Usenet Explorer

Hi Alex,

A few weeks ago UE started to freeze (in an increasingly long "not responding" loop whenever I tried to download new headers for a specific newsgroup. The problem became so bad (the headers wouldn't download at all) that I just unsubscribed and resubscribed to the group. However, that didn't really fix the problem. The not responding message appeared as soon as I retrieved the headers and once again a week later the "not responding" delays are now so long that I have to ctrl-alt-del to shutdown UE. I'm using v4.9.3 on Windows 8. I'm not having any problems with other similar newsgroups with large numbers of rar files. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this without doing a complete reinstallation?

What is UE CPU usage when it happens? Does it saturate a CPU core or not?

If you manage to stop header download when it happens, check what are the latest headers (sorted by age), if you see something unusual there, maybe some kind of mass post, like the newsgroup was flooded with a lot of small posts.

Also then exit UE, start it again and open the newsgroup without starting downloading headers. Check in windows task manager, whether the UE RAM usage increases significantly.

If CPU usage is low, then it might be firewall/antivirus issue.

Thanks for the tip Alex. I think your theory about the mass posting is correct. I blacklisted the offending author and was able to resume downloading the headers without further problems.