Newsgroups Strange Problem

Nick334 · 29-09-2008, 22:44

I'm now very confident with newsgroups and the like but something's happened which has confused me. I was downloading something from a group called a.b.games.xbox360 (it wasn't a 360 game, it was just in that group for some reason) and it was perfect yesterday.

Now when I came to start it again today it didn't download - it just skipped through the files. I know this happens when the files aren't on the server - so can't be downloaded. However, it's the same group and the same files but now suddenly it doesn't; work.

I know it's not anything to do with retention times because it's under 7 days. It was working perfectly yesterday but now today it's just seemed to have disappeared. Is this a problem my end or something to do with the servers?

Thanks.

frazzeld · 29-09-2008, 22:46

Are you using VirginMedia newsgroups

Nick334 · 29-09-2008, 22:48

Yes - news.virginmedia.com

frazzeld · 29-09-2008, 22:50

Then thats why....... if its on a.b.games.xbox360 - Virgin will class this as Piracy
Trailer - Demo - Game

Nick334 · 29-09-2008, 22:56

But it was working perfectly well yesterday. Other groups like a.b.movies.divx and a.b.tv work fine as well.

rossdagley · 30-09-2008, 08:44

You'll need to bite the bullet in the long run and pay for a news server subscription to an outside company - I use astraweb myself and get rock solid 20mbit connections to their european servers, often leeching 100+Gb in a day.

Other newsgroup services are available - check them out and see what fits your needs best. Astraweb, Giganews, etc. Google and you shall find.

Stabhappy · 30-09-2008, 14:15

Giganews has been more than kind to me.

Fatec · 30-09-2008, 14:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by frazzeld

Then thats why....... if its on a.b.games.xbox360 - Virgin will class this as Piracy
Trailer - Demo - Game

You do realise VM provide access to those apparent piracy groups, right?

Anyway your problem here is retention, VM seem to use different servers for usenet, it seems your now connected to the one with only 3 day retention.

As said by others, you're better off coughing up for a real news provider like giganews which has 240 days retention.

Many other cheaper (albeit, not as reliable) providers out there though, just google

Kymmy · 30-09-2008, 14:46

Just because the retention is 7 days doesn't mean to say for whatever reason the posts have been removed. A friend on giganews has 200 days, also I have 125days on powerusenet and we both find stuff removed sometimes the next day, no idea why..

jreynolds · 30-09-2008, 15:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by TraxData2

Anyway your problem here is retention, VM seem to use different servers for usenet, it seems your now connected to the one with only 3 day retention.

This is something I don't quite understand. A couple of times now I've managed to have roughly 100 day retention using VMs newsgroups for a few weeks at a time (the last of which was only last week but has now reverted to the usual 7 days).

Has this just been a glitch? Or do they use different servers at different times and why?

Kymmy · 30-09-2008, 15:13

Sorry tried to resist but in the end just had to correct the typo in the thread title

Nick334 · 01-10-2008, 18:08

Yeah was a stupid typo - hands were freezing when I typed it.

I do have a pay account - a 100GB from usenet-news but I like to get as much as I can for free

Jonathan90 · 01-10-2008, 23:16

Lol noone wants to pay for piracy