Spamming amounts to DOS attack on alt.binaries.teevee

[ChinaClipper]

The now long running and intensive spamming going on in alt.binaries.teevee is causing havoc. I've finally figured out how to use "DownloadFilter"s and they work great. If I don't use them, newsbin (and probably every other usenet client) is pretty much useless - reading potentially hundreds of millions of headers. Since I use several usenet providers, the problem was extreme. It still takes a long time for any usenet client to sift through all the headers. I found that if I don't use "DownloadFilter"s the size of the header database file becomes so large that the usenet client essentially crashes. THANKS for the facility. The problem seems to becoming worse. I suspect that it is now going on in alt.binaries.hdtv, but I have not yet confirmed it. I did see that within one hour there were over ten million new headers in alt.binaries.hdtv (40M)!

Are usenet providers doing anything about this? It seems it is their responsibility to prevent this kind of DOS attack? HELP!

[Quade]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41268

We're discussing how to mitigate it here.

One reason Usenet can do what it does is by not touching the data much. They tend to be hands off. One man't spam is another man's files. There are real files in this "spam". Just not the files most are looking for.

[dexter]

Do you really need to download headers? This may be a shameless plug but people using our integrated Usenet Search service are unaffected by this problem. We support two modes, direct searching and browsing by group. If you know what you are looking for, just type in a word or words on the Search tab that would match content you are looking for. You don't need a subscription to perform a search just to see what is there but a subscription is needed in order to queue search results for download. There is also a browse mode if you want to see what has been posted to a specific group. To use it, you type an asterisk into the search field then type in a newsgroup you want to browse in the "Search In Group" box. Or if you have a bunch of groups of interest organized into a group folder, you can select that group folder to search in.

If you want to sign up, you log in to the control panel from within Newsbin by clicking the Help menu option then select "Search Control Panel" as long as you are running version 6.60 or higher. If you have an older version, you can log directly in to the control panel through our website.

More info about our search service and pricing tiers are on the Usenet Search page.

[ChinaClipper]

Thanks. This is good advice and I already subscribe to your usenet search facility and really like it. In fact, I consider it a ridiculously priced bargain.

For many things I do, I don't really know what I want until I see it. I therefore browse the posts - usually one day's worth, sometimes much more if I've been on vacation (most places I go do not have any cell service). So, I'm pretty much stuck. Using your "DownloadFilter" has made things manageable again. Again, without using DownloadFilter I find that trying to browse one day's worth is not practical in the current environment. Hope somebody solves this soon. I can see it is not really your problem - but unless a solution is found by someone, usenet will rapidly become obsolete for the affected groups.

[dexter]

You can browse multiple days worth of a group using the search function too. Using the Asterisk will give you the current day for the first search. Then if you click the "Load Older Posts" icon, which is to the right of the search field, it'll load the previous day. Each time you hit the button, it'll go back an additional day and add those posts to the results list.

[rh]

Wow - I guess this just never occurred to me. I suppose leaving the search field blank is equivalent to * ? Don't want to beat search to death trying things until I understand it better and it's now clear I didn't understand all it can do.

So it looks like I can do something like search using <blank> or *, group_folder, min_size, age, and use a filter profile to almost instantly get what I've been getting in the past via my initial header download and load using the same filter profile - which last week consumed 23Gb of ram. So essentially, what's new in the past week regarding the things I'm interested in from the groups I frequent.

Now in the browse mode you describe, that would seem to have to include all the spam - unless someone is periodically flushing it down the toilet?

[dexter]

Yes, we are flushing the toilet as soon as we realize there is shit in it.



And yes, a blank is the same as an Asterisk for browsing using the Search service. You are using this browse feature as we intended, glad to hear it's working out for you.

[rh]

Nice! Guess I'll re-up the subscription now that I realize it's really more than just search. Thanks!

[confusednewb]

More info about our search service and pricing tiers are on the Links not allowed for unregistered users page.

apologies - I went there - saw options for Unlimited Search and Standard Search.

Couldn't find anything telling me what the difference is. Guess I'm one of those who needs search help. Image link not allowed for unregistered users

[dexter]

More info about our search service and pricing tiers are on the Usenet Search page.

apologies - I went there - saw options for Unlimited Search and Standard Search.

Couldn't find anything telling me what the difference is. Guess I'm one of those who needs search help.

I'm open to suggestions on how to make it more clear but the information is all there.

Unlimited gives you unlimited searches and bills quarterly for $15
Standard gives you 500 searches per month and bills every 6 months for $15
There is an additional option that is non-recurring, giving you the Standard search tier for one year

Any suggestions on how to make it more clear?

[confusednewb]

More info about our search service and pricing tiers are on the Links not allowed for unregistered users page.

apologies - I went there - saw options for Unlimited Search and Standard Search.

Couldn't find anything telling me what the difference is. Guess I'm one of those who needs search help. Image link not allowed for unregistered users

I'm open to suggestions on how to make it more clear but the information is all there.

Unlimited gives you unlimited searches and bills quarterly for $15
Standard gives you 500 searches per month and bills every 6 months for $15
There is an additional option that is non-recurring, giving you the Standard search tier for one year

Any suggestions on how to make it more clear?

That works. (I put 'apologies' first - I really did not see that)

Is there an option, or a chance of an option, to have unlimited searches in the 6 month or annual tier? Just curious. I've never tried it anyway - but I can see myself hitting the 500 search limit

thanks for the prompt reply.

[dexter]

Is there an option, or a chance of an option, to have unlimited searches in the 6 month or annual tier?

No plans to do that. We tried to minimize the number of options to avoid confusion.