Horrible Completion Rate - Please Help

[5wallace]

I am relatively new to Newsgroups and Sabnzbd, and I am having a hell of a time with getting downloads to complete.  I have been attempting to download the latest season of ShowX using Sick Beard and Sabnzbd.  Nearly every episode fails for one reason or another.  Usually due to a "repair failed, missing blocks" error.  I can't understand why this is happening.  I know that sometimes there are bad posts, but my failure rate is somewhere near 85%. And most recently, 7 of the first 9 episodes of season 3 of SHOWX have failed due to missing blocks.  This behavior is fairly consistent no matter what I am downloading.

I moved to newsgroups because they are faster and far more secure than torrents, but it doesn't seem like it is worth the headache, unless of course there is something I am doing incorrectly.

Is my problem possibly due to the fact that I am downloading backlog shows and that they "go bad" after being posted for a certain time?  I know my setup is sound and all my Sabnzbd configs are correct.

I started with Supernews and signed up for a Free Trial at Giganews to see if that was my problem.  Things are no different.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

Can someone let me know what their completion rate is when attempting to download back shows?   Is what I am experiencing normal?  What can I try to fix my situation?

I am running Windows 7 with Sabnzbd 0.5.6.  I am not using IPV6 and I am using a Giganews SSL server with no backup server.  I can post other information if need be.  

Thanks for all your help.

[shypike]

Do you have a quality Usenet provider? One that you pay money for.

[5wallace]

I am using Supernews and was having bad luck.  I signed up for a free Giganews trial and have faired no better.  I now realize this might be because Supernews and Giganews both use Giganews as a backend.

If my downloads are failing because they are missing only a couple of blocks, might this be fixed by adding a backup server?

Thanks for the quick reply.

[shypike]

Have you tried another Usenet client for the same downloads?
I've heard that Giganews is getting DMCA notices and that their reaction is to remove parts of the post.
Can you email an example of a failing NZB to bugs at sabnzbd.org ?

[5wallace]

By usenet client you mean something other than Sabnzbd?  Like Grabit?  I can give that a try. 

I just tried re-downloading one of these files with Supernews as my primary server and Newsdemon as a backup and it still failed (but went from missing 2 blocks to missing 1 block).

I will try Grabit and report back.

Thanks,
Jake

[5wallace]

A tried a re-download of a second file that failed with my newsdemon backup server and it still failed but only has 12 missing blocks as opposed to 45.

This seems crazy to me and like an exercise in futility.  These files are relatively new and from a show that aired only a few months ago.  The one thing giving me hope is that, due to Usenet's popularity, this cannot be normal behavior.  People wouldn't put up with this if this was the normal success rate.  Therefore, based on this logic, there has to be something wrong with what I am doing that can be fixed.  This is my hope but I am not finding any solutions.

Jake

[5wallace]

Also failed with Grabit and Unzbin.  So it is not the client that is the issue.  I will run memtest and see what it says. 

What are some other issues that could be causing this?  Are backlogged TV shows just unpredictable in general?  I understand that DMCA notices to Giganews and Supernews could screw these posts up, but they should finish with Newsdemon as a backup I would think.  The TV shows I am trying to download were posted 95 days ago on NZBMatrix.  Are these just too old to count on a reliable download?

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate the help.
Jake

[shypike]

95 days is OK for almost all commercial servers.
It's more like you hit poor NZB files or particularly bad posts.
I seldom have completion issues.

[pobox]

Take a look at topic 4711

Boards like this have a rule that prohibits getting too specific about what you're trying to download.

The SABnzbd+ user in that topic, 'airchie', didn't give up on newsgroups and go back to torrents, but kept asking questions.

After a week of discussion and everyone guessing what the problem might be, I got a PM and quickly identified the issue as DMCA takedown notices.

About DMCA notices, some providers get them and others don't, so the best strategy is to use a provider that is known to be less susceptible to DMCA notices as the backup.

[5wallace]

Memtest checks out so that is not the issue.  I have seen some of the messages mentioned by the OP in topic 4711.  Sounds like I might be running into some DMCA posts.  Like I said before, I added Newsdemon as a backup but that only lowered the number of missing blocks.  Any other options for a better backup server?  Feel free to PM me if that is a better way to discuss it.

Thanks,

Jake

[pobox]

Newsdemon and other providers in the Highwinds group get hit hard, like Giganews.

cheap block accounts:

Blocknews.net
Usenet-news.net
Astraweb

[5wallace]

I added a backup block account from Astraweb and it is definitely making a difference.  Downloading the same files I have 5/5 files downloaded successfully so far with no completion errors (1 file had a CRC error while unpacking but I am pretty sure its just a bad post).  This looks like the solution.

Thanks everyone.