What am I doing wrong?

Ras

Let me first state, I am uploading to a group on EasyNews. I am mostly uploading photos & videos to that group, mostly PC users. I compress these photos/videos using RAR if they are small files w/PAR2 to upload. If they are larger files, I split them using 7z and add PAR2 to upload. I normally test my uploads to check the validity and they download fine. However, the feedback I get from the PC'ers is that most of my uploads have blocks missing and Binsearch verifies that they are correct. I also logged into Easynews and checked some of my uploads and in some cases, the only thing that uploaded was the parity files. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong.
I use Keka or Archiver 3 to upload and Usenapp allows me to add PAR2 files with a range of 10 - 50% at the time of uploading. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Andre

The reason it looks like the par files are the only ones uploaded is probably because the par files don't have the same filename as the rar / zip files. As a result, the indexer does not know that the files belong together. So make sure that the filenames are the same.

Example:

my_vacations.rar
my_vacations.r01
my_vacations.r02
my_vacations.par2
my_vacations.vol1+20.par2
etc.

If you let Usenapp create the par files, in this case use the name: "my_vacations" (always without extension).

Ras

Thank you, Andre. Your suggestion fixed one problem that I had using 7z split files with parity files that were password protected that would give me a password error at the end. They now seem to upload fine but since I did these uploads into a test group, I can't verify if there are errors in Binsearch. But, they did download on my computer without a hitch.
However, I still have a problem with my uploads in regards to reviewing those files on easynews.com. I still see missing blocks and parity files, the upload is far from complete. what could possibly be causing that?

Andre

One of the reasons could be:

1) The total number of open connections to the news server. Try to keep this (while testing) low, like 5.
2) Do not upload to multiple news servers at the same time.

If that doesn't help, do the following:

1) Turn off automatic header retrieval in the newsreader
2) Enable the socket debugger: Preferences-> Download-> Advanced
3) Restart Usenapp
4) Upload a file (don't download anything while uploading)
5) After the upload is complete, open the log file and look for any errors or other value information that may be causing the incomplete uploads. The log file can be opened at: File-> Open Logfile.

If you like, you can email the (zipped) logfile to me at email: usenapp@xoroxsoft.com

Ras

My open connections are always at 5 on both Astraweb and Easynews. I can only download to Astraweb, so I disabled it. Doing this did not help.

Looking at the newsreader preference, I could not find auto. header retrieval. Does it have another name or am I looking at the wrong spot?

I will test later today and send you the output.

Andre

Ras Looking at the newsreader preference, I could not find auto. header retrieval. Does it have another name or am I looking at the wrong spot?

That is available in the newsreader section, but if you don't have any active subscriptions in the newsreader then you can ignore that.

Ras

I was doing this test this morning, at the same time you responded so, bear with me. The attached screenshot of the same download is as follows:
1a & 1b). : a test using 7z, split into 20MB segments using PAR2 with no password. It downloaded fine but shouldn't the blocks be the same size except for the last one?
2 & 4). : Test using 7z split into 20 & 15MB segments using PAR2 with a password. The upload split into two segments but I received an error message on both.
3). Test using 7z split into 10MB segments with 50% PAR2 with the password. Would not accept the password which was: test
5). Test using RAR with PAR2 and password. Downloaded fine.

Ras

Andre -
This is a screenshot of tonight's test uploads which, all downloaded fine on my computer but when I checked what it looked like on Easynews.com they all look incomplete with blocks missing. I attached a screenshot of that as well. I also sent the logfile under a separate cover.

Andre

Thanks for all the details.
I don't know why it doesn't work with 7z, but if RAR works fine then why not use RAR instead?

Ras

Unfortunately, because even though I am able to download RAR videos or photosets to my own computer, I am still not able to post a complete file to easynews.com per the screenshot that I sent you. The PC users who use their own usenet client are able to download my uploads, but their feedback to me is that they are always blocks missing and ask me to use the maximum amount of parity files to fix my uploads. The reason for using 7z is that I have larger files that are over 1GB that have to be split to post and that is why I use 7z since KEKA allows me to split and password-protect those files. I have yet to find an app that will allow me to split RAR files and password-protect them. If you know of any, please let me know.
Were you able to determine anything from the logfiles that I sent you?

Andre

Ras I have yet to find an app that will allow me to split RAR files and password-protect them. If you know of any, please let me know.

This can be done from the command line, but requires a few steps first.

You can download the RAR command line utility from https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
After the file is downloaded, go to the extracted "rar" folder.

Since the extracted rar file (in the folder above) is not notarized by Apple, you need to open it once in the finder by right-clicking on the rar file and choosing Open. A warning will appear and if you agree, choose Open.

The terminal window will open, but you can close it.

Then select the RAR folder and right click on it, go to Services->New Terminal at Folder

Terminal will open again in the selected folder.

Then in terminal use the following command to create RAR volumes (10MB each):

./rar a -v10M filename.rar /path/*.jpg

Or to create RAR volumes with a password "test":

./rar a -ptest -v10M filename.rar /path/*.jpg

The above example creates volumes of 10MB each, but you can change this to whatever you want:
-v1M
-v500k
etc.

Ras Were you able to determine anything from the logfiles that I sent you?

No, it looks like the socket debugger was not enabled.