Maxing download help

[jaychamp]

Hi folks

I'm new to the usenet world but I've managed to get everything working almost perfectly between Sick Beard, Couch Potato and of course sabnzbd just by reading posts here(thank you!), but I'm finally stumped after a few days with this issue.

It's not really a big deal but I'm not able to crack 1.5MB with a 20Mbps connection, both reported by sab and another real time app. I'm using astraweb and have tried every server ssl and non, tinkered with less connections, Article Cache including -1, removed IPv6, turned off autotuning, flushed my dns, different duplexes, connected directly to cable modem, disabled AV and FW, tried in safe mode, and probably other stuff I can't recall

What's kind of odd, maybe, is that when the d/l first starts it goes right up to 2.2MB but steadily goes down to 1.5MB and stays right there. So I know I'm capable of getting there but something keeps bringing it down. Any suggestions? I'm also downloading directly to a separate SATA HDD in case that's important

Version: 0.6.5
OS: Windows 7 64bit
Install-type: Windows Installer
Firewall Software: Windows
Are you using IPV6? No
Is the issue reproducible? Yes

[shypike]

The initial high mark is a bit fake, it has to do with skipped par2 files.
There are many factors involved.
On similar hardware as yours, I can get to 11MBytes/sec on a 100Mbit/sec connection.
However, this is a symmetrical fibre.
If you're using ADSL, you'll likely to have a poor upload speed.
I'm not sure if it's a factor, but SABnzbd must send long article headers to the Usenet provider.
Use a tool like "NetLimiter 3 Monitor free" to see whether your upload speed is a bottleneck.

[jaychamp]

Thank you for the reply. I downloaded that tool, which is pretty sweet by the way. With speed tests I average about 4Mb upload w/my cable connection, and according to NetLimiter SAB is only using .012Mb. Is that typical or is something limiting SAB's upload needs?

[shypike]

With 4Mbit/sec, your upload speed cannot be the issue.
Unfortunately I cannot tell you what the cause is.
Have you tried another Usenet program?

[jaychamp]

Just tried Unzbin and resulted in same behavior. At least I know that it's not SAB.

I guess the next step would be to try on my laptop to see if it's specific to this PC

[jaychamp]

So the download is about the same on my wireless W7 32bit laptop, a little faster but more erratic. I tried a Giganews trial and got the same speeds so it's not Astraweb. You don't think Comcast is throttling me do you? AFAIK they don't do that, just the cap limit

[jaychamp]

So thought I'd post my "fix". I switched to bonded DSL. All of a sudden I'm getting 3.0MB down on a 24Mb connection like I should, hmmmmmm.

[shypike]

Eh, "bonded DSL" ?

[jaychamp]

I think it's similar to AT&T's uverse? Basically multiple lines going to your house to get higher speeds than normal DSL which only has a max of 10Mbps here. I guess I could have just said I switch to Centurylink but I just learned the term so I had to use it

[shypike]

Twice the speed, twice the price, I assume.

[jaychamp]

Twice the speed, twice the price, I assume.

The funny thing is, if you don't need the phone it's actually less money. With regular 10Mbit DSL you have to get a basic phone also, but with bonded you don't. So instead of paying a combined $75 for DSL/phone, I'm paying $68. Which by the way is the same I was paying for Comcast

[bbaraniec]

What I have noticed that using one server with many connections is not always best solution. I'm using AstraWeb and I have tried many, many options before I've found the right one for me.
Right now I have two ssl servers from AW both with 10 connections. With that setup I'm getting stable 4MB/s

[shypike]

I rarely get my max speed with Astraweb,
while Giganews and Supernews (its cheaper brother) hit the ceiling without any effort.

[jaychamp]

We'll see how it goes but using Astraweb a lot the last couple of days I've been maxed the whole time. My Comcast isn't cancelled yet so I tried it again to rule out coincidence, still getting half of what I should so it was definitely an ISP issue in my case.

Giganews is too expensive, but I'll look at Supernews if Astra flakes out on me, thank you for the suggestions. Edit: Just realized you were actually speaking to bb, but thank you anyway

bb, I tried lowering connections before the ISP change and it didn't help, but if I have issues in the future I'll keep that in mind, thank you

[bbaraniec]

@shypike are you using ssl servers? I'm using ssl-eu and ssl-us both 10 connections
@jaychamp have you confirmed that this is not the isp issue? Download anything from microsoft or symantec or nvidia. They are on akamai so you should be able to get stable results. You could also check http://ngroups.net/ I haven't tested them but I've found it while ago. Also if you are using CouchPotato you will get discount on two providers.