Server Subsets
 
Server subsets are used to limit the number of servers or connections that are used simultaneously amongst a group of servers. Some services, such as Newsfeeds, limit users to just two servers simultaneously with up to three connections per server. Other services may limit the number of total connections across their servers but give no care as to how you distribute the connections.

How can we avoid receiving errors if we're using a multiserver newsreader? For any other newsreader you'd be out of luck, but NewsPro has this covered. The server subset feature allows us to limit the number of servers accessed simultaneously and/or the number of connections used a cross a group of servers.

First click your Servers pane in the Workspace window - this is where all of your servers are listedalphabetically. Next, right-click 'Servers' and choose 'New Server Subset'.

A dialog will appear which consists of four settings:

  1. Name is a general name for this subset. If you have multiple subsets they will be in alphabetical order.
  2. Max. servers at a time is the number of servers that may be simultaneously accessed within this subset.
  3. Max tasks at a time is the number of tasks that may simultaneously run across all servers within this subset.
  4. The Enabled check box makes it easy to turn on/off a particular subset.

In my example I have set up a subset called "Newsfeeds" which will allow only two servers within it to be accessed at the same time. I leave the max tasks entry blank because Newsfeeds doesn't not limit the number of connections across the subset, only on a per server basis. In Properties > Servers I have defined how many tasks are allowed per server, in Newsfeeds' case it is three. Leaving this box blank tells NewsPro to access just two servers at a time while using up to the number of tasks you have defined for each server.

If you were using a service which limited the number of connections across servers, but not the number of servers itself, then you could define this in the reverse: Max servers would be empty while you would place a value in Max tasks.

After you have created a subset it will be empty and listed before your servers in the Servers pane list. Highlight the servers you wish to include in this subset by using Ctrl-Click, then drag them all over the name of the subset to add them.