Slow retrieving headers

I'm puzzled why I'm seeing what appears to be glacially slow retrieval
of headers from newsgroups. For example, in Agent just now, retrieving
70 headers after selecting took about 20 seconds. If I monitored it,
I saw the rate varied erratically between 10-30 KB/s. (That doesn't
sound too bad. My 'normal' large file download rate with BT Broadband
on this XP PC is 60 KB/s, but I expect compression is a major factor).

But 20 s at say 20 KB/s implies a total 400 KB, which makes the
average header nearly 6 KB. These are headers, not bodies. And I often
recall seeing the progress bar in Agent zapping across at a blistering
rate. Am I missing something here please? Is there some other factor
involved in determining header retrieval time?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Terry Pinnell wrote:
>
> I'm puzzled why I'm seeing what appears to be glacially slow retrieval
> of headers from newsgroups. For example, in Agent just now, retrieving
> 70 headers after selecting took about 20 seconds. If I monitored it,
> I saw the rate varied erratically between 10-30 KB/s. (That doesn't
> sound too bad. My 'normal' large file download rate with BT Broadband
> on this XP PC is 60 KB/s, but I expect compression is a major factor).
>
> But 20 s at say 20 KB/s implies a total 400 KB, which makes the
> average header nearly 6 KB. These are headers, not bodies. And I often
> recall seeing the progress bar in Agent zapping across at a blistering
> rate. Am I missing something here please? Is there some other factor
> involved in determining header retrieval time?
>
Dear Terry

This could be a server-side issue. I've seen similar behaviour on
the claranet news servers.

Are these binary or text group headers?

regards

Howard
--
hedmundo at macmail dot com

Terry Pinnell wrote:
> I'm puzzled why I'm seeing what appears to be glacially slow retrieval
> of headers from newsgroups. For example, in Agent just now, retrieving
> 70 headers after selecting took about 20 seconds. If I monitored it,
> I saw the rate varied erratically between 10-30 KB/s. (That doesn't
> sound too bad. My 'normal' large file download rate with BT Broadband
> on this XP PC is 60 KB/s, but I expect compression is a major factor).
>
> But 20 s at say 20 KB/s implies a total 400 KB, which makes the
> average header nearly 6 KB. These are headers, not bodies. And I often
> recall seeing the progress bar in Agent zapping across at a blistering
> rate. Am I missing something here please? Is there some other factor
> involved in determining header retrieval time?
>

What version of agent are you using? Versions of Agent prior to
version 2.0 had a bug which caused Agent to sporadically take an age
to get a couple of headers. Sometimes it would fly through a few
000's headers yet take forever downloading a group with almost no
headers. Version two now checks in a two part process - gets a header
list then downloads the actual headers.

--
Regards,
Danny

http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
http://www.dannyscoffee.com (UK advert for my mobile espresso service)
http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/European online ordering for Malabar
Gold blend)
swap Z for above characters in email address to reply

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:12:21 +0100, Terry Pinnell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm puzzled why I'm seeing what appears to be glacially slow retrieval
>of headers from newsgroups. For example, in Agent just now, retrieving
>70 headers after selecting took about 20 seconds. If I monitored it,
>I saw the rate varied erratically between 10-30 KB/s. (That doesn't
>sound too bad. My 'normal' large file download rate with BT Broadband
>on this XP PC is 60 KB/s, but I expect compression is a major factor).
>
>But 20 s at say 20 KB/s implies a total 400 KB, which makes the
>average header nearly 6 KB. These are headers, not bodies. And I often
>recall seeing the progress bar in Agent zapping across at a blistering
>rate. Am I missing something here please? Is there some other factor
>involved in determining header retrieval time?


I use Agent and have had it for the last 10 years, currently on 2.0,
and it's always been superb. Like you, I'm on Pipex and retrieving
headers from Binaries groups takes an absolute age but as I download
anything I want overnight, I couldn't care less. Pipex TEXT newsgroup
access is no problem for me.


Filthy Rich
Music House

Filthy Rich <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I use Agent and have had it for the last 10 years, currently on 2.0,
>and it's always been superb. Like you, I'm on Pipex and retrieving
>headers from Binaries groups takes an absolute age but as I download
>anything I want overnight, I couldn't care less. Pipex TEXT newsgroup
>access is no problem for me.

Thanks for the three replies.

From advice in the Agent ng I gather the most likely cause is
something to dow with the setting "Server Creates messages out of
order" plus the large number of 'gaps' in some groups. But I confess I
don't fully understand that.

Filthy Rich: I don't think I can use Pipex news with BT Broadband. How
reliable are the binaries anyway? I used to find on my dial up with
Demon that for most music files several 'parts' would be missing.

BTW, I use Forte APN (2 GB/ month for about 3USD), but I'd like a good
free source too, as I'm constantly exceeding my quota.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:15:23 +0100, Terry Pinnell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Filthy Rich <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>I use Agent and have had it for the last 10 years, currently on 2.0,
>>and it's always been superb. Like you, I'm on Pipex and retrieving
>>headers from Binaries groups takes an absolute age but as I download
>>anything I want overnight, I couldn't care less. Pipex TEXT newsgroup
>>access is no problem for me.
>
>Thanks for the three replies.
>
>From advice in the Agent ng I gather the most likely cause is
>something to dow with the setting "Server Creates messages out of
>order" plus the large number of 'gaps' in some groups. But I confess I
>don't fully understand that.
>
>Filthy Rich: I don't think I can use Pipex news with BT Broadband. How
>reliable are the binaries anyway? I used to find on my dial up with
>Demon that for most music files several 'parts' would be missing.
>
>BTW, I use Forte APN (2 GB/ month for about 3USD), but I'd like a good
>free source too, as I'm constantly exceeding my quota.

Terry, see post above from danny, he quotes a bug in Agent versions
pre 2.x and your header says you have:

X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)

Try upgrading to the latest version and see if that fixes it.

Shevek <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>Terry, see post above from danny, he quotes a bug in Agent versions
>pre 2.x and your header says you have:
>
>X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
>
>Try upgrading to the latest version and see if that fixes it.

OK, thanks both. Yes, I do have 1.93. I reverted back to it as I
disliked some things in 2.0, and there were very few benefits.

I *think* this slowness issue has turned out to be down to the server.
I use Forte APN, but I gather they in turn use supernews. At
http://status.supernews.com/ I read:
Sunday, 26 September 2004, 1:10 GMT Posted by Andrew

"We are presently experiencing a backlog affecting both locally posted
articles and articles received from other sites. No articles are being
lost, but there may be significant out-of-order arrival of
articles..."

That 'out-of-order arrival' apparently effects speed significantly.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK