[Pan-users] Re: server priority and completeless

[Duncan]

Beartooth <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Wed, 25 Mar 2009
17:24:16 +0000:

> I'm about ready to sign up for the bottom-level Giganews feed, and give
> it a priority one less than top. But I thought of a complication.
> 
>       Using motzarella, I've been getting quite a few posts unreadable
> because, Pan says, they're not complete. If it finds an incomplete post
> on one (higher priority) server, and a complete one on another (lower
> priority) one, will it find and grab the complete one?

Binaries?  I thought you said you didn't do binaries?  But that's the 
only ones that normally are multi-segment and thus can be "incomplete".  

The reason I'm concerned is that the estimates I was using for volume 
assumed no binaries.  If it's only the occasional binary, you should 
still be fine with the 3 gig a month as that 3-6 times what most text 
users will use, particularly if you get most posts elsewhere, but I'm 
just worrying that the estimates were based on wrong assumptions and 
therefore might be too low.

Note that it may be mostly-text posts but posted in HTML aka "rich text" 
format, too, with "dancing bunny" gif sigs as attachments and the like.  
These should still be reasonably small tho it'd bump the estimate up to 
1-3 gigs/mo instead of half to 1 gig a month, but that's still within 
reason.  But so-called "real binaries" could bump it higher, perhaps as 
high as a gig a day or more if you're really active on them.

Perhaps you sign up for a month and follow your usage a couple weeks and 
see what giganews says you are running?  $2.99 isn't that much to lose 
either way, I suppose.

But to your question, if it's normal multi-segment posts, yes, pan will 
download the segments that are available from the high priority servers, 
then fall back to the lower priority servers to complete.  That's not a 
problem.  

You can tell whether it's multi-segment or not, and whether pan thinks it 
can get all the parts or not, by the icons next to the posts.  A red/
broken puzzle piece is a post pan thinks is a binary, without all the 
pieces.  A green/complete puzzle has all the pieces.  A closed envelope 
indicates a(n unread) text post, or at least one pan thinks is text 
(sometimes it's wrong).  An open envelope indicates an already read text 
message.

Assuming you are indeed seeing multi-segment binaries, yes, pan will 
download what it can from the high priority servers, then fall back to 
the lower priority ones for completion.

If that assumption is incorrect... then I guess I need more data as at 
this point I'm not quite sure what you are talking about.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman