I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
Giganews.
I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
a different group. Then it all starts over.
It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
*note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:49:46 -0400, Bill Day wrote:

> I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
> Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
> Giganews.
> I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
> 1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
> all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
> a different group. Then it all starts over.
> It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
> years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
> I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
> to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
> *note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks in advance.

When you try to get the body and it just hangs...
What does Agent's Task Manager show in the "Active Tasks" pane?
Tools >> Task Manager

My guess is that the 'Get Body' task may be queued up behind several
other tasks. Clicking 'Stop all tasks' would kill all the tasks, and
the next 'Get Body' task would not queue up behind anything.

What are those other tasks, and how many of them are there?

--
Kind regards
Ralph

It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for in the
one case you are devoured when dead, in the other case while alive.
-- Ἀντισθένης (Antisthenes)

On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 16:24:10 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:49:46 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
>
>> I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
>> Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
>> Giganews.
>> I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
>> 1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
>> all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
>> a different group. Then it all starts over.
>> It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
>> years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
>> I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
>> to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
>> *note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
>> Any ideas?
>> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>When you try to get the body and it just hangs...
>What does Agent's Task Manager show in the "Active Tasks" pane?
> Tools >> Task Manager
>
>My guess is that the 'Get Body' task may be queued up behind several
>other tasks. Clicking 'Stop all tasks' would kill all the tasks, and
>the next 'Get Body' task would not queue up behind anything.
>
>What are those other tasks, and how many of them are there?
I have no other task going. Nothing is set to watch other groups or
threads... task manager just shows what I'm attempting to get.
It's not a huge deal... just an interesting nuisance. I've put up
with it for several months...just as I do its habit of putting the
cursor at the very top of each group, in the oldest threads, when I
retrieve new headers.
,,, then, a simple 'alt end' sends it to the bottom where my new
threads appear in red. so.. *shrug*

The unusual thing about these minor issues is that they never
happened before the crash, thru 3 upgrades of Agent.
I have always been able to use Agent's menu to control how & when
it does things... which is why I wondered if Giganews interferes, even
though I can't imagine how & why.

Thanks for replying.

On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 09:00:52 -0400, Bill Day <extree@verizon.net>
wrote:

>On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 16:24:10 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:49:46 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
>>
>>> I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
>>> Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
>>> Giganews.
>>> I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
>>> 1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
>>> all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
>>> a different group. Then it all starts over.
>>> It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
>>> years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
>>> I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
>>> to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
>>> *note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
>>> Any ideas?
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>>When you try to get the body and it just hangs...
>>What does Agent's Task Manager show in the "Active Tasks" pane?
>> Tools >> Task Manager
>>
>>My guess is that the 'Get Body' task may be queued up behind several
>>other tasks. Clicking 'Stop all tasks' would kill all the tasks, and
>>the next 'Get Body' task would not queue up behind anything.
>>
>>What are those other tasks, and how many of them are there?
>I have no other task going. Nothing is set to watch other groups or
>threads... task manager just shows what I'm attempting to get.
> It's not a huge deal... just an interesting nuisance. I've put up
>with it for several months...just as I do its habit of putting the
>cursor at the very top of each group, in the oldest threads, when I
>retrieve new headers.
>,,, then, a simple 'alt end' sends it to the bottom where my new
>threads appear in red. so.. *shrug*
>
> The unusual thing about these minor issues is that they never
>happened before the crash, thru 3 upgrades of Agent.
> I have always been able to use Agent's menu to control how & when
>it does things... which is why I wondered if Giganews interferes, even
>though I can't imagine how & why.
>
>Thanks for replying.
....of course, I meant "ctrl-end" there.
.. And after browsing a couple other groups, I still need to go thru
the "get new headers in folder" then "stop all tasks" again in order
to read my own post of a few miutes earlier in this group.

On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 09:00:52 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 16:24:10 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
> wrote:
>> On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:49:46 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
>>
>>> I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
>>> Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
>>> Giganews.
>>> I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
>>> 1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
>>> all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
>>> a different group. Then it all starts over.
>>> It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
>>> years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
>>> I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
>>> to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
>>> *note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
>>> Any ideas?
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>> When you try to get the body and it just hangs...
>> What does Agent's Task Manager show in the "Active Tasks" pane?
>> Tools >> Task Manager
>>
>> My guess is that the 'Get Body' task may be queued up behind several
>> other tasks. Clicking 'Stop all tasks' would kill all the tasks, and
>> the next 'Get Body' task would not queue up behind anything.
>>
>> What are those other tasks, and how many of them are there?
> I have no other task going. Nothing is set to watch other groups or
> threads... task manager just shows what I'm attempting to get.
> It's not a huge deal... just an interesting nuisance. I've put up
> with it for several months...just as I do its habit of putting the
> cursor at the very top of each group, in the oldest threads, when I
> retrieve new headers.
> ,,, then, a simple 'alt end' sends it to the bottom where my new
> threads appear in red. so.. *shrug*
>
> The unusual thing about these minor issues is that they never
> happened before the crash, thru 3 upgrades of Agent.
> I have always been able to use Agent's menu to control how & when
> it does things... which is why I wondered if Giganews interferes, even
> though I can't imagine how & why.
>
> Thanks for replying.

> X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 220416-0, 4/15/2022), Outbound message

There are too many possibilities, but nothing certain yet.

A. I see from your headers that you are using Avast.

I also wonder whether this issue might be related to the issue
with Avast described in part 3 of this Agent FAQ item:

"Why is downloading data slow?"
<https://www.forteinc.com/agent/faq.php#64CF942D9825CBD985257AD40074C260>

If this were the case, a fix might be either one of these:
i) In Agent, turn off "Request Compressed Headers from Server"
Tools >> Servers and Accounts >> News Servers >> (select server) >> Advanced
or,
ii) Adjust your Avast settings as described in the FAQ item.

B. If that doesn't work, some more information might be how many
connections Agent has open when the problem occurs.

If you change this AGENT.INI setting from 0 to 1,
[Debugging]
ShowTaskStatusDetails=1
the offline/online section of the status bar will show the number of
active servers and connections in addition to the number of tasks,
like this:
3 t 1 s 15 c

--
Kind regards
Ralph
 
Ruinis imminentibus musculi praemigrant, aranei cum telis primi cadunt.
-- Gaius Plinius Secundus, Natural History Book VIII.103

On Sun, 17 Apr 2022 17:00:12 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 09:00:52 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
>> On Sat, 16 Apr 2022 16:24:10 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>> On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:49:46 -0400, Bill Day wrote:
>>>
>>>> I had a HD crash last Fall, and had to reinstall almost everything.
>>>> Now I have a newish nuisance with Agent..unless it's actually with
>>>> Giganews.
>>>> I only follow 5-6 groups now, but when I download new headers the
>>>> 1st one I try to get the body just hangs. I have to click the "stop
>>>> all tasks" icon. Then I'm able to read any & all posts...until I go to
>>>> a different group. Then it all starts over.
>>>> It does take only moment to stop tasks and try again, but after 15
>>>> years of NOT having to do it, I'm constantly forgetting.
>>>> I have prowled thru the settings, but can't see anything that seems
>>>> to control this.. and it NEVER happened before the crash.
>>>> *note* It does get all new headers without doing it twice.
>>>> Any ideas?
>>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>>
>>> When you try to get the body and it just hangs...
>>> What does Agent's Task Manager show in the "Active Tasks" pane?
>>> Tools >> Task Manager
>>>
>>> My guess is that the 'Get Body' task may be queued up behind several
>>> other tasks. Clicking 'Stop all tasks' would kill all the tasks, and
>>> the next 'Get Body' task would not queue up behind anything.
>>>
>>> What are those other tasks, and how many of them are there?
>> I have no other task going. Nothing is set to watch other groups or
>> threads... task manager just shows what I'm attempting to get.
>> It's not a huge deal... just an interesting nuisance. I've put up
>> with it for several months...just as I do its habit of putting the
>> cursor at the very top of each group, in the oldest threads, when I
>> retrieve new headers.
>> ,,, then, a simple 'alt end' sends it to the bottom where my new
>> threads appear in red. so.. *shrug*
>>
>> The unusual thing about these minor issues is that they never
>> happened before the crash, thru 3 upgrades of Agent.
>> I have always been able to use Agent's menu to control how & when
>> it does things... which is why I wondered if Giganews interferes, even
>> though I can't imagine how & why.
>>
>> Thanks for replying.
>
>> X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 220416-0, 4/15/2022), Outbound message
>
>
>There are too many possibilities, but nothing certain yet.
>
> A. I see from your headers that you are using Avast.
>
> I also wonder whether this issue might be related to the issue
> with Avast described in part 3 of this Agent FAQ item:
>
> "Why is downloading data slow?"
> <https://www.forteinc.com/agent/faq.php#64CF942D9825CBD985257AD40074C260>
>
> If this were the case, a fix might be either one of these:
> i) In Agent, turn off "Request Compressed Headers from Server"
> Tools >> Servers and Accounts >> News Servers >> (select server) >> Advanced
> or,
> ii) Adjust your Avast settings as described in the FAQ item.
>
>
> B. If that doesn't work, some more information might be how many
> connections Agent has open when the problem occurs.
>
> If you change this AGENT.INI setting from 0 to 1,
> [Debugging]
> ShowTaskStatusDetails=1
> the offline/online section of the status bar will show the number of
> active servers and connections in addition to the number of tasks,
> like this:
> 3 t 1 s 15 c
>
>
Ah... ok. I never thought about Avast as a cause, but it has been more
& more picky about what I do recently. Keeps adding 'suspicious' file
warnings about programs I have used for years with no problems. I
can't even find a way to list them as false positives.
I'll look into it.
Today I narrowed the issue to *only having to use 'stop all tasks'
immediately after downloading new headers*... I can get a body today
that I didn't bother with yesterday if I don't ask for NEW headers
first.
I'll explore your suggestions in the next couple of days... but, as I
say, it's not an emergency.
I really appreciate the answers and ideas.