Astraweb & Pan

[Marjane Satrapi]

I've just switched to Linux again(Ubuntu specifically). And just subscribed to the unlimited $11 Astraweb service, and I'm using Pan.

Usually I used Alt.Binz on Windows, and that's the reader I'm most used to. But since I'm on Linux I thought I would try a client native to Linux. So, when I started Pan it asks me for my server address, port, and connections. So I added all that. But...Pan will only accept 4 connections.

I'm using Astraweb's General server(news.astraweb.com), and I'm suppose to get up to 20 connections. But when I input 10 connections into Pan, it automatically goes back to 4. So for the ones that are familiar with Pan, how can I get it to use over 4 connections?

I think I'm going to just install Wine and go back to Alt.Binz. It's the one I'm the used to. But I thought I would give Pan a try for a couple days. What are some other good Linux clients? I can't even get HellaNZB to install since it's not in the Synaptic Package Manager. So are there any other good ones besides Pan and HellaNZB?

Thanks for any info.

EDIT: Yeah, so I just installed Wine and alt.binz, and set alt.binz to 10 connections. And all 10 work. So I wonder why 10 won't work in Pan. I guess it really doesn't matter since I still get my full speed with 4 connections in Pan.

[user with a doubt]

I use sabnzbd, it works well. Quick search found this instruction for ubuntu: http://sabnzbd.wikidot.com/quick-setup#toc1

Edit: the instruction doesn't grab the latest version, make sure you do that with the wget command.

[mephistopheles]

Thank you rippinitup. I like that making hellanzb an icon suggestion. Never thought of that. And that's easier than opening terminal and typing hellanzb.

And yeah, when I got hellanzb running last night, I ran two nzb's just to see how the program was. And you're right, it is kind of a resource hog considering it's running from terminal. Hellanzb is using roughly twice the cpu than Pan does on my computer. So that kind of sucks. But...I like how Hellanzb shows each of my connections running and what they're doing. Something that Pan doesn't. So for this reason I might stick with hellanzb.

Another thing I noticed, is that when hellanzb starts going, all of my connections will be downloading. But then a couple minutes into the download only one of the connections is downloading(the first one). I don't think it's Astraweb since I started the same download in alt.binz, and every connection will be downloading all the way through.

You ever come across that with hellanzb?

Hmmm...I'll defintely check out NTTPGrab. Sounds pretty nice. I'll try it out after I finally get SabNZBd up and running. I found someone that actually made and miantains a .deb package of Sabnzbd. So I'm going to try that and see how the resources are. It should be a lot easier for me to setup since it's a .deb. Here is the link if you're interested.

Thanks for the help. I'll give you a pm since I have more Linux questions.

EDIT: After looking at those screens for NTTPGrab(thanks for including all that), it looks like what I've been wanting under Linux. As long as it's as light as Pan, then this may be my new newsreader. I like how it looks like GrabIt. Something I'm very familiar with. I'll get it all tested out after Sabnzbd.

But thanks for letting me know about that. It looks great.

[Salsa Jo]

You can also try Lottanzb, it is a GUI frontend to Hellanzb. Very easy to set up and use. It has all the basic features such as par check/repair and unrar. I am not 100% but you may have to install hellanzb from the repos before you install lottanzb but it has been awhile so I am not sure. If you get a dependency error then you know :P

You can grab the deb file at:
http://www.lottanzb.org/downloads

[KSbooks]

Thank you very much for the recommendations guys. I appreciate that.

[FurbiesAndBeans]

Thank you Ripinitup, I been looking for a good binary download client for Linux for some time. I never really liked Pan that much. LottaNZB and NNTPGrab are just what I was looking for. I like how simple LottaNZB is and how it saves and organizes downloads. The GUI in NNTPGrab displays more info and is pretty simple as well. Thanks again.

[Operation Mindcrime]

You want to use the minimum number of connections that gives you full speed anyway. So if you get it with 4 then don't use 10.

[Congrats Kevin Jonas ♥]

@Funkin. No I have not had the connection issue with hellanzb, but I am still using Ubuntu 8.04 this could just be a bug with hella and 8.10.

@Rott3n. Your welcome.

[Revenge Wanted]

Forgot to mention. If you want to stay with pan all you have to do to get it to use all 20 connections is add your server info 5 times. It will set it up as 5 separate servers but use all 20 connections at once.

Pan is a very good client as it uses so very little CPU and Memory. But if you like the features of Alt.Binz then HellaNzb is the way to go used with LottaNzb GUI. Plus the hellafox firefox extension works a treat with it.

[Sellenzz]

Yeah, that could be. NNTPGrab is a great looking newsreader. The best looking one I've came across on Linux so far. I have gotten Sabnzbd running though, and I am loving it. When I first got it working earlier today, it was slowing my browsing down in FF. But now I've tried it again, and my browsing is just as fast as it was without Sabnzbd running. Perhaps maybe because I set the refresh rate from 5 seconds to 1 minute.

As long as my browsing continues to keep being fast when Sabnzbd is running(the staff on Sabnzbd forums says that it shouldn't interfere with the browsing at all), then I think I might have found my new Linux news reader. It's pretty much non-exsistant in the resources dept. It uses even less than Pan does. And I love how you control everything right from your browser. And there are some nice skins for it too.

So as long as Sabnzbd hold up well, then I'm going to keep using it. If not, I'm going to switch to NNTPGrab.

Thanks for your help.