On 18 Dec 99 at 0:00, Detailboy wrote:
>>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.
They have a automated help system that sends you boilerplate replies
based on the nature of your query. I think you can also order
additional info, IIRC. You are certainly right about wanting money
for tech support. I cannot remember my password and it is encrypted
into the juno.ini file so that if the system ever messes that up I am
screwed. They want $10 just to tell you your password. I think if it
ever gets messed up, I will just start another address and use a
password I can remember.
>>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.
I found the modem setup quite good. I started out with a Zoom 14.4
(Rockwell RPI chipset) and once when I had removed the RPI driver for
some reason, Juno recognized that there was a change and advised that
it might not work properly or at all without the driver. Other than
that I've not had any problems with the 2 or 3 modems I have used on
various machines with Juno.
>>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.
It was pretty slow even on my wife's 386DX/40 w/8 meg RAM. When I
upgraded her to a 486DX33 w/8 meg RAM, it works much better.
>>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.
Here is a hint, hit your ESC key when these ads appear and most or
all of them will disappear. Also helps get rid of the Juno logo
screen.
>>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.
A tip I have heard is that if you click on the CANCEL button when the
progress indicator bar is at about 50%, you will get your mail and
dump a large part of the ads. I don't know if Juno would object if
you did this as a matter of course, but they might.
>>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.
There is an option to delete without confirmation, which does speed
things up a bit. I read a lot of negative remarks about Juno's ISP
service on a web site that evaluated ISPs, so I don't think I would
want to use them for an ISP.
>>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!
Juno is a real HD hog, I will agree with that. Personally, I see some
good values for computer and consumer elctronic items there that if I
had the money, I might purchase. I did change my long distance
carrier to Qwest which advertises with Juno and I have been pleased
wit the rates and service.
>>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.
That's why they put that DELETE button on the screen.
>>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.
TRANSTAAFL. TheRe Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
>>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.
Your 20 mhz system with 4 megs is part of the problem, but my
386DX/40 with 8 megs was still slow. Not intolerable, but it did
still test your patience at times.
>>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.
My biggest complaint is that you cannot delete more than one message
at a time. It is also a full screen application that can only be
minimized or maximized, nothing else. I had a Herc card on the 386
before I got another VGA card, and some things near the bottom of the
screen (the Addressbook button, IIRC) was not visible due to the
aspect ratio of the screen versus the aspect ratio of the Herc
resolution. It did work though, except many of the ads were illegible
or poorly displayed as they assume a VGA resolution.
>>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 have heard about this technique for sending attachments but never
tried it myself.
>>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!
Ain't that the truth. BTW, there is a nice little Windows utility I
found called CleanSystem that does a pretty good job identifying
those errant files from old apps and allowing you to move them to a
holding directory until you are sure that ALL of your aps run without
any error messages saying they can find some .dll file. Very nice.
>>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.
That was a fair evaluation and description of Juno. Thanks.
Regards,
Dale Mentzer
This mail written by a user of Arachne, the DOS Internet Client
WWWWW World Wide Web Without Windows
http://home.arachne.cz Arachne DOS Browser Home Page
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