BertRockvill
@comcast.net
|  [Newsgroups] Giganews vs Astraweb: how to increase my speeds?
Hi everyone,
I currently have a subscription to both Giganews and Astraweb. I've had GN for 2 years and been very happy with everything about it - except for the price. Astraweb is only $11/month vs GN's $30.
I've been using Astraweb for a month now and like the retention and the completion (some of the files that MPAA had GN remove from their servers are alive and well on Astra) but the speeds I experience are much, much slower than what I am used to.
However, it appears that all the Astraweb users on DSLR report being able to max out their (quite speedy) connections. Would any of you kind folks be able to help me out?
My connection is Comcast's 12 Mbit tier (and thus the 1.5 MB/sec download is the theoretical maximum after the Powerboost turns itself off).
All measurements have been done between midnight and 1 am. The length of each graph (from Newsleecher) is 5 minutes. Location: Rockville, Maryland.
Let me illustrate:
Giganews
My speeds vary from 1.49 MB/s to 1.50 MB/sec with the SSL enabled. The port I use is 443.
Astraweb
As you can, Astraweb isn't looking so good. On the ssl-us.astraweb.com server I average out ~1 MB/sec and my speeds are all over the place. I've tried the ports 443 or 563 - the results are within the margin of error. Surprisingly, the server ssl.astraweb.com gave me an average speed of ~1.1 MB/sec (+100 KB/sec) but the speeds are erratic in the similar way.
Going to the non-SSL server (port 119 is the one I've tried) did not make an appreciable difference.
I've also done a Traceroute from the Astraweb's website. Could someone tell me if this is good or not?
Traceroute from us.news.astraweb.com:
Hostname Best Worst Avg
0 gw.eqnx.sj.astraweb.com (216.151.153.1) 0.33 167.63 38.27
1 208.173.53.125 (208.173.53.125) 0.47 47.74 13.64
2 er1-te-1-3.SanJoseEquinix.savvis.net (204.70.198.141) 0.56 0.65 0.60
3 comcast-net.sanjoseequinix.savvis.net (208.173.53.138) 2.58 3.43 3.13
4 pos-0-8-0-0-cr01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.82) 10.53 11.35 10.85
5 pos-0-15-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.138) 46.42 47.57 46.77
6 pos-0-10-0-0-cr01.atlanta.ga.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.130) 61.47 61.65 61.54
7 pos-0-13-0-0-cr01.mclean.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.234) 77.55 78.08 77.91
8 pos-0-11-0-0-ar03.capitolhghts.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.90.34) 78.27 78.60 78.47
9 po-30-ur01.benning.dc.bad.comcast.net (68.87.128.173) 78.88 79.01 78.97
10 po-60-ur01.michiganave.dc.bad.comcast.net (68.87.128.166) 78.89 79.18 79.03
11 po-30-ur01.chillum.dc.bad.comcast.net (68.87.128.209) 78.98 79.17 79.11
12 po-60-ur01.rockville.md.bad.comcast.net (68.87.128.218) 79.83 79.98 79.89
Traceroute from europe.news.astraweb.com:
Hostname Best Worst Avg
0 gw.sara.ams.astraweb.com (193.202.122.1) 0.53 0.64 0.56
1 64.213.76.201 (64.213.76.201) 0.53 41.92 17.86
2 67.17.193.42 (67.17.193.42) 83.49 83.85 83.70
3 pos-0-11-0-0-ar03.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.90.18) 87.96 88.44 88.20
4 68.85.130.234 (68.85.130.234) 88.89 96.06 90.36
5 68.85.130.177 (68.85.130.177) 90.17 90.45 90.29
6 68.85.130.89 (68.85.130.89) 90.42 90.52 90.47
7 68.85.130.173 (68.85.130.173) 90.70 90.79 90.76
8 po-60-ur02.rockville.md.bad.comcast.net (68.87.129.157) 89.50 89.81 89.60
Any ideas folks? Thank you all in advance!
- Bert |
|
WhateverJack
@optonline.net | Re: [Newsgroups] Giganews vs Astraweb: how to increase my speeds
said by BertRockvill :
Any ideas folks?
how about increase your connections for astraweb.... |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
 ·RapidVPS
·surpasshosting
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·VoicePulse
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| reply to BertRockvill
The easiest, and best thing to do is going to be increasing your connections. Servers between these two providers are on opposite ends of the country. So 1 or 2 more connections is not a huge deal.
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kalone
Premium
join:2002-07-02
Lexington, KY
·Insight Communicat..
1 edit | reply to BertRockvill
Have you tried speed tests like » www.speedtest.net it could be that if you are on the East coast, you may have a problem with speed to the West coast. Try a test to Chicago then San Jose or San Francisco if there is a major difference you may not be able to over come with more connections. At one time my ISP had awful speeds to the West coast, but after alot of people complained and some months, they fixed it. I have no problem maxing out my 20 mbps connection with Astraweb.
EDIT
I also noticed that Newsleacher is set with speed limits, try no set speed limit. |
|
UsenetReview
@verizon.net
| reply to BertRockvill
You know you might want to check out supernews in that case , simliar to giganews but $12/month -- I did a video review here --
»usenetreviewz.com/supernews-review/
I was getting full utilization of a 10 Megabit connection
Also UsenetServer has a $10 deal -- I have done not a video review here yet - but will be posting it here soon in a few days
»usenetreviewz.com/usenetserver-review/
There are options and these usenet providers have to compete to keep your business |
|
unoriginal
join:2000-07-12
San Diego, CA | For those that download tv shows, usenetserver is a bad deal right now because they dont carry a.b.teevee. Which seems to be where all the newest shows are getting posted. |
|
swintec
Premium
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Alfred, ME
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| said by unoriginal  :they dont carry a.b.teevee. Which seems to be where all the newest shows are getting posted. Does Astraweb and the others carry this one? We added it about 3 weeks ago and in the beginning I was thinking it was just another "small niche" type of group..I was quite surprised by how much traffic it gets.
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BertRockvill
@comcast.net
| reply to BertRockvill
Thank you guys, you all are the best. I doubled my number of connections to Astraweb and now can get a sustained 1.5 MB/sec transfer. I had no idea Astraweb was in San Jose, no wonder I needed more connections. It turns out that Giganews is right across the river from me in Virginia. Thankfully Astraweb is generous with the number of connections it offers. 
said by kalone :Have you tried speed tests like » www.speedtest.net it could be that if you are on the East coast, you may have a problem with speed to the West coast. Try a test to Chicago then San Jose or San Francisco if there is a major difference you may not be able to over come with more connections. At one time my ISP had awful speeds to the West coast, but after alot of people complained and some months, they fixed it. I have no problem maxing out my 20 mbps connection with Astraweb. I just gave it a try - my San Jose speed ended up greater than even the DC speed (the Powerboost played a part though)!
I've played with the connection number and was actually able to max out my 12 Mbits when connecting to the Giganews' European server from Maryland. Looks like a sufficient number of connections can conquer even the really bad pings.
said by swintec :Does Astraweb and the others carry this one? We added it about 3 weeks ago and in the beginning I was thinking it was just another "small niche" type of group..I was quite surprised by how much traffic it gets. Both Astraweb and Giganews do carry this group. It's true that the number of shows posted to it is quite impressive. |
|
Vamp
5c077
Premium
join:2003-01-28
MD | reply to BertRockvill
Increase connections (try 10)... But more importantly, use a client that splits the connections on a single file (like newsleecher and alt.binz clients).
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DmS
@ntl.com
| reply to swintec
said by swintec :said by unoriginal :they dont carry a.b.teevee. Which seems to be where all the newest shows are getting posted. Does Astraweb and the others carry this one? We added it about 3 weeks ago and in the beginning I was thinking it was just another "small niche" type of group..I was quite surprised by how much traffic it gets. Quite a few servers carry this group now, though it took a few weeks for most to add it. It is a new group. Pretty much all the new TV content is posted to usenet by an autoposter, which used to be posting to alt.binaries.multimedia (and crossposted to alt.binaries.tv) but since the people running the autofiller had a disagreement with the operators of the a.b.mm irc channel, they decided to start their own group and set the autoposter to send everything to there (a.b.teevee). That is why there is so much traffic :P |
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imtim83
You All Deserve The Economic Meltdown
Premium
join:2001-06-03
Kenner, LA
| said by DmS :said by swintec :said by unoriginal :they dont carry a.b.teevee. Which seems to be where all the newest shows are getting posted. Does Astraweb and the others carry this one? We added it about 3 weeks ago and in the beginning I was thinking it was just another "small niche" type of group..I was quite surprised by how much traffic it gets. Quite a few servers carry this group now, though it took a few weeks for most to add it. It is a new group. Pretty much all the new TV content is posted to usenet by an autoposter, which used to be posting to alt.binaries.multimedia (and crossposted to alt.binaries.tv) but since the people running the autofiller had a disagreement with the operators of the a.b.mm irc channel, they decided to start their own group and set the autoposter to send everything to there (a.b.teevee). That is why there is so much traffic :P That sounds like a interesting read! |
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DmS
@ntl.com | reply to BertRockvill
Also, unoriginal's comment makes no sense. The autofiller is posting to a.b.teevee now but it also crossposts to a.b.tv. So if a server doesn't carry a.b.teevee, they will still get the posts. |
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DmS
@ntl.com | reply to BertRockvill
Sorry, it's not crossposted to a.b.tv, it's crossposted to a.b.mm |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
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| said by DmS :Sorry, it's not crossposted to a.b.tv, it's crossposted to a.b.mm Not sure if you are connected to this group somehow or not, so I will pose it as an open question...With most having added this group over the past several months, is the cross posting really necessary now? With customers in retention hungry mode, isn't the space better used for fresh content (or maybe another copy of the matrix  )?
I am not singling this group out as I know cross posting happens all the time..just more or less airing one of usenets little annoyances!
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imtim83
You All Deserve The Economic Meltdown
Premium
join:2001-06-03
Kenner, LA
| said by swintec :said by DmS :Sorry, it's not crossposted to a.b.tv, it's crossposted to a.b.mm Not sure if you are connected to this group somehow or not, so I will pose it as an open question...With most having added this group over the past several months, is the cross posting really necessary now? With customers in retention hungry mode, isn't the space better used for fresh content (or maybe another copy of the matrix )? I am not singling this group out as I know cross posting happens all the time..just more or less airing one of usenets little annoyances! I always wondered the same thing. |
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kalone
Premium
join:2002-07-02
Lexington, KY
·Insight Communicat..
| reply to BertRockvill
said by BertRockvill : I had no idea Astraweb was in San Jose, no wonder I needed more connections. It turns out that Giganews is right across the river from me in Virginia. Thankfully Astraweb is generous with the number of connections it offers. I believe Astraweb is the only one that is West coast, Highwinds farm, GN, CWGroup are Ashburn/DC area |
|
darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
| reply to unoriginal
said by unoriginal :For those that download tv shows, usenetserver is a bad deal right now because they dont carry a.b.teevee. Which seems to be where all the newest shows are getting posted. I have no idea which groups my Usenet provider has or doesn't have but I have had zero problems getting new shows/eps via tvnzb.com, so whatever. |
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DmS
@ntl.com
| reply to swintec
said by swintec :said by DmS :Sorry, it's not crossposted to a.b.tv, it's crossposted to a.b.mm Not sure if you are connected to this group somehow or not, so I will pose it as an open question...With most having added this group over the past several months, is the cross posting really necessary now? With customers in retention hungry mode, isn't the space better used for fresh content (or maybe another copy of the matrix )? I am not singling this group out as I know cross posting happens all the time..just more or less airing one of usenets little annoyances! I think it is just for those who are using ISP servers, many of them would have a.b.mm but not a.b.teevee because its new and unlikely to get added. They might stop crossposting soon if I remember correctly but i'm not entirely sure. Before when the shows were being posted in a.b.mm they would always crosspost to a.b.tv, it's been like that for years.. so they will probably stay with it :/ |
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OverlordQ
join:2002-07-03
Springdale, AR
1 edit | does teevee got a site like a.b.mm/etc use to have which list reqs/filling/etc?
I'd ask in their IRC chan but it has a key 
And yes, apologize for the necropost. |
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