slow/zero dowload speed causes by ... "missing from all servers"

[sander]

This issue has been mentioned before, and I do it again because yesterday I was flabbergasted again when this happened on a friend's system:

SABnzbd will report a slow/zero download speed if the download is "missing from all servers", for example if the post/NZB is too old.

Technically, this is correct. However, when you see a slow/zero download speed, you start searching everywhere what could be causing that: Internet connection, newsserver account, disk space, number of newsserver, etc. Only after test on another system, I saw the "missing from all servers" and I then saw that the post/NZB was too old.

Oh, still surprising: trying to download a non-existing post takes about the same time as an existing post. I would think it would take less time.

So: is there a way to make a user clear that the slow/zero dowload speed is caused by the "missing from all servers"?

[shypike]

If you have multiple servers, SABnzbd is going to try them all.
Also many servers aren't very quick at telling you that the article is missing.
There's room for improvement, but it will take a while.

[sander]

As a test, I now have a 900 MB sized 212 day old post in my queue, with only one server defined (eweka). Of course, with this age, the post is missing on the server.

It seems the process of "non-downloading" will even take longer than a normal download of 900 MB (which would only take 15 minutes on my line): After 10 - 15 minutes the queue still says: "871.71/914.63 MB"



Download speed: 0.00 KB/s - Queued: 847.58/914.63 MB  - Sysload 0.67, 0.85, 0.79

[shypike]

It can still be slow response from the server.
But I'll do some tests.

[sander]

I've sent the NZB to bugs@sabnzbd.org

[shypike]

Testing with my low-retention ISP's news server.
It really is the server that's slow in responding.
Getting the "missing" answer takes about as long as getting the article.
The faster your connection is, the worse the effect seems to be.
The time it takes to receive "missing" is fairly constant.

We are thinking about better approaches in detecting over-aged articles,
but that's for the future.