"Bob Buckland ?:-\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> <<"Thomas Mueller": What good software is there for Usenet? >>
>
> Well, I keep hoping I can answer that with Arachne, but...
Personally, it doesn't bother me that Arachne doesn't "do" NNTP.
I don't mind using a Web browser for browsing, and dedicated
mail and news programs, whether I'm using DOS or Linux.
> YARN under UKA_PPP works okay but is a bit slow and there is
> a Usenet reader that you can add to KA9Q/YAN but it can be
> a bit tricky to figure out.
As can be seen from the different opinions on this subject,
everyone seems to have their own favourites. As far as transport-
ing news over DOS PPP for offline reading, I use both UKA_PPP and
KA9Q/YAN. The only problem I've had with UKA_PPP is that it does
not seem able to connect to all versions of NNTP servers. While
KA9Q may be a bit more difficult to set up, I have not found an
NNTP server yet that it will not connect to. The more I use the
KA9Q stuff, the more I am impressed. An interesting hobby.
Once you've downloaded the news, there are several choices for
offline reading. It is even possible to simply use a text editor
or READMAIL to read the news and create replies manually. With
UKA_PPP, the x_spool utility will convert the news files (rnews
batches) to SOUP packets, which can be "imported" into YARN. Some
BBS (QWK) offline readers, such as MultiMail, also handle SOUP
packets directly or they can be "tossed" and then read with a
BBS-style message editor.
With KA9Q, the downloaded rnews batch file can be "unbatched"
into the KA9Q Snews newsreader or "imported" into YARN. I
mostly use YARN, but have tried the others. It's probably best
just to experiment yourself. I have also used Lynx386 to read
news online on occasion, but prefer the offline approach.
> At one point there were a couple of folks (Mark Ray)
> on the list who were working on integrating an external
> NNTP program (Martin Goebbel's Newsman)
Getnews? I'm not sure why, but I did not have much succes with
Martin's NNTP transport program. It sort of worked, but I had
problems, the details of which escape me now. His HLIST program
is quite good.
> I haven't looked for awhile to see what's out there for
> DOS newsreaders and have sort of resigned myself to
> using Virtual Access or Outlook Express or Agent, etc
> (had to get a newer PC to do it though <g>).
Wimp. :-) I use slrn on my Linux box.
Howard Eisenberger
Ottawa, Canada
--
DOS TCP/IP * <URL:http://www.ncf.ca/~ag221/dosppp.html>
