Very slow usenet access (newshosting)

[Darone]

Hi Folks.
Been reading loads on the site to find help for my problem but had no luck.

I recently got a modem upgrade from my old Terayon modem to the ntl 250 and since then things have gone from bad to worse.
My Browsing speed and file downloads from major websites are great but my download speeds from my usenet provider have dropped to next to nothing.

I'm with newshosting and have been for a long time and never had any problems before. I am now getting speeds of 30-40 KB/sec at best.
I've been on to tech' support and they say there are no problems but have promised to look into it and get back to me.
I'm trying to remain positive but am starting to feel that this may have been implemented by NTL as a form of capping.

Has anyone else had similer problems and if so, how were they resolved.

I've tried the various ports on newshosting but it stays the same.

In 5 years with NTL broadband, i have never had any problems with usenet access and as i say, it only started when i got my modem upgrade.

Sorry to ramble on and thanks in advance for any help/ideas.

Thanks

Just out of interest what is usenet???

Just another P2P??

[jtwn]

Yes.


Do you have any other news hosts to try? You have news.cable.ntlworld.com.

Originally Posted by acoolwelshbloke

Just out of interest what is usenet???

Just another P2P??

not really, usenet is an 'add on' to email, that lets you read messages posted in the 'public domain', not just your own 'inbox' - encoding systems such as YEnc enable compatibility of the basic newsgroup text format with 'multimedia' files

[peterattheboro]

I'm the same on news.cable.ntlworld.com

Since I was upgraded to 10mb i've been having trouble keeping a consistant speed. Been getting 50-200k/s and it starts and stops all the time.

I also have the ntl:250 modem.

Originally Posted by Darone

Hi Folks.
Been reading loads on the site to find help for my problem but had no luck.

I recently got a modem upgrade from my old Terayon modem to the ntl 250 and since then things have gone from bad to worse.
My Browsing speed and file downloads from major websites are great but my download speeds from my usenet provider have dropped to next to nothing.

I'm with newshosting and have been for a long time and never had any problems before. I am now getting speeds of 30-40 KB/sec at best.
I've been on to tech' support and they say there are no problems but have promised to look into it and get back to me.
I'm trying to remain positive but am starting to feel that this may have been implemented by NTL as a form of capping.

Has anyone else had similer problems and if so, how were they resolved.

I've tried the various ports on newshosting but it stays the same.

In 5 years with NTL broadband, i have never had any problems with usenet access and as i say, it only started when i got my modem upgrade.

Sorry to ramble on and thanks in advance for any help/ideas.

Thanks

Hi Darone, I also use news.hosting, I max out most times at 1.2mb/s I also use the ntl news server news.ntlworld.com that sometimes kicks in at 700Kbs... try adding the same unlimited.newshosting.com server I think your allowed 8 connections thru the same server? this will help max out your connection.

[Chrysalis]

do traceroute to the news server, use their site to do traceroute's to yourself. Raise your rwin to 256960 and enable large tcp windows.

[lordy]

Originally Posted by Darone

Sorry to ramble on and thanks in advance for any help/ideas.

Thanks

What happens if you try another port?
From http://newshosting.com/support/faq/#7

7. What can I do if port 119 (NNTP) is blocked on my network?
Point your newsreader to any of the following ports: 23, 25, 80, 3128

Although it's not blocked, I'd give 3128 a spin.

Lordy

[Darone]

Hi again folks,

I've tried all the ports listed and it's just as bad. I know it's not a problem with newshosting as i've always managed superb speed from them.

I just find it strange that its only my newsgroup access that has slowed to a crawl.
I'm gonna try the ntl servers and i'll let you know.

I have been on to tech support but found that a deppressing experience. They used to have some very smart people there but now all i get is "reboot modem, shutdown computer, etc, etc."

Thanks again for your interest.

[grubbymitts]

I remember reading somewhere that Newshosting keeps having trouble with NTL based customers (don't know why). Maybe you should try out another provider? I use powerusenet and max out 2mb all the time.

---------- Post added at 07:41 ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 ----------

Originally Posted by acoolwelshbloke

Just out of interest what is usenet???

Just another P2P??

No, it's not another P2P. Usenet is much, much better. Check out www.slyck.com and read the tutorials on usenet, fire up a binary reader and kiss Bit Torrent/Edonkey and their sorry, spyware laden, IP advertising derivatives goodbye.

Originally Posted by grubbymitts

I remember reading somewhere that Newshosting keeps having trouble with NTL based customers (don't know why). Maybe you should try out another provider? I use powerusenet and max out 2mb all the time.

---------- Post added at 07:41 ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 ----------



No, it's not another P2P. Usenet is much, much better. Check out www.slyck.com and read the tutorials on usenet, fire up a binary reader and kiss Bit Torrent/Edonkey and their sorry, spyware laden, IP advertising derivatives goodbye.

I have been using newshosting for months now. Never seem to have a problem with them. You can use ports 7000,8000,9000 with newshosting. I have been using port 7000 with 8 slots open. hope that helps

[Darone]

Tried port 7000, 8000 and 9000 plus all others listed but it makes no difference.

I've just tried the news.ntlworld.com server and it maxed out my connection.
Very strange.
I know many others have reported that newshosting is great for them and it has allways been great for me. I'm at a loss to understand whats happening.

UPDATE,

I've just signed up with Giganews and have a 1gb trial and my download speed is amazing, completely maxing out my 10mb connection. Still don't know why newshosting should have dropped so slow for me as i have been very impressed with their service till now and it seems to be great for others.

Oh well, one of lifes mysteries i guess.

Cheers

[lordy]

Originally Posted by Darone

I've just signed up with Giganews and have a 1gb trial and my download speed is amazing, completely maxing out my 10mb connection. Still don't know why newshosting should have dropped so slow for me as i have been very impressed with their service till now and it seems to be great for others.

Probably a bit late now but also check out Easynews. They allow direct binary downloading (not via NNTP which increases the file size by about 25%). This means that
1) You get you files even faster. (if not when you max out your shiney 10mb connection you are still wasting 2.5mpbs)

2) You get more before you hit any caps.

3) You dont have to mess about with binary newsreaders. As a die hard ex 'xnews' user for many years - I've found it MUCH better simply using a web based interfaced and downloading stuff using a regular download manager.

Also they have
4) AutoUnrar feature.
5) Roll-over gigs.

[Chrysalis]

Well you didnt do the traceroutes which would have helped to diagnose, its possible there is congestion problems with ntl's peering that affects some areas to newshosting since we know ntl do not route their entire userbase over the same external routes.

Here is my trace to the unlimited server.

1 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms UBR [10.8.143.254]
2 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms leic-t2cam1-b-ge914.inet.ntl.com [82.3.35.213]
3 21 ms 20 ms 30 ms leic-t2core-b-ge-210-0.inet.ntl.com [82.3.33.134
]
4 10 ms 48 ms 44 ms nth-bb-b-so-230-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.114]

5 45 ms 12 ms 20 ms pop-bb-a-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.14]

6 15 ms 19 ms 24 ms pop-bb-b-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.77]
7 122 ms 22 ms 19 ms amst-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.94]
8 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms j1.ams.sc.net [195.69.145.42]
9 103 ms 105 ms 104 ms unknown.iad.scnet.net [205.234.191.253]
10 133 ms 106 ms 122 ms gw5-newshosting.iad.scnet.net [66.225.244.162]
11 117 ms 107 ms 103 ms 63.218.45.254

As you can see it goes to america but via amsterdam which isnt the most direct path which would possibly affect speeds to them. All the return routes look good but they are to my ntl proxy server and not myself so there is a small chance the routing is different.

[SnoopZ]

Newshosting maxing out for me in cambridge.