ex-blueyonder newsgroup access

[barf0r]

Hi, I'm in an ex blueyonder area. Can I only access news.blueyonder.co.uk

The virgin website lists news.cable.ntlworld.com but I am not able to connect. Is this due to me being in an ex blueyonder area?

[graham1332]

I am an ex blueyonder and for a week now i cant download anything from newsgroups , i use Newzbins and newsleecher to download , as you can see you pay for these , but news.blueyonder.co.uk does not work ...

[barf0r]

i've used news.blueyonder.co.uk today and it does work for me!

[graham1332]

Well i have just tried again , with newsleecher as my download client , and newzbins as the site i am downloading from , and with everything i try to download it doesnt work , i have spoke to people that are on sky and b.t and they have no problems at all , and this problem as been going on for a week ,, and i am not on my own , there are a few of my friends using the same things as myself and they are having the same problem , maybe they have done something to there server news.blueyonder.co.uk , i dont know ,, but anyway thats whats happening down in Sunny Wigan ,, lol ,,, bloody rain ,

[barf0r]

What do you mean by news.blueyonder.co.uk is not working? Can you connect to the servers?

The retention is only about 4 days so maybe the files you are trying to get are no longer there?

[danielf]

Normally, I find the blueyonder newsgroups quite good (if you're quick enough), but today I found there are lots of (nothing but) incomplete files. I've seen similar complaints on the web from the last week or so.

As for the OP's question: Yes, the VM website lists news.cable.ntlworld.com as the news server. It won't authenticate for me, but news.blueyonder.co.uk does. So, us ex-BY people need to go through the old BY servers (which are pants at the moment), but the kind people in charge of the VM website appear to have forgotten to mention that.

[barf0r]

Thanks, what I wanted to know.

I saw most files being incomplete, but if it is just a blip in a normally better service then no problem for me.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by barf0r

I saw most files being incomplete, but if it is just a blip in a normally better service then no problem for me.

Yeah, same here. A slight inconvenience if you're trying to 'source' a certain popular sci-fi series that gets broadcast at prime time on Saturdays, but such is life. If you want a reliable service with retention, go and pay for one.

[DABhand]

Been a good week now and the problem hasnt been solved. Pretty poor.

[graham1332]

just tried again now and all that i am still getting is incomplete files ,,, and that is on everything 4 days retention and under , and pretty poor ,,, i would say worse than that ,, but all i am trying to say is that its never done this before . why now , maybe someone can put a light on this matter ,

---------- Post added at 05:26 ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 ----------

oh , and i am sorry didnt add this one , and if people think i am ringing them { 0906 21 1111 } and paying 10p to connect and 25p a min , you dont get any joy out of VM when you do anyway , but never mind ,,, i dont think that one will last , 10p and 25p ,

[Richy99]

incompletes can come from many things on newsgroups

the server that the person using might not be very good
the peering arrangement that is used by the poster/ntl
the poster has fubar'd the post when posting
retention of the server (VM's end)
how busy the group is

now dont forget this is a free service and you cannot expect good results from a free server and the shear volume of nntp traffic and the subsequent bandwidth use doesnt make it profitable to keep the server working like commercial ones

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by Richy99

incompletes can come from many things on newsgroups

the server that the person using might not be very good
the peering arrangement that is used by the poster/ntl
the poster has fubar'd the post when posting
retention of the server (VM's end)
how busy the group is

now dont forget this is a free service and you cannot expect good results from a free server and the shear volume of nntp traffic and the subsequent bandwidth use doesnt make it profitable to keep the server working like commercial ones

Please, nothing is free. They wouldnt give you a "free" service. You pay for it in your monthly charge.

About 90% of the groups ive checked randomly have major incomplete issues. And has been since last week (infact it was since a week last Saturday).

[danielf]

Originally Posted by DABhand

Please, nothing is free. They wouldnt give you a "free" service. You pay for it in your monthly charge.

Have a look at Giganews's prices to get an idea of the cost involved. Giganews charge $13 a month for a 25Gig download allowance. It's not difficult to see that VM cannot provide a service of the same quality inclusive in their BB package.

[spankysmagicpian]

I have a horrible feeling that they will end up removing the NG servers at some point, sooner rather than later... but until then...

They really should sort out the access for everyone. I know ex-BY have groups that ex-NTL don't carry and ex-NTL newserver seems to be a lot more reliable then ex-BY and carry far less incompletes.

[DABhand]

Originally Posted by danielf

Have a look at Giganews's prices to get an idea of the cost involved. Giganews charge $13 a month for a 25Gig download allowance. It's not difficult to see that VM cannot provide a service of the same quality inclusive in their BB package.

And I could start a news server up with the same goodies for $10 a month.

Just because one company says $13 doesnt mean that is the going rate for keeping servers up.

You will probably find they will get about 200% profit or more with prices like that.

VM will pay a standard cost for their Usenet access, you think they are paying that out of their own good hearts? I think not.