Alt.Binz forum
Alt.Binz (English) => Help => Topic started by: Zefbot on March 29, 2008, 10:58:21 am
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Hi All and thank you for a great program.
I've only been using it for about a week and have had no issues up until a day or two ago. Everything had been downloading fine, unraring, repairing if necessary, and the required file sitting ready and waiting for me to watch in my "To Watch" folder.
However the last day or so it won't download each rar file fully. For example, a 15mb rar file gets downloaded as maybe a 5mb file and I see lots of 'no such article' and 'file is missing part xxx' messages in the log. I've tried a number of new downloads and it seems to be happening with all of them now.
I have been experimenting with one download in particular. I have downloaded it with another newsreader and there is no problems. I try to download with alt.binz and I see the progress of a rar file being downloaded but then it jumps to the next rar file before finishing even though the first rar file disappears and looks like it has finished. But when I check it it has only partly downloaded. I have now tried a few attempts at this download to try to work out what is happening. It never downloads any of the rar files fully but it varies how much it downloads. For instance, one time a 15mb file might end up as 5mb, but the next time I try to download it might come out as 8mb. Then the next attempt it might be 4mb. In between attempts I try the same download with another newsreader and have no problems.
The only changes I have tried in alt.binz so far is in Setup/Servers ticked various combinations of 'select group' and 'article cmd' without any success (I tried that as I searched your forums for the same problem and that is all I could find). I have now put them both back to unticked as this is how they were and did work fine for the first week or so of downloading.
Would love to solve this problem as the first trouble free week using alt.binz I thought I had finally found the newsreader for me. If I can get it working again consistently I will be over the moon. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)
Oh, and if you need further info please let me know what and how to go about getting it. Cheers!
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define: I have downloaded it with another newsreader and there is no problems
all other evidence indicates, that the files are most likely to be to old and incomplete on the server of ur usenetprovider...
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define: I have downloaded it with another newsreader and there is no problems
all other evidence indicates, that the files are most likely to be to old and incomplete on the server of ur usenetprovider...
The files are new, as in only uploaded in the last day. What I meant by I have downloaded it with another newsreader is that I can download it successfully using newsleecher. I did this to check that the problem wasn't with the uploaded files or with retention. Both alt.binz and newsleecher are configured to the same usenet service that I subscribe to.
So I try with alt.binz and have the issues I described in my first post, then tried newsleecher and can download and extract successfully. Tried again with alt.binz, same issues. Try again with newsleecher, no issues.
Any ideas?
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Try setting 'Select group' under server properties. (do not forget apply)
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Try setting 'Select group' under server properties. (do not forget apply)
I tried that, as mentioned in my first post, with no success. Thank you for the suggestion though.
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Please confirm that you're using the same NZB with both Alt.Binz and Newsleecher (i.e. not via headers with the latter) - and if you're able to, post its name here so we can test. Also, specify server and connection method.
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Please confirm that you're using the same NZB with both Alt.Binz and Newsleecher (i.e. not via headers with the latter) - and if you're able to, post its name here so we can test. Also, specify server and connection method.
Yes, the same NZB is being used in both (not sure what you mean by 'not via headers with the latter', if you could clarify?), however I can confirm I am grabbing the same NZB from newzbin.com to use in both programs. The NZB I have done the most experimenting with today is EDIT, sorry, have thought better about posting the nzb. Is that what you need as I'm not sure how to post the NZB. My usenet provider is usenetserver.com using SSL.
Thanks for your help. If you need more info please let me know.
EDIT: Not sure if you needed this however my connection is adsl2+ and I sync at around 19Mbps.
EDIT2: Tried downloading again with alt.binz and this time it has worked perfectly and unrarred and everything. Not sure what has been going on. If I continue to have issues with more NZB's I will repost. (Nearly all the NZB's I grab are very recent).
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If you search around this forum and elsewhere, you'll note that Usenetserver.com has been having problems with its SSL servers. If the problem persists, and the post is in fact complete, try a non-SSL connection - then at least you'll know whether it's a server or local Alt.Binz issue.
This doesn't seem to be a widespread problem with Alt.Binz, though, otherwise I'm sure we'd be drowning in similar complaints by now. :)
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If you search around this forum and elsewhere, you'll note that Usenetserver.com has been having problems with its SSL servers. If the problem persists, and the post is in fact complete, try a non-SSL connection - then at least you'll know whether it's a server or local Alt.Binz issue.
This doesn't seem to be a widespread problem with Alt.Binz, though, otherwise I'm sure we'd be drowning in similar complaints by now. :)
Ok, thanks for your help. I'll let you know how I go, one way or the other, during the week. Cheers! :)
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Just an update. All seems to have come good. No issues the last two nights and I have the same settings as when I first started (when I initially had no issues).
At any rate, thanks to all who tried to help. A small donation has been made via paypal in appreciation. :)
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This is interesting - I have been having exactly the same problem. Occasionally when I try to download a large multipart binary I will get a lot of '430 No Such Article' errors - but if I open up the NZB I am using (in Notepad) and copy out some of the relevant message IDs to a new NZB the articles will download with no problems. I had assumed, for this reason, that it was a software bug (since clearly the articles do exist on the server) but as it happens I am also downloading from UNS over SSL so I suppose it could be that the problem is on their end.
Edit:
Look at this interesting selection from my logfile. Various articles are declared nonexistant, only later to be downloaded (I set retries on 430 to 10, no delay). I have highlighted a few examples:
[31/03/2008 14:07:46] [T3] Error 181/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:46] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:46] [T3] Article started 179/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:47] [T4] Article finished 178/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:47] [T4] Article started 181/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:47] [T3] Error 179/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:47] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:47] [T3] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:48] [T3] Error 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:48] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:48] [T3] Article started 179/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] Error 179/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T2] Article finished 176/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T2] Article started 179/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] Error 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T3] Article started 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T1] Article finished 180/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:49] [T1] Article started 184/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] Error 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T4] Article finished 181/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T4] Article started 185/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] Error 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:50] [T3] Article started 186/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] Error 186/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] Error 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:51] [T3] Article started 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:52] [T3] Error 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:52] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:52] [T3] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] Error 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] Article started 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T1] Article finished 184/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T1] Article started 182/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] Error 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:53] [T3] Article started 186/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T3] Error 186/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T3] Article started 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T2] Article finished 179/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T2] Article started 187/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T4] Article finished 185/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:54] [T4] Article started 186/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] Error 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] Article started 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T5] Article finished 172/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T5] Article started 183/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] Error 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:55] [T3] Article started 189/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:56] [T3] Error 189/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:56] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:56] [T3] Article started 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] Error 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] Article started 189/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] Error 189/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:57] [T3] Article started 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T1] Article finished 182/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T1] Article started 189/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T3] Error 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T3] Article started 190/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T4] Article finished 186/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:58] [T4] Article started 191/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] Error 190/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] Article started 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T2] Article finished 187/211 [filename].part045.rar
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T2] Article started 192/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] Error 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:07:59] [T3] Article started 190/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:08:00] [T3] Error 190/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
[31/03/2008 14:08:00] [T3] 430 430 No Such Article
[31/03/2008 14:08:00] [T3] Article started 188/211 [047/149] - "[filename].part045.rar" yEnc
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This looks characteristic of a server that needs time to fetch the articles from wherever they're stored when first requested - usually only seen when articles are old. In any case, the solution is to ensure that you leave at least 2 minutes, or better 5 minutes, between retries via Setup > Connection > Delay between retries. Certainly you'll achieve nothing by setting it to 0.
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Oh right, thanks for letting me know. I was thinking from the perspective of it being a bug in Alt.Binz when I set that.
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[T3] 430
[T4] Article finished
[T3] 430
[T2] Article finished
[T3] 430
[T1] Article finished
[T3] 430
[T4] Article finished
This shows that T3 connected to a front end (fe) that is having problems retrieving the articles from storage. You can't effectively troubleshoot this with UNS unless altbinz or another program lets you see which 'fe' your T3 connected to, so you could contact UNS support and report which 'fe' is giving you trouble. The 'fe' number is shown in the NNTP connection response banner:
fe167.usenetserver.com
fe184.usenetserver.com
fe161.usenetserver.com
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Interesting, thanks for pointing that out Jesus. :)
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Ah, thank you for pointing that our Jesus. I had the problem again last night and when I checked the log any errors were T8. I went back to the other night's log when I first had major dramas and it was T9 that caused me woes.
So other than contacting UNS, which I will, I've put the retry timing on 5mins. I assume what I am hoping for is connection to a different front end when it reconnects?
EDIT: I just contacted UNS via their live support chat and they couldn't offer any solution but said they would bring the issue to the attention of engineering. They did get me to connect to their server via telnet to see which fe I connected to (it shows in the welcome message) but I'm not sure what that proved as I tried it again a few minutes later and connected to a different fe. It's always going to be different isn't it?
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When you connect, it's almost always going to be a different fe. If alt.binz doesn't show the welcome message in its logs, then some other program that does would be better for reporting frontend problems to UNS, and telling you which fe(s) to avoid. But look at the DNS for the SSL server:
Hostname: secure.usenetserver.com
IP Address: 208.49.82.92
IP Address: 208.49.82.185
IP Address: 208.49.82.218
The .92 address connects you to low-numbered fe's, and the other two connect you to high numbered fe's. If you discovered that a low-numbered fe was giving you a lot of 430's, you might be able to avoid that by using one or both of the other two IP addresses, instead of using 'secure.usenetserver.com'. One IP address could be used as primary, and another as a fill server.
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Thanks again Jesus. Unfortunately it doesn't seem the fe is mentioned in the log file so I have no idea what fe I am connecting to when I have issues.
Does anyone know of a program that would save this information?
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I only know of some of the programs that will log more of the NNTP session details than alt.binz does.
NewsLeecher, with "extreme debugging" log enabled I think.
Newsbin Pro, if you change a registry setting for that program.
SABnzbd's logging shows the connect welcome messages and the thread number.
Forte Agent, with verbose logging enabled.
Probably many other programs, which I don't know about their debug logging capabilities.
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Thanks for all your help Jesus. For the record, I was connecting to 208.49.82.92 when the log I posted above was created.
For now, I've just set retries to 100 with a 5 minute delay and I haven't had any more problems. :)
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Thanks for all your help Jesus. For the record, I was connecting to 208.49.82.92 when the log I posted above was created.
For now, I've just set retries to 100 with a 5 minute delay and I haven't had any more problems. :)
but be aware if a part is realy missing you would have to wait ~500 minutes until it would be completetd, checked and unrared
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True, but if I saw that it was genuinely missing I could deal with it manually.
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Because .92 only connects to low-numbered frontends, and you had that trouble, I would avoid .92 completely for now, and instead configure .185 as priority and .218 as a fill server backup. On a 430 you don't want alt.binz to try the same 'fe' 5 minutes later or the same fe every 5 minutes, you want it to immediately try a different fe.
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On a 430 you don't want alt.binz to try the same 'fe' 5 minutes later or the same fe every 5 minutes, you want it to immediately try a different fe.
I realized this, of course, but I hadn't noticed that it was possible to configure a backup server for that purpose (although I see now that it's the obvious solution). Thanks for the advice, once again! :D
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Because .92 only connects to low-numbered frontends, and you had that trouble, I would avoid .92 completely for now, and instead configure .185 as priority and .218 as a fill server backup. On a 430 you don't want alt.binz to try the same 'fe' 5 minutes later or the same fe every 5 minutes, you want it to immediately try a different fe.
This is assuming that the fe is failing completely, and not just being slow to retrieve the files. Such behaviour is common enough with some servers - it's one of the reasons why the delay before retry setting exists. Anyway, no doubt Contra will hear more from his provider in due course.