50mb USENET Problem

Dirtymurt · 13-06-2009, 10:12

I recently upgraded to 50meg and must say I am bitterly disappointed. I am using Newsdemon and sometimes switch to Giganews (although more expensive) for my USENET needs.

I get, using giganews or SABnzbd the full 50meg download speeed for about 5 minutes. Then I get throttled down to 5meg. If I go into settings and change the port or change the server it goes back up for a few minutes before hitting the wall again and dropping to 5 meg.

there is no way this is some sort of anomly, VM are throttling the usenet users service.

I am furious as the average speed I now get is worse than my 20mb connection with the eveneing shaping.

anyone else seeing this problem?

DigitalShadow · 13-06-2009, 11:53

is there not a program that will cycle the port?

Dirtymurt · 13-06-2009, 12:23

that would be a good solution, anyone know if this can be done. it would be a nice addition to newsleecher or sabnzbd

Jazz · 13-06-2009, 12:33

Yes my Usenet speeds are ropey at best, I don't get throttled down to 5MB but I rarely get the full speed. If I download from the web or from rapidshare I can max my line out but on the 50mb my speeds seem to vary from 10mb-35mb. Was on Astraweb and was even getting many incomplete files so I set up a Giganews trial when I use it does seem to boost it up a little bit and fill my incomplete files but still can't get full speed.

I thought it might of been a problem with my connection but either newsgroups aren't providing the full speed (not so sure about that) or Virgin are playing around. I haven't tried changing my ports if I'm being honest so will try that. Had an engineer around and he put the power levels down on my modem (they were around 9.9 now about 4.4) and that seemed to help a bit as I could barely get 20mb before whereas now I can get around 30ish.

Jabbs · 13-06-2009, 12:34

We been using 50m since last Friday and i can't say we had any issues with slow speeds on usenet, we normally getting 5.9mbs can't test now as it appears users are complaining about problems with Astraweb who i use, but i have downloaded at full whack from it with no problems of speeds slowing down.

broadbandking · 13-06-2009, 23:59

When I used he 50Mb connection I always got full whack all the time seems to me that some parts of the network can't handle the 50Mb speed on going, this is what you get from a company that rushes a major upgrade.

Dirtymurt · 14-06-2009, 09:41

which usenet provider do you guys use?

Jabbs · 14-06-2009, 10:54

Something i have noticed i currently use Astraweb and certain news reader programs give better speeds, now i have always used Newsleecher but it just can't seem to give me constant speeds best i have had is 5.8mb/s with regular drops.

I have tried alt-binz(which is free) and this gives me always over 6mb/s and holds a steady speed and the same with the trial of Newsbin Pro this gives me good speeds i would certainly try different readers and see what happens.

EDIT: Now my speeds have dropped like a pile of poo we shall say not even hitting 2mb/s now, this happened yesterday around this time as well, its either a problem with Astraweb( maybe others can confirm what they use and speeds) or is this how 50mb is going to be they are shaping usenet ?, do you still get a cooling off period with a new install because if this is the case i might aswell go back to my rock solid 20mb connection.

I just tried downloading off there blueyounder demo thing and was hitting 5-6mb/s so its either astraweb or they are traffic shaping usenet now.

Dirtymurt · 14-06-2009, 11:49

i am going to insist they switch me back, I think i've been installed 2 or 3 weeks

this from the email they sent me

Your new additional service is also covered by our 28 day money back guarantee, so it you're not entirely satisfied with your new service, just give us a call

i will be doing just that

I'm now dropping to 256k/s and when i reset, switch server or even pause then unpause the speed shoots back up. there is something very wrong indeed

silverwolf_uk · 14-06-2009, 12:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabbs

EDIT: Now my speeds have dropped like a pile of poo we shall say not even hitting 2mb/s now, this happened yesterday around this time as well, its either a problem with Astraweb( maybe others can confirm what they use and speeds) or is this how 50mb is going to be they are shaping usenet ?, do you still get a cooling off period with a new install because if this is the case i might aswell go back to my rock solid 20mb connection.

I just started with astraweb yesterday and was having a very strange problem with their european secure server. All 20 threads seemed to connect and said they were downloading but, only about 7-10 threads were actually downloading anything. The others were stuck. When one of the active threads finished an article that would then stick and one of the previously stuck ones would start! I also had quite a few 11004 errors and a few max connection for this host reached errors. I switched to their us secure server and all 20 threads connected and started downloading at full wack (20mb service @ approx 2300KB/sec) with no problems what so ever. So it would seem there's a problem with their european server.
If other providers in this thread that people are having trouble with have both euro and us servers I'd suggest trying their us server and see if that helps!

Cheers,
Wolfie.

EDIT: Just re-read Dirtymurts starting post and it seems you tried this already, sorry. Might help others though!?

Jabbs · 14-06-2009, 13:36

Its all strange tbh try grabit and my speeds are what i would expect them to be around 6mb/s, put newsleecher/altb-binz/newsbin pro and speeds all over the place.

broadbandking · 14-06-2009, 16:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabbs

Its all strange tbh try grabit and my speeds are what i would expect them to be around 6mb/s, put newsleecher/altb-binz/newsbin pro and speeds all over the place.

Grabit and Astraweb never let me down.

Kymmy · 14-06-2009, 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverwolf_uk

I just started with astraweb yesterday and was having a very strange problem with their european secure server. All 20 threads seemed to connect and said they were downloading but, only about 7-10 threads were actually downloading anything. The others were stuck. When one of the active threads finished an article that would then stick and one of the previously stuck ones would start! I also had quite a few 11004 errors and a few max connection for this host reached errors. I switched to their us secure server and all 20 threads connected and started downloading at full wack (20mb service @ approx 2300KB/sec) with no problems what so ever. So it would seem there's a problem with their european server.
If other providers in this thread that people are having trouble with have both euro and us servers I'd suggest trying their us server and see if that helps!

Cheers,
Wolfie.

EDIT: Just re-read Dirtymurts starting post and it seems you tried this already, sorry. Might help others though!?

Actually it's the fact that you;re trying to use all the connections when there's no need to that'll probably be your problem..especially when one stalls it retries creating a 21st connection that then give the too many connections eror and this can stall a few more connections

I use astra-web/newsbin on a 10Mb connection and found that 5 connections on the EU servers is all it takes to max out the connection at 10.3Mb, if I try to use many more I actually get slower speeds as the handshaking takes up more speed.. getting to a point where if I use 20 the speed can be rediculously low..

psyfur · 14-06-2009, 17:53

I have been using Astra web and 10mb VG line for a year and max out the connection speed all the time and only get STM if download during peak times. I always get 1.3 mb/s and I use 20 connections.

50 mb has come to be area in Cambridge and I have thought about the upgrade but I hear a lot of complaints and bitchin so I have been put off also the installation and setup charge is day light robbery. :/

silverwolf_uk · 14-06-2009, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Actually it's the fact that you;re trying to use all the connections when there's no need to that'll probably be your problem..especially when one stalls it retries creating a 21st connection that then give the too many connections eror and this can stall a few more connections

I use astra-web/newsbin on a 10Mb connection and found that 5 connections on the EU servers is all it takes to max out the connection at 10.3Mb, if I try to use many more I actually get slower speeds as the handshaking takes up more speed.. getting to a point where if I use 20 the speed can be rediculously low..

I can see where you're coming from with this but, would that not affect the US server as well? Using all 20 connections with the US server gives me no problems at all. You'd think that it would be the other way around as latency to the US servers should be more than to the euro one which should mean a longer handshake & a more likely connection stall. That's what makes me think there may be a problem with astrawebs euro server. Maybe the problem is only affecting certain parts of the virgin media network?

Cheers,
Wolfie.