Slow Downloads

[JNRII]

Hello,
Newbie here, please be nice. :}
I am trolling the forums, but cannot figure out what I am missing. My speed is poor. I get about 350kb on the high end when connecting with 18 connections.
I have:
SABnzbd.org | Latest Release 0.7.3
I tested with SuperNZB. I got more than that with 2 server connections. Sometimes, as high as .9mb
Windows 7 32 bit
usenetserver speedtest.net shows 5mb
One note I saw, drop servers to 10 and remove ssl. No help
2 GB RAM, 1GB used. CPU utilization usually less than 10
I had article cache at 128M, changed it to 512M with no effect.
usenetserver.com is my news reader
NewsBin has 1.2Mbps right now.
I originally was running through a VPN, but pulled that out. I also removed SSL with no impact. I changed the port from 563 to 119 to 23.
Yes, I am running all three newsgroup downloading services at one time. I wanted to see if it would impact SABnzbd. The poor speeds with SABnzbd were even with a clean boot and only SABnzbd running. I added the other two and performed downloads without impacting SABnzbd. This tells me I messed up something in the SABnzbd config, but I can't figure out what.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

[shypike]

Checklist:
- Use about 8-12 connections, that's usual the optimum
- Make sure that Config->Special->randomize_server_ip is "off".
- Don't use WiFi or switch it off when you also have a wired connection
- No speed limit in Config->General

SABnzbd reports its speed in MBytes/sec and not Mbits/sec.
The hardware is more than good enough for a decent speed.
Did you try the same NZB file for testing SABnzbd vs. other software?
Are you using security software?

[JNRII]

Checklist reply:
Connections: Currently at 10
Config-Special-Randomize IP is and has been off
Wired: Yes
Wireless: Off
Config-General Download Limit: 0

Right now, in the window and on my Firefox tab, it shows 169 KB/s
I turned off the Security software for a short test. It had no impact.
I did try the some (3) of the same NZB files for testing in different applications.

Thank you for your response, but these settings appear to match up. Where else should I look?

Jim

[shypike]

Do the same NZB files give you a better speed in other download software?
Are any files downloaded after a while?
If you hover the cursor over the job title, you get a popup listing the amount of missing articles.
If this number runs up, it's an indication that the post is not on the server.

[JNRII]

The same NZBs came down in SuperNZB.
If I hover, "downloading" comes up.
The files do download.

Is there someway to see what is going on? Are my expectations off?

[sander]

The same NZBs came down in SuperNZB.
If I hover, "downloading" comes up.
The files do download.

And with what speed with SuperNZB?

[JNRII]

SuperNZB (Eval version, so only two connections) went as high as .9 mb last night.

Right now, I am downloading different NZB's
SuperNZB shows 697 Kpbs.
NewsBin is at 1001 Kpbs with 8 connections.
SABnzbd is at 223KB/s with 10 connections.

I am allowed 20 connections on usenetserver.com

[sander]

SuperNZB (Eval version, so only two connections) went as high as .9 mb last night.

Right now, I am downloading different NZB's
SuperNZB shows 697 Kpbs.
NewsBin is at 1001 Kpbs with 8 connections.
SABnzbd is at 223KB/s with 10 connections.

and have you seen this: http://wiki.sabnzbd.org/faq#toc30 ... bits versys bytes?

[JNRII]

Yes I have seen this. so, right now, if this runs correct, with only 10 connections, I am getting 1.288MB/S With overhead, I see a bit less than that, but, let's go with it.

In my thought process, if I get that type of download with 10 connections, 10 more would double that (at least). I know I have the throughput, because the other two software programs have the same / similar speeds.

So, to test that: Fresh boot with same experience. I closed SABnzbd and SickBeard. I added the 10 connections used by SABnzbd to NewsBin. I restarted NewsBin to ensure that all 18 server connections were being used.

After restarting the NewsBin download, I am getting 381/3048 download speed. This is what I had expected to see out of SABnzbd. I cannot do the same test with SuperNZB because I am limited to two connections. However, SuperNZB is showing 325 / 2.6mbs.

As you can see, even verifying the math again (I wanted to be sure I gave you an accurate answer), I think I am missing something in my SABnzbd configuration.

Thank you for responding. Hopefully, this helps point to the proper solution.

Jim

[sander]

OK, you've seen the bits-versus-bytes-FAQ. As SAB reports in Bytes, and you write with captial "B" (meaning Bytes), I translate it into bits:

"SABnzbd is at 223KB/s with 10 connections.": 223KB/s = 2230 kbps, so 2.2Mbps
"1.288MB/S" = 12.8 Mbps.

Both SAB, right? If so: that's quite a difference. So ... is that really what you mean to say?

And doubling the number of connections from 10 to 20 will probably NOT double your speed: 10 connections is a lot, and will probably saturate your Internet connection. Tip: test your Internet connection speed at http://speedtest.net/

[JNRII]

1.288MB/S is the number with the math. It was showing 161KB/S I was trying to use the same unit of measure.

I was afraid the pipe was saturated. That was the test I was performing by starting NewsBin and SuperNZB.

With all three running, SABnzbd did not go down, but remained constant.

The other night, when I first noticed the problem, Speedtest was 5MB/S down. RIGHT NOW, it is about 3.5MB/S
NewsBin is downloading at 2.5MB/S and SuperNZB is downloading at 1.2MB/S

I know it seem over the pipe, but we all know how the numbers jump around (or are not reported properly) when you are swapping screens.

If the pipe is not saturated and I double the connections, shouldn't my download double? (Or at least increase greatly?)

Same ports and newsserver for all tests.

[sander]

I really don't understand what you're saying and calculating, so let me say some things in general:

- "b" stands for bits, "B" for bytes. See the FAQ. Do not confuse or mix them.
- the resulting speed of a newsgroup download is the most limiting factor in the chain of: CPU, RAM, LAN/WLAN speed, Internet speed, Newsserver speed, ISP limiter, etc, etc. Oh, and of other downloads you or someone else on the the same Internet connection is running; so if you use SABnzbd and Newsbin and/or Speedtest and the same time, each application will have a lower speed than the maximum possible.
- 10 newsgroup connections is often enough and saturate one or more of the items mentioned above (your Internet connection, or CPU, or ...). So raising the number of connection will NOT raise the speed.
- A newsgroup download speed going up and down, can be caused by: a bad WLAN connection, other downloads, ISP throttling

I hope this helps

[JNRII]

K, let me clarify some things.
I am a newbie in relation to SABnzbd and this forum, not networking. I was trying to be explicit and my have been confusing things.

For this note, all numbers are averages based on observations. I have not put any type of trace software in place.
Tonight's testing:
Per Speedtest.net, I have about a 5Mb/s pipe
SABnzbd, with 20 connections, downloads under 1.5Mb/s
Total Newserver download speed: 1.5Mb/s
If I cut SABnzbd to 10 connections, no change.
I added SuperNZB to test. 2 connections due to trial. I get 1.5Mb/s approx speed on 2 connections. SABnzbd stays at about 1.5Mb/s
Total Newserver download speed: 3Mb/s
I added NewsBin to test. 8 connections. This maxes out my usenet server. I get 1.6Mb/s download. SuperNZB drops to 1Mb/s SABnzbd drops to about 1.2
Total Newserver download speed: 3.8Mb/s

All connections: no ssl, port 119, same news service, same login. I disabled my VPN to remove it from the equation. I have shut down everything I can in order to have as little as possible interfere.

Windows 7 32bit

If my pipe is saturated, (LAN/WLAN, INternet, Newsserver, ISP limited, etc, etc) I would expect I would max out at about the 1.5Mb/s Starting the other programs should have had an inverse effect.....If the other software was getting speed, the SABnzbd should drop dramatically. It does not.

Throughout, my cpu does not sustain over 40%. Usually, around 15%
Memory usage: 900MB of 2GB. 100GB free space.
HardDrive is not thrashing.


If I am expecting too much for SABnzbd to saturate the pipe itself, then I can adjust my expectations. I figured I was missing a buffering / cache / throttle of some type.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thank you for your time.

[shypike]

With mediocre hardware (say Atom), SABnzbd can reach between 5-8 MBytes/sec,
using a Linux variant. This does mean a high CPU load.
With my three year old dual-core Windows 7 PC I can get up to 11 MBytes/sec, enough to max out my 100Mbit/sec FTTH connection.
There are many factors involved, but in your case it's not simply SABnzbd itself.

SABnzbd isn't the fastest program on earth, but, with the exception of "Total Newserver", other Usenet software cannot saturate your line
nor max out your CPU. The other programs should be equally capable of higher speeds.
It does look like there's something odd going on in your network setup that only
"Total" is not very sensitive to.

It might be possible to tweak SABnzbd internally to deal in some better way to utilize the network better,
but I'm in the dark about that.
Very few people have this kind of complaint, so there's not much to go on.
I bet that even the "Total" author has not consciously created a program that works better in your situation.

I know this sounds all a bit like "blame the victim", but there's a limit to the amount of testing
and diagnosing work we can do,

[JNRII]

Understood.

Thank you for taking the time to review and reply.