Alt.Binz forum
Alt.Binz (English) => Help => Topic started by: Hamsandwich on December 21, 2009, 08:48:09 pm
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I've used the program for ages now and have had this on and off.
With some stuff I'm currently downloading it seems to be happening much more frequently, all the time really.
Basically the first article in a list (I have multiple nzbs queued) sticks at 99%, and I have to pause everything else to make it complete.
These newer articles are all over 50mb, does the size have anything to do with it?
It's not a train smash but somewhat irritating.
Alt.Binz 0.25.0
Windows XP SP3
Comodo Firewall
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What provider? Are the files old? (Retention)
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The server is provided by my ISP, I doubt you'll have heard of it. The files are approaching 200 days. That has nothing to do with it IMO, this server lets me download files over 200 days old all the time.
Alt.Binz does actually download the files fine, these are not missing parts that I'm talking aobut here. The progress bar for the article just sticks at 99%, and like I said I have to pause everything else to get it to finish.
It seems like a few parts get skipped for some reason and then the article hangs. I can't see anything in the log files but they are long and I haven't gone over them in detail as yet.
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What if you wait for the timeout. So don't pause it yourself but wait a few minutes. Does it restart the thread/download.
I sometimes have the same problem.
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It doesn't timeout, I'll leave it downloading over night and find that an article has stuck all night.
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Here's an image to show how the queue looks:
(http://img166.imagevenue.com/loc873/th_76575_ab_122_873lo.JPG) (http://img166.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=76575_ab_122_873lo.JPG)
Anyone have any ideas, or is it something I should just live with?
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Detailed log would help
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...
It seems like a few parts get skipped for some reason and then the article hangs. I can't see anything in the log files but they are long and I haven't gone over them in detail as yet.
of the top of my head my guess would be that at least one of your connections is denied access by the server for a longer period of time. the part of the file this connection was supposed to download is then blocked will not be downloaded by the other active connction...
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Don't think that's it because it continues to download at full speed the whole time. Will try having a look through the logs but they are very very long, and as I stated before I'm sure there are no discrepancies there.
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Don't think that's it because it continues to download at full speed the whole time. Will try having a look through the logs but they are very very long, and as I stated before I'm sure there are no discrepancies there.
u can use the searchfunction of the editor to look for errors... just shortly after u posted i had something very much alike, i took a look and there was one connection transfering very slowly and even stopping in between, that blocked the other connection from downloading that part. but after a while that article was finished too and everything was back to normal...
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Okay here is a sample log, there are no errors in it at all, I have only posted a section 'cos it's long.
At the start of downloading the small par2 file started, but remained "started" (white bar) without actually doing anything and the next file in queue starts going, it takes me pausing everything else except for that small par2 to get it to download. This is the same behaviour with bigger files except in the case of larger files it's just 1 maybe a few articles that don't come down till the rest is paused.
The blue highlighted area is where I paused the rest so the par2 would go.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining well enough.
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T1] Hello
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T1] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T2] Hello
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T2] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T3] Hello
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T3] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/13 09:53:27 AM] [T4] Hello
...
[2010/01/19 07:25:50 PM] [T2] Article finished 111/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:25:50 PM] [T2] Article started 112/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:25:51 PM] [T3] Article finished 110/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:25:51 PM] [T3] Article started 113/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:26:03 PM] [T2] Article finished 112/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:26:03 PM] [T2] Article started 114/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:26:07 PM] [T3] Article finished 113/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:26:07 PM] [T3] Article started 115/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:26:09 PM] [T1] Could not connect (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:09 PM] [T4] Could not connect (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:10 PM] [T1] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:10 PM] [T4] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:15 PM] [T2] Article finished 114/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:26:15 PM] [T2] Disconnected (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:20 PM] [T1] Connected (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:20 PM] [T1] Article started 1/1 <Article/File>[01/35] - "<Article/File>.par2"
[2010/01/19 07:26:21 PM] [T3] Article finished 115/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:26:21 PM] [T3] Disconnected (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:31 PM] [T1] Article finished 1/1 <Article/File>.par2
[2010/01/19 07:26:31 PM] [T1] Disconnected (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:31 PM] [T4] Could not connect (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:31 PM] [Dec] Yenc file <Article/File>.par2 decoded in 61ms
[2010/01/19 07:26:31 PM] [PAR2&Unrar] <Article/File>.par2 needs 1728 more blocks, 173 available
[2010/01/19 07:26:32 PM] [T4] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:33 PM] [T4] Connected (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:33 PM] [T4] Article started 3/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:26:43 PM] [T4] Article finished 3/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:26:43 PM] [T4] Disconnected (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:51 PM] [T1] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:52 PM] [T3] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:52 PM] [T2] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:52 PM] [T4] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:53 PM] [T1] Connected (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:26:53 PM] [T1] Article started 116/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:26:55 PM] [T3] Connected (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:26:55 PM] [T3] Article started 117/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:27:10 PM] [T1] Article finished 116/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:27:10 PM] [T1] Article started 120/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:27:13 PM] [T2] Could not connect (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:27:13 PM] [T4] Could not connect (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:27:14 PM] [T3] Article finished 117/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:27:14 PM] [T3] Article started 121/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:27:14 PM] [T2] Connecting (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:27:14 PM] [T4] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:27:28 PM] [T1] Article finished 120/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:27:28 PM] [T1] Article started 122/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:27:30 PM] [T3] Article finished 121/211 <Article/File>.part01.rar
[2010/01/19 07:27:30 PM] [T3] Article started 123/211 <Article/File>[02/35] - "<Article/File>.part01.rar"
[2010/01/19 07:27:35 PM] [T4] Could not connect (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:27:35 PM] [T2] Could not connect (<Server>)
[2010/01/19 07:27:36 PM] [T4] Connecting (<Server> 2)
[2010/01/19 07:27:36 PM] [T2] Connecting (<Server>)
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Well, there are plenty of 'Could not connect' errors, I'd explore why that's happening (network latency perhaps). I guess you have both servers set as Primary, try trouble-shooting each individually, and adjust your 'global connection timeout' and 'delay been connection retries' in Setup > Connection (need to Disconnect first).
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Sorry forgot to mention that.
The provider I use offers 2 free servers but we can only have 2 threads total from the two servers combined. So I have set 2 threads on each server, 4 total, so that if one thread drops one of the others will pick up right away.
Both are set as primary, this is how I've run Alt.Binz day in and day out for months and months even years without the problem so I am 100% sure that is totally unrelated to my problem.
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As I said, trouble-shoot them separately, read the rest of my post. Note also that just because something worked yesterday doesn't mean it will work today.
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definition of broken - worked yesterday, today it doesn't ;D
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The thing is there is nothing to trouble shoot re. those threads that aren't connecting. They are working as they should. If I just disable two threads that won't be happening.
My global connection timeout is 999, as the servers I use can sometimes be unrespnsive and in this way I can prevent loss of connection. Delay between connection retries is 1, so that it keeps retrying often enough that I can get a connection for times when the server is under load (it has limited spots available, and that is the reason why there are so many could not connect errors in the log).
As I said this is how I have used AB for ages, I have experienced this behaviour before but it's been reletively isolated cases. It is happening always with these files I am currently downloading, the only difference that I can make out is the size of the individual .rar files is consistantly over 50mb, whereas previously not that much has had .rars quite that big.
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Seems a bit crazy to me to hammer server connects like that, but I guess whatever floats your boat. Try with only one server as primary, and if you see the same problems then we'll have eliminated that as a cause - or don't, and continue believing what you want to. This is assuming that the server isn't becoming "unresponsive" as you describe it halfway through downloading large articles - in which case I'd probably expect to see behaviour somewhat like this, but Rdl will be able to tell you exactly what happens in these situations.
If I were you, I'd also 1) ask around other users of your service to see if they're experiencing the same, and 2) try with another client to see if something with Alt.Binz is the root cause or not. That's all the advice I'm able to offer on this one.
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Cox ISP news servers?
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Cox ISP news servers?
No.
@Hecks, what I mean by unresponsive is that sometimes a thread will hang partway through and just sit there, eventually timing out. As the servers were so overloaded at one point it could take hours just to connect, I didn't want to lose my connections once established so I set the timeout to max. Pretty much the same reason why I set the reconnects so fast and often.
Will be interested to see what RDL has to say, I guess I could try experimenting with settings anyway in the meantime.
Point 1, will do. Point 2, I don't wanna use any other client. :D
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You're using those crappy SA servers? There are few more users and contributors from SA, so it would be interesting to read their expirience.
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Hey I went out of my way not to mention that publicly. ;)
I'll get round to asking the locals, sometime.
FYI, they aren't that bad, they are free dont'ya know. 8) I've never had to pay for a Usenet subscription yet.
Haven't got any more info on my problem yet, it's just so strange that everything downloads fine. 'cept the first file in queue sticks as I've said, all subsequent ones come down fine. I pause everything else to get the stuck one to finish, then unpause, and the next file which has now become the first in queue sticks in the same way.
It's uncanny that it's happening all the time with these files, I have a feeling that I may just live with it till they are done (in like two months :D) and find that everything else works fine as it did before.
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Well there's news and news2, right? The SA users are saying you only get 2 connections total. News2 though, it resolves to 2 IP addresses. You could try 1 connection to each of the IP addresses, and 3 connections might work. If not you're stuck with 2 total. I think they're running NNTPSwitch software and with that they are easily overloaded.