This dilemma should challenge the little grey cells of all you system
administrators out there: I get inconsistent, truncated message feeds
from the Usenet through my ISP. They don't know why. They are
getting all messages, but I'm not.
This happens with MD2 (versions 0.198 & 1.4.4 unregistered), mNews (v
1.3b), as well as with Quarterdeck Message Center, a dedicated Windows
3.1 e-mail/news reader, I run on an old 486 notebook, which was put in
service for toubleshooting purposes. With Outlook Express
(Windows98), all is fine. All messages get through. (I had a friend
access my account through his PC.) My ISP is running Windows NT
Server, the latest version, I assume.
This problem has been progressive over the past few weeks. I've only
been with this ISP for 3 months. Initially everything seemed fine.
After a few weeks, the news server crashed badly while downloading.
Since then things have declined steadily. Nothing the system
administrator has done helps much. What little success there has been
has been spotty.
The screwy thing is: some news groups work fine; others I get
truncated downloads; some I don't get anything at all for days or
weeks, even though on the ISP's end, all subscribed to groups are
getting full news feeds. Also, at random, I'm unsubscribed to some of
the groups I frequent; and have to resubscribe. The SA doesn't know
why this is happening either.
Also, as an addendum the above problem: my posts never make it out
there to Usenetland. My ISP's news server gets it, mirrors it back to
me the next time I access news, sends me a confirmation by e-mail (The
SA did this for troubleshooting purposes.) that it has been sent
upstream, but the posts disappear into a black hole somewhere never to
appear on anyone else's server or computer.
I might mention that this is not the first time I've encounter this
problem. With my last ISP, anytime the news server crashed while I
was downloading, I got the same incomplete news feeds starting the
next time I accessed it. They ran NT Server, also; but could
immediately fixed the problem -- I'm talking as I spoke to the tech on
the phone. Took about 10 seconds. (I had to do this a lot. So much
so, that the SA gave me his direct number to his desk, so I wouldn't
have to wait "on hold" for 20 minutes for "...the next available
representative.")
This seems to be an NT related problem. (Why am I not surprised?)
I've had several ISPs over the past few years -- some Unix based,
others NT. Had the most problems with the NT ones.
So, anyone got any ideas, why this is happening and how to fix it? I
would normally post this problem to the Usenet in some NT network
group or an Amiga group, but since I can't post, I'll ask the question
here.
PS. E-mail and Web through my provider have never had a problem.
Thanks for any help.
--
Patrick Bartek
NoLife Polymath Group
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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