Populating and updating the active file local cache and keeping gnus from querying Astraweb after '1g'

[Ezequiel Birman]

*** note ***
I was wondering why I got no replies to my original message. It seems I
posted on the wrong group gnu.emacs.gnus although according to
http://www.gnus.org/resources.html "The gnu.emacs.gnus newsgroup is the
appropriate place to ask questions on usage of released versions of
Gnus." I thought gnu.emacs.gnus was gatewayed to gmane.emacs.gnus.user
but my message didn't appear on searches.
*** end of note ***

I've configured gnus to only fetch my mail (with nnmail) when I press
'1g' (and also at startup). Nevertheless, since I've added a new nntp
binary server (Astraweb) gnus always wastes some precious seconds
reading the active file from this server as you can see in the extract
below. Is that unavoidable? This is from *Messages* after starting gnus:

,----
| Opening nnfolder server on archive...done
| Opening nntp server on news.gmane.org...done
| Opening nntp server on news.gwene.org...done
| Opening nntp server on Astraweb US SSL...done
| Opening nnml server on david.espiga4.com.ar...done
| 165 new newsgroups have arrived
| Checking new news...
| Reading active file from Astraweb US SSL via nntp...
| Reading active file from david.espiga4.com.ar via nnml...
| Reading incoming mail from file...
`----

On a related note, and proably more important too, I can only browse
through Astraweb's groups if I enter the *Server* buffer whereas I'd
rather like to be able to have them in the Killed (or Zombie if new)
Groups list so I can see them when I press 'A k'. Is this possible? I've
tried recreating the active file with gnus-cache-generate-active, also
gnus-group-find-new-groups (with one and two C-u prefixes) but I keep
seeing only the groups from old servers (gmane, gwene, and my primary
server individual.net)

A list of pertinent variables:

gnus-activate-level 5 (changed from the default which is 6) 
gnus-group-default-list-level 5
gnus-group-use-permanent-levels nil
gnus-level-default-subscribed 3
gnus-level-default-unsubscribed 6
gnus-level-killed 9
gnus-level-subscribed 5
gnus-level-unsubscribed 7
gnus-level-zombie 8
gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method gnus-subscribe-zombies

Gnus v5.13

GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll
bars) of 2013-01-11 on david.espiga4.com.ar

-- 
Ezequiel Birman