When i read messages manually on Yahoo it doesn't seem to be any limitation. I pressed the "next" button and could look at more than two hundred messages in about 3 minutes.
There must be some difference between the automatic and manual sequence. If PG-offline could simulate the manual sequence it would be possible to download more than around 150 messages.
Peter
Peter,
You say you *could* look at 200 messages in 3 minutes. I take it you haven't actually done this?
I'm wondering what would really happen if you did browse two to three hundred messages manually. My guess is you'd get kicked. I'd try this myself but the European Yahoo limit seems to be well over 3000 messages & I'm not going to attempt that!
Cheers,
Wilson.
Hi,
My english is not the best. I live in Sweden.
I looked at more than 200 hundred messages but didn't read them. I pressed the next button as soon as possible. I stopped when I was well over my 150 llimit on download with PG-Offline.
What I mean is that it looks as you can download without a liomit or a higher limit when you read messages with a browser.
If it is so, it ought to be possible to download the messages with PGO in the same way.
It should be possible to make Yahoo belive that you are looking on the messages with a browser and avoid the download limit.
Peter B
Peter,
I understand what you're saying.
In our experience, UK users appear to have a limit around 3000 - 4000 messages. US users appear to have a limit around 200 - 300 messages.
I am surprised that your limit is as low as 150 messages.
Are you using the 'download, wait, repeat' feature in version 2.0.160?
Cheers,
Wilson.
HA!! Downloaded 4650 messages in 3 hours!!
Sweet.
I'm sure that Yahoo people are reading this forum, a bit concerned about posting how in this forum, cause they will adjust their tactics to match.
I'll discuss privately with Wilson regarding the technique and how to get it out to registered users.
LB
I have been getting about 300 or more downloads per day for the last month or so before Yahoo locks me out. Before that in Dec last year I was able to download without limit. I have noticed that if I delete my Yahoo cookie before my next connect that I can get back in less than 24 hrs. Otherwise, it usually is more than 24 hours. I am interested in any tricks you have come up with that work. I have a friend that is getting 1600 to 1200 per day. I have communicated with Yahoo support and get the run-around.
Thanks for the suggestion regarding the cookie. I'll try that.
I will contact you privately about Lens limit avoidance method.
Cheers,
Wilson.
Hey, Wilson!
What is Len's Limit Avoidance Method (aka L.L.A.M.)? We've (a fellow member) and I have been working at downloading all the messages on Straight Razor Place (bytheway, all of y'all come join the group! Over 1000 members (and over 17,000 messages)) and it's slow-going. Here's the url: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/straightrazorplace/ (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/straightrazorplace/) . :D
Its method 2 in the registration email I sent you.
Cheers,
Wilson.
Hey, Wilson!
I'm trying something a bit different than just clicking through the ads. This time whenever I came to an ad, I've clicked on it and let it load, then hit either back icon or click the Straight Razor Place icon, then keep going. We'll see how that works out. Evildrome, huh? You play EV, too?
--------------
This time around I did a bit better: 155 messages downloaded! A personal best (even though I didn't do a thing except watch the program do its thing).
------------------
I wonder what would happen if you could download the messages offline (like using your browser offline)? You might be able to go from A-to-Z with no problems.
~Tim ^_-
Tim,
Can you do me a favour... can you see how many messages you can go through manually?
I'm guessing its unlimited but I'd like to know. Personally I surfed through 630 messages but my download limit (> 1000) seems to be way bigger than the US limit.
If you're limit is 155, can you try & surf say, 300? What happens? Other than you get RSI :)
Cheers,
Wilson.
No prob.! I'll take a whack at it! RSI...what's that... Really Shitty Interruptions, hehe? ::) Bytheway, is there a shortcut key/quick way to go to "next message?"
Oh! One more to add to my wish list: some sort of "alert" notifier to tell us when Yahoo's cut us off (or when the download is finished).
~Tim ^_-
Hey, Wilson!
I started at #1 and got up to #266 before they kicked me out. Was shaving with a different str8 razor (Shavette-uses replaceable razor blades (like a safety razor)) and cut a two-inch gash into my upper-right-side cheek. In a word: OW! In another word: BLEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
Oh, well. Learn something new everyday!
~Tim ^_-
Tim,
What does it look like when you get booted online? You just click next & then... what?
Cheers,
Wilson.
I get a screen that says :
"This page is currently unavailable: Unfortunately, we are unable to process your request at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later"
Not only do I get booted from SRP, but cannot access "My Groups," or any other groups page. I can, however, get to my homepage.
~Tim ^_^
I wonder if using a proxy server service like this:
http://www.anonymizer.com/index.shtml
would work?
Cheers,
Wilson.
Has anyone tried that? Does that sort of thing really hide an ip address?
Rich
I tried it out of curiosity. You can get a trial account with anonymizer.com.
It didn't work. Should have done though.
Wilson.
I'm positive the limit is based on IP address alone.
AOL caches lots of stuff and doesn't quite give direct internet access so that's why AOL7 would work.
I have a cable modem with a dynamic IP, there is a way to continually change the ip addy whenever I want (not quite legal) though it has helped me download the groups. There is a yamaha_zuma group I want to download all of so I can search it quickly and easily but it has 24000+ messages. I'm up to 10000 getting about 150-200 posts at a time before it will hit the limit and kick me off. If I go back to a ip address I used before it works after 24hrs. It might work sooner but I don't get back to it before then.
Question:
Are groups from uk.groups.yahoo.com different from groups.yahoo.com? It could be based on site. Though I just tried to go to the uk.g.y.com for the first time and it seems I'm kicked from there also. I'll try to find a group from there as soon as I change my ip and see how much it let me d/l.
Well, I've tried a uk group, and get the same thing, can download 150-200 msgs then it dies. I'd be pretty certain that it must be a byte limit since I get a different number of msg's each time and it averages out. Perhaps if a history function was added that kept a record of how many messages were downloaded each session and the avg size of each, would be really usefull... like something that would analize the log file. As the log file is now it gets to be 10+ megs after a day of leaving it alone because there are 14000 lines saying
3/27/2004 12:00:01 AM > Receive message : 23754
3/27/2004 12:00:01 AM > Error : Invalid page!
Oh, and if people in the UK can download so many more messages then yahoo would have to be using ip to detect location since it's not based on if you're at the .uk site. So a proxy in the UK would allow people in the us to download lots of messages.
It would seem that if one created say, 10 Yahoo accounts, then one could run till one of those drops out, and then just sign in as another account.
Being on a cable modem, when I shut the modem off and wait a few minutes and then turn it back on, I get a different IP address, at least that is what the installer told me.
For dial-up, I could dial into any one of about 6 local phone call numbers to get on line. I would assume that each had a seperate IP address ?
So... if there is some magic combination of cookies, IP address and account monitoring, maybe there is some way to alter each in turn to get past the ceiling ?
Just an idea.
Dave
Dave,
The block is IP based. You can run the same ID so long as you change IP's every so often. Dialup would do it but its so slow you could be occasionally locked out on a Cable connection & still get more messages with the Cable.
A Cable connection that you can switch on & off to get a new IP would work. 9 times out of 10 I get the same IP number. Its almost static but just not static enough to say, run a server. Gee, I wonder why that is. Not.
The best thing would be a proxy with a big list of proxys to randomly connect through. You'd need to set that up yourself as PGO does not directly support that option.
Having said all that, when do you really need to get more than 100,000 messages in one session? Not that often.
Cheers,
Wilson.
I just discovered this wonderful program earlier this morning, downloaded it, installed it, and used it to download the entire 17,022 message archive of a particular Group to which I belong. I had no clue (nor warning) that there might be some limit imposed by Yahoo! Groups on how many messages I could download in one day (or at one time), so I just assumed I could do all of them.
After discovering a limitation elsewhere in the program, I managed to find my way here to see what might be of interest. Finding the "Wish List" section, I happily discovered that someone else has already covered the issue. But, while I was here, I discovered this interesting thread (and others), which indicate that there is, or at least has been, such a limitation in place, and people have been tearing their hair out trying to find workarounds.
To test this, I added another group and downloaded another 1486 messages. I sampled the messages throughout that group and confirmed that they were (probably) all successfully downloaded. Checking that first group, the first messages, the last several dozen, and every other message I checked (maybe an hundred) were also successfully downloaded.
Now, I am behind a hardware firewall with a fixed IP address. If there is, in fact, some IP address limitation, then either it is not working today, or else there is some other consideration applied by Yahoo in determining when to impose this limitation.
Meanwhile, PG Offline is happily downloading a huge message archive for me. Color me very ;D also!
Hi William,
There's a very complete (ie long thread) covering this topic here:
http://pgoffline.com/forum/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=17
Its probably best to read just the last couple of pages unless you're interested in the history of PGO.
The short answer however is that PGO now uses a caching download which downloads 100 messages per 'hit' on the Yahoo servers. The 'hit' limit is 200 - 300. So you can usually reliably get 20,000 - 30,000 messages per session (24hrs). I have had well over 100,000 messages in one session though so the limit is probably load biased.
Cheers,
Wilson.