may be onto something here...

[ginahoy]

Hi Wilson,
I was continuing to d/l an entire group this am (using pgo v.175) and the program stopped when it experienced a single missing message. I had used the "Start" button (not refresh).

The log at the bottom of screen reported invalid page (as expected), but the next entry was "invalid pages limit was reached" and the download stopped. On the Options/Workflow menu, I had checked the "stop after receiving..." checkbox and set the limit to 8. I checked the group archive via Yahoo and there was a single missing message. Perhaps this is a bug?

I resumed the download right away and was able to get a total of 315 messages (6MB, both sessions) before hitting the limit for real. However, in this case, the program tried 8 times before stopping, as expected. Apparently, the program responds differently to a missed message than the 999 error. It should respond the same...

BUT WAIT!! This suggests that the program CAN tell the difference between missing messages and the 999 error. If the programmer can figure out how to recognize this difference (with the above scenario as a guide, he should be able to), then the user would no longer need to set a limit on invalid page hits. Pgo would be able to continue through a string of missed messages (reporting them as such), and when it gets a 999 error, it would simply pause for n minutes and then continue. That eliminates the whole issue of how the limits work (which seem to change with the wind anyway!). This not only would minimize wait time (no unnecessary hits after the limit is reached), but ensures maximum number of messages per session. The only variable would be how long to set the wait time.

This also simplifies the options menu. The bottom half of the workflow tab would be eliminated, and the download tab would only need to include the initial delay and a time-out period. Hmmm... on second thought, you may want to retain the "number of messages" and/or "messages per minute" limits as an option, for those who prefer not to lock themselves out of their groups during the time-out period.

What do you think?

David Butler

[Wilson Logan]

David,

I'll ask the developer to have a look at this thread.
Its something we can test easily enough.

Cheers,

Wilson.