Plusnet Usenet Completion

Do other plusnet users find that all posts are not complete on the usenet
server ?

Or maybe It's something with my connection ?

On 9 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Niaz Khan" wrote:

>Do other plusnet users find that all posts are not complete on the usenet
>server ?

Might depend on the newsgroup you are using. I have had very few problems
when I've looked at binaries, but the groups I've looked in have had quite
a large number of multi-parts (but not into tens of MB in total). There's
a good chance of getting answers in NG 'plusnet.tech.usenet' Peter M.

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 20:47:18 +0100, "Niaz Khan" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Do other plusnet users find that all posts are not complete on the usenet
>server ?
>
>Or maybe It's something with my connection ?
>
>

This is a copy of a post I made today on this subject to a micky mouse
web-based forum whose name easily escapes me:

I think the 'confusion' arises because articles are expired by age
(i.e how long they have been physically on the server) not by date
posted. What I notice is that Plusnet seem to get some of the articles
of a binary posting pretty soon after they've been posted but the rest
may take up to a couple of days to come through. Some other ISP's and
'paid for' services with different peering arrangements tend to get
all articles within a couple of hours after posting.

So very soon after a post has been made there is very low completion
on Plusnet. Completion is at its best 24 hours to 72 hours after the
post has been made and then you get crap (see! I can use that awful
word here without it being 'censored'.......isn't Usenet great!)
completion again as the first articles to arrive are expired, leaving
behind the laggards. If you define 'completion' as the extent to which
Plusnet receive all of the articles in a binary posting 'at some time'
then Plusnet's completion is pretty good. If you define completion as
the number of binary postings that are complete at any one time on the
server then Plusnet's completion is very average.

If you define retention as the length of time a binary article is kept
on the server (as I would) then Plusnet's retention is pretty OK for
an ISP (about 3 to four days). If you define retention as the length
of time since the posting date of the oldest article still available
in a binary post then Plusnet can shout from the rooftops about 7 days
retention. The fact that all of this is at the expense of completion
in the first couple of days after a posting has been made (and the
last couple of days before everything gets expired) is something that
can be conveniently ignored.

Having said all of that, I have to admit that the Plusnet server is
still better than that of most ISPs. The best strategy for those who
don't have access to another server to fill in the gaps is either to
wait for the 'sweet period' 2 days after the post has been made or
download all you can at stages within the 7 day period. This is made
even more complicated by the fact that I suspect expiration is
probably different in different binary newsgroups.


Martin

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 20:47:18 +0100, "Niaz Khan" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Do other plusnet users find that all posts are not complete on the usenet
>server ?
>
>Or maybe It's something with my connection ?
>
>

If you have had Plusnet for longer than 6 months you will have
experienced an improvement. Before then the posts were incomplete in
binary newsgroups to the extent that even 2 part message had one
missing.

Then they improved dramatically and were more or less intact.

I note that over the last couple of days, however, there have been
many parts missing although this seems to be random. Unlike in the
past when nothing of any size could be downloaded there are now quite
a lot of messages fully present.

I assume (hope) that this is just a glich. This is one of the reasons
why most regular users recommend that a "backup" newsprovider is used.
I advocate Astraweb which allows 25gig of download for $10 (approx £6)
with no time limit. This would ensure that with Plusnet providing its
normal, improved, service the Astraweb option would last for many
months.

KM

On 10 Oct 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, km wrote:

>I advocate Astraweb which allows 25gig of download for $10 (approx £6)
>with no time limit. This would ensure that with Plusnet providing its
>normal, improved, service the Astraweb option would last for many
>months.

sounds good. I might add that to the 'free' (there was a small signup)
TeraNews.com account which allows me to d/l up to 50 MB/day, whenever...
I think account has been open for 2 or 3 years now, was $3.95 AFAICR :-)

km <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> I note that over the last couple of days, however, there have been
> many parts missing although this seems to be random. Unlike in the
> past when nothing of any size could be downloaded there are now quite
> a lot of messages fully present.
Someone posted the stats in the pn.s.cf group. It looked like one of the
spools was acting up (0 bytes received for two days) but the stats are
appearing again today so hopefully it will catch up.

--
Colin
*Drop DEAD from the email address to reply*

On 10 Oct 2004 12:00:39 GMT, cw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>km <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>news:(E-Mail Removed) :
>
>> I note that over the last couple of days, however, there have been
>> many parts missing although this seems to be random. Unlike in the
>> past when nothing of any size could be downloaded there are now quite
>> a lot of messages fully present.
>Someone posted the stats in the pn.s.cf group. It looked like one of the
>spools was acting up (0 bytes received for two days) but the stats are
>appearing again today so hopefully it will catch up.

Hi there,

I've seen quite a few reports of customer about incomplete articles so
I have reopened an internal problem regarding this.

Problem ID 20335

kind regards

Luke
--
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| Comms team for Home & Business
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