"M8RIX" wrote in message
...
What is the problem with the group "Microsoft.Test"?
I sent 3 posts to that group nearly half an hour ago and they still have not
showed up there.
Further, when I downloaded the headers it showed 8000+ headers, but in
reality there were only approx. 50 messages available to read.
I have OE set get 1000 headers at a time, so I had to get headers 9 times to
get the 50 or so messages in the group.
Why didn't it get all 50 at once, and why is it saying that there are 8000+
messages?


The problem seems to be that somehow great big holes in the sequence
occur on some of the servers for that newsgroup in particular.
Unfortunately OE interprets the 1000 specification that you give as a request
only to do XOVER for that number regardless of how many headers
each request actually brings in. So for example, if there happen to be two
headers available near the end of the range and more than that only 1000's
further back you have to press the Headers button that many times to get back
to the others. Then the next problem is that if the server you are connected to
is not just one server but a pool of them and they aren't all synchronized
(which I suspect was the case here) then the request to get the next 1000
may not even be appropriate for that server (e.g. still outside its range.)

The only way to really understand what is happening is to trace the client's
NNTP requests and the server's responses. Unfortunately, for the case
of the XOVER (and especially for the assumed case of there being holes
in the sequence ) OE's Troubleshooting log is insufficient.


I now have some sympathy for people who post test messages to regular
newsgroups if the "test" groups are of such questionable integrity and
reliability.


FWIW at least according to telnet it looks relatively static now.


FYI

Robert Aldwinckle
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