🚀 go-pugleaf

(xposted to demon.service; followups *not* set)

I demand that Jim Lesurf may or may not have written...

> In article <ed25b31c4c.joseph@josephrpc.picsel.com>, Joseph Heenan
> <joseph@picsel.com> wrote:
>> In message <4c1bbf5af2jcgl@st-and.demon.co.uk> Jim Lesurf
>>           <jcgl@st-and.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> It shows the repeated refetches needed to successfully download a stuck
>>>> group. I have noticed that only a single group will stick during any one
>>>> download, and that it (nearly) always sticks at 7,10,and 15 items.
>>> In my experience it is normally at 10.
>> Have you tried reducing the 'message id pipeline size' in the
>> configuration to 1?

> Yes, I tried reducing the pipeline to 1 earlier today. Afraid the problem I
> get persists.

I tried that some time ago, and quickly decided that that wasn't the problem.

Anyway, I've just seen this problem (yet again; memory says that it first
occurred sometime in January), and have done a little testing using by
telnetting to news.demon.co.uk:nntp.

  *telnet news.demon.co.uk nntp
  Trying...
  Connected to news.news.demon.net.
  Escape character is '^]'.
  200 news.demon.co.uk InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.4.0 (20030115 CVS prerelease) ready (posting ok).
  GROUP uk.comp.os.linux
  211 8106 23627 31989 uk.comp.os.linux
  XOVER 31967-31989
  224 31967-31989 fields follow
  31967 Re: mail / file server huge@ukmisc.org.uk (Huge) 3 Aug 2003 21:32:19 GMT <bgjv13$108$1@anubis.demon.co.uk> <TC5Xa.52355$9C6.3076758@wards.force9.net> <pan.2003.08.03.16.44.44.758752@goddamn.co.uk> <8LcXa.52427$9C6.3089092@wards.force9.net> 2052 36 Xref: news.demon.co.uk uk.comp.os.linux:31967
[...]
  31989 Re: Serial ATA jonathan@buzzard.org.uk (Jonathan Buzzard) Mon, 4 Aug 2003 17:03:23 +0100 <b40mgb.htu.ln@192.168.42.254> <bgjdf6$g1g$1@pump1.york.ac.uk> <2bgjgb.rht.ln@192.168.42.254>      <Xns93CD8E0656CFrtreg@192.168.0.42> <bglnhc$8ap$2@jupiter.oxsemi.com> 1415 17 Xref: news.demon.co.uk uk.comp.os.linux:31989
  .
  Connection closed.

Trying again a little later (most recent article number == 31991), "XOVER
31967-31991" works - but "XOVER 31967-31989" still fails. Trying other
variations suggests that only certain combinations cause the failure.

When connected to a server which reports itself as INN 2.4.0 (20020917 CVS
prerelease), the same XOVER commands work *without* causing disconnections.

[snip]
> NewsHound does not produce any error windows or crash or show any other
> signs something went wrong. It just seems to prematurely conclude that the
> fetch was successfully completed.

It /sometimes/ reports "connection closed by server" (or words to that
effect).

-- 
| Darren Salt | d youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | nr. Ashington,
| RISC OS,    | s zap,tartarus,org            | Northumberland
| Linux       | @                             | Toon Army
|   Retrocomputing: a PC card in a Risc PC

Measurements will always be in the wrong units - eg. furlongs per fortnight.