Shaw Newsgroups - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Hack&Lube · 05-29-2010, 05:07 PM

Has anybody noticed some terrible completion lately?

From the server trace it looks like Shaw's usenet services are now farming out to astraweb servers but everything I've been trying to get in the past week has been terrible in terms of completetion, I can't even get things finished with all the pars downloaded.

Getting a lot of Bad YEnc CRC errors too.

Diemenz · 05-30-2010, 09:44 PM

Just flip over to giganews, the retention they have is nothing short of amazing. Does cost a few snaps however.

Hack&Lube · 05-30-2010, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diemenz

Just flip over to giganews, the retention they have is nothing short of amazing. Does cost a few snaps however.

The issue wasn't retention but rather completion.

I discovered the problem though, it was an unstable overclock resulting in files being assembled broken. It was the strangest thing. Machine Prime95s for hours but a non-standard FSB and memory frequency (ie: not 266mhz, 333mhz, 400mhz, etc.) resulted in all my downloaded files having errors.

I've never seen that before, where a unorthodox (but stable) memory frequency results in errors in downloaded files.

My ram was set to something like 908Mhz instead of 1066Mhz and as a result, all my files were damaged.

Rathji · 05-30-2010, 09:58 PM

I rarely download, but when I do my first choice is Shaw Usegroups. The last couple times I tried to find something (recent TV program) it was a lot harder to find it and I ended up going to a torrent.

sclitheroe · 05-30-2010, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

The issue wasn't retention but rather completion.

I discovered the problem though, it was an unstable overclock resulting in files being assembled broken. It was the strangest thing. Machine Prime95s for hours but a non-standard FSB and memory frequency (ie: not 266mhz, 333mhz, 400mhz, etc.) resulted in all my downloaded files having errors.

I've never seen that before, where a unorthodox (but stable) memory frequency results in errors in downloaded files.

My ram was set to something like 908Mhz instead of 1066Mhz and as a result, all my files were damaged.

That’s pretty crazy. Cool though.

DownInFlames · 05-30-2010, 11:00 PM

What TV show? Did you try searching a nzb site first? I don't have any problem finding whatever I'm looking for.

Rathji · 05-31-2010, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

What TV show? Did you try searching a nzb site first? I don't have any problem finding whatever I'm looking for.

I always use a NZB site. Anything I found, even when restricting to 3 weeks retention wouldn't complete the download. I ended up spending more time trying to figure out why than it took to torrent.

Now that I think of it, it might just be the new client I was trying out, because the problems started shortly after I changed.

Thor · 05-31-2010, 06:09 AM

Any tips on good NZB sites, since moving to Iceland I'm downloading most of my TV shows. I mean my friend is, not me, that would be wrong.

Pastiche · 05-31-2010, 06:22 AM

I would use a non ISP news server with SSL connections. Astraweb is good and cheap.

DownInFlames · 05-31-2010, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor

Any tips on good NZB sites, since moving to Iceland I'm downloading most of my TV shows. I mean my friend is, not me, that would be wrong.

http://www.slyck.com/story1928_Top_F...n_Alternatives

cKy · 05-31-2010, 11:14 AM

I use NZBSRUS, and it is fantastic. It works great for newer releases, but I find it doesnt have some of the old releases I may look for (which newzbin) generally had.

freakinsaprikin · 05-31-2010, 12:01 PM

I use Merlin's Portal. I haven't had an issue finding anything

http://www.merlins-portal.net/Vbulletin/forums.php

csnarpy · 05-31-2010, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor

Any tips on good NZB sites, since moving to Iceland I'm downloading most of my TV shows. I mean my friend is, not me, that would be wrong.

NBZ Matrix is great for shows and movies.

Hack&Lube · 05-31-2010, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

What TV show? Did you try searching a nzb site first? I don't have any problem finding whatever I'm looking for.

I've never used NZB sites, call me old fashioned but I've always preferred searching and browsing the groups directly and then using nzb files I make myself through Binsearch.

On a side note, the creator of NZBs, newzbin shut down. I never used them as their registration wasn't open to the public but a bit sad that they went down due to legal issues. They revoluntionized usenet with the nzb format.

Hack&Lube · 05-31-2010, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I would use a non ISP news server with SSL connections. Astraweb is good and cheap.

I discovered the issue was not on Shaw/Astraweb's end. It was my computer being unstable and creating broken files due to some memory issue.

Shaw's news server IS Astraweb. It even says so on the server trace. The only thing is that it limits your connection to around 500 KBytes/sec which isn't too bad. Also, retention is limited to 30 days but if you scan for stuff everyday, you pretty much don't need any more retention than that unless you suddenly have the urge to get something and it has passed that threshold. It also maxes out at 5 connections. The whole thing is free (well, bundled with my internet anyway) so I save about $10-13 a month versus a paid service.

Addtionally, if you get a paid service like full Astraweb/Giganews/Highwinds/Usenetserver, etc. you can simultaneously have that open along with the free Shaw service so you can end up with like 15-20 open connections at the same time to max out all your bandwidth. Back when I use paid services combined with Shaw I often found myself downloading at 3 megabytes per second (about 20 Mbit/s).