leafnode retrieving previously expired articles

Recently in my leafnode installation I've been seeing - from the news
client end of things - lots of old articles appearing

In /etc/leafnode/filters I had a filter (maxage) so that articles over
50 days old weren't retrieved, I've tightened it up to 20 days and am
still seeing the problem.

Typically I see in the log files a connectivity problem and the next
time lots of old articles are retrieved so it looks as if the last
retrieved article isn't set correctly after a timeout? eg

news.gmane.org: connecting to port nntp
  trying:    address 80.91.229.13 port 119...
  connected: address 80.91.229.13 port 119.
news.gmane.org: connected (200), banner: "200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.1 ready (posting ok)"
news.gmane.org: checking for new newsgroups
news.gmane.org: found 0 new newsgroups
found 0 articles in out.going.
news.gmane.org: 0 articles posted
timeout reading.
news.gmane.org NNTP server disconnected or timed out while waiting for response
timeout reading.
news.gmane.org NNTP server disconnected or timed out while waiting for response
timeout reading.
news.gmane.org NNTP server disconnected or timed out while waiting for response
timeout reading.
news.gmane.org NNTP server disconnected or timed out while waiting for response
gmane.comp.gcc.java.announce: considering 19464 articles 71 - 19534, using XOVER
Unknown reply to XOVER command: 211 108 1 108 gmane.comp.emulators.virtualbox.announce
news.gmane.org: gmane.comp.gnome.apps.gkrellm last seen article was 1695, server now has 1 - 268
news.gmane.org: switched upstream servers for gmane.comp.gnome.apps.gkrellm? upstream bug? 1695 > 268
gmane.comp.gnome.apps.gkrellm: considering 268 articles 1 - 268, using XOVER
Unknown reply to XOVER command: 211 70 1 70 gmane.comp.gcc.announce
news.gmane.org: cannot parse reply to "GROUP gmane.comp.gnome.apps.pan.user": "224 No articles in 71-19534"

...
fetchnews: 4 articles and 0 headers fetched, 0 killed, 0 posted, in 1670 seconds

and then next time the previous run is still active so it fails with a lock file existing, the time after

..
news.gmane.org: gmane.emacs.gnus.tutorial: no new articles
gmane.emacs.orgmode: considering 81330 articles 1 - 81330, using XOVER
gmane.emacs.orgmode: XOVER: 81299 seen, 830 I have, 80207 filtered, 262 to get
gmane.emacs.orgmode: will fetch 262 articles
gmane.emacs.orgmode: 262 articles fetched (to 61990), 0 killed
..

I'm also seeing this with other news servers (eg news.individual.net)
where I get this 

news.individual.net: gnu.emacs.vm.bug last seen article was 14946, server now has 10752 - 10760
news.individual.net: switched upstream servers for gnu.emacs.vm.bug? upstream bug? 14946 > 10760
gnu.emacs.vm.bug: considering 9 articles 10752 - 10760, using XOVER
gnu.emacs.vm.bug: XOVER: 9 seen, 0 I have, 9 filtered, 0 to get

I was running 

leafnode version Leafnode NNTP daemon, version 2.0.0.alpha20060428a

but have recently upgraded (about time too!) to 2.0.0.alpha20121101a and
see the same problem.

Maybe my ISP (virginmedia) are traffic shaping nntp traffic -
fetchnews seems to be running a lot slower - unless there's a problem
with my local db? Last year my fetchnews run was taking 2 minutes or
less and now it's up to 10 mins or more.

Also, when updating my leafnode2 installation, I tripped over the move
of the spool from /var/spool/news to /var/spool/leafnode - there's no
mention of this change in the README (or the README.html) and indeed
they still mention the /var/spool/news location as being the default
(eg for --enable-spooldir). It also should be mentioned in the text
produced on a `make install` in install-data-hook

Robert
-- 
Links and things http://rmstar.blogspot.com/
Robert Marshall