RE: [leafnode-list] Limiting bandwidth

[Ed <mbhsys@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim and Matthias,

Thanks for the feedback. 

I've started running with "delaybody".

I'm anxious to see how it goes.

Thanks,  Ed


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Hague [mailto:jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Hague
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 5:37 AM
To: leafnode-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [leafnode-list] Limiting bandwidth


On 02-Oct-2003 Ed wrote:
> The difference is that with a newsreader you generally only download 
> the body of messages you WANT to see.  With LF you download every message.

With a newsreader must you download at least all the article overviews, so
you can see the article subjects, date and so forth. A good newsreader can
be set to only download the body if you try and read it, or flag the article
or similar.

I must admit I don't want that behaviour when reading normal articles. I
want the next article to be shown the *instant* I move on, otherwise it
really slows down reading.

> This may be ok for text groups but is a real problem with binary 
> groups  Or am I missing something?

I don't think so. Dealing with this at a news server level is tricky and
IMHO rather unsatisfactory.

I maintain a Leafnode-alike, Noffle, which tries by allowing you to set a
per-group read mode specifying that only the overviews should be downloaded
- or you can set a filter specifying overview-only if the article is over a
given size. If you attempt to read the article, you get a place-holder
article and the read article is downloaded on the next fetch. But you still
have to come back to the article and persuade your newsreader to re-fetch
it.

Alternatively, you can put it into 'online' mode, in which case Noffle
becomes a straight caching server (no group auto-(un)subscribe) and the
article body is fetched from upstream straight away. But you can't
(currently - hmmm, wonder if it would be a good idea) do this on a per-group
basis.

Personally, I find 'online' mode so useful that I never use it. I know from
bug reports that either the code implementing this is perfect (which seems
extremely unlikely) or that nobody else uses it either. And when I have
tried using 'download overviews only', I've not found it a way or working
that agrees with me. Mind you, I don't read binary groups.



-- 
Jim Hague - jim.hague@xxxxxxx          Never trust a computer you can't
lift.

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