Unable to download from newsgroup, suddenly stopped

bajillions · 27-12-2008, 15:25

Both me and my girlfriend have downloaded a large file each from the virgin media newsgroup using grabit as we wanted to test it out. I then logged back in to get something else and now it won't let us connect on either computer. We have paid for the usenext searches on 2 accounts for grabit. Do virgin block downloads after a certain download or something? We literally downloaded, finished, ate dinner and tried to download again and nothing. This was last night and still nothing!

Does anyone have any advice???

Jonathan90 · 27-12-2008, 15:29

I get that as well give a it a few hours it should rectify itself.

bajillions · 27-12-2008, 15:36

Its been like that for almost 24 hours now though.

27-12-2008, 15:52

Virgin do not block downloads from newsgroups, although the speed may be restricted if the download limit is exceeded in the 'peak time' stm windows.

I regularly use Grabit, but only via the 'import nzb' feature and have never had any problems.

Have you tried using any other client apart from Grabit?

General Maximus · 27-12-2008, 16:30

I use Grabit and have just downloaded a couple of files for the sake of it and everything works fine.

bajillions · 27-12-2008, 16:52

HAs anyone got any ideas what could be causing the problem then? I just tried it again and ive got nothing. It was working beautifully last night

Kymmy · 27-12-2008, 16:55

What fault/error message does the news server give??

bajillions · 27-12-2008, 17:24

The threads just keep saying downloading then disconnected and keep cycling until the eventually say idle, occasionally one will start and give me 2000kbps download speed but only for a few seconds then cease (im on 20mb btw).

Kymmy · 27-12-2008, 17:28

Does it though give a reason in the log for this behaviour??

Just that there could be 101 different reasons for this... ranging from the connection, the program or even a router...and without a log file/error it's hard to diagnose

27-12-2008, 17:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by bajillions

The threads just keep saying downloading then disconnected and keep cycling until the eventually say idle, occasionally one will start and give me 2000kbps download speed but only for a few seconds then cease (im on 20mb btw).

Have you got the news server setup as hostname news.virginmedia.com & port 119

you don't need to fill in username/pasword or tick 'ssl'

bajillions · 27-12-2008, 18:04

yeah they are both setup. can i check and i may sound like an idiot now. does the file have to be less than 7 days old for it to work?

General Maximus · 27-12-2008, 18:09

yup, i believe virgin only have a 7 day retention period. The best thing you can do is right click on the newsgroup and click on full update, this will refresh all the headers for that group and you can see all the current active downloadable files on that group.

Whenever you download something if you click on the batch tab you can see a download queue of all your files. If Grabit cannot download something, regardless of whether it cannot connect to the server or if the file is no longer there, it will tell you. I think it should say something like "article nolonger available or expired" or something like that.

If you can update your newsgroup there is no problem with your connection.

Kymmy · 27-12-2008, 18:10

Depends on the retention of the server, but yes I think that the virgin servers have 7 days retention on binary groups.... It's one of the main reasons as to why most people use Astraweb or giganews...