newsreader

[Dave Hinz]

Well, Netscape doesn't have killfile support, last I knew. Usenet without killfiles is like a web browser without a popup blocker.

[John McCoy]

[e-mail] (Robert Bonomi) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Actually, for more than you could want to know, but organized in a more useful manner, look at

Reviews of various readers, sorted by platform, with links to their download sites when available.

John

[rcook5]

Agent is the standard newsreader, but Free Agent has some significant drawbacks. Notably it doesn't have filters (or spell check, but that's less of an issue.)

When you download the program you get a fully functional version of Agent, but after 30 days it reverts to Free Agent.

OTOH if you like the way Agent/Free Agent does things, it's worth springing for the $30 or so for the full version.

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

[John McCoy]

"Owen Lawrence" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Doubt you'll get a consensus. XNews is very good, and free (I use it). Other popular free readers are Free Agent, Gravity, and Dialog. Being free, you could try them all.

John

[Lazarus Long]

I'm sorry

[Dave in Fairfax]

I guess the questions are 1) Are you dropping AOHell. 2)what browser are you going to be using if you are.

If you're dropping AOH the new ISP may well have NNTP acess. This allows you to use any reader and most browsers to access the NGs. If you aren't, you'll need to get a newsfeed. Many have been suggested as have a large number of readers.

Dave in Fairfax

[Will]

Mike:

Taste isn't disputable. :-)

Firefox is faster than IVE in my experience. (IVE = Internet Virus Explorer) I have only seen reviews that confirm that opinion. Might be nice if you could point to a site that doesn't download as fast on FF - I'll send it to the developers attention.

There are many badly designed sites that only work with IVE though. I limit my visits to them. IVE and the bad sites are too risky -- "thank you very much but no thanks" -- due to all the "Phishers" and pimply faced teen-bopper hackers who exploit the weakness of IIS and IVE.

BTW No evidence of a memory leak here. Again it would be nice to have evidence to report. If you can spot anything concrete the developers should hear about it.

Mike Marlow wrote:

[Will]

Netscape 7.2 has some security flaws. It is essentially an AOL product now. FireFox is a "new and improved" version. as is Thunderbird.

Mozilla 1.7x and 1.8x is "less insecure" They are the "better" Netscape clones - Much better generally. More secure, faster.

[Charlie Self]

Bob G. notes:

AOL itself posts that alert EVERY time you go to open Newsgroups. If it is a false alert, you'd think someone would inform them.

I tried getting that up, and I tried Mozilla. Neither one will work with my AOL--latest version.

I was just about to say screw it, and use Google about once a month, but I'll keep trying for a bit longer.

Charlie Self "I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush

[jaime]

Not if you get a code which is very easy to find on the internet. Ya just need to know where to find one. :-)

[Bob G.]

=================== I find Firefox to be much faster the I.E..... BY FAR... and have not have any memory problems...

I checked and the current version is only 1.0.... you still using a Beta version..?

Bob Griffiths

[Bob G.]

==================== Charlie...I just went out and checked my wives computer and the Ao-Hell she is running is 9.0 optimized.... BUT once she signs on she minimizes Ao-hell and fires up Foirefox to browse the net...or fire up Agent to read newsgroups... as much as I have tried to get her to use a "real e-mail" program she just keeps aol for that...

She did say she had a "little" bit of trouple configuring Agent..could not be much since She is more at home in front of a sewing maching then a computer...

Bob Griffiths

[Charlie Self]

Bob Griffiths responds:

Same AOL I'm running. I'd be in fat city, if...I knew where the hell AOL keeps its FTP and NNTP stuff so I could lay the numbers into Agent.

I haven't got a clue as to what is eating Mozzila's favorite son. It perks up, goes right along, and then cannot access AOL, even though it has my correct screen name and password.

Earthlink was even worse when I tried that. As has happened before, it left me with a wild desire to get it the hell OFF my computer, which I did. Now, I have to call and keep them from billing me.

I find absolutely nothing wrong with AOL's email program, but, then, I've got almost no experience with others. It is simple to use, lets you do pretty much what you want, and, so far, has given me few problems. Too, it takes seconds to set up, something that can almost never be said of others I've tried to get running.

Charlie Self "I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush

[WD]

If you like Firefox, you should like Opera... it's fast never crash and very stable. Best of all it's free.

I have been using Opera since Netcraps ver Ver.4.XX

[mac davis]

I've said that before... in defense of my trusty old Shopsmith..

Of course, in later years I've added several free standing tools, but the SS is a great drill press.. wish I could say that NS was a great browser :(

I'll admit it.. I'm the one that bought Agent, instead of finding a crack..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Mike Marlow]

Nope - I have 1.0. What's that they say about rev 0 products? I find it to be just an absolute hog. It stays open in my taskbar most of the time but when I click on it, or click on a link in a post or likewise, it takes over

10 seconds for the screen to come forward and then if I try to click on anything in the browser (menu item, address bar, etc.), I have to wait another 5-10 seconds for the action to occur. This is just bad software. I hate to give Microsoft any credit, but IE displays none of these problems.

[Robert Bonomi]

AOL does *NOT* use NNTP. They run a proprietary protocol, that *only* their software knows how to talk to.

And, as you know, they're shutting those machines down.

You *cannot* access AOL 'news' with a conventional newsreader, like "Agent".

For text-only groups, sign-up with individual.net, and then put *their* news-server info into Agent, or whatever.

Obviously, It can't access any of AOL's 'proprietary' content -- like the chat rooms, etc.

And, in and of itself, it *won't* do the dialing like the AOL-ware will. You need to start the AOL software _first_, then launch Mozilla's favorite son.

Lastly, AOL _e-mail_ requires a *DIFFERENT*FROM*NORMAL* type of connection to read mail. Besides the AOL software, there are a limited number of programs that know how to make that kind of connection. Netscape version 7, and above

*is* one of the programs that _does_ know how. (when you create an 'account', it has a special type "AOL account".)

Note: the Mozilla 'all-in-one' application, and, thus, presumably, Thunderbird as well, does *NOT* know how to connect to AOL's mail-reading servers.

IF you're happy with AOL, I will suggest that you *KEEP* it. and just 'add something else' for 'news' access.

That 'something else' comes in two parts: 1) setting up an account with a news-server operator 2) setting up "appropriate" software on your machine.

for 1), there are several free services, and a bunch of relatively inexpensive pay ones. A partial list:

Free: individual.net text-only, good. see terranews.com mediocre for the free service, much better if you pay for it. groups.google.com clunky interface.

Pay: supernews.com best-of-breed, the largest news-service provider the standard-of-reference for 'spam-free' newsgroups giganews.com #2 quite good about keeping spam out of the groups newsguy.com a bunch smaller, but *excellent* service, and personal attn. practically as good as supernews on despamming. easynews.com the #3 provider. NO direct experience. They _were_ having problems with being "behind the power curve" on resources, resulting in reliability issues, and having a hard time playing catch-up. WHEN they get those issues resolved (and they well may be, _now_), they'll again be a top-tier provider. (while they were having problems, I couldn't recommend them) terranews.com no direct experience. reports say their pay service is very good.

Meganewsservers.com Stay far, *FAR* away from these folks. They don't have Aka "Hostopia" a _clue_ as to how to run a news-server business. (Or a mail-server business -- as they try, under the name of 'megamailservers.com'.)

News-reader software: You've found Agent/Free Agent. It's quite good; the pay version is better. :) There's also "Gravity" , which a lot of people like.

And, of course, Netscape Mozilla, (the all-in-one, or "Thunderbird" the mail/news only product) MS Outlook / Outlook Express -- *NOT* recommended!!

see for more than you could possibly want to know about _real_ newsreader software, the extent of the choices, and where to get what.

[Steve Knight]

bad for you maybe but not for me. I have not had this problem unless my system is slowing down and needs a reboot. this happens more often using outlook and IE. but a reboot every few days keeps xp running ok. so it sounds like there is a problem with your computer. when both are running fast 1.0 blows away IE every time.

[Mike Marlow]

Go ahead... rub it in.

The first thing I thought of was that it had to be something with my laptop, but it's the only program that behaves that way. I've thought about removing it and re-installing it to see if that made any difference, but just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe...

[Charlie Self]

I don't want to access AOL news. AOL does that fine. I wanted to use Agent in conjunction with AOL to access Usenet NGs. For that, Agent requires FTP and NNTP numbers, which I cannot locate in AOL. You say it doesn't have such numbers, which is fine. I can dump Agent and free up some disc space.

Did that. Made no difference, except that I could get to the stage where I entered my AOL username and password for Mozilla to use. It then was unable to access AOL.

Again, I do NOT want to read AOL mail or news. I want to access Usenet. Following Mozilla's own instructions gets me nowhere.

More disc space freed up.

I will probably just use Google Groups. It is not particularly handy, and doesn't seem to have filters, but I have neither the time nor inclination to develop expertise in attaching various bits and pieces to AOL. I've already pissed away a couple of days fiddling with this when I could have been doing something profitable from either a fiscal or enjoyment stage.

I have no idea why these programs won't work with AOL 9.0, or whether it's something I'm doing. I'd say the latter is most likely. But, as someone who writes instruction manuals, I see that as a major fault in the instructions, which, IMO, are often written so that someone can feel superior when saying something like, "but, you see, everyone who KNOWS computers knows that step, so it doesn't need to be written down."

Charlie Self "I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush