Issue:All tasks suspended b/c database drive has under 48mb

[oy_vey]

You have made a wonderfully robust program. Kudos to the author(s).javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy

However, I am extremely frustrated with it (UE 1.7.3) continually telling me "All tasks suspended because less than 48mb is available on the database drive" (my wording of this popup error message is not exact, by the way, but that is the gist of it). I am on day 2 (I think) of the trial.

What happened is that I imported a number of NZB files, left the settings at their default (many, if not most, settings in the properties dialog are NOT intuitive, unfortunately). I come back to my pc after sleeping thru the night (over 8 hours, and the time estimated in UE's status bar said 6h plus some minutes), and what do I find? It has been stopped for perhaps 6 hours because there is no more room on the database drive. When I investigate why this is happening, I find that I have over 16 GIGABYTES of headers (or are they bodies? or articles? Every newsreader calls them something different! AARGH! AAAARRRRGGGHHH!).

Before going to bed, I made certain that there was enough room on the download locations for all my selected files to fit. I even used the "Save Path" context command to change the location of 8 gigs of files so that they were saved on another drive. However, nothing at all ended up getting saved under those folders, in fact, not even anywhere on any of the computer's hard drives. They are ALL still in the BODIES folder!!!!

The "Bodies" directory structure is setup like this (in the Bodies folder), along with the sizes:

Code: Select all

E:\UE
	\Bodies
		\0
			2A	663,471 bytes
			2B	663,520 bytes
			2C
			2D
			2E
			2F
			3A
			3B
			3C	 83,912 bytes
			3CB
			3CC
			3CD		<etc>
			.
			.
			.
			AC7
			AC8
			AC9
			AD
			AE
			AF
			B0
			B1
			B2		<etc>
			B3

E:\UE\Bodies\1
			2A	663,040 bytes
			2B	663,320 "
			2C
			2D
			2E
			2F
			3A
			3B
			3C
			3D
			3E
			3F 
			.
			.
			.
			<etc>
			
			<Nearly 2000 of the same type of cryptic filenames as seen in folder "0">
E:\UE\Bodies\2
			<Nearly 2000 of the same type of cryptic filenames as seen in folder "0">
E:\UE\Bodies\3
			<Nearly 2000 of the same type of cryptic filenames as seen in folder "0">
E:\UE\Bodies\4
			<Nearly 2000 of the same type of cryptic filenames as seen in folder "0">
E:\UE\Bodies\5
			<Nearly 2000 of the same type of cryptic filenames as seen in folder "0">
E:\UE\Bodies\6
			<ETC>
E:\UE\Bodies\7
E:\UE\Bodies\8
E:\UE\Bodies\9
E:\UE\Bodies\A
E:\UE\Bodies\B
E:\UE\Bodies\C
E:\UE\Bodies\D
E:\UE\Bodies\E
E:\UE\Bodies\F

Each one of those folders seen above has nearly 2000 files, ranging in size from 30kb or so, to nearly 1 meg. So, each of the above folders totals 988 mb, IOW, nearly 1 gigabyte per folder!!!! Closing down UE and reopening it does not solve this issue.

Why isn't UE decoding and combining these files as soon as the bodies are downloaded? It hardly ever seems to do this, instead it downloads the bodies from my selected articles, and never combines them, so subsequently my hard drive runs out of room! I had the tasks set to the default of 40. That was before going to sleep last night. Today, i changed it to 3. I am also frustrated that there are no detailed help files available to explain how these settings in the Properties dialog affect the running of this whole program. I don't understand the purpose of this Tasks being set to "40".

Back to the lack of a comprehensive help file: The Usenet Explorer site has only a very basic help section. It does NOT explain the settings/properties at all. I have searched and searched and searched. By the way, 15 days is not long enough for a trial run on this program. At least, without an incredibly detailed help text, it will take at least 15 days to learn the basics!!

I apologize for being so down on the program in this situation, but I am extremely frustrated. I am looking for a newsreader/binary downloader that will work without me having to troubleshoot it for hours. This seems to be the one, IF I can soon understand how all the configurations affect each aspect of UE.

Please shed some enlightenment on this situation! I searched the forum for any info on this exact problem, but came up blank. There were somewhat similar issues, but none that seemed quite the same.

Oh, I have read the b4e tutorial on using UE. It is still too general. So are the ones at http://www.netwu.com/ue/seltopics.htm ("seltopics.htm" = "Selected Topics" : are there additional topics somewhere?).javascript:emoticon(':?:')
Question

javascript:emoticon(':idea:')
IdeaSome suggestions:
1. Add lots more popup tool tips over icons, such as in the "Workspace" area. The four icons at the bottom of this section are hard to figure out.

2. The purpose of each of the tabs at the bottom of the Task Manager are also difficult to intuitively figure out:

Code: Select all

	Article | Console | Downloads | Articles | <icon> | <a question mark icon> | Save | headers |  <icon> | <a question mark icon> | Newsgroup list |  <icon> | <a question mark icon> | POsts |  <icon> | <a question mark icon>

Whew! That is my complete text description of the tabs at the bottom of the Task Manager.

What is the relationship of all these tabs above? What are they each used for (in some detail, please)?

3. Need ability to pause specific items in the download queue, or in the save queue, not a "pause whole program".[/color]


I hope you can shed some light on the BODIES issue, and hopefully, these other issues too.

[Josef K]

1. Add lots more popup tool tips over icons, such as in the "Workspace" area. The four icons at the bottom of this section are hard to figure out.

Each time you click on a tab you will see at the root of the tree view inside the tab what the tab holds. Even without that you can tell what is there just by looking - newsgroups, servers, etc. - I don't know how much plainer that can be.

2. The purpose of each of the tabs at the bottom of the Task Manager are also difficult to intuitively figure out:

Code: Select all

	Article | Console | Downloads | Articles | <icon> | <a question mark icon> | Save | headers |  <icon> | <a question mark icon> | Newsgroup list |  <icon> | <a question mark icon> | POsts |  <icon> | <a question mark icon>

Whew! That is my complete text description of the tabs at the bottom of the Task Manager.

What is the relationship of all these tabs above? What are they each used for (in some detail, please)?

Console lists each individual task, along with specific error messages, if any (added by user request because people missed this feature from NewsPro).
Downloads lists all articles downloaded that are still in the database and allows you to read through that list and to also run each file.
Articles is where articles are queued to download, the tab to the right lists each article segment that is currently in progress, the ? tab lists any errors that occur.
Save lists articles that are queued to save to disk.
Headers lists header tasks that are queued, the next tab lists header tasks in progress and the ? tab lists header task error messages.
Newsgroup list holds the queue of newsgroup list updates that you perform, the next tab shows each task currently in progress while the ? tab shows errors.
Posts shows anything you have queued to post to Usenet, files in progress and errors.

All tabs have enough information, including percentages of completion where necessary.

3. Need ability to pause specific items in the download queue, or in the save queue, not a "pause whole program".

This can be achieved by right-clicking on articles in the Articles tab and selecting Pause.

I hope you can shed some light on the BODIES issue, and hopefully, these other issues too.

Check File->Default toolbar->Suspend save queue isn't selected.

If you have downloaded lots of headers, depending on your retention, amount of subscribed groups and server(s), you may have a huge amount of data that you've downloaded. If you download your headers first then check the remaining space before you begin downloading articles. Also, use the Compact binary newsgroup type to save disk space and RAM usage.

If there are articles that you've queued that are near expiration on your server(s) then you may see them listed in the ? tab to the right of the Articles tab in Task manager. If this is the case, they will not be saved until the remaining article segments can be retrieved from your server(s). If you don't have a server that has long enough retention or if you continually queue articles that are far too old to ever be downloaded fully then you will only continue to fill up the database drive. Use the downloads tab to look for articles with a red ? icon, bite the bullet and delete them because you will never get them in this case.

[oy_vey]

Could some Usenet Explorer guru kindly explain what is going on with UE? Please re-read my above post. The main body of the post describes the "Bodies" folder and shows how it contains 16 gigs of data. Josef, thank you for the clarification on the use of some of the tabs in the Task Manager. While 2 or 3 were obvious, the others were vague.

Anyway, I don't understand how the Properties (Edit > Properties) settings correlate with the various aspects of using this program. I have tried a few different combos in the Properties dialog, on the Newsgroups tab. But I don't understand how or what the specific settings (at the bottom of this tab) affect what happens or does not happen in the running of program. Nearly every text box contains an unlabeled button below it. But what is the purpose of this button? IS it really a button? Nothing happens when I click these buttons no matter where they occur. Clicking on a button when the text box above it is grayed out has absolutely NO effect. (AN ASIDE: PLease label these buttons in your next release! Or at least put a tool tip on each so that the user understands what that particular button's purpose is for)

For example, on the TASKS tab, how does changing the values in the section titled "Maximal number of tasks" affect the way UE runs? Specifically, suppose I change the "Total tasks" value from its default of 40, down to 20. Then I change the value for "Articles" from its default of 30 to the new value of 10. I notice that the "Total tasks" default number, 40, is the sum of "Articles" + "Max. Tasks" (under the "Headers" section within the "Maximal number of tasks" parent section). How do the values in this section affect the way UE runs? I want UE to either:

1. import my NZB file, show me the all the headers listed in that NZB file, and then I will select which ones I want to save. So, I next select specific headers right-click, and select "Download & save attachments" from the context. But it seems that after I have imported a few NZB files and watched UE download at top speed for 30-40 minutes or so, I leave it minimized. Then, hours later I come back only to find that UE is not dl'g at all anymore, and the hard drive is NOT EVEN FULL! What is happening at this point? Other usenet apps I have tried do not spontaneously cease downloading the files in their queue.
2. import an NZB file using Import > Download&Save (or, similarly, use the Download&Save (Auto) option)

Some info for you may need when answering my last post's question and the almost identical situation described in this post:
- Suspend save queue: IS NOT CHECKED
- The Properties dialog settings are all on the defaults
- I have a 6 megabit downstream cablemodem
- My PC is an Athlon 64 FX 3500+, 2 gigs of RAM, 64 meg Creative Labs Ultra Annihilator II video card, 200 gig hard drive is my default drive for UE, Sony DVD burner.
- I have NO firewall
- I do not run antivirus apps, or adware killers
- I connect to the internet thru a router (PC --> Router --> Cablemodem --> Wall connection)
- I have no other programs running when I've been running UE
- I DO use an extensive HOSTS file, however, it does not get accessed in Newsgroup downloads. Only during web surfing thru a browser does it get used.

If you need more info, please ask. I wish I could figure out what is causing UE's inexplicable download stoppage. Again, tho, re-read my initial post above for a detailed description of this inexplainable behavior in saving all the bodies and never combining them after downloading. BTW, UE is the only application I have running when I download from newsgroups.

TIA

[Josef K]

Nearly every text box contains an unlabeled button below it. But what is the purpose of this button? IS it really a button? Nothing happens when I click these buttons no matter where they occur. Clicking on a button when the text box above it is grayed out has absolutely NO effect.

The buttons underneath these settings are used to copy them to multiple destinations. Example:

Select Default, change a setting (e.g. Retention to 14 days) and then click the button underneath. Click Copy to the immediate right and then shift or control-click to select multiple groups and/or folders and click Paste. The setting will be applied to the other selections without having to manually apply them one-by-one.

For example, on the TASKS tab, how does changing the values in the section titled "Maximal number of tasks" affect the way UE runs? Specifically, suppose I change the "Total tasks" value from its default of 40, down to 20. Then I change the value for "Articles" from its default of 30 to the new value of 10. I notice that the "Total tasks" default number, 40, is the sum of "Articles" + "Max. Tasks" (under the "Headers" section within the "Maximal number of tasks" parent section). How do the values in this section affect the way UE runs?

Total tasks is the overriding setting here. If you set all the others to 1000 and Total tasks is at 1 then you will see no more than 1 task running no matter how many you set to begin. These options are designed to allow you to tailor the amount of tasks you have running at any one time to best consume your bandwidth but not to allow UE to overload itself while waiting for tasks to complete. There's no point in having hundreds of tasks running if you're only on dialup.

At the same time, you're able to let UE perform several different tasks at once. Personally, I like to only have tasks of one type running at a time so I customised these settings to best cope with that. If you have 10 article task slots available then no more than 10 article tasks will run at a time. In your example you change Total tasks down to 20, this would mean you're able to set UE to download headers and for a total of 10 of these tasks to run simultaneously with article tasks. This is all assuming you have allowed enough tasks in the Servers tab and that your server(s) actually support these number of connections at once.

I want UE to either:

1. import my NZB file, show me the all the headers listed in that NZB file, and then I will select which ones I want to save. So, I next select specific headers right-click, and select "Download & save attachments" from the context. But it seems that after I have imported a few NZB files and watched UE download at top speed for 30-40 minutes or so, I leave it minimized. Then, hours later I come back only to find that UE is not dl'g at all anymore, and the hard drive is NOT EVEN FULL! What is happening at this point? Other usenet apps I have tried do not spontaneously cease downloading the files in their queue.
2. import an NZB file using Import > Download&Save (or, similarly, use the Download&Save (Auto) option)

When you go to download, do the tasks complete? In Task manager, do you see any errors in the tab immediately to the right of the Articles tab (with the question mark)? You will not see any decoding of articles if either the save queue is paused or if there are errors downloading the complete article. Since you mention the queue is not paused then the next question is of any errors that may have occurred. Are you able to actually save anything? For example, open the Import group and either double-click on an article or press Alt+Space. Right-click in the pane with the article icon and select Save attachments. Also, check in the Console tab to see if any errors are mentioned there.

Some info for you may need when answering my last post's question...

Which OS are you using? If it's Vista then there may be some underlying issue. Do you have sufficient permissions to save files in the location(s) you select? Are you running as an administrator or limited user? If you're still unable to save anything at all then now would be a good time for Alex to chime in with an answer.

[dengle]

EDIT: I reread the posts and some of my questions are answered.

If the bodies have not been saved to the location specified then that would explain the large size of the UE database structure as that is where bodies are stored.

In UE, If you goto the Task Manager Tab and then the Save Tab, are there items listed to be saved there? If so, do they have a hand to the left of them?

If they are not under the Save tab of the task manager then something was not initiated properly to save them.

If you select the bodies within UE and right -click -> save, does it save?

Did you choose to delete bodies and headers after successful save? (prompts by default for a yes/no answer each time you choose download and save) If you didn't, it's quite possible that the bodies remain for that reason.

[Michaelm]

EDIT: I reread the posts and some of my questions are answered.

If the bodies have not been saved to the location specified then that would explain the large size of the UE database structure as that is where bodies are stored.

Yes.
Where have you specified the download location ? On another drive then E: I suppose ?

In UE, If you goto the Task Manager Tab and then the Save Tab, are there items listed to be saved there? If so, do they have a hand to the left of them?

Normally there are only items shown there during saving. But because your drive is or was full the saving has been suspended and that's why the hand is shown.

If they are not under the Save tab of the task manager then something was not initiated properly to save them.

On the toolbar of UE you'll see an icon of a disk with a hand above it.
It's called 'suspend save queue' and probably is still activated. Did you click it after you've made room on the E: drive ?

If you select the bodies within UE and right -click -> save, does it save?

If the icon I told about above is still activated I don't think so but you could try I guess.