Slow download speed - Power Usenet

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:07 am

Greetings

I am using Power Usenet.

Power Usenet recos SSL "on" and port set to 443 or 563 but indicates that may vary by news client.

Can someone advise ideal settings for my config? My goal is to max d/l rates, of course

Thnx for any help

Josef K · Post by **Josef K** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:21 am

The news client doesn't determine which port you can use - your provider will state which.

To get maximum speed, find out how many simultaneous connections they allow and input that into UE. SSL does have overheads due to encryption, though most people will tell you it isn't really all that much if you have enough connections open and running.

Going by this page, you can either have 6 or 12 simultaneous connections (they call them streams) open at one time, depending on which account type you have. Reading this page will tell you:

Each news client's configuration for SSL is different; however, you will generally need to select a check box enabling SSL and change your port to 443 or 563 depending on your preference.

so you will know that you need to input either port 443 or 563 and it doesn't matter which except that 443 is the SSL standard.

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:39 am

Thnx to Josef K for reply ...

When I tried the SSL on and port 443 \ 563 the Usenet app ground quickly to a halt and no transfer at all.

I believe the issue is mainly with my ISP I have "up to 3mps" with them, which I believe equates to "up to 375 kB/s". I am getting perhaps 210 on average. I think I will have to go back to cable service to see any big increase in speed.

Josef K · Post by **Josef K** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:29 pm

3Mb would be 384KB/s but minus the overhead would be slightly less than that. If it stops transfer altogether, your firewall must be blocking the connection. You could temporarily disable any firewall you have to at least rule it out.

What are your speeds downloading through non-SSL?

Do you use a router and/or have you recently reset it to default or changed the configuration on it?

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:46 pm

SSL 3.0 is selected in my (Firefox) browser but not selected in Usenet Options.

My speed ranges from about 25 up to about 400 kBps and cycles tthru an number of values in that range ever few seconds.

I have Usenet set as an exception under WIn XP firewall security. I am using the default port 119 in Usenet Options.

Will try disabling firewall altogether to see if it affects Usenet speed.

Thanks again for assistance

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:38 pm

Disabling WIn XP Firewall had no effect so I guess the exception set for Usenet is working OK.

Josef K · Post by **Josef K** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:38 pm

I think you're confusing matters by associating SSL with anything online. In our case, we're talking about SSL with UE - forget about Firefox for now.

How many servers do you have? How many connections do you have set for each server? (Edit->Properties->Servers, the numbers in the Tasks column.)

What are your web speeds? Try SpeedGuide as a preliminary test. Pick a mirror that's close to you. It won't be perfect but will help determine if the problem is with usenet downloads or your general speeds.

I need to know whether or not you have a router. I need to rule something out before I can get on with figuring this out a bit more.

alex · Post by **alex** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:52 am

I think I know what is the matter.

There is some problem with Power Usenet (Giganews reseller or more likely another Giganews site, I don't know exactly). I had exchange recently with another user and in the end he had luck dumping Power Usenet for UNS, although I cannot promise anything for sure as to usenet providers. I noticed we have more complaints about Giganews servers recently which is strange since they charge twice the average elsewhere.

Are you in Canada as well (the other user was on shaw cable)? Maybe the connectivity from there to Giganews servers was somehow badly affected. It is unlikely to be your local problem.

Initally I even thought you are the same user who contacted me by email, but then I realized it is a different case - he contacted me about January 10 and yesterday he was already trying another provider.

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:09 pm

Answers to Queries

1. SSL under UE: If I select this , my transfer rate falls to zero and stays there

2. Servers - I have selected 12 in line with the max for my Power Usenet Account.

3. Connect Speed - 1525 kb/s down and 542 upload

4. No router - Just one PC with wireless telephone internet connection

Cheers

Josef K · Post by **Josef K** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:44 pm

It's interesting to see your download speed. You said your ISP says you have up to 3Mb/s when your stated speed here is close to 12Mb/s. Well, at least it shows you have good speeds otherwise. The problem seems to be whenever you use SSL. Typically, you would have configured your news client to have access through your firewall. Then, if you started using an SSL server later on, it would not have the necessary permission to go through the correct ports (i.e. anything other than 119). However, disabling your firewall makes no difference.

Any router you may have had could have interfered. On my router I have to turn off a component of its firewall otherwise it bogs down as all data is more heavily protected. People are finding now that as they get higher speed connections, their older firewalls aren't as capable of handling the speed increase. Not that it matters since you have no router to contend with anyway.

Listen to Alex. He will get many more emails you won't get to read here from people using different news providers. I imagine at times he'll get a glut of emails asking why the speed is suddenly dropping and he can get an overall picture of what is happening better than I can. After all, I'm not support so I'm only able to generally diagnose problems - I'm only a busybody, really.

All I can point you to is a problem with your news provider. Email their support and tell them you get no speed through SSL. You now know your speeds are good otherwise and your firewall is not an issue which you can tell them. You should be able to use their non-SSL servers until it's fixed or if you change to another provider. I notice they don't have a status page. Any decent provider should have one so maybe they hope people will just put up with any problems and wait till it's fixed. No status page also means any potential new customers can't read through and see if there's been a recent spate of problems with their service.

alex · Post by **alex** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 4:12 am

SSL - if your speed drops to zero - did you change server port e.g. in edit menu->properties->servers apart from just checking the SSL check box there.

If the SSL server name is the same as non-SSL server name the SSL port cannot be the same as the non-SSL port.

What server name / port you should use check with your usenet provider.

As to speed fluctuations (I mean when download speed is not stable or not like it was used to be - but it is not always zero) it appears there is a problem with Power Usenet for some time since it is not only you who complained about this specific usenet provider.

capricornius · Post by **capricornius** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:51 am

ty Josef and Alex

Will pursue with mt provider.

Cheers