the release of 6.60.

by **bertm** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:29 pm

OK I've only been keeping 8GB of extra space. I now have twenty. Currently 3 days is too long for me given the current DLs. Is there an option to adjust the Chunk days retention?

You know best, but I don't understand the value of retaining chunks for 3 days. If you test to see if chunks are related to files in wish and download tabs before deleting them, chunks age doesn't matter.

When they were showing up in recycle bin, they were being deleted immediately after being extracted from the Rar.

by **Quade** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:40 am

[SETTINGS]
PurgeDays=N

It actually defaults to 2 days not 3. As to why, most people aren't "assembling incompletes" so normally the chunks are deleted as soon as the file is assembled. I just looked in my chunk folder. It has some chunks for files I'd stopped downloading in it. Didn't have any from files I'd completed the download on.

As to why, some people attempt to re-download incomplete files and the chunks left in the chunks folder let them avoid re-downloading these chunks.

by **orygun** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:33 am

I have searched through the settings in both versions tonight, and am unable to locate where 'hide incompletes' is shown. You mentioned on my previous comment (last month) that there is no such setting, and I am begining to believe you.. but- installing the 6.6 builds, something changes, and with filters enabled, incompletes are shown.

Some of my friends often say I see things(!) or 'mis-remember' other things, but in this I doubt my mind is playing tricks on me.

As the two pics show, under previous versions (up through 6.5) if a file was incomplete, it would only show up in the listing if I removed my filter settings, but in this (the 6.6 builds), with filters applied, all incompletes are still showing.

The versions were installed/reinstalled twice, with the same results.

You've stumped me.

by **Maelstroem** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:49 pm

In Beta 7, done a local search for some files and tagged them for download but seeing a duplicate entry added in the download list when a file fails to download due to parts missing on all servers! Also, when removing those failed files from the download list, the post list still has those files still marked as queued for download with the relevant icon showing. If I search again for the same files the status hasn't changed on those files, only quitting, reloading and searching again shows them as Idle/Old!

In the servers TAB, all the servers are now expanded to show the connections meaning I have to either scroll down to see which servers are enabled/disabled or click the server options icon. Can the server list be collapsible so you can see all the servers and enable/disable them easily like in 6.55?

by **bertm** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 1:26 pm

I could only find "PurgeRecords=864000" so I added "PurgeDays=1" to the ".NBI"

BTW With the large fragmented DL causing me the problem It had 20 GB of chunks related to it. Each chunk is only 754 KB, but, if I remember correctly, the system allocates 2048 KB for each file "piece." My memory my be old information, I never kept up with systems. This is based on the old style hard drives. Are the new, I think their called solid state, flash drives better at size allocations?

What is "NNTP_CloseChunk - closing a dirty connection" telling me?

by **gkar** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:01 pm

show filenames in DL is not working

moving files to the top of the DL works but Nb ignores the files, have to quit and reload to get them to download

On quitting i got a Pure virtual function call error

by **Quade** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 12:38 am

In Beta 7, done a local search for some files and tagged them for download but seeing a duplicate entry added in the download list when a file fails to download due to parts missing on all servers!

Thanks. I think a retry is happening inside the code when the par files are being checked.

show filenames in DL is not working

moving files to the top of the DL works but Nb ignores the files, have to quit and reload to get them to download

Yeah it's never worked in 6.60. When it's working again it'll be in the release notes. Not sure what to think of your download order thing. If you have a bunch of failed chunks being slowly serviced, they'll get serviced before a newly "added to top" files is downloaded.

I could only find "PurgeRecords=864000" so I added "PurgeDays=1" to the ".NBI"

I'm purging incomplete file chunks after assembly now. Lets see who complains about it.

What is "NNTP_CloseChunk - closing a dirty connection" telling me?

It's telling you that one of your connections failed so, the connection needs to be recycled and re-established. If it happens a bunch then you're having connectivity problems.

by **gertjans** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 4:31 pm

It seems the list of files to download can not be sorted any more on 6.60B7. If I click on the column headers, nothing happens.

by **dexter** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 4:37 pm

Known issue, it's in the release notes. It hasn't worked for any of the 6.60 beta releases.

by **bertm** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 12:13 am

I haven't posted any comment on this because I know you have more important issues to resolve, but before too much time elapses here goes: For coded files, I extract and view partially d/led Rars and run the MKV or AVI to preview contents (MP4 does not work). Prior to B7, possibly B6, when the row was deleted from Newsbin' download list, the d/led Rars were also deleted. Now, the Rars remain and have to be manually deleted. I have two concerns:

Obviously, I would prefer automatic deletion of unwanted Rars. But I am concerned there may be a different timing to testing whether subjects have been downloaded; causing the same subject to, again, show up in the download list.

1) Is there a fix to auto-deleting partially downladed Rars once the related row is deleted from the Newsbin Download list?

2) What triggers a completed d/l - do partials (like the first few Rars) count?

by **Zulithe** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 5:27 am

i'm getting infinite hard drive thrashing after clicking "download latest group updates"

if I end task and delete the file(s) in "import" folder it fixes it until I click it again. if I update individual groups it's usually okay, just some groups are being problematic and not sure what the deal is

by **Quade** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:11 am

If you look down at the "Cache" line on the status bar, there's a number in parens. This number represents the number of headers blocks/gz files there are to import. After you download all of your group updates, that number should increase then go down until it hits zero.

Depending on what groups you're updating, you might be downloading gigs of headers each day. It takes some time to process them. Newsbin can download headers far faster than they can be processed. I see 500-800 Mbps header downloads speeds (because the headers are compressed).

Now it is possible that a specific group is stuck and can't import headers. The difficulty might be finding out which group is messed up.

by **lenwar** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:52 am

Hi,

In the beta-7 (haven't tried the other betas) the 'cleaned up' $SUBJECT doesn't clean up. It 'sometimes' creates a directory for every single file:
used setting:

downloaded selection:

Results:

by **Quade** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:49 am

If you want to PM me some subjects that don't work I can check them out, "$(SUBJECT)" will probably never be 100%. It reverts to the whole subject if it can't figure out how to do a good clean.

by **bertm** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 2:28 pm

A few unrepairable Rars are many times successfully fixed by closing Newsbin, deleting two or three "damaged" parts (running WinRar external to Newsbin) on hard drive, and running Newsbin again. practically every time the damaged Rars reload complete.

It only works 2-3 Rars at a time, so you have to keep repeating the above process for severely damaged files.

Could it be that B6 and B7, at least, complete fragmented parts too fast by forcing completion?

by **Quade** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:05 pm

I haven't had any repair failures recently. You could try increasing the retries if you think it's not waiting long enough.

by **Maelstroem** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 1:17 pm

Had a repeat of downloading headers where the download list doesn't show any incompletes until the post is expanded! After headers are downloaded the post just shows the 'Contains NFO/SFV' icon and status is 'Idle/New' but when expanding the post the icon changes to the 'incomplete' icon and status changes to 'Incomplete. Missing blah blah' and you can see the incompletes! If I close NB and reopen it, load the headers for the group it shows the 'Contains NFO/SFV' icon again looks complete, but expand and it shows incomplete making it difficult to see any incomplete posts!

by **Quade** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:30 pm

I'll check it out. Thanks.

by **bertm** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:00 pm

bertm wrote:A few unrepairable Rars are many times successfully fixed by closing Newsbin, deleting two or three "damaged" parts (running WinRar external to Newsbin) on hard drive, and running Newsbin again. practically every time the damaged Rars reload complete.

It only works 2-3 Rars at a time, so you have to keep repeating the above process for severely damaged files.

Could it be that B6 and B7, at least, complete fragmented parts too fast by forcing completion?

I want you to know that this happened for me in 6.56 as well. After resetting all options to default it was working fine - for a while (I had messed with the power settings, setting it to low power PC because I have Dual Core x86 w/XP. I also had fiddled w/autopar settings).
It's strange, the first 4-5 Rars would be OK, the the next Rars were BOLD (fragmented). I would shutdown Newsbin, delete the BOLD Rars, reopen Newsbin and it restarted the DL OK.

I checked, but no malware. The fragmenting still is happening. It's beginning to happen more frequently again. I'm at a loss to figure it out. If it wasn't for the net neutrality just announced I would think my connection was being throttled. So for now, once I see BOLD I shut Newsbin down, delete BOLD Rars, and restart Newsbin until BOLD starts again...

Any ideas? It seems to be only me that has this problem.

by **Quade** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:28 am

1 - How many retries do you have set?

2 - Is autopar enabled? If you disable autopar, Newsbin doesn't make any hard decisions with the downloaded files. When retries expire, it just assembles them and moves on. When Autopar is enabled, it won't assemble until it thinks it has enough of the file to actually repair. I'm not talking about automatic unrar. It doesn't matter if that's disabled. I'm talking about automatic repair.

3 - You're adding the rars as a grouped set of RARs? You're not adding them individually?

I'm guessing you're doing something I didn't anticipate and that's why you're getting weird results. You might want to increase the retries to 4 maybe. See if that changes anything.

by **bertm** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 4:15 pm

Quade wrote:1 - How many retries do you have set?

2 - Is autopar enabled? If you disable autopar, Newsbin doesn't make any hard decisions with the downloaded files. When retries expire, it just assembles them and moves on. When Autopar is enabled, it won't assemble until it thinks it has enough of the file to actually repair. I'm not talking about automatic unrar. It doesn't matter if that's disabled. I'm talking about automatic repair.

3 - You're adding the rars as a grouped set of RARs? You're not adding them individually?

I'm guessing you're doing something I didn't anticipate and that's why you're getting weird results. You might want to increase the retries to 4 maybe. See if that changes anything.

Don't hassle yourself. I've changed servers but it's too early to say, but it "seems" better. I'll keep you posted, but the fault is not on your end

by **gkar** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:13 pm

size of data waiting to download is broken..according to Nb i have 16777216TB waiting to download!

by **bertm** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:26 pm

Regarding the fragmentation problem:

After Supernews confirmed no problems on their end I began thinking about how I "torture" your robot.

Here is what I told Supernews:

I think it may be me. I unrar partially downloaded files and view the MKV through a video player. Then, I delete the MKV and, if I want to keep the file, I send the file (row) to the bottom of the queue. I do this to preview all files in the queue (I immediately delete it if not wanted). I think I am stretching Newsbin’s “brain” to keep track of these “open” files. I probably should let the wanted files DL before checking any other files.

Do you agree?

by **Quade** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:19 pm

I don't actually understand your "fragmentation" problem. I haven't had a bad download in weeks. If you think you're breaking the download, I'd suggest not doing it and see what happens. Files are upper-cased when Newsbin tries to assemble the file and some of the chunks for the files are completely missing. I'd assume most weird problems are caused by security software. How many chunks are in the file and how big is the "Cache" on the status bar? If the cache it bigger than the number of chunks in the file, the chunks shouldn't get written to disk at all.

You can hit the plus icon and watch Newsbin download the chunks. They should either all download or all not download. If you see some of them turning red. You need to look in the logging tab for errors.

If you're using SSL, how about turning it off and see if the symptoms change?

<bla bla> yEnc,X:\Down-Load\,0 K/51.7 MB [82],Downloading,,0d:03h:12m

[82] is the number of chunks in the file. You can see this if you hit the + icon on a download.

by **gkar** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:07 pm

download to one drive extract to another...rars not being deleted.

edit just seen it work with another file...not sure whats happening..

by **Quade** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 9:04 pm

RARS with no pars don't delete even though they decode. It's fixed in B8. We were going to release it today with periodic search but I ran into a snag I need to fix. I found out how to reproduce a wish list problem. Turns out it's a timing problem So you have to do X operations to make it show up.

by **BZee** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:38 am

Quade wrote: I found out how to reproduce a wish list problem. Turns out it's a timing problem So you have to do X operations to make it show up.

That's why it worked sometimes! Glad you found it. Timing problems can be tricky when troubleshooting electronics - I'm sure it is for software too.

by **Quade** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 7:57 am

Timing problems can be tricky when troubleshooting electronics

Yeah. It's due for a major re-working anyway. Just not sure if now's a good time for it.

by **bertm** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:32 pm

I've often wondered...

Do I have to update WinRar and QuickPar or does each release take care of that?

by **dexter** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:55 pm

bertm wrote:Do I have to update WinRar and QuickPar or does each release take care of that?

The unrar and PAR processing functionality is built into Newsbin. It is independent of your winrar and quickpar installations.

by **bertm** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:25 pm

dexter wrote:The unrar and PAR processing functionality is built into Newsbin. It is independent of your winrar and quickpar installations.

Thanks. I asked because I have a a problem where The Rars will abruptly go bold (I've mentioned this before) and when you right-click to extract "no files found."
This happens w/6.56 and 6.60. I went back to 6.56, so there may be an underlying "engine" from 6.60 that remains.

What I am able to do is "babysit" Newsbin. The moment I see BOLD Rars, I exit Newsbin, delete BOLD Rars, restart Newsbin, and the program picks up where it left off like nothing happened.

BTW, all my previous theories don't seem to hold up'

by **dexter** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 11:09 pm

What is a "BOLD" rar? Do you mean the file name is all upper case? If that is what you are referring to, it means the file was incomplete and Newsbin assembled it. After everything else is download, Newsbin will then try to fill in what's missing from available PAR2 files.

If I'm guessing wrong, please be more specific about what you are describing.

by **bertm** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:06 am

dexter wrote:What is a "BOLD" rar? Do you mean the file name is all upper case? If that is what you are referring to, it means the file was incomplete and Newsbin assembled it. After everything else is download, Newsbin will then try to fill in what's missing from available PAR2 files.

If I'm guessing wrong, please be more specific about what you are describing.

That's what I mean but it seems to be more that what you are saying because if I delete the upper case Rars and restart Newsbin, the re-downloaded Rars are fine and sometimes no repairs are needed.

One thing I can say is the groups I DL from are bombarded with SPAM - which could cause fragmentation.

by **Quade** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:38 am

Maybe its time time for a fresh install. You have some weird symptoms that nobody else is reporting. I think you might have some setting that's causing this.

by **bertm** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:09 am

Is there a Help file that would give me step by step instructions for a clean install?

by **Moondawgie** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:26 am

bertm wrote:hanks. I asked because I have a a problem where The Rars will abruptly go bold (I've mentioned this before) and when you right-click to extract "no files found."
This happens w/6.56 and 6.60. I went back to 6.56, so there may be an underlying "engine" from 6.60 that remains.

I've seen something similar to this when the hard drive to which downloaded files are being written becomes full, and Newsbin hasn't yet paused the download process and displayed it's notification of that fact to the user. Zero byte files with the file names in capital letters are then written to the download folder on the disc until Newsbin pauses, and the filenames are then found being displayed with capital letters, but without bolding, in Newsbin's Downloading Files and Files List tabs.

I'm not saying that the same is happening with bertm's installation of Newsbin Pro, but perhaps the similarities in behavior will help in finding the cause of the problem he/she is reporting.

by **Quade** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:00 am

I've seen something similar to this when the hard drive to which downloaded files are being written becomes full, and Newsbin hasn't yet paused the download process and displayed it's notification of that fact to the user. Zero byte files with the file names in capital letters are then written to the download folder on the disc until Newsbin pauses, and the filenames are then found being displayed with capital letters, but without bolding, in Newsbin's Downloading Files and Files List tabs.

Something I've discovered is that the recycle bin is too slow to respond to "out of space" issues. If you use "Recycle Bin". You might want to clear it out periodically or it can drive you into out of space conditions.

by **dexter** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 9:58 am

bertm wrote:Is there a Help file that would give me step by step instructions for a clean install?

1) Close Newsbin
2) Click the Start menu button in the Windows taskbar
3) Choose "All Programs"
4) Choose "Newsbin6"
5) Choose "Uninstall Newsbin Pro 64"
6) Answer "Yes" to all questions
7) Download the latest version (If you are running beta it's on the Newsbin Beta Page)
8) Run the installer, use all default settings if you are troubleshooting a problem. You'll have to re-enter your news server info. Instructions here
9) Launch Newsbin
10) Go under Help/Register/Update Key within Newsbin and enter your registration key info, submit it, then restart Newsbin.

by **Moondawgie** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:59 am

Quade wrote:
I've seen something similar to this when the hard drive to which downloaded files are being written becomes full, and Newsbin hasn't yet paused the download process and displayed it's notification of that fact to the user. Zero byte files with the file names in capital letters are then written to the download folder on the disc until Newsbin pauses, and the filenames are then found being displayed with capital letters, but without bolding, in Newsbin's Downloading Files and Files List tabs.

Something I've discovered is that the recycle bin is too slow to respond to "out of space" issues. If you use "Recycle Bin". You might want to clear it out periodically or it can drive you into out of space conditions.

I believe that has to do with the problem of Windows' slowing down it's process of reading and writing of files to folders, like the Recycle Bin folder, which contain more than somewhere between 1400 and 1450 existing files.

by **bertm** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:30 pm

dexter wrote:
bertm wrote:Is there a Help file that would give me step by step instructions for a clean install?

...
10) Go under Help/Register/Update Key within Newsbin and enter your registration key info, submit it, then restart Newsbin.

Will I lose my Watch Topics? If I save my current Newsbin.ini will I be defeating the purpose of a fresh install?

It's been so long since my initial install that I forgot one MAJOR issue. Because of Spool size and potential Viruses I never installed Newsbin nor D/L files on Drive "C". I have the Newsbin program and DATA FILES (SPOOL, INI, etc.) on and old IDE Drive "G" and my D/L files on a SATA Drive "E" (which is the second partition of Drive "0" - the first partition ironically being "C").

During my early days with Newsbin You seemed pretty strict about the exclusive use of Drive "C". I remember have to do some "manual" adjustments to work around the problem that the DATA files defaulted to Drive "C".

I notice you have a MOVE DATA FILES on RESTART. Would that move the SPOOL directory as well? I'm thinking maybe this "MOVE.." might set things right?

Has WinRar gone to a version that is beyond the capability of XP?

by **Maelstroem** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:38 pm

Potential bug that causes a crash:
In the post list had a few posts I wanted to mark old, expanded a compact post (40 x 50mb RARS + sfv) to check they were all complete, which they were, then did a right click and 'select all' so every post in the list was tagged, then hit DEL or 'right click' + DEL and NB crashed! All seems fine when posts are compacted and 'select all' + DEL is used.

I then marked some posts as new, expanded one with 24 x 15mb RARS + sfv, did a 'select all' + DEL and NB crashed! Seems if a post is expanded when you do a 'select all' and hit DEL then NB will crash! I also think 'Mark Posts New' is broke as they don't stick when you exit NB and do a 'Show Posts' on the group.

by **Quade** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:41 pm

I'll try it in B8. Thanks.

by **deloppoled** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:49 am

Hi all.

I apologize for opening this thread but I came here tonight specifically to find out what does the command, "Test Download Files" do exactly and I found this thread mentioning the command from people that are in the know and have been using the command.

Here's what I think it does, but being that I'm not sure and it's driving me nuts not knowing. 'Test download files' goes to my Usenet server(s) and checks to see if I am going to be able to complete the specified download successfully or not. I am also guessing that [i]'Test download files' will also check to see if said download can be repaired, if there are (enough) parity files available. [/i]

A) That is correct--I'm almost a Newsbin geek!
B) That's partially correct--I'm a wannabe Newsbin geek.
C) That is just plain wrong--I'm a Newsbin newbie/lamer.

The default selection is C.

I checked the Newsbin Wiki User Guide but could not find it. Not that it's not there somewhere, it's just that I'm probably not!

With all joking aside, thank you for reading my post and maybe even answering my question, it's greatly appreciated!

Have a good night all!

by **Quade** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 7:31 am

"Test" is verifying whether the news server can deliver the partds of the file needed for download. If you have more than one server it tests across the servers just as if Newsbin was doing the download.

You can't check parity without downloading. It's a chicken or egg problem. You can't check the data without actually having the data on disk.

newsbin.com

Who is online