I think glutun is throttling my SABnzdb on newshosting. SABnzdb doesnt need a VPN. Can it be removed? I have fast internet and have no download problems outside of sparkbox.
25 replies
Chris wrote:
Totally get it — Usenet doesn't need a VPN the way torrents do. Right now SABnzbd rides through the VPN tunnel as part of the media stack, and decoupling it would need a wiring change. This is already on Tom's radar as a known ask (torrent-only users asking for Usenet-only mode). Since you're a Legend, I'll make sure he sees your case and how much it's affecting your speeds — could shift the priority. Flagged to the team now.
Chris wrote:
Noted, and thank you for adding it — a second person reporting the same slowdown genuinely carries weight when Tom is weighing up what to build next. Being straight with you about where this sits today: SABnzbd rides through the VPN tunnel as part of the media stack, so there is no switch that pulls it out on its own. It would need a wiring change rather than a setting, and I would rather tell you that than point you at a toggle that does not exist. It is logged as a request with your case attached to it. I am not going to put a date on it, because that call is Tom's rather than mine.
tomspark wrote:
That's actually on purpose, not a bug - SAB shares the same VPN tunnel as the rest of the download apps, so it's not something you can switch off just for one app. If it's genuinely slow though, that's almost always the VPN server itself, not SAB. Try switching to a different Surfshark location in SparkBox's VPN settings (a different country, not just a nearby city), then run sudo sparkbox restart media so it actually picks up the change. That fixes most speed complaints. Let me know if a different server doesn't help.
hotdogtown wrote:
Glutun now crashes when I change country in the settings.
tomspark wrote:
Sorry about that, let's find out exactly what's going on. Two quick things: are you changing the country in SparkBox's dashboard VPN settings (not editing .env by hand)? And can you paste what you get from sudo docker logs sb-gluetun --tail 40 right after it crashes? That'll show the real reason instead of me guessing, and I can get you sorted.
hotdogtown wrote:
I changed in sparkbox dashboard not.env. 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [routing] default route found: interface eth0, gateway 172.20.4.1, assigned IP 172.20.4.6 and family v4 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [routing] local ethernet link found: eth0 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [routing] local ethernet link found: eth1 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [routing] local ipnet found: 172.20.4.0/24 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [routing] local ipnet found: 172.20.5.0/24 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [firewall] enabling... 2026-07-17T14:43:04+08:00 INFO [firewall] enabled successfully 2026-07-17T14:43:06+08:00 INFO [storage] merging by most recent 20901 hardcoded servers and 20901 servers read from /gluetun/servers.json @@@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@.@@ @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@.@@@ @@@@@@@@==@@@@ @@@.@..@@ @@@@@@@=@..==@@@@ @@@@ @@@.@@.@@ @@@@@@===@@@@.=@@@ @...-@@ @@@@.@@.@@@ @@@ @@@@@@=======@@@=@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@.-%@.+@@@@@@@@ @@@@@%============@@@@ @@@.--@..@@@@.-@@@@@@@==============@@@@ @@@@ @@@-@--@@.@@.---@@@@@==============@@@@@ @@@ @@@.@@-@@.@@--@@@@@===============@@@@@@ @@@@.@--@@@@@@@@@@================@@@@@@@ @@@..--@@@@@@@@================@@@@+@@ @@@.---@@.@@@@=================@@@@--@@ @@@-.---@@@@@@================@@@@--@@@ @@@.:-@@@@@@===============@@@@.---@@ @@@.-------.@@@============@@@@@@.--@@@ @@@..--------:@@@=========@@@@@@@@.--@@@ @@@.-@@@@@@@@@@@========@@@@@ @@@.--@@ @@.@@@@===============@@@@@ @@@@@@---@@@@@@ @@@@@@@==============@@@@@@@@@@@@@---@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@=============@@@@@ @@@...------------.@@@ @@@@%===========@@@@@@ @@@..------@@@@.-----.-@@@ @@@@@@.=======@@@@@@ @@@.-------@@@@@@-.------=@@ @@@@@@@@@===@@@@@@ @@.------@@@@ @@@@.-----@@@ @@@==@@@=@@@@@@@ @@@.-@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@--@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ 2026-07-17T14:43:07+08:00 ERROR VPN settings: provider settings: server selection: for VPN service provider surfshark: the country specified is not valid: value is not one of the possible choices: none of korea is one of the choices available Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Marocco, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam 2026-07-17T14:43:07+08:00 INFO Shutdown successful
tomspark wrote:
Found it - that's actually a real bug on our end, not you doing anything wrong. The country box just takes whatever you type with no double-check, and gluetun wants the exact full name - it needs "South Korea", not "Korea", or it crashes like that instead of just telling you nicely. I've flagged it to get a proper fix (checking the name before it saves). For now: go back into the VPN settings and type the country exactly as gluetun lists it - South Korea, United Kingdom, United States, etc, full names - then sudo sparkbox restart media and it should come up clean.
hotdogtown wrote:
So everything is down again like yesterday. Do i need to update the .env?
tomspark wrote:
No, don't touch .env directly - that's actually the trap here, hand-editing it skips the step that makes changes take effect properly. Same root cause as before: gluetun needs the exact full country name, not a shortened one. Go back into SparkBox's dashboard VPN settings, clear the country box, and type South Korea exactly (capital S, capital K, with the space), save, then run sudo sparkbox restart media over SSH. That should bring everything back up clean. If it's still down after that, paste sudo docker logs sb-gluetun --tail 40 again and I'll dig in.
hotdogtown wrote:
Ok I can shift the countries around but can only get 0.5-2MB/S outside of sparkbox can get 88-90MBS?
tomspark wrote:
That gap is telling - 88-90MB/s outside vs 0.5-2MB/s through the tunnel points at the specific server you landed on, not the country pick itself. Two things to try: in SparkBox's VPN settings pick a specific city within that country instead of just the country (a country grabs you a random server there), save, then sudo sparkbox restart media. Also worth ruling out newshosting itself throttling that VPN's IP range - some Usenet providers do that to VPN traffic. If you try 2-3 different cities and they're all slow, that points at newshosting rather than us.
hotdogtown wrote:
But I am using newshosting outside of sparkbox with high speeds.
tomspark wrote:
Right, and that's actually the useful clue - if newshosting is fast for you outside the tunnel but slow through every VPN server, that's newshosting slowing down VPN IP ranges specifically, not SparkBox or your internet. One thing to double check first though: when you "shifted countries around" just now, did you also try 2-3 different cities within the same country? A country pick grabs a random server, so one bad server can look like a whole-country problem. If a few different cities are still all stuck at 0.5-2MB/s, that's confirmation it's newshosting - worth asking their support if they throttle VPN traffic, some providers have a VPN allowlist you can request.
hotdogtown wrote:
South Korea, Seoul gets 20 Mbps; Surfshark only has one city available. Japan only has around 2 Mbps in different cities.
tomspark wrote:
Thanks for the detailed testing — you've confirmed something worth investigating on our end: Japan servers are consistently slow while Seoul is significantly faster. That regional variation is flagged for the team. In the meantime, definitely reach out to newshosting support to ask if they throttle VPN traffic in their Japan region specifically; some providers do that per-region. Once you hear back, we'll have a clearer picture of whether it's their throttling, server quality, or something on our end.
tomspark wrote:
That points at distance, not throttling - South Korea and Japan are probably just a long way from you (and from Newshosting's own servers, which are almost all US/Europe). VPN speed drops fast the farther the server is, on top of anything the tunnel itself costs. Try picking a country close to home instead, or close to the US/Netherlands where Usenet servers tend to live - save it in SparkBox's VPN settings, then sudo sparkbox restart media, and test again. Should be a big jump from 2-20 Mbps.
hotdogtown wrote:
Newshosting does not throttle speeds.
tomspark wrote:
Fair enough - easiest way to settle it either way: pick a US or Netherlands server in SparkBox's VPN settings (those are closest to where Newshosting's own servers actually live), save it, then sudo sparkbox restart media, and test again. If that gets you back near your normal 88-90MB/s, distance really was the whole story and there's nothing to fix on our end. If it's still stuck at 0.5-2MB/s even on a nearby server, that tells us something's actually wrong in the setup and I'll dig further from there.
hotdogtown wrote:
I am in Hong Kong, yesterday you suggested asian servers, which is best for Newshosting?
tomspark wrote:
For Newshosting specifically, closer-to-you doesn't actually help - their own servers live in the US and Netherlands, not Asia, so South Korea and Japan aren't the right pick for this one. In SparkBox's VPN settings, switch to a US or Netherlands location, save it, then run sudo sparkbox restart media over SSH. That's the one most likely to get you back near your normal 88-90MB/s. Let me know what speed you see after that.
hotdogtown wrote:
2MBS Japan, 2MBS Singapore, 16MBS Netherlands, 22MBS Hong Kong.
tomspark wrote:
Hong Kong being your best result makes sense since it's closest to you, but even that's way under your normal 88-90 - so I don't think this is just distance anymore. Can you check SABnzbd's server settings (Config Servers your Newshosting server) and see what the "Connections" number is set to? If it's under 20 or so, that alone caps your speed no matter how good the VPN server is - Usenet needs a lot of connections running at once to hit full speed. Try bumping it up to 30-50 and test Hong Kong again.
hotdogtown wrote:
Thanks. I opened it up to 100 and getting 65MBS now. Wonder if I can squeeze any more out?
tomspark wrote:
65MB/s is honestly a great result once you're going through a VPN tunnel - most of the gap versus your raw 88-90MB/s is just the tunnel overhead, so you're close to the realistic ceiling. Pushing connections much past 100 usually stops helping and can get you throttled or temporarily blocked by your Usenet provider if you go over their allowed max - worth checking Newshosting's plan for their connection limit before bumping it further. I'd call 65MB/s a solid landing spot.
Leo20 wrote:
I too noticed SABnzbd downloads slower behind the VPN...would love to see the option to split outside of VPN for this scenario too.