Discussion:
Demon News Server
(too old to reply)
Simon Slavin
2004-12-18 11:08:14 UTC
Permalink
On 17/12/2004, Malcolm S. Muir wrote in message
In order to improve the overall quality of the Demon Usenet news
feed we are taking action to remove a small number of binary
groups that are responsible for a significant load on our servers.
The effect of this will be to increase article completion rates
and retention times for the remaining groups and therefore provide
a better service for the vast majority of users.
Hmm. So the current low retention rates are due to the fact
that articles are being supplied faster than the news server
(which may be a cluster rather than a single computer) can
read them and save them to disk. That's the clearest
explanation of that problem I've seen for some time.
In the longer term we are investigating options for providing a
new Usenet service that will provide the full range of groups,
including binaries, plus high levels of service with full article
completion and enhanced retention times.
Interesting. There are enough Demon users who use NNTP to
make that worth-while.
alt.binaries.cd.image
alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox
alt.binaries.dvd
alt.binaries.dvdr
which between them currently take over 25% of our server capacity.
Good grief. Okay. I, for one, won't miss them. And since
they require either perfect completion rates or plenty of
PAR files, they're probably useless as the server works now.

Simon.
--
Using pre-release version of newsreader.
Please tell me if it does weird things.
r***@127.0.0.1
2004-12-18 12:55:17 UTC
Permalink
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
On 17/12/2004, Malcolm S. Muir wrote in message
In the longer term we are investigating options for providing a
new Usenet service that will provide the full range of groups,
including binaries, plus high levels of service with full article
completion and enhanced retention times.
Interesting. There are enough Demon users who use NNTP to
make that worth-while.
Agreed, bring it on. I'd be prepared to pay extra to Demon for a
premium News service. I currently use Claranews.
Post by Simon Slavin
alt.binaries.cd.image
alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox
alt.binaries.dvd
alt.binaries.dvdr
which between them currently take over 25% of our server capacity.
Good grief. Okay. I, for one, won't miss them.
But I will! I download from those groups and use Claranet to fill in
the gaps, a system that works very well indeed. Now I'll be getting
those groups from Claranet which costs me money :( I appreciate that
I'm in a minority here however.
Wm...
2004-12-19 15:33:05 UTC
Permalink
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
Interesting. There are enough Demon users who use NNTP to
make that worth-while.
Agreed, bring it on. I'd be prepared to pay extra to Demon for a
premium News service.
I can't help thinking that may happen in time.
--
Wm ...
Reply-To: address valid for at least 7 days from date of posting
Paul Calf
2004-12-20 05:49:13 UTC
Permalink
On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 15:33:05 +0000, "Wm..."
Post by Wm...
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
Interesting. There are enough Demon users who use NNTP to
make that worth-while.
Agreed, bring it on. I'd be prepared to pay extra to Demon for a
premium News service.
I can't help thinking that may happen in time.
Don't hold your breath. Demon promised us a "next generation" news
service about 5 years ago. Demon news was a bag of shite then, is a
bag of shite now, and I'm confident it will be a bag of ahite for
years to come.
Wm...
2004-12-20 22:48:43 UTC
Permalink
Post by Paul Calf
On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 15:33:05 +0000, "Wm..."
Post by Wm...
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
Agreed, bring it on. I'd be prepared to pay extra to Demon for a
premium News service.
I can't help thinking that may happen in time.
Don't hold your breath. Demon promised us a "next generation" news
service about 5 years ago. Demon news was a bag of shite then, is a
bag of shite now, and I'm confident it will be a bag of ahite for
years to come.
I meant paying.
--
Wm ...
Reply-To: address valid for at least 7 days from date of posting
David G. Bell
2004-12-19 18:04:20 UTC
Permalink
Post by Wm...
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
Interesting. There are enough Demon users who use NNTP to
make that worth-while.
Agreed, bring it on. I'd be prepared to pay extra to Demon for a
premium News service.
I can't help thinking that may happen in time.
There is apparently one ISP in the NW USA which provides a total of
_six_ newsreader connections to customers. And some current newsreader
software uses two connections.
--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

Wrought under license granted by Her Majesty's Apostropher Royal AD MMIV
Mark Browne
2004-12-20 10:08:46 UTC
Permalink
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, In message
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
On 17/12/2004, Malcolm S. Muir wrote in message
alt.binaries.cd.image
alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox
alt.binaries.dvd
alt.binaries.dvdr
which between them currently take over 25% of our server capacity.
Good grief. Okay. I, for one, won't miss them.
But I will! I download from those groups and use Claranet to fill in
the gaps, a system that works very well indeed. Now I'll be getting
those groups from Claranet which costs me money :( I appreciate that
I'm in a minority here however.
I'm no expert on these things, but I would be surprised if most of this
stuff isn't available using bitTorrent or eMule rather than Usenet.
--
Mark Browne
If replying by email, please use the "Reply-To" address, as the
"From" address will be rejected
David G. Bell
2004-12-20 10:38:25 UTC
Permalink
On Monday, in article
Post by Mark Browne
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, In message
Post by r***@127.0.0.1
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
On 17/12/2004, Malcolm S. Muir wrote in message
alt.binaries.cd.image
alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox
alt.binaries.dvd
alt.binaries.dvdr
which between them currently take over 25% of our server capacity.
Good grief. Okay. I, for one, won't miss them.
But I will! I download from those groups and use Claranet to fill in
the gaps, a system that works very well indeed. Now I'll be getting
those groups from Claranet which costs me money :( I appreciate that
I'm in a minority here however.
I'm no expert on these things, but I would be surprised if most of this
stuff isn't available using bitTorrent or eMule rather than Usenet.
The Register has been reporting (headlines at least) that lawyers have
been hitting bitTorrent.

The volume is plenty of reason for Demon to drop the newsgroups, without
taking note of the content, but...
--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

Wrought under license granted by Her Majesty's Apostropher Royal AD MMIV
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
2004-12-20 19:27:14 UTC
Permalink
In order to improve the overall quality of the Demon Usenet news
feed we are taking action to remove a small number of binary
groups that are responsible for a significant load on our servers.
Like everyone else, I saw this announcement on Friday. However, I had
sort of wondered why I'd not seen its doppelganger through the announce
mailing list.

That copy turned up *this* evening. Here are the headers:

Received: from punt-3.mail.demon.net by mailstore
for ***@dsl.co.uk id 1CgS7Y-0003wj-R9;
Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:19:00 +0000
Received: from [194.217.242.210] (helo=lon1-hub.mail.demon.net)
by punt-3.mail.demon.net with esmtp id 1CgS7Y-0003wj-R9; Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:19:00 +0000
Received: from [195.173.56.100] (helo=anchor-internal-1.mail.demon.net)
by lon1-hub.mail.demon.net with esmtp id 1CgS7Y-0007Ny-8g; Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:19:00 +0000
Received: from anchor-internal-1.mail.demon.net (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by anchor-internal-1.mail.demon.net with ESMTPœ id iBHA5B1L029404;
Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:05:11 GMT
Received: (from ***@localhost)
by anchor-internal-1.mail.demon.net with id iBHA5AGS029402;
Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:05:10 GMT
Message-ID: <***@demon.net>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:56:11 +0000
To: ***@demon.net
From: "Malcolm S. Muir" <***@demon.net>

It seems to have languished on anchor-internal-1 for rather a long time!

I *know* that it takes several hours to play out the mailing list; but
three DAYS?
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} ***@dsl.co.uk
"I don't use Linux. I prefer to use an OS supported by a large multi-
national vendor, with a good office suite, excellent network/internet
software and decent hardware support."
Dave {Reply Address in.sig}
2004-12-20 20:22:27 UTC
Permalink
Post by Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
In order to improve the overall quality of the Demon Usenet news
feed we are taking action to remove a small number of binary
groups that are responsible for a significant load on our servers.
Like everyone else, I saw this announcement on Friday. However, I had
sort of wondered why I'd not seen its doppelganger through the announce
mailing list.
You're lucky, mine still doesn't appear to have arrived. Lost in the
Christmas post^Wspam, I guess.
--
Dave
mail da ***@llondel.org (without the space)
http://www.llondel.org/
So many gadgets, so little time...
Wm...
2004-12-20 22:59:54 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dave {Reply Address in.sig}
Post by Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
Like everyone else, I saw this announcement on Friday. However, I had
sort of wondered why I'd not seen its doppelganger through the announce
mailing list.
You're lucky, mine still doesn't appear to have arrived. Lost in the
Christmas post^Wspam, I guess.
ditto, although other e-mail seems to be arriving in a timely manner.
--
Wm ...
Reply-To: address valid for at least 7 days from date of posting
David Quinton
2005-01-09 08:27:21 UTC
Permalink
On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:08:14 +0000, Simon Slavin
Post by Simon Slavin
Good grief. Okay. I, for one, won't miss them. And since
they require either perfect completion rates or plenty of
PAR files, they're probably useless as the server works now.
For me there was a noticeable reduction in incompletes for a couple of
days after these Groups were removed, but it now it seems to be back
to "normal".
--
January Sales 2005 - Offers & Coupons - <http://www.ThisBritain.com/January-Sales-2005/>
Locate your Mobile phone: <http://www.bizorg.co.uk/news.html>
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