Grabit download speed (help)

[#1]

Thanks Chris.
@bktadpoles - On the off chance that I've been looking at the wrong account, could you possibly PM me with your Plusnet username?

[#2]

how about a router reboot
System Up Time 95:58:54
IAn

[#3]

There is no fundamental problem with Binary usenet on unlimited.
During the unthrottled time (midnight to midday) I can get up to 800KB/s (Thats K Bytes)
During the throttled time (the rest) it is not worth bothering.
This is using astraweb.

[#4]

I had exactly this problem with Usenet Binaries on Plusnet since changing over from Virgin. The problem is the number of concurrent (parallel) connections allowed. The maximum that the Plusnet News server allows is 4, and each one seems to allow about 25 kB/s throughput - giving the lousy 80 kB/s or so that you (and I) are getting. With Virgin, Grabit could achieve 32 parallel connections giving 8 times the throughput or about the 700 kB/s that I used to get with them.
Strangely, when Grabit is reading the headers it seems to achieve a vastly better speed, but binary downloads (as you say) suck!
If anyone does manage to get binary downloads to run at sensible speeds than I sould be interested to see how they do it (without using Astraweb - that's cheating!!!! )
The obvious solution is for PlusNet to increase the parallel connections on their server from 4 to 32. That would solve all the problems. I don't know the intricacies of News Server setup, but it may be possible to have 32 during the night and 4 at peak periods. What about it PlusNet techies........

[#5]

If you are downloading binaries from the Plusnet news server you shouldn't be! It is purely accidental that binary groups became available after Giganews reconfigured their servers (same server is used for Madasafish users as Plusnet) . Shortly they will disappear again: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,77922.0.html
As Plusnet servers are supposed to be text only, 4 connections should be perfectly adequate.

[#6]

Just found a relevant post from Bob Pullen (Plusnet):

Quote from: Bob

Our news service is *not* intended for binary use. That's been the case for a number of years now. Having said that some maintenance work we carried out a short while ago had the undesired effect of opening up binary access to Plusnet users (whereas it should only really be available for Metronet and Madasafish customers). We've a communications piece to do before it can happen but things will not stay like this for much longer and binary access will be removed again before too long.

I guess the posting I linked above was the the communications piece he was referring to.

[#7]

I take it therefore that this proposed reduction in service will be accompanied by a reduction in monthly charge??...... No I thought not.

[#8]

if you are a PlusNet customer it is not a reduction of service, it is removing a mistake, Metronet is PAYG and Madasafish, dont know

[#9]

Quote from: short47

I take it therefore that this proposed reduction in service will be accompanied by a reduction in monthly charge??...... No I thought not.

Much of what you want may be available via bittorrent - use of encryption may help here.
Failing that, if you can find a web site, wget may be of use...

[#10]

Quote from: short47

I take it therefore that this proposed reduction in service will be accompanied by a reduction in monthly charge??...... No I thought not.

So are you saying you signed up for the service before spring 2006 when binary usenet groups were officially withdrawn from the Plusnet server?

[#11]

Nowhere, when I signed up, did it say that binary newsgroups were not supported. I suppose that I should have realised that the fact it did not say they were supported meant that they were not. But if I buy a car and it does not say that it comes with wheels, I should not need to ask if it does. Coming from Virgin where binary newsgroups are supported without them saying so, I assumed that Plusnet were at least equal. Obviously they are not.

[#12]

Hi,
You can use Binary Newsgroups as a customer of Plusnet.
We merely do not supply our own.  I persnally have a subscription with Giganews and I know a number of our customers do the same.

[#13]

Quote from: short47

Nowhere, when I signed up, did it say that binary newsgroups were not supported.

And nowhere did it say that Plusnet provided a binary usenet server. I believe the number of ISPs that provide that service nowadays is diminishing rapidly.
http://www.news.astraweb.com/ have some pretty good plans. Retention is currently 340 days (heading to 365) and I've always found completion to be very good.

[#14]

Quote from: jelv

http://www.news.astraweb.com/ have some pretty good plans. Retention is currently 340 days (heading to 365) and I've always found completion to be very good.

Indeed they do & very good they are too. But I would advise short47 to start with a cheap or short term subscription until he finds how it works with his Plusnet account. The 1st page of this thread raises a common complaint. Binary usenet traffic is the first to be restricted & restricted very hard as soon as the network comes under any strain, as it does for substantial periods of every day. Just how hard depends on the package you are on - for some it's unusable pretty much all the time (& Plusnet make no secret of that - they say so in the product description) & on some others it's only really usable in the wee small hours of the morning.
It's not uncommon to see speed complaints about usenet when all other protocols are running fine on the same connection & on accounts that should, on the face of it, provide a reasonable usenet speed.

[#15]

It would be interesting to hear from the OP as to whether his problem was resolved.