Hi,

I'm using Newsplex as a nntp proxy, however I ran into some undesired behavior. My servers.ini below.

1.
If an article is not found on server1, Newsplex sometimes goes directly to the backup server. I would like it to try both server 2 and server 3 before going to the backup server (i.e. try all servers in the same category before going to higher category).

This could be accomplished by setting server1 to category=0, server2 to category=1 and server3 to category=2 but I want to be able to use all servers at the same time as no server will saturate my connection.

In other words I want to be able to use server1, server2 and server3 at the same time in a kind of balanced setup to maximize bandwidth usage and that backup servers (servers with higher categories) are only used if none of the servers in the lower category can find the requested article.

2.
The total count of connections for category=0 is 22.
If I set my client to use 40 connections (= 2 clients with 20 each) then NewsPlex will also connect to and use the backup server.
I expected NewsPlex to use some sort of a queue where each incoming request is put to the bottom of the queue and the worker threads serve requests from the top of the queue. Also the queue should try to feed all 40 connections from category 0 and only use category 1+ if all category 0 servers fail to get the article.
My temporary fix is to allow only 22 connections in NewsPlex (and then only 10 connections when my free trial expires due to problem 1: I have to move the free server to cat 1 and the expensive backup server to cat 2 for proper usage).

3.
Because of number 2 above, I decided to try with 11 connections per client. The problem is that server2 is faster than server1 so when only one client is connected, NewsPlex will use the 10 first connections with server1 and then use 1 connection with server2. I thought NewsPlex was taking speed etc into account? If yes, it should be using 10 connections with server2 and one connection with server1.

Best regards,
Tom

My setup:
[server]
id=1
url=server1
adjustMaxConnections=6
explore=0
reuseForAsync=0
category=0
comment=Primary server with unlimited usage but speed is only 50% of my connection

[server]
id=2
url=server2
adjustMaxConnections=6
explore=0
reuseForAsync=0
category=0
comment=Free trial on good server

[server]
id=3
url=server3
adjustMaxConnections=-2
explore=0
reuseForAsync=0
category=0
comment=Free slow server with unlimited usage

[server]
id=4
url=server4
adjustMaxConnections=+6
explore=0
reuseForAsync=0
category=1
comment=Backup server - expensive

• New Members 1

Can someone pls explain to me exactly what the "Refresh" and "Rewrite" buttons do, and specifically what the difference is between them? I've looked through all the documentation I can find on this, and Googled it, but there seems to be no information anywhere on these functions.

Here's the problem: I just reinstalled Newsplex and rebuilt the indexes of all the required groups. There are a few of them that failed to retrieve all the headers (they stopped about 1/3 the way through and now have only the oldest third of the available articles), so I'd like to force a rebuilding of those few only. So far, nothing has seemed to work.

Thx for any suggestions!

• New Members 1

available somewhere?

regards
ygg

• New Members 1

I got a prob

0/07 8:37:38 5 Fail LPR2 0 0 0 news2.neva.ru (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 6 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 news.grnet.gr (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 7 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 rutherfordium.club.cc.cmu.edu (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 8 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 news.task.gda.pl (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 9 Fail LPR2 0 0 0 202.177.16.121 (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 10 Fail LPR2 0 0 0 snorky.mixmin.net (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 11 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 news.edisontel.com (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 12 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 news.eutelia.it (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 13 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 news.yaako.com (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 14 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 217.188.199.230 (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 15 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 test.news.mediaways.net (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 16 Fail LNR2 0 0 0 217.188.199.244 (SQL request failed)
20/07 8:37:38 17 Fail LPR2 0 0 0 89.143.246.119 (SQL request failed)

• New Members 1

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the NewsPlex
group.

File : /NewsPlex 4.5/nplex45-linux.zip
Uploaded by : joemorlan <jmorlan <at> gmail.com>
Description : NewsPlex 4.5 for Linux

You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsPlex/files/NewsPlex%204.5/nplex45-linux.zip

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/forms/general.htmlfiles

Regards,

joemorlan <jmorlan <at> gmail.com>

• New Files 2

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the NewsPlex
group.

File : /NewsPlex 4.5/nplex45-win.zip
Uploaded by : joemorlan <jmorlan <at> gmail.com>
Description : NewsPlex 4.5 for Windows

You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsPlex/files/NewsPlex%204.5/nplex45-win.zip

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/forms/general.htmlfiles

Regards,

joemorlan <jmorlan <at> gmail.com>

• New Files 1

I've been using 4.5 since shortly after it was posted. I see that it's been removed. 4.4 is the latest release available. Why is that? Is there a known problem with 4.5? If so, what is it?

This group looks pretty dead, but since this is about the only place where there's a chance of resolving issues, I guess I'll try posting here anyway.

I have Newsplex 4.5 running on Vista x64. It works okay for the most part, except that I've noticed that it seems to re-read the entire list of headers on every Exploration. I have only two groups active and this is causing gigabytes of traffic every day with these groups that have 500,000 articles.

I've studied the list of options and don't see anything pertinent to this behavior.

I'd like to know how to stop this, or at least cut the exploring down to once every two or three days.

FWIW, I really like Newsplex and would hate to see it fall to the wayside.

I've had NewsPlex running fine for years on an XP box used as a home server. I'm in the process of updating the h/w and o/s to Vista x64. I copied over the existing NewsPlex 4.4 installation, making copies of the writeable folders in the virtual store area, which it found and used. So far, so good. However, it consistently emits the "Error during synchronization with main server" error at startup. The URL, username, and PW are known good (currently working on the XP box) and work using the new version of Outlook Express on Vista. According to the connection log at my proxy server, Newsplex never makes a connection attempt.

I've tried wiping it all out and installing version 4.5. It ran the startup auto-configuration properly, found the sample news servers, and established a connection with most of them. So I wiped out all the files associated with those and started again with my own server list.

With some additional troubleshooting, it appears that the problem stems from Newsplex being unable to deal with a name lookup when a server login and PW are included. When I substituted the dotted-quad IP address for the news server name, it was able to establish a connection, login, and retrieve the list of groups on the server. (Remember, the name lookup and subsequent connection works with "Outlook Express" on this same box)

All is not yet well, however. After connecting a newsreader client to newsplex (successfully) and requesting a refresh of several group headers, Newsplex refuses to make any of the requested groups active. Fortunately, they can be activated manually from the all-groups list on the web interface, but this is a nuisance to say the least. Once activated this way, Newsplex retrievs headers normally and successfully passes them to the client newsreader.

Summary of the two (Vista-related) issues:
1) Newsplex has some difficulty with server name resolution.
2) It is not automatically activating groups

BTW, I like 4.5 a LOT so far. It's a whole lot faster than 4.4. Thank you! If I can be of further assistance in nailing down these two issues, please let me know. (However, my mailing addr is temporarily non-functional due to an idiot hosting company. Pls reply to the group.)

•  1
  New Members

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 6:23 PM, Adam Mirowski
<Adam.Mirowski <at> virtuallogix.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> It has been over 3 years since
> the last release of newsplex, but
> the development has not stopped.
>
> Notably, a new version with binary
> databases on disk has been prepared.
> It decreases memory usage tremendously
> during processing of binary-oriented newgroups
> because there is no more full loading
> of index files into memory: data stay
> on disk and RAM is only used as a cache.
>
> It is pretty much ready for release,
> but is there still interest? I guess
> in the meantime the multiserver
> capability has progressed in news
> readers.
>
> Regards.
> -Adam Mirowski

Yes, there's still interest. It's been 3 years since I used Newsplex
(due to the issues you listed) but the multiserver capability in
others is not up to snuff either, so an improved Newsplex would
definitely be a boon.

--
Met vriendelijke groeten / Best regards,

Ger Hobbelt

--------------------------------------------------
web:    http://www.hobbelt.com/
       http://www.hebbut.net/
mail:   ger <at> hobbelt.com
mobile: +31-6-11 120 978
--------------------------------------------------

•  2
  New Members