newsgroups completion rate

Originally Posted by tony

When i signed up for broadband part of the deal as mentioned on the website was access to newsgroups, therefore i would concur that i pay for the newsgroups as part of the broadband package.

It is not free, ntl are a business and they would not spend money on upgrading the newserver (as they did some time ago) if it was free.
It is as you say "part of their service" therefore it follows that we pay for it.

Unfortunately the way it is phrased is the clue, they offer 'access to newsgroups', but make no promises about completion or which groups are carried. IIRC there was even talk of restricting access to text groups only & not peering with binary groups, at all.

NTL newsgroup access has always been a very low priority service, and I can't see that changing - not for the better, anyway

Originally Posted by homealone

Unfortunately the way it is phrased is the clue, they offer 'access to newsgroups', but make no promises about completion or which groups are carried. IIRC there was even talk of restricting access to text groups only & not peering with binary groups, at all.

NTL newsgroup access has always been a very low priority service, and I can't see that changing - not for the better, anyway

A while back they upgraded or outsourced the news server and also cut the amount of binary groups, this enabled a reasonable service for those that used the few binary groups supported, there was a text only news server for a short while but this went when the upgrade happened.

[IanUK]

Originally Posted by homealone

so peering does seem to be a problem with NTL, atm

Heh, only atm ?

NTL's news servers are provided by Highwinds, Highwinds own Newshosting.com, Newshosting.com apparently has become crap, can we see a pattern here ?

It makes no diffference here anyway, after 5pm since about 2 weeks ago speeds drop to almost dialup speed (this on a 20MB connection) during the day its fine, so in this area we now apparently have oversatured UBR's OR we have Traffic shaping (only its shaping all traffic) or bad peering or ALL THREE.

Giganews used to be awful through an NTL connection, I and others wrote to Giganews about it, and were told by them that they had raised it with NTL but were being ignored (AS IF). It was finally fixed about 8 weeks later.

I can't wait to leave, not long now fngers crossed !

Originally Posted by tony

A while back they upgraded or outsourced the news server and also cut the amount of binary groups, this enabled a reasonable service for those that used the few binary groups supported, there was a text only news server for a short while but this went when the upgrade happened.

IIRC the 'text only' server was provided/maintained by an NTL employee, off 'their own back', during the time the main server(s) were out

[dr aardvark]

i'll tell you want you can do - use grabit and download all the broken parts. Then pay for the cheapest grabit option at the grabit site, use the browse newsgrp function, delete the broken files on your hard drive and redownload using the server you just paid for - grabit only needs to download the bits that are missing (it should have saved the broken articles in its cache) - you should only have to download a small amount - worked for me.

[intoxik8]

Many will argue with me no doubt, but I can’t access NTL’s newsgroup without being an NTL subscriber therefore I do pay for newsgroup access it‘d only be free if I could access it without being aligned to NTL in my mind. Although obviously I realise NTL has never promised to meet any strict guidelines, though it’s a service provided and surely they’re bound to some rule of ‘quality of service’?

I’ve never seen a reason to sign up to Giganews or whatever as I don’t need long retention (Ntl‘s is fairly long though), I can download as much as I want already (Fair usage is fair to me), I don’t need a fancy client, the groups I wanted were covered by NTL so why should I fork out an extra twenty quid a month for something NTL already provide and have provided fantastically while I’ve used it until now, admittedly I’ve only been using it since the start of this year.

This period has been the only time this year I’ve suffered with poor completion, I think last week sometime the completion rate soared I thought it had been fixed, apparently not!

From what I’m understanding all we can do is twiddle our thumbs and wait and hope; a lot?

I dont argue I just say its a limited service with limited use. I dont know where you get 20 quid from none of the premium servers are so expensive and limited accounts of 20 gig can be had for £1.50 a week with support and 60+ retention .My point is simple pay up and get a good quality service or be happy with the limited poor service and stop moaning (generally not aimed direct at anyone)

---------- Post added at 08:52 ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 ----------

Originally Posted by dr aardvark

i'll tell you want you can do - use grabit and download all the broken parts. Then pay for the cheapest grabit option at the grabit site, use the browse newsgrp function, delete the broken files on your hard drive and redownload using the server you just paid for - grabit only needs to download the bits that are missing (it should have saved the broken articles in its cache) - you should only have to download a small amount - worked for me.

you want the broken files and you then want the par files.I wouldnt entertain a large post without par files and if you do and its broken then more fool whoever

[intoxik8]

[QUOTE=zinglebarb;34157727] I dont argue I just say its a limited service with limited use. I dont know where you get 20 quid from none of the premium servers are so expensive and limited accounts of 20 gig can be had for £1.50 a week with support and 60+ retention .My point is simple pay up and get a good quality service or be happy with the limited poor service and stop moaning (generally not aimed direct at anyone)

---------- Post added at 08:52 ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 ----------


Oh come on! If we had nothing to moan at, none of us would truely be happy.

Thanks for the welcome!

Yeah and me telling you lot not to moan is me just moaning anyway
Hope you enjoy your stay mate

[dr aardvark]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I dont argue I just say its a limited service with limited use. I dont know where you get 20 quid from none of the premium servers are so expensive and limited accounts of 20 gig can be had for £1.50 a week with support and 60+ retention .My point is simple pay up and get a good quality service or be happy with the limited poor service and stop moaning (generally not aimed direct at anyone)


you want the broken files and you then want the par files.I wouldnt entertain a large post without par files and if you do and its broken then more fool whoever

i know about par files but the posts on the ntl server were really broken - like 50-70% completion on 90% of the files - nobody posts enough pars to fix that.


who does 20gb for £1.50?????

[Richy99]

Originally Posted by intoxik8

Many will argue with me no doubt, but I can’t access NTL’s newsgroup without being an NTL subscriber therefore I do pay for newsgroup access it‘d only be free if I could access it without being aligned to NTL in my mind. Although obviously I realise NTL has never promised to meet any strict guidelines, though it’s a service provided and surely they’re bound to some rule of ‘quality of service’?

if they allowed anyone to access it then you would have to pay for it, because you are on the ntl backbone you get it for nothing

---------- Post added at 13:23 ---------- Previous post was at 13:17 ----------

Originally Posted by tony

When i signed up for broadband part of the deal as mentioned on the website was access to newsgroups, therefore i would concur that i pay for the newsgroups as part of the broadband package.

It is not free, ntl are a business and they would not spend money on upgrading the newserver (as they did some time ago) if it was free.
It is as you say "part of their service" therefore it follows that we pay for it.

their service is providing internet access, and then email, webspace and access to the newsgroups are free, they dont have to provide a news service or webspace or email

In their great reasons to join :
All Broadband services include:

• 30 day money back guarantee**
• FREE modem and set-up
• FREE anti-spam & anti-virus
• FREE 15 email addresses
• FREE online support

Originally Posted by dr aardvark

i know about par files but the posts on the ntl server were really broken - like 50-70% completion on 90% of the files - nobody posts enough pars to fix that.


who does 20gb for £1.50?????

easynews works out @ 1.50 a week its 20 gig over the month so 5 gig for 1.50.Plus you get 2 gig free if you fill in a survey every week

[bean999]

Originally Posted by testcard

I use Giganews.

100% all the time.
90 old days posts and still 100%.
Not used a par in months.
Full speed. Euro server.

But it's not free, $24.99 (13.50 uk) per month unlimited.
PM for any help.

Powerusenet (Giganews reseller)
50 days binary, 180 days text retention
(no posting)
uncapped
unlimited
$14.95 (approx. £8.50 + £1.50 bank conversion fee)

Plus grabit
Plus quickpar
Plus winrar
Plus binsearch.info