Newsgroups Trial Resumes - Page 7

autofill@jonric · 12-02-2004, 17:03

Well Last night (1am ish) I had 70K & 8 connections just to see before the stress test.. Tonight it is getting only 55-60K

Oh well it is better than 2K

Will have to see what 8pm brings.

bawbag99 · 12-02-2004, 18:02

Having no access to the trial I hope that the completion is better than what is offered on the usual servers as there is more missing articles than ever!

Probably why you can get access to the servers as there is nothing to download.

DVS · 12-02-2004, 19:56

Bumpy, tech question time

Looking at the DNS for the trial server you appear to operating round robin DNS across 8 IP addresses. Now unless you are running 10GBit net cards or multiple 1GBit cards teamed that's only 8GBit of bandwidth (max). Surely 8,000 simultaneous 1Mbit downloaders will eat up that bandwidth? I'm sure I'm missing something here but I have to ask (and probably look like a fool

).

bumpy · 12-02-2004, 21:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by DVS

Bumpy, tech question time

Looking at the DNS for the trial server you appear to operating round robin DNS across 8 IP addresses. Now unless you are running 10GBit net cards or multiple 1GBit cards teamed that's only 8GBit of bandwidth (max). Surely 8,000 simultaneous 1Mbit downloaders will eat up that bandwidth? I'm sure I'm missing something here but I have to ask (and probably look like a fool

).

DVS, I would like to say I know the answer, but I don't. The key here is to load the servers to ensure they can without 8000 customers usage at one time, giving us growth for the future. In terms of your question I will enquire and release what info I can.

Bumpy (ntl trials team)

bumpy · 12-02-2004, 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

I will try to take part in the 'stress test' , tomorrow, but I also have a suggestion re: assessing the completion thingy - could we pick a group, say

alt.binaries.e-book.flood

and report on number of headers, oldest header, etc - using the test server - and also any free/paid for accounts we have?

the most headers I am showing in this group is 12709 back to 12/01/04 - how are you guys measuring % completion?

Homealone, very good idea, however, based on the information of groups your are telling me about. We are monitoring these on a daily basis to review improvements so know real need to expect you guys to do more for us.

autofill@jonric · 12-02-2004, 21:48

Well the stress test went well for me, 65K download using 8 connections. I only had a small drop out of about 5 seconds where all 8 connections fell over, but then recovered.

12-02-2004, 22:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by bumpy

Homealone, very good idea, however, based on the information of groups your are telling me about. We are monitoring these on a daily basis to review improvements so know real need to expect you guys to do more for us.

kay

for alt.binaries.e-book.flood

server name, headers, oldest header date

test, 12709, 12/01/04

teranews, 2846, 05/02/04

bubbanews, 2805 05/02/04

news.cache.cable.ntlworld.com, 8527, 05/02/04

newscache.cable.ntlworld.com, 8527, 05/02/04

bioboy · 13-02-2004, 08:40

The "stress test" seemed to work for me apart from when my son accidentally crashed the PC around 8.30.

However, I'm wondering whether 1,000 users (at most, cos some people seem to be unaware/not getting e-mails?) can really be considered high stress. I have no idea how many ntl customers use newsgroups, but I would've thought it would be measured in tens of thousands at least, so does stability with under 8,000 concurrent connections represent real room for growth? Maybe Bumpy could provide some info on this. Perhaps I'm talking cobblers?

Jontydog · 13-02-2004, 09:15

When exactly are we going to be able to use this "new improved service"? The way it stands at the moment the newsgroups are absolutely ridiculous.

andygrif · 13-02-2004, 10:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jontydog

When exactly are we going to be able to use this "new improved service"? The way it stands at the moment the newsgroups are absolutely ridiculous.

I think to be fair...finally ntl have started to do something about it. It's been awful for a couple of years now but with their financial woes at the time it was obviously not seen as a priorty.

Now they are testing out an improved system, but obviously no-one will be able to say when it will be available to everyone, becuase they are testing it out, seeing if it works.

Personally, having been thoroughly pee'd off for the last two years' of ntl doing naff all about this, that finally there is positive movement in the right direction. Along with all the other bits they're 'working on' on the internet side right now it may even come close to the world class ISP it is always claiming to be...who knows!!

DVS · 13-02-2004, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jontydog

When exactly are we going to be able to use this "new improved service"?

Probably when NTL have worked out all the kinks in it

No point in NTL launching a flawed service or they'd get slated for it. Yes, it's taking a while to resolve the problems and the trials has been postponed a few times, stopped and restarted when problems have been found, but in the end NTL are doing thinks right IMO. Get the service right then launch, not launch and tidy up the problems after.

bioboy · 18-02-2004, 17:25

Well now that the trial has finished what did people think of it. A big disappointment for me in terms of completion. Speed and reliability good, though not sure if it would continue with more people on the server. Completion was worse than before though IMO. Can't really see how it was a trial of an "enhanced service".

Foo Fighter · 18-02-2004, 18:26

I thought it was a huge disapointment as well, i'd recommend that ntl go get their money back because who ever they bought these off must be laughing all the way to the bank

The servers off no improvement at all, if anything their worse with the awfull completion... like already said i doubt they would hold under the pressure if they ever went live.

Benn_Black · 19-02-2004, 16:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foo Fighter

I thought it was a huge disapointment as well, i'd recommend that ntl go get their money back because who ever they bought these off must be laughing all the way to the bank

The servers off no improvement at all, if anything their worse with the awfull completion... like already said i doubt they would hold under the pressure if they ever went live.

I gave up and subscribed to claranews unlimited.

ynwa · 21-02-2004, 11:13

Me too. just signed for Astraweb. Just been waiting too long for NTL to sort this, and there seems to be no sign of them doing that. The trial has been a big flop for me.