[Pan-users] Re: Connections

[Duncan]

Travis <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 28
Jul 2008 20:03:24 -0700:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Daryl Styrk" <address@hidden>
> To: <address@hidden> Sent: Monday,
> July 28, 2008 6:32 PM
> Subject: [Pan-users] Connections
> 
> 
>> Why only 4?
>>
> Charles decided to comply with some standard and that standard says only
> 4 connections.
> 
> You may edit the "servers.xml" file and change it to any number your
> news provider allows.

That standard is the GNKSA, Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval.  You can 
check the link on the pan site.  Anyway, Charles is rightfully very proud 
of pan's 100% as he works very hard to get and keep it there, and since 
it says four connections per server max -- settable in the GUI -- that's 
what pan does.

The reason is that in general, not just for news but for http and ftp and 
certain other protocols as well, four connections per server per user has 
always been considered the maximum "polite" usage, since each connection 
takes resources.  Of course, when one is specifically allowed more, 
generally because it's part of the package one is paying for, it's a paid 
privilege so the usual limit doesn't apply, but pan has no way of knowing 
that.

But as Travis mentioned, you may edit the servers.xml file by hand and 
set whatever number of connections you want and that your server allows.  
GNKSA doesn't say anything about that, only about the GUI.  Since this 
was one of the more frequently requested features in old-pan, Charles 
made it a setting in the config file for new-pan, while /still/ keeping 
that 100% GNKSA seal because it wasn't in the GUI. =8^)

-- 
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