CompuServe Thread

#Bad CRC

3 messages in this thread
#96994From: joseph roseberryApr 13, 1994 9:41 PM
I've had a lot of problems with files I've downloaded from you folks for the last couple of weeks. About 50 percent of the downloads have bad CRC when I decompress them; I've had to download them again. Last nite I pulled down febtxt.zip and a couple of other items- febtxt.zip was bad. This is about 1.2 M in size and took a couple of hours at 2400. I've tried several modems and machines over the last couple of weeks. I think the problem is not on my end. Are you guys having a problem, or should I be talking to Cserve ? This is beginning to get expensive.
#97041From: Joe MacRaeApr 14, 1994 2:52 AM
Joseph, With longer downloads you just increase the chances of errors unless you have one of the newer hardware correcting modems. These new modems are now cheap enough that everyone using the phone lines for file transfers should have one. Just the security of the hardware error correction (which actually works) will repay the cost of the modem many times over. We did have some problems with the libraries (library 9 at least) last week, and had posted an announcement explaining the problem and asking that members not download files until it was fixed. It is now fixed and turns out that there IS a limit to the size of a library on CIS. We had exceeded that limit in Library 9. You can contact FEEDBACK (GO FEEDBACK) and explain the problem there, but give specific dates, times and file names. CIS will look into your specific request and it's possible that they will refund the time for the unusable files. This ain't guaranteed, but it may be worth the time. BTW. That 1.2 meg file, FEBTXT.ZIP will download in less than 15 minutes using one of the newer 14,400 baud, v32bis, v42bis modems and a 14,400 baud CIS node (there are now a bunch of them….GO PHONES for a list). It'll download in about 25 minutes at 9600 baud (there are even more of these). Using these figures the download cost for connect time is between $4 and $7. At 2400 baud the download time should be around an hour and a half, and cost about $12. So even at the more expensive (or surcharged higher rates) the download costs are less expensive, and they are more reliable because they use the hardware error correction. Over a year's time, the $175 retail price of the newer modems don't seem like so much do they…………<grin>. I'm waiting for the rumored 19,200 or 28,800 baud nodes……<big grin>.
#97116From: Nik Grant [adesk]Apr 14, 1994 12:58 PM
Joseph, I just now downloaded and unzipped the FEBTXT.ZIP file. It worked fine for me. It's possible that you have a problem that I ran into but it went away without me knowing exactly what I did. I have two machines, and one would download, then be unable to unzip files. The other machine would download then be able to unzip. Could be you need to run CHKDSK /F, clean up lost allocation units, as well as make sure you have a good copy of PKUNZIP. Coulda gotten corrupted. Nik