My "not enough repair blocks" problem

[kudzu]

Hey everyone,

I love SABnzbd.  I'm new to the world of Usenet, and having an automatic program available to help me download has made it very easy for me to jump right in.  I've been having some problems, though; my downloads sometimes fail.  When they do, I get this error message: "Repair failed, not enough repair blocks (41 short)."  Not all downloads fail, though.  I've searched the forums for a way to solve the problem, which has led me to try disabling my firewall and using different browsers, but I get the same result.  I tried to follow the directions that someone posted here on the forums for creating a debug log file, but the file is too big to attach to this post, even when compressed.  I did copy one of the failed nzb's into a text document, which I managed to attach.

About my set-up:
Version: SABnzbdplus 0.5.3~rc1-0ubuntu1~jcfp3~karmic
OS: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic
Install-type: terminal "apt," as per instructions on the sabnzbd.org download page.
Skin (if applicable): Smpl
Firewall Software: IP tables with Firestarter
Are you using IPV6? most likely no
Is the issue reproducible? yes

Thanks

[shypike]

Usenet is not always a reliable medium.
That's the reason people post par2 files at all.
The most likely reason is that the post is simply incomplete and possibly
the NZB file doesn't contain all posted par2 files.
Also each server has it's own retention time (if you pay more, it's longer).

Try to create a new NZB with one of the search engines.

BTW: I removed your attachment, it's against out policies.
You can use the bugs@ email address for that, when asked.
I'll take a look at your NZB, but my guess is that the problem is with the post and/or your Usenet provider.

[kudzu]

I'm currently signed up with Giganews, and they have a pretty good retention time (670 days).  I'm not really sure what you mean by "create a new NZB with one of the search engines."  I created the nzb I posted with binsearch.info after I searched for and found the file I wanted.  I still have my log file - is there anything in particular I can look for in it?

Also, sorry about violating the attachment policy.

[shypike]

Searching with a general indexer gives less reliable results than when you use
a moderated indexer line nzbmatrix.
If you did not get a large number of "missing articles" warnings,
then the NZB just did not have enough files.
Also using Giganews is no guarantee against posters screwing up.

In general SABnzbd is quite reliable in this areas and we don't go
after a incidental report about an incomplete download.
It's quite normal that some NZB are not good enough.
It happens to me too. Sometimes it's enough to do the search again
because the indexer has had time to catch up.

[kudzu]

Ah, I see.  I didn't know that about general indexers vs. moderated indexers.  Thanks for the tip.  I did happen to get a large number of "missing articles" warnings, though, if that means anything important.

[shypike]

Strange. I just downloaded it using the NZB you mailed.
No problem. No missing articles are all, completed fine.
Could you try again?

[kudzu]

I'm at work right now, but I'll try it again later tonight.  Thanks.

[kudzu]

Huh, well.  It works now.  I maxed out my GB for the Giganews trial I was on and decided to try Usenetserver instead, and lo and behold, it works now.  Thanks for trying to help.

[pobox]

Every time I had an incomplete download, I always knew the reason why.
I will not shrug it off as an unsolved mystery.

[kudzu]

Since it worked eventually, I'm not really sure what it could have been.  The only thing I changed was my server.  I still get the same error sometimes now, for other nzb's, but I just assume it must be the incomplete post issue.

[pobox]

It's unfortunate that the forum policy prevents you from learning anything; a 3rd party observer such as myself doesn't know what you're trying to download and can't help.  If you're comfortable with sending the subject line of the problem post to a 3rd party by Personal Message, then go ahead.  I have a free complimentary Giganews Diamond account, and I'm the world's leading authority on the possible reasons why a Usenet post might not download completely.  Usenet is reliable enough so that posts which can't be repaired are really very uncommon.  I don't accept that it's normal to get a bad NZB or to have to repair a post, and I especially don't accept that it's normal for posters to screw up - it's very rare for the poster to be at fault.

[batman599]

I also get a lot of download fails, "Not enough repair blocks" is MY error. Its annoying to download something for hours and then not have it work at the end.

I have newsdemon and I tried downloading "National Geographic Amazing Planet 2006 COMPLETE BLURAY CNT" off NZBMatrix and I got an error that 700 blocks were short.

Any ideas?

[sander]

I also get a lot of download fails, "Not enough repair blocks" is MY error. Its annoying to download something for hours and then not have it work at the end.

I have newsdemon and I tried downloading "National Geographic Amazing Planet 2006 COMPLETE BLURAY CNT" off NZBMatrix and I got an error that 700 blocks were short.

Any ideas?

You could run my nzb-prechecker:

Code: Select all

sander@R540:~/Downloads$ python nzb-checker-threaded.py  --nzb=National*.nzb  --server=newsreader3.eweka.nl --user=333333 --pass=blabla --thread=5
Version is: 2011-07-01 SJ
Start reading NZB file ...
... Exiting

... reading NZB file completed
Wait until threads are done checking all articles, which can take a few minutes ...

... threads are done


Articles: 57893
OK: 42096
Not OK: 15796
Connection error: 1
Completeness on server is 72.71 %
sander@R540:~/Downloads$ 

... which is a low completeness.

Or wait for SAB 0.7.0 which seems to have a pre-checker built in.

[pobox]

The batman599 is using Newsdemon, not Eweka. The post has a tiny defect, (021/652) and (036/652) of .r66 didn't propagate from the Eweka posting server. Other than that it seems to be perfect. I don't have Newsdemon but used NZB Download Checker and found another Highwinds server, Newsgroupdirect, is missing 140 articles, 0.24%, from the RARs and PAR2s. As 148 recovery blocks were posted, Highwinds would need a backup server. Better to have 2 backup servers, cheap block accounts from Astraweb and Blocknews for example. Yet the batman599 says short 700 blocks. Was that round number made up? Can't imagine what happened, but I see no reason to give up on downloading that post.