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All UseNet Broken on OS X?

O

OneHump

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 19, 2008
48
0
Hi all. I've been struggling with UseNet on my new Mac. I have tried Unison, NZBDrop and HogWasher and get the same frustrating result; I'm missing a majority of posts in every news group. I fire up NewsBin Pro on my PC and get them all. I am using GigaNews to troubleshoot, but am having the same issue with EasyNews.

I can't believe I'm asking this, but I feel I've narrowed it down to a platform issue. Is there something going on with my OS that is screwing up my UseNet access?

Thanks in advance.
 
Nope, I've used Thoth, Hogwasher and Unison on PPC and Intel for my whole computing life and have never experienced a problem with missing posts my end, only with crappy servers provided by ISPs. I personally use Giganews and achieve completeness with both the US and European servers.

There's absolutely no possibility of it being your OS which is at fault, it must be to do with your configuration or a network issue with your ISP, though that seems unlikely if you have no probs with your Windows newsreaders.

You might want to try SABnzbd which is about as close as you can get to sticking your own pipe into Giganews and see if that gets you the desired results.

If you want to post screenshots of your preferences etc go ahead, though you may be better off mailing Panic, ASAR etc. directly.
 
Thanks macffooky. Under normal cicrumstances, I would agree that it could not be my OS, but after trying Unison, HogWasher, and NZBDrop on OS X, then trying NewsBin Pro in a Fusion session on the same machine, I find myself confused.

I'm going to try SABnzbd as suggested. As for configuration options, I'm sure you'll agree that there isn't much to choose from with Unison and NZBDrop. As for my ISP, I've ruled that out with NewsBin. I'm thinking it has to be something with my OS configuration.

Already mailed Panic, ASAR and GigaNews. GigaNews replied immediately, but I'm waiting for the others.

After switched to a Mac a couple of weeks ago, I really enjoy using it more than my PCs. I really don't look forward to having to run NewsBin in Fusion so I'm determined to figure this out. Thanks again. :)
 
It's a puzzler but the answer will be out there somewhere. Total shot in the dark but how do you connect to the Internet; is there a router involved or just a modem ? Are you running the OS X firewall or something on your router ?

The bloke at ASAR, whose name escapes me at the mo, has always responded to my emails in the past but usually after a little while.
 
That's exactly what I just told GigaNews. :) The answer is probably simple, but very elusive.

I did put my machine in the DMZ and that did nothing. I'm going to put my MP right onto my cable modem and see what happens there. I also checked the firewall on your advice and it's off. This is a default OS install and I haven't tweaked much. The only thing not stock about this machine are the drives and RAM. I think we both know how unlikely an issue there would be. :)
 
No luck going directly to the modem. I also tried SABnzdb and got:

2008-11-17 13:31:04,362 ERROR [downloader] Failed to initialize 1@news.giganews.com:119
2008-11-17 13:31:04,362 WARNING [downloader] Thread 1@news.giganews.com:119: failed to initialize

That's pretty much in line with what NZBDrop is saying. In other words "post not found".
 
OneHump said:
No luck going directly to the modem. I also tried SABnzdb and got:

2008-11-17 13:31:04,362 ERROR [downloader] Failed to initialize 1@news.giganews.com:119
2008-11-17 13:31:04,362 WARNING [downloader] Thread 1@news.giganews.com:119: failed to initialize

That's pretty much in line with what NZBDrop is saying. In other words "post not found".
Click to expand...
Try creating a new user, installing your Usenet app there, and seeing if that works. If it does, the cause is some setting specific to your user account.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Try creating a new user, installing your Usenet app there, and seeing if that works. If it does, the cause is some setting specific to your user account.
Click to expand...

Good suggestion, thanks. I'll give it a shot.
 
The new user account didnt work. One thing interesting about that is that the hotkeys for spaces are not longer working (ctr-1, ctr ->, etc). Odd.

macffooky: If I browse a group in Unison, the posts are missing. If I look in the same group on NewsBin, the posts are there. These posts correlate to an NZB file I'm using to test. I got the NZB from nzbmatrix.com and downloaded it using Safari. For my testing, I'm simply just browsing the groups.
 
What happens if you use the Safari-downloaded NZB file with NewsBin ?

Something else just occurred to me. If I'm experiencing connection problems with my internet connection and Unison is running, often after rebooting my router Unison will not open the full amount of connections and keep failing for a while, as if I had all/some of the connections open on another machine. I'm just wondering if you have always started your newsreader programs say, first thing in the morning or if you have been running NewsBin immediately previously.

Pretty unlikely I know but fast running out of suggestions here.
 
That same NZB works fine with NewsBin. The next thing you mention actually give me some hope. My Internet connection has been crap lately. I installed a Gb switch and it started needing constant restarting due to dropped connections. This happens anywhere from 1 to 10 times/day. I have a new modem on the way and am really hoping this has something to do with it. I sort of doubt it since NewsBin works, but maybe it's something specific to the OS X IP stack.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm a new Mac users, but really like it. I don't want to have to use Windows for Usenet.
 
It turns out that it was a bad cable modem. My cable modem started dropping my connection about once/day and had to be reset. After about 2 weeks, it was dropping about 2x/hour. I replaced it yesterday and it has not dropped and all newsgroup clients are working properly.

I have to say that support from Unison sucked as they didn't answer my email. Support from ASAR was lackluster but their response was appreciated. I'll definitely be using that info to make a decision about which to register.

GigaNews support was off the charts. I'm now a diehard GigaNews Fan.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
I have to correct my last comment about Unison support. It took a while but he got back to me with a thoughtful answer. Thanks again.
 
That's great news. See, told you it couldn't have been the OS ;)

FWIW, I read groups with Hogwasher and also use it for smaller downloads but I use Unison for bigger files and NZBs. Been a Giganews customer for a good few years and would always recommend them to anyone serious about Usenet. An interesting thing for me is that the subscription is paid in dollars so I have a monthly snapshot of the exchange rate. My bill has been as low as £14 but this month it jumped from £16 odd to £18. At around 250GB a month, I'm more than happy to pay that.
 
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