MaddogBC
@shawcable.net
| shaw usenet
I've been enjoying shaw usenet for a couple years now and have seen several ups and downs. Recently though the percentage of incomplete is just insane. For a couple weeks now it has been all but unusable. I realize this is a bonus feature and I will get no support on this issue(I tried). In researching I see some major american ISP's have discontinued this service this summer. Does anyone here think Shaw's recent problems may indicate a termination of this service? I signed up for a giganews trial to see if it's worth it but I'd really like to be able to just use the shaw service because I find it suits my needs and capacity. TIA |
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Doesthisnamework
@shawcable.net
| I don't think it's much of a secret to anyone that the completion rates on Shaw news servers have been pretty bad for a long time. I'd imagine that it's a pretty strong indication that they're no longer being maintained properly and are currently being neglected/phased out. |
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inetspec
join:2008-07-28 | reply to MaddogBC
Actually, quite the contrary. I got a tip on Shaw's new news feed, its news.shawcable.net, and I can get nice speeds on 5 connections. Retention looks to be fairly decent too, around 30 days.
Looks like Shaw is not like other ISPs. |
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Ommina
join:2006-08-28
Medicine Hat, AB
| said by inetspec  :Actually, quite the contrary. I got a tip on Shaw's new news feed, its news.shawcable.net, and I can get nice speeds on 5 connections. Retention looks to be fairly decent too, around 30 days. Ya know, I admit I was fairly incredulous when I read that, but I figured for the sake of 30 seconds to add a server and hit the update button, that I'd try it out.
I am... well, quite honestly, nothing less than amazed. Granted, I didn't check the world's busiest group, but the oldest post was 29 days, and I counted maybe a dozen incomplete posts in the month.
The cynic in me says "they're going to turn it into a premium add on, just you wait". But I hope not.
Thanks for the note! |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB | reply to inetspec
Strange. I haven't heard of this, and when I try to connect, unable to find host. might just be a server glitch right now or something, since pings are successful: newsfarm.iad.highwinds-media.com |
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inetspec
join:2008-07-28
| reply to Ommina
said by Ommina :said by inetspec :Actually, quite the contrary. I got a tip on Shaw's new news feed, its news.shawcable.net, and I can get nice speeds on 5 connections. Retention looks to be fairly decent too, around 30 days. Ya know, I admit I was fairly incredulous when I read that, but I figured for the sake of 30 seconds to add a server and hit the update button, that I'd try it out. I am... well, quite honestly, nothing less than amazed. Granted, I didn't check the world's busiest group, but the oldest post was 29 days, and I counted maybe a dozen incomplete posts in the month. The cynic in me says "they're going to turn it into a premium add on, just you wait". But I hope not. Thanks for the note! Welcome. I don't think that will happen. The service has always been part of the core internet service for Shaw. |
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memacmur
join:2006-03-02
Calgary
| reply to inetspec
This is the reason it pays to lurk on these forums. I will check this out after work. Much like Maddog, I normally find shaw's free service more than sufficient for my needs, but not enjoying the recent state of the shaw news servers.
I still think Shaw's motivation for maintaining newsgroups should be this simple fact - if more people were leeching content from newsgroups, less would be eating up valuable bandwidth uploading with P2P clients. |
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shaw cust
@sk.ca | reply to MaddogBC
just checked the newsgroups after nearly giving up on them.... i'm speechless...nearly 30 day retention and not a incomplete in sight. and the group i thought i had vainly requested is now there
thanks shaw |
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adiabatic
@shawcable.net | reply to MaddogBC
This new service is impressive. I updated a binaries group last night and grabbed over 1 million headers. 1,000,000 headers! It took over 10 minutes to grab just the headers at 300 kB.
Retention is amazing. Me = happy. |
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ErikRP
join:2004-11-06
Winnipeg, MB | reply to MaddogBC
Wow - nice to hear Shaw has switched providers. Of course it would be even better if we had uncapped speeds (limited by our normal connection rate that is) but this is a good start! |
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razz
@shawcable.net
| reply to MaddogBC
If you ping your shawnews server it is now returning a newsfarm.iad.highwinds-media.com as the actual server. They are farming it out.
Unfortunately the speed is terrible and all over the place. I used to be able to run the edmonton calgary, victoria and winnipeg servers all at once to get 10 Mbps, now I'm lucky to hold 2 Mbps. Retention and completion are far better though. I've always had a giganews account to fill in the holes, may not need it anymore. |
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Ommina
join:2006-08-28
Medicine Hat, AB
edit:
September 20th, @10:33PM
| reply to MaddogBC
I'm getting "Connection Refused" errors now when trying to connect to the (new highwinds-media) servers. Anybody else seeing this or is it unique to me?
Edit: It's connecting again, so whatever it was, seemed to be transient. |
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dazman09
@shawcable.net | Interesting that Highwinds company is located in the same city in florida as Newshosting (great newsgroup company). |
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pfak
Premium
join:2002-12-29
Canada
 ·Shaw
 ·Novus Entertainmen..
| said by dazman09 :
Interesting that Highwinds company is located in the same city in florida as Newshosting (great newsgroup company).
Highwinds is owned by PureGig, which is Easynews.
--
Xenophase - British Columbia's premier online gaming community. |
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Kree8R
@shawcable.net
|  reply to MaddogBC
I've also enjoyed Shaw's usenet service right from the beginning when they first started offering broadband, over a decade now. Shaw's had some glitches over the years, but they've always recovered within a day or two. I've noticed over the years that spottiness usually precedes an upgrade, so I've gotten used to it.
Now, the problem I'm having is with just basic text posting and I've getting a server rejection error based on a filter someone's apparently set. At first it was intermittent, but is now a solid block. I've read their acceptable use policy and I haven't violated it. I've tested the binary downloading with a binary grabber and even though I can only now use 6 concurrent threads, it still seems to work somewhat okay.
This is the Live mail error I'm getting:
Unable to send or receive messages for the Kree8R account. Windows Live Mail could not post your message.
Subject 'Re: Is W. Incompetent or an Evil Genius?'
Server Error: 441
Server Response: 441 Posting Failed (Rejected by POST filter)
Server: 'shawnews.vc.shawcable.net'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCCA9
Protocol: NNTP
Port: 119
Secure(SSL): No |
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fan13027
@shawcable.net | Check to make sure you are posting using text and not html. |
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rvd_06
join:2001-09-25
Calgary, AB | reply to MaddogBC
Hi, how do I connect to shaw's newsgroups? What address, port, user, pass do I need to access the newsgroup using alt.binz? |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB | shawnews.cg.shawcable.net, default port, no user/pass as it's limited by IP address for access. |
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rvd_06
join:2001-09-25
Calgary, AB | reply to MaddogBC
Is there any SSL and what are the max connections? |
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AnonShawUser
join:2006-06-17
Calgary, AB | no SSL, up to 5 connections. Default settings on nearly any binary client should be good enough. |
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