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View Full Version : Usenet Throttling - but only premium services!?


Logan
30-11-2006, 09:54
Ok so we know that NTL are beginning to throttle. We also accpet that throttling certain heavy users has to be done.

However, I've been with NTL only a couple of days. I've downloaded very little, yet it would appear I am getting some sort of throttling applied to Usenet.

Using NTL's own news server, I was able to download at upto 1000kb/s (1mb/s) - awesome. However the retention is pretty [censored].

So on reccomendation from a 4mb NTL customer I signed up for a 3 day $3 trial with www.usenetserver.com.

My download rate with them peaks at about 80kb/s and won't go any higher

I'm assuming this is throttling. I can't think of anything else that would have such a nasty effect. But why would NTL only throttle premium usenet servers, but keep their own running at full speed for users?

Secondly, why have I been placed in the 'sin bin' (seemingly) when I've only been with NTL a couple of days and have not used the connection much!?

Odd. Very odd.

Stuart
30-11-2006, 10:08
I don't think you have. As far as I know, NTL aren't throttling premium news servers. Why would they? They don't charge for their own service, so won't make any extra money from it. I would suggest going for another news server operator, such as giganews, who are fast, cover a lot of groups, and have excellent retention (90 days). They are also considerably cheaper than usenetserver, with prices starting at $7.99 for 30 days or 6 gig download (whichever is first).

mcmanic
30-11-2006, 10:22
NTL are throttling premium news servers, usenetserver being one of them, between 5.00pm and 11.00pm speeds are normally halfed or worse, everyday for last 3/4 weeks. Usenetserver even had a message to NTL users on their homepage warning them

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 10:37
I dont believe this is happening at all I think its more likely to be contention issues.I get usual slow down at peak times but I did before there was any mention of it. I think its paranoia the web slows down and oh no im being throttled when changing a proxy may be all thats needed. I would say its more to do with usenetserver being slow as giganews has not slowed for me apart from when my proxy was shafted last week some time. And there is not sin bins in place afaik traffic is being shaped and I believe at this point thats all

Stuart
30-11-2006, 10:42
NTL are throttling premium news servers, usenetserver being one of them, between 5.00pm and 11.00pm speeds are normally halfed or worse, everyday for last 3/4 weeks. Usenetserver even had a message to NTL users on their homepage warning them

I use Easynews and Giganews. and have had no problem with them at any time.

Logan
30-11-2006, 11:25
Hmm ok I'll give Giganews a go and see if they're any better. Thanks for the feedback ;)

---------- Post added at 10:25 ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 ----------

I don't think you have. As far as I know, NTL aren't throttling premium news servers. Why would they? They don't charge for their own service, so won't make any extra money from it. I would suggest going for another news server operator, such as giganews, who are fast, cover a lot of groups, and have excellent retention (90 days). They are also considerably cheaper than usenetserver, with prices starting at $7.99 for 30 days or 6 gig download (whichever is first).

Hmm just checked www.giganews.com and can't see that offer of $7.99 for 0 days or 6gb.

https://secure.giganews.com/signup/

Cheapest option is $7.99 but is only for 2gb.

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 11:25
there newsdemon (https://www.newsdemon.com/join.php) if you want to try another cheaper one.Also please note if your not a power user ie 20 to 40 gig a month then easynews (http://www.easynews.com/)is far and away the best service as its http downloads and using reget download manager you get full speeds. Power users need an unlimited account not everyone will get the moneys worth

Logan
30-11-2006, 11:39
Excellent, thanks for the advice. Perhaps I'll give easynews a go then. Anyone ever tried http://usenet-news.net/?

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 11:51
Easynews does exactly what it says on the tin.Its got easy queuing of files in zipmanager autopar that means they have already fixed an archive auto unrar of certain file types ie avi divx etc. Combine this with reget and download with 20+ connections you easy max 10 meg but its $9.99 less than 6 quid per 20 gig if you do the survey every week you get a free 2 gig so if you clock twice you get 10 dvd images size wise for 12 quid

Logan
30-11-2006, 11:55
Gotta be easynews then! :D Will give them a go, thanks again mate ;)

Stuart
30-11-2006, 12:39
Hmm ok I'll give Giganews a go and see if they're any better. Thanks for the feedback ;)

---------- Post added at 10:25 ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 ----------



Hmm just checked www.giganews.com and can't see that offer of $7.99 for 0 days or 6gb.

https://secure.giganews.com/signup/

Cheapest option is $7.99 but is only for 2gb.

Sorry, I did get it wrong. That is the cheapest option. I'm on the $12.99 a month one..

Logan
30-11-2006, 13:04
Ok thanks. What I'll probably do is give Easy News a go, find out how 'heavy' a user I will be, so-to-speak, and revise my choice should I need to, and perhaps give Giga News a go.

Stuart
30-11-2006, 13:12
Fair enough. Another good site is http://www.ngindex.com. The basic service allows you to search various newsgroups easily, and for various kinds of data. Once you have found what you want, just make a note of the group and search for the group in Easynews.

If you subscribe to ngindex, the site can automatically create a file (caled and NZB file) that you can import into a newsgroup reader that has pointers to all the posts for the file you want.

Logan
30-11-2006, 13:23
Aye been reading up on these NZB files. Usenet has come along loads since I dabbled with it years ago! Things are much easier and convenient now, with few steps to get what you want. Used to be a right royal pain in the ass!

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 13:39
newsbin (http://v3.newzbin.com/account/)if you want an indexing site :)

Rik
30-11-2006, 16:56
I can honestly say since ive been with Giganews for around 3yrs on and off, I have always got full speed which is 1.18MB/s.

I download a fair bit, but was wondering how much do u need to download before you get put in this "sin bin"?

I have never seen any evidence in my area of throttling, not even with BT (Bit Torrent).

No doubt NTL will be adding it soon, Hemel does seem to be the last to get everything, lets hope we arent last for 20Meg :(

Logan
30-11-2006, 21:21
Signed up to Easy News. Speeds are certainly better then what I was getting with Usenet Server, but still not making the most of my connection.

I'm getting really erratic speeds, ranging from <100kb/s right up to 400kb/s.

Going to try in the daytime, just to rule out speeds being slower during peak times. I can't see this being the case as all other types of downloads are zooming along at 1mb/s+ i.e. http downloads.

The improvement over Usenet Server leads me on to think it just varies between news servers. So may give Giga News a try and cancel Easy News under their trial terms.

Stuart
30-11-2006, 21:23
Signed up to Easy News. Speeds are certainly better then what I was getting with Usenet Server, but still not making the most of my connection.

I'm getting really erratic speeds, ranging from <100kb/s right up to 400kb/s.

Going to try in the daytime, just to rule out speeds being slower during peak times. I can't see this being the case as all other types of downloads are zooming along at 1mb/s+ i.e. http downloads.

The improvement over Usenet Server leads me on to think it just varies between news servers. So may give Giga News a try and cancel Easy News under their trial terms.

Easynews is a little slow at the moment. Apparently, they have been having trouble with their uplink speeds.

Logan
30-11-2006, 21:25
I've dropped them an e-mail, will see what they come back with. Maybe they'll confirm what you're saying. They're certainly showing good signs, the speeds are much better then Usenet Server.

SnoopZ
30-11-2006, 21:30
No problems with Newshosting lately.

Heres a couple of free nzb indexing sites..... http://nzbmatrix.com/ http://www.nzbsrus.com/

Logan
30-11-2006, 21:32
Can I ask what clients you guys are using please?

Stuart
30-11-2006, 21:39
Grabit (http://www.shemes.com)

Logan
30-11-2006, 21:47
Grabit (http://www.shemes.com)

Cheers ;) Does it handle binaries ok?

SnoopZ
30-11-2006, 21:47
http://www.newsleecher.com/ is one of the best, although it isn't free.

Logan
30-11-2006, 22:08
Easy News Support replied with:

Hi Chris,

We're not having any problems that I'm aware of. Try using Free Download Manager over port 81 and see if it helps. Free Download Manager can be downloaded at http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/ and most likely will allow you to saturate your connection and acheive higher speeds.

Will see if a download manager makes a difference.

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 22:17
are you downloading using the easy web interface or are you creating nzbs and using a reader and NNTP?

Logan
30-11-2006, 22:18
Using the easy web interface mate. Just downloading it through FireFox. No download manager. Not tried NZB files and downloading over NNTP yet tbh.

zing_deleted
30-11-2006, 22:22
I wouldnt expect to get more than you are single threaded. Use a download manager and I tell you it will max your connection

Logan
01-12-2006, 00:06
Ok thanks, will give that a shot ;)

---------- Post added at 23:06 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

:Yikes: Zinglebarb you're a legend!

It was two problems:

- FireFox. For some reason downloads were **** in FireFox but fine in IE7.
- Download Manager, my downloads are flying along at full whack now!

Cheers mate ;)

|Kippa|
01-12-2006, 00:47
I am on a BY connection in Blackpool and get throttled to 5mbit up till apporx 1.45 am after that I can download at ful 10mbit. Looking at what they said, they seem to have implied that peak times throttling would come into effect and only during those times. I thought that 12am would be fine but pushing it till 2am is taking the ****.

As for newsgroups I use Astraweb and get full 10mbit download rate (when not being throttled). Plus I got full 20mbit download rate off astraweb servers when I was on the 20mbit trials.

Logan
01-12-2006, 01:38
From reading these forums and others, there seems to be some strange organisation of this 'throttling' if indeed that's what it is.

Take my mate for example, he is on a 4mb connection with NTL. He downloads ridiculous amounts a week, like 300gb a week type of user. Yet he's not suffering any sort of throttling! Surely that would be classed as heavy user no?

Now that I have usenet up and running, I retract my initial statement and subject of this topic - premium usenet servers are not being throttled, least not for me anyway.

Horace
01-12-2006, 08:32
Most of the time Easynews' slowdowns are caused by providers en-route to EN from the UK. Mostly Level 3. Having throttling thrown in on top of that at OUR peak times only causes further slowdowns. It's not a coincidence that speeds tend to be fine outside both our and U.S. peak times. Giganews tends to escape that problem by having a European mirror and only being susceptible to NTL's throttling/network difficulties. Something EN should really consider since problems with U.S. providers have been ongoing for a long time now.

pxr5
01-12-2006, 11:02
I'm on Newshosting and it does seem to slow down at peak times. I'm not that fussed as I just que up the nzbs to dl through the night.

Also, I've messed about with all the major clients. But I've settled on SABnzbd. Probably one of the best apps I've ever used - seriously. Unpars and unrars automatically and only grabs pars when needed.

popper
01-12-2006, 11:54
I wouldnt expect to get more than you are single threaded. Use a download manager and I tell you it will max your connection

iv never had a need to pay for 3rd party news servers but i wonder if anyones ever tryed the free Hamster news server with these commerial news servers?.

it might be interesting to get everyone shareing their feeds with readers here to make a small collective !.

http://www.elbiah.de/hamster/index.htm
Hamster Playground is a free newsserver and mailserver software, which allows to collect news and mails from different servers. Collected messages are then available for any newsreader or mailclient on your local computer or on any computer in your family or company network. Hamster runs under all Windows versions (95, 98, ME), under Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003 it can additionally be installed as a system service.


on a side note:
since last night it seems web browsing in wythenshawe on 4mbit ntl250, and even re-editing this message to add this bit is taking upwards of 3 or 4 seconds+ to display....

is it my end or are you seeing this slowdown too?.

Logan
01-12-2006, 12:48
Most of the time Easynews' slowdowns are caused by providers en-route to EN from the UK. Mostly Level 3. Having throttling thrown in on top of that at OUR peak times only causes further slowdowns. It's not a coincidence that speeds tend to be fine outside both our and U.S. peak times. Giganews tends to escape that problem by having a European mirror and only being susceptible to NTL's throttling/network difficulties. Something EN should really consider since problems with U.S. providers have been ongoing for a long time now.

No doubting EasyNews is subject to a few slow downs now and then, but last night, after I'd managed to get everything sorted, EasyNews was flying along. I was getting speeds in excess of 1.2mb/s. I'd downloaded 5GB in under 90minutes!

Still not sure how much I will be downloading, so no idea whether I will exceed EN allowance. If so, I'll look to Giganews. However I do love EN's web interface, it does make things so much easier.

Stuart
01-12-2006, 14:13
Cheers ;) Does it handle binaries ok?

Yep..