For the past several weeks I've read many posts on the SURVPC list regarding the possibilities and questions of hacking a DOS version of Juno. It's a great concept, but I don't believe it's possible; however, if someone figures it out please let me know! Much of the discussion is peculiar to me and seems a fancy of babble because many of these posts come from list members who are using web-page based email and have figured out how to get on this list, yet they can't figure out the URL to Juno nor haven't downloaded Juno 1.49 to see what it's all about. I've been using Juno since September and prior to using it I envisioned that it operated as a conventional ISP email service. No, it doesn't work that way. I may not have all my details exact so don't flame me; I'm not getting paid to document this. The free Juno email on Win 3.1x is an advertising delivery/monitoring vehicle which provides the capability for sending/receiving a text message as an incentive to advertising exposure and monitoring -- that all you get for free. Juno is not an email client like Netscape Mail, Outlook version infinity, Eudora, MS-Mail version infinity, etc. or even using a dialer with a communications program to issue Unix mail commands -- you can't choose your own email client for Juno's free email service. You must use the Juno software. But if someone has figured this out, please let me know. Juno 1.49 -- the only Juno product that runs on Windows 3.1x, provides free email; no attachments, no web, no FTP, no Telnet, nothing more than a 60k limit of ASCII text. If you want anything more through Juno it's not free, it's not possible with Juno 1.49 on win 3.1x and if you want to continue using the Juno brand software for anything more than a text message, you must use Win 95 -- even for attachments. If you want tech support for anything regarding free Juno email you are required to pre-pay for it with a credit card. When I installed Juno 1.49 it couldn't recognize and communicate with my Practical Peripherals 2800, Zoom 9600, Cardinal 14000 or Boca 14000 bps modems -- even though they were listed in Juno 1.49 setup/config -- even using generic Hayes compatible -- even using manually entered init strings documented in the modems' user manuals. For me Juno 1.49 would only recognize and communicate with a US Robotics 14000. Futher through the install came the questionnaire to complete the sign up. I didn't check any of the spam list categories but was prompted that I must select atleast one before I could continue, so I selected "computers". In hind-sight I should have selected a category which would have the least possibility for advertising and the least prospect of advertisers. For the first two weeks of service the launch to exit Juno experience was about 7 minutes. Then came a flood of continuously changing ads which now takes about 20 minutes for my once per week Juno launch to exit experience on my 4MB 386-20Mhz. Here's how Juno 1.49 works for me...when I launch Juno 1.49 it doesn't dial-up or allow me immediate access to the message window like a conventional email program -- Juno 1.49 displays ads and I'm forced to watch two full-page ads before I can get to the email window. These two full-page ads change about once per week and sometimes cleverly disguise the placement and confuse the appearance of the [no] button. If I select the [yes] button, I put myself on another spam list for more text message and graphic ad delivery. I've suspected that if I click [cancel] that it triggers a monitoring routiene that tells Juno, "yes I did see that ad, but no I wasn't interested," but show me the ad some more, so then the ad hangs around for a week longer than if I don't select any button and just close the window (Alt+F4). Getting past these two full-page ads takes about 5 minutes after launch. Now the email window becomes active, but I still don't have control (hour glass) because the banner ad at the top of the email message window is trying to display an animated graphic ad in the banner space with 6-different animations in a sophisticated image map that taxes my 4MB 386-20Mhz. Now it's been about 7 minutes after launch, the hour glass is gone and I now have control of my PC. I then select the [get mail] button and Juno 1.49 prompts with a pop up, "do you want to check your email [yes] [no]?" Of course I do, but this is a trigger to change the banner ad which makes me loose control of my PC (hour glass) while it takes another minute to display another ad. Then the buttons become active and I select [yes] check for new email. About 10 minutes after launch, Juno 1.49 now dials, connects for about a minute, then disconnects -- thats it very brief -- no other connection at any other time within the Juno 1.49 experience. The software says that it's processing messages (hour glass) but I already heard the modem disconnect. I've even picked up the phone and sure enough I have the dial-tone back. Juno 1.49 processes messages for about 5 minutes during which I have no control of my PC (hour glass). In reality, it's not processing my own personal email correspondence; it's processing Juno's advertising content -- it's decompressing newly delivered graphic and text message ads, reconfiguring it's ad delivery database and compiling advertising monitoring information for the next time I connect. Then Juno 1.49 changes the banner ad again (hour glass) and tells me I have 2 text messages. Now I finally have control back. Both text messages are advertising new computer sales. I think when you sign on using Juno 1.49 they figure you're probably using Win 3.1x on an older PC so you qualify yourself to be on a spam list for more computer/perhipheral sales ads. I delete the first text message after a confirm prompt (hour glass), then the banner ad changes and takes another minute to load (hour glass) before I can resume control. I then delete the second text message which is from Juno soliciting an upgrade to either Juno Gold (attachments) or Juno Internet (full web access) -- both which cost money and require Win 95. I loose control again (hour glass) while the next banner ad loads. I then select [exit] and am prompted to confirm exit [yes] or [no], but this triggers another banner ad change (hour glass) which takes another minute to load before I am allowed to exit. The entire process takes about 20-minutes from the time I launch Juno to the time after Juno has exited -- all to retrieve/display advertising content and to send ad monitoring reports back to Juno -- and none of my firends sent me email :( Please don't flame me saying that you've tried Juno 1.49 on your PIII-750Mhz w/ cable modem and and your experience was zippy; this list is for Survivor PCs. Currently my C:\JUNO\ADS directory has 65 different ad directories with .BMP files which I can open in Windows Paint. I thought I could downsample the images to make them smaller files size but they're already optimized at 256-color for photos and 16-color for vector graphics. What installed from 1 floppy now consumes 13.2 MB on my hard drive. There is no option to delete ads in the Juno software; only view previous ads (more spam list data collection). The initial full-page ads change about once per week and the banner ads change every couple of weeks too depending on what time span the advertiser purchased and if I trigger anything and how frequently I use the Juno software. The ads I receive range from "Save the Wolves," "Stop Over-population" to "new computer/perhipheral sales" and "long distance telephone service" through Juno's telecom partner -- not another long distance phone company ad, puh-leeze! One time I was interested in an $49 color HP printer in one of the full-page ads, so I clicked on a hyper link to read more from the mail-order retailer. I wasn't interested in purchasing after reading about all the strings and hoops with this, that and the other rebate gimmicks about qualifying myself for other spam lists, but what I did was activate Juno's monitoring ability to send me a flood of other ads from other PC/perhipheral mail-order retailers -- by clicking a hyper-link I qualified myself to be on yet another spam list. The ads are sophisticated in graphic and consumer behavior design and many contain hyper-links to additional page content. For someone who has never experienced the web, Juno ads provide a similar hyper-link experience. And like the web of today, Juno 1.49 delivers one BIG spam ad mechanism. In reality Juno 1.49 is merely an advertising delivery/monitoring vehicle; free email is the gimmick to subject you to the ads. Juno says that the minimum requirement for Juno 1.49 is an 8MB 486 on their download page but if you dig deeper into their tech support web pages they also say a 386 with 4MB RAM. I've wondered if the speed is completely related to my 386-20Mhz or if the ads are also timed and you must be captivated for a set amount of time watching an ad -- Juno always refers to TV advertising when it describes its ad content -- seems logical to me if Juno could guarantee its advertisers a captive audience based on "air-time" per advertising dollar spent. Juno 1.49 features a customizable address book, list creation, message import/export, etc., etc., etc., and the ability to create an install disk and to save your messages to take with you to install on another PC -- very convenient and it's all FREE -- if you don't mind selling out your privacy to a myriad of carnival barkers. I've experimented with copying and pasting the text of .BMPs and .JPGs and pasting them into a Juno email message body window, emailing it to myself then copying and pasting the text out into a file with the correct extension, but I've never got it to re-assemble the image without load error. Perhaps Juno has a method for sniffing out and corrupting this type of attachment circumventing. If anyone has figured this one out with Juno 1.49, tested it and got it to work with Juno 1.49, please let me know how it can be done. I've been curious but have never tried deleting various ad directories or replacing ad .BMP files with bogus 0k same named files to speed the ad loading/display. I'm not sure how sophisticated the software is to detect and repair hacking. It would be great though if someone wrote a hack .BAT "juno ad killer" to do this! If anyone has figured this one out with Juno 1.49, tested it and got it to work with Juno 1.49, please let me know how it can be done. Don't get me wrong about free Juno 1.49 email. I think it's great! It runs on my 4MB 386 and the installer fits onto one 1.4MB floppy disk and it's FREE! Juno 1.49 was written for Win 3.1x, will work with 16-color VGA at 640x480 -- and it still works at a time when Prodigy has cancelled its DOS version of Prodigy Classic and AOL refuses support and disconnected dial-up (non-TCP/IP connections) for older versions of AOL software for older operating systems/hardware both PC and Mac. Juno 1.49 keeps everything tidy in C:\JUNO unlike some programs I've seen which litter C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM with files you can't figure out belong to which program after the installer does it sloppy deed. Juno 1.49 is very tidy in how it was written -- good programming! Juno 1.49 is also great because it is the only free email I know of for Win 3.1x which doesn't require a credit card number (more spam list data collection via snail mail) like Freeeweb and Freeiweb or what ever they're called. If someone out there is serious about hacking a DOS version, download Juno 1.49 yourself; install it; experience it on a Survivor PC; start with a .BAT ad killer, then move onto hacking a DOS version, then please share with us all how to keep our hardware investment as a practical useful tool :) *** |===| PACKARD BELL * Pack-Mate 386x *** * __|___|__ 386sx-20Mhz, 4MB, VGA-256k, DOS 6.22/Win 3.1 * * |_____==_=|~~ MY OTHER COUNTING BOARD IS AN ABACUS! * *** /#########\ [] Quote original messsage when replying *** To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
