New VM Newsgroup tests for what is & isn't retained

[Jelly]

I downloaded some 84-day-old files yesterday. Fully complete as well.

[jreynolds]

Sorry for going a little OT, but HSp8, just out of curiousty, how does that retention with Astraweb hold up when it's close to the 145 day mark? Are there many incompletes? I've been considering using them recently as they have a good price on the block plan. Need an alternative to VM!

Thanks in advance

[HSp8]

Originally Posted by jreynolds

Sorry for going a little OT, but HSp8, just out of curiousty, how does that retention with Astraweb hold up when it's close to the 145 day mark? Are there many incompletes? I've been considering using them recently as they have a good price on the block plan. Need an alternative to VM!

Thanks in advance

about half way through downloading 800MB from Newzbin which is 144 days old - everything fine so far

edit - scrub that - insufficient files

d/loaded a 400MB tv episode that's 142 days old - that one is fine

[jreynolds]

Thanks vey much for reporting back. Perhaps a little hit and miss then but 142 days is better than most retention out there!

To go back on topic, perhaps the people downloading older files are downloading from groups where there aren't many files in the first place which makes it easier to give people access to older files.

[Richy99]

Originally Posted by stepone

What VM usenet server address are you using? Remember that since May vm switched to easynews and the address is: news.virginmedia.com.

As to the retention probs what are you trying to download & from which group? Are you perhaps trying to dl some pr0n?

I just downloaded all the current 3rd series of te venture bros. (1st ep was 70 days old) & that went fine. Infact apart from pr0n i've never had any missing files.

are you sure they moved to easynews and not a highwinds reseller such as newshosting?

[Vegeta]

Tried to grab a Xbox 360 game that was 47 days old and half of it was incomplete. It is hit and miss.

[zer0]

Originally Posted by jreynolds

I'm not sure about anyone else but, even using NZBs, I only get the 7 day retention as already stated. Is there some sort of trick to getting up to 98 day retention?

same for me

from virginmedia.support.usenet

The VM binary servers are managed by Highwinds, an outsourced partner.

[stepone]

That's odd they were using easynews. That might explain the differences everybody is reporting.

Could everyone check where their vm usenet is coming from by opening the command prompt (goto run & type cmd) then type in netstat at the cmd prompt with only your vm usenet service connected & it'll list all your current connections.

---------- Post added at 20:19 ---------- Previous post was at 20:01 ----------

Originally Posted by stepone

That's odd they were using easynews.

A quick google search reveals that Highwinds has brought easynews.

Also netstat now shows that my VM connection is going to servers from hwng.net, which I assume is another server in the highwinds group (they've recently purchased quite a few usenet providers inc easynews) as opposed to last week when netstat showed me as being connected to easynews's servers.

Only took a week for them to switch us to a new (& presumably crappier) usenet server, which explains why everyone seems to be getting rubbish retention now.

I'll run some new tests & see what i'm getting now...

[Horace]

From what I've read at the Easynews support forum and the support staff there seem a little cagey about this, EasyNews are using Highwinds in the same way VM are and haven't been bought by them, thats what I can gather from the vague replies I've seen posted by EN staff anyway.

[Richy99]

if you do a lookup of the IP address it belongs to newshosting