50M Pitifully slow newsgroup speeds during the evening - Page 5

General Maximus · 29-01-2012, 07:40

I'll get us back on topic:

I have been doing some thinking about it and I believe it is strictly a utilisation issue. My torrents and newsgroups speed were always 0 - 200k in the evenings when I was on 50mbit and now I am on 100mbit they can go anything up to 4mb/sec which I am well chuffed with. I wouldn't have thought it is anything special to do with me being on 100mbit, but more to do with the upgrade work they have done for 100mbit which has added the extra capacity so there is more free bandwidth around to be used. I dont do a lot of downloading in the evenings simply because of the congestion but at least what they have done has made it usable again now.

**Kymmy** · 29-01-2012, 07:49

I still think it's people clogging up the system, even though students go home at holidays I do know a lot stay and it only takes one downloader in a property to max out the connection.. I lived in Rusholme for many a year (just off Kippax) and do know that a lot of students stay behind all year.

General Maximus · 29-01-2012, 07:53

yeah, same when i went home during Easter and Summer, I couldn't believe the number of people who stayed behind.

Retrovertigo · 29-01-2012, 08:20

@Kymmy

I get what you are saying. But honestly, where I live in Fallowfield (ladybarn to be precise) a lot of students vacate premises here. I do see poor regular net browsing etc of an evening when they are staying in the area. But it really does go back to 50 meg when they leave for holidays.

I've read here and on other forums, that even people living in areas where over subscription isn't an issue, that they get that same 200k speed. It seems you either get newsgroups that work as normal. Or you get this odd 200k figure. For me, it doesn't matter whether they are home or away, that 200k never wavers. And I mean never - it stays locked at that speed. I've sat and watched it for maybe 20 mins just to see, but it stays stuck on that speed. But whenever I get a chance to try in the daytime (during the week....weekends are bad all day it seems), it will work as normal. I can't recall what time the throttling comes in - but you can see it change from full speed to 200k almost to the minute of throttling coming in. Very odd.

VM did say there was a known issue at one point. It was on the official forums. They stated they had found a problem with usenet access and had fixed it. Some people said afterwards that it was fixed, but no luck in my area.

I have tried them once in a while of an evening for months and months now, but downloading even a 300meg file means a long wait so I just shut my P.C down as I'm not having it running for hours downloading tiny files.

It is incredibly frustrating to see Virgin offer no help. Seeing as they actually have news servers themselves, you'd think they would be able to offer some help. But I get fobbed off - simply being told that they should be working and I shouldn't be seeing such low speeds.

**Kymmy** · 29-01-2012, 08:46

Is it just usenet or do you have the same issue with normal downloads at the same time?

Also with Astraweb how many connections are you using, which ports/servers/SSL??

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

Also can you try on Astraweb dropping down to just 6 connections, set port 443 with SSL and make sure you're using the SSL EU server and not the normal one.. Then report back your speeds (constant/high/low)

Not wanting to teach someone how to suck eggs but have you checked your program for scheduled speed limits (I know that newsbin has that functionality)

bigal2012 · 29-01-2012, 12:16

I have used your setting for Astraweb, no way am I getting any good speeds. Also how do I get more than 1 connection? I am using Forte Agent as my reader & get too many requests for a re connection.
Also how do I check for speeds?

---------- Post added at 13:16 ---------- Previous post was at 13:12 ----------

Sorry I forgot to ask, what is their EU SSL server? As I have just checked that I am using their ssl astraweb server.

**Kymmy** · 29-01-2012, 13:31

My suggestion to try just 6 connections was purely to see what speed he was getting.. It in no way was a solution but a diagnostic tool.

As for speed/connections Forte Agent used to be designed more for text newsgroups and not binary, no idea if that has changed as it was 10+ years ago.. Try Newsbin, Grabit or another agent designed for binary only.

As for the server Astraweb have two SSL servers (one EU and one US) and two nonSSL servers (Eu and US)

bigal2012 · 29-01-2012, 14:16

Forte is brilliant, it is one of the best piece of software I currently use. For some strange reason Grabit does not download all my news servers newsgroups. I now use the EU server on ssl & it is a lot faster. But still I would like to know the download speed.

**Kymmy** · 29-01-2012, 16:32

as I said I've not used Forte for 10+ years, instead I discovered Newsbin back in 2000 and have never looked back. With newsbin it give you your speed readout on the status bar..

Only advice I can give is RtM (Read the Manual

)

Retrovertigo · 29-01-2012, 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Is it just usenet or do you have the same issue with normal downloads at the same time?

Also with Astraweb how many connections are you using, which ports/servers/SSL??

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

Also can you try on Astraweb dropping down to just 6 connections, set port 443 with SSL and make sure you're using the SSL EU server and not the normal one.. Then report back your speeds (constant/high/low)

Not wanting to teach someone how to suck eggs but have you checked your program for scheduled speed limits (I know that newsbin has that functionality)

No scheduled speed limits in use

I have tried some normal downloading of an evening (things like demos off Xbox Live) and there is a dramatic difference than during the daytime - but not anywhere near as low as 200k. I'd say a 1 gig demo takes about an hour to download in the evening. Which is pretty bad.

I know that doing speed tests in an evening results in a speed of usually around 10meg. I've been having an argument of sorts for a while now with VM, as for quite some time they gave me a small discount because speeds were generally poor of an evening. But they have since said there are no contention issues in my area and so have started charging me full price again. But one excuse for poor newsgroup performance was high contention

I was in touch with a guy via email who had been brilliant. But since they started charging me full price he has started ignoring my emails when I have tried contacting him :/

I'll try that extra setting stuff tomorrow as its a bit late here now and I need to be up early

bigal2012 · 30-01-2012, 08:08

Thanks,

I will look at Newsbin.
I went through Forte Agent's manaul, nothing about download speed.

caph · 31-01-2012, 19:20

Kymmy, I'm glad that you took the time to delete you swearing at me from your post, at least it shows you thought twice about your actions. I'm guessing you were mad at something on Saturday night and took it out on me. An apology would be nice though, but I'll settle for a retraction.

I do have to point out that if you are downloading UK/US TV shows from Usenet you are breaking the law, maybe people aren't aware of this, and maybe you yourself are not aware of this, but it is unfortunately a fact, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect people to comment on it, especially since you are posting it on a public forum.

All I was saying to the OP is that it would be best to prove a slow download speed downloading legitimate content. I still think that is sound advice.

General Maximus · 31-01-2012, 19:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by caph

Kymmy, I'm glad that you took the time to delete you swearing at me from your post, at least it shows you thought twice about your actions. I'm guessing you were mad at something on Saturday night and took it out on me. An apology would be nice though, but I'll settle for a retraction.

I do have to point out that if you are downloading UK/US TV shows from Usenet you are breaking the law, maybe people aren't aware of this, and maybe you yourself are not aware of this, but it is unfortunately a fact, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect people to comment on it, especially since you are posting it on a public forum.

All I was saying to the OP is that it would be best to prove a slow download speed downloading legitimate content. I still think that is sound advice.

Dude you are just making things worse by going on and on about it. I can't be arsed to check but I would have thought that downloading publicly available content isnt breaking the law. E.g if I download an episode of the x factor from a site it is no different than watching it on terrestrial tv, Sky, catch up on Virgin, downloading it through Sky to my pc or watching it on itv player. I pay for all those services and thus the tv series so as long as I get to watch it somehow it doesnt make any difference. Same can be said for US series like Greys Anatomy. I know of several sites that share tv eps and they are 110% anal about what they allow to share and what they don't to make sure they stay within the law and only let you download what you would watch on tv anyway.

greeninferno · 31-01-2012, 20:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by caph

Kymmy, I'm glad that you took the time to delete you swearing at me from your post, at least it shows you thought twice about your actions. I'm guessing you were mad at something on Saturday night and took it out on me. An apology would be nice though, but I'll settle for a retraction.

I do have to point out that if you are downloading UK/US TV shows from Usenet you are breaking the law, maybe people aren't aware of this, and maybe you yourself are not aware of this, but it is unfortunately a fact, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect people to comment on it, especially since you are posting it on a public forum.

All I was saying to the OP is that it would be best to prove a slow download speed downloading legitimate content. I still think that is sound advice.

one of the most wretchedly sanctimonious things i've ever read anywhere

have a word with yourself.

qasdfdsaq · 31-01-2012, 21:12

Kymmy swore?

Women don't swear on the internets. It's un-lady-like