OT: Anyone else seeing lots of missing articles on giganews/plusnet?

[John Rumm]

Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
else seen similar?

(just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)

--
Cheers,

John.

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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
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[newshound]

On 05/12/2021 17:12, John Rumm wrote:
>
> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
> threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
> else seen similar?
>
> (just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)
>

Yes, I can't see some of my original posts (but I can see that they
arrived because they appear in follow-ups. This is Plusnet.

[Andy Burns]

John Rumm wrote:

> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or threads
> missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone else seen similar?

I read most groups via NIN, but for the few that I do read via GN/PN, yes I see
quite a few replies to messages which I have not seen, and when mentioned others
have confirmed the same.

[Max Demian]

On 05/12/2021 17:12, John Rumm wrote:
>

> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
> threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
> else seen similar?

Yes, it's shit. aioe is OK.

--
Max Demian

[John Rumm]

ok not just me then...

I have posted a comment to plusnet.support.customer-feedback, which
looks pretty quiet these days! See if that gets a response.

[Roger]

On Sun, 5 Dec 2021 17:12:40 +0000, John Rumm
<see.my.s...@nowhere.null> wrote:

>
>Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
>threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
>else seen similar?
>
>(just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)

They are showing up on PN's (outsourced) news server but very
late. Some posts from 30th November are only just arriving.
--
Roger

[Rod Speed]

John Rumm <see.my.s...@nowhere.null> wrote

> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired
> messages, or threads missing their original posts, and
> also some followups. Anyone else seen similar?

Nope, not one of either.

[Peeler]

On Mon, 6 Dec 2021 05:00:22 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

<FLUSH the abnormal trolling senile cretin's latest trollshit unread>

--
"Anonymous" to trolling senile Rodent Speed:
"You can fuck off as you know less than pig shit you sad
little ignorant cunt."
MID: <62dcaae57b421e2b...@haph.org>

[newshound]

On 05/12/2021 17:12, John Rumm wrote:
>

> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
> threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
> else seen similar?
>
> (just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)
>

I have just swapped over to eternal september. After a bit of a faff
(some of it RTFM, but it didn't help that I reset a Plusnet password
that I did not have recorded) I'm up and running again.

[tahiri]

On 05/12/2021 17:12, John Rumm wrote:
>

> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages, or
> threads missing their original posts, and also some followups. Anyone
> else seen similar?
>
> (just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)
>

Yes, yes and yes. Plusnet newsserver is inconsistent and unreliable
these days. Are they doing it on purpose?

[John Rumm]

Which considering it is outsourced to giganews who are supposed to be a
premium provider, is a bit surprising...

> Are they doing it on purpose?

It does make you wonder. Not many ISPs left that offer usenet as part of
the deal.

[Andy Burns]

John Rumm wrote:

> giganews who are supposed to be a premium provider

I think they're flagging, they don't add new groups any more (or they claim they
do, when they haven't) even Bob had no joy getting them to do it.

> It does make you wonder. Not many ISPs left that offer usenet as part of the deal.

Rumour is that PN are "considering" the future of email after their recent
issues, maybe they'll "consider" usenet too?

[Sn!pe]

When I was on Plusnet some years ago (before the BT takeover)
I tried to get some groups added. Giganews wouldn't even talk
to me because I wasn't their direct customer; everything had to
go through PN (Bob Pullen was PN's man in the middle stuck with
that chore). Anyway, that was why I jumped ship and went to
another ISP.

--
^Ï^ <https://youtu.be/_kqytf31a8E>

My pet rock Gordon just is.

[SH]

On 05/12/2021 23:06, John Rumm wrote:
> On 05/12/2021 22:00, tahiri wrote:
>> On 05/12/2021 17:12, John Rumm wrote:
>>>
>>> Last few weeks I seem to be getting lots of blank expired messages,
>>> or threads missing their original posts, and also some followups.
>>> Anyone else seen similar?
>>>
>>> (just connected via eternal september, and they all show up)
>>>
>>
>> Yes, yes and yes. Plusnet newsserver is inconsistent and unreliable
>> these days.
>
> Which considering it is outsourced to giganews who are supposed to be a
> premium provider, is a bit surprising...
>
>> Are they doing it on purpose?
>
> It does make you wonder. Not many ISPs left that offer usenet as part of
> the deal.
>
>

Yes.....

Virgin media dumped their news server not that long ago (circa 18
months?) which was outsourced out to a 3rd party.

So I switched to AIOE and Eternal september....

I am now with Vodafone gigafast and they don't provide newsgroups so I
stayed with AIOE and Eternal September

I wonder how much longer Newsgroups will exist....

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I see quite a few missing on other servers, but not Eternal September. Maybe
it is dependent on the feed they use?
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"John Rumm" <see.my.s...@nowhere.null> wrote in message
news:soiru7$19g$1...@dont-email.me...

[Andy Burns]

Sn!pe wrote:

> When I was on Plusnet some years ago (before the BT takeover)
> I tried to get some groups added. Giganews wouldn't even talk
> to me because I wasn't their direct customer; everything had to
> go through PN (Bob Pullen was PN's man in the middle stuck with
> that chore).

because of some details I gave to GN, they seemed to believe I was one of Bob's
colleagues, and said they would add the groups, then said they had added them,
but no such thing. Eventually Bob tried himself, and I think he gave up, I
didn't push it as NIN is my main news server.

> Anyway, that was why I jumped ship and wen to
> another ISP.

I think it's my free /29 block that stops me leaving

[John Rumm]

Part of the problem is that for many that do know about usenet these
days, they think its an alternative to bittorrent for pirating stuff.
Which presumably makes many ISPs somewhat more cautious.

(not to mention it's and easy cost overhead to trim)

[John Rumm]

Back in the days when I used to run a a pair of (very slow) ADSL
connections with different ISPs for each. I could expect broadband
faults on each line at least once a year (we are a very long way from
the exchange) Fortunately only once in 10 years did I have a fault on
both at once. So PN with their reasonable UK based support was a good
partner alongside my other ISP. Usenet access was a nice addition from
my point of view.

Fast forward to the last couple of years where we finally got FTTP,
which PN does not yet offer, the PN line has been relegated to usenet
access only (the connections are behind a load balancing router - who's
rules basically say WAN2 for everything unless it is usenet!), and
internet backup plus a phone line.

As backup internet <= 2 Mbps has very limited usefulness, and the days
of POTS are numbered. About the only other useful bit is the static IP.

Without usenet there is some doubt if retaining the broadband is worth
it. Perhaps if they finally get a FTTP offering (which I see mention of
for H2 2021)?

I wonder how many times Openreach end up making two FTTP drops to the
same customer?

Also with FTTPs massive improvement in reliability one might argue that
the need for a backup service is less critical if you have a business
contract on the service with a decent SLA? Although there is some merit
in having a separate service that does not rely on the same back end
infrastructure all the way, there would be quite a bit of commonality[1]
with 2 x FTTP

[1] Although both ADSL lines were openreach, by fluke rather than
planning, the wires followed a different path from the exchange.

[Sn!pe]

John Rumm <see.my.s...@nowhere.null> wrote:

> On 06/12/2021 07:44, SH wrote:

[...]

> > Virgin media dumped their news server not that long ago (circa 18
> > months?) which was outsourced out to a 3rd party.
> >
> > So I switched to AIOE and Eternal september....
> >
> > I am now with Vodafone gigafast and they don't provide newsgroups
> > so I stayed with AIOE and Eternal September
> >
> > I wonder how much longer Newsgroups will exist....
> >
>
> Part of the problem is that for many that do know about usenet these
> days, they think its an alternative to bittorrent for pirating stuff.
> Which presumably makes many ISPs somewhat more cautious.
>
> (not to mention it's and easy cost overhead to trim)
>

I use Eternal September as my primary NSP and find it pretty good,
provided you can tolerate the occasional brief glitch. IMO there
is a slight stigma attached to posting on aioe; as it does not
require registration it tends to attract trolls and miscreants.

A cheap and viable alternative to both of those is a non-expiring
block account from a binaries NSP such as Blocknews or Astraweb.
A $5 block would last you a lifetime if used only on text groups.

[John Rumm]

On 06/12/2021 12:30, Sn!pe wrote:
> John Rumm <see.my.s...@nowhere.null> wrote:
>
>> On 06/12/2021 07:44, SH wrote:
> [...]
>>> Virgin media dumped their news server not that long ago (circa 18
>>> months?) which was outsourced out to a 3rd party.
>>>
>>> So I switched to AIOE and Eternal september....
>>>
>>> I am now with Vodafone gigafast and they don't provide newsgroups
>>> so I stayed with AIOE and Eternal September
>>>
>>> I wonder how much longer Newsgroups will exist....
>>>
>>
>> Part of the problem is that for many that do know about usenet these
>> days, they think its an alternative to bittorrent for pirating stuff.
>> Which presumably makes many ISPs somewhat more cautious.
>>
>> (not to mention it's and easy cost overhead to trim)
>>
>
> I use Eternal September as my primary NSP and find it pretty good,
> provided you can tolerate the occasional brief glitch. IMO there
> is a slight stigma attached to posting on aioe; as it does not
> require registration it tends to attract trolls and miscreants.

I am accessing this via ES at the moment. So far so good...

In one other way also an improvement - since the PN service was only
accessible via their broadband it meant I still had to use the slow ADSL
service to access that rather that the (two orders of magnitude faster)
FTTP connection. (although to be fair 2Mbps is more than adequate for
news access - although you do notice the difference if you need to
refresh the list of available groups).

> A cheap and viable alternative to both of those is a non-expiring
> block account from a binaries NSP such as Blocknews or Astraweb.
> A $5 block would last you a lifetime if used only on text groups.

Yup, fair point.

[Andy Burns]

John Rumm wrote:

> Without usenet there is some doubt if retaining the broadband is worth it.
> Perhaps if they finally get a FTTP offering (which I see mention of for H2 2021)?

I think that's slipped to H1(?)2022

> I wonder how many times Openreach end up making two FTTP drops to the same
> customer?

They do make multiport ONTs, intended for e.g. small blocks of flats, or
home+business situations, so one 2.5Gbps fibre can provide connections to
multiple PPPoE routers, e.g.

<https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/01/a-look-at-openreachs-future-4-port-ont-for-fttp-broadband.html>