>I've been using Yarn for over 2 years now and have been pretty
>happy with Chin's product. Recently, my ISP was gobbled up by a
>larger outfit and there was a period where it looked like they
>were going to discontinue Unix shell access totally. At the time
>I investigated Souper, got it working and so on but never put
>into daily use as the new ISP decided to continue shell access
>for existing customers. So I can still get to the shell. :-)
I have also been using Yarn for two years. I started with the DOS
version, and, now, I am running the Win95 port. Overall, I am very
happy with this application, and I am sure most of the other users on
this list feel the same.
Also, I am very grateful to my ISP for providing shell access. I still
have my old, tried and true, scripts set up for gathering mail and/or
news via uqwk, trn, my trn killfiles, and the trnkill script. I use
them as a backup for those times when I have problems with my PPP
connects (using Souper95). Also, I like having shell access because,
when I am in a hurry to download packets or files, the processes seem
to run faster. For example, when I want to access an ftp site to get
a file, I can fire up QmodemPro95, log in to the shell, use ncftp to
retrieve it, and, then, QmodemPro95 to download. This all seems to be
faster than, say, loading WS_FTP (in Windows), and, then, DUN
(Dial-Up Networking) to download the same file to my PC. I am not much
of a technically-oriented user, regarding computer
functions/operations. However, from what I have heard and seen in my
experience, this may have something to do with the overhead (baggage?)
that Windows (in any version) brings.
Of course, I occasionally use the shell to download news/mail packets
for viewing/replying via Yarn95, for the reasons stated above.
>One thing I didn't complete was steamlining my PPP/Winsock/Souper
>setup. I found it was more effort on my part collecting
>mail/news with Souper than with the uqwk method. With uqwk, I
>can drive the entire dial-in, login, collection, *and* logout
>with one double-click on my WFWG 3.11 icon. With Souper I found
>that my actual login time was longer as I simetimes forgot to
>disconnect my session. Has anyone got a nice and elegant setup
>for PPP/Winsock/Souper?
I have a great setup for PPP/DUN (Winsock built into Win95)/Souper95.
As much as I love using Souper95, I must admit that, in my experience,
it does take more effort than the "old-fashioned" way that I used to
use exclusively (see above). I had a lot to learn, and, with the
assistance of several users on this list, and elsewhere, I was able to
set up BAT files to download and upload mail and/or news with Souper95
after a while. And, recently, I blundered around, and figured out how
to create a Souper95 setup for a different news server. I run all
Souper95 processes in a DOS window via Win95 shortcuts (these are PIF
files, I think, in Win 3.x).
However, I never really used Souper for Windows (the version for Win
3.x) extensively. I tried running it once or twice, but, after
Souper95 was released, I switched over, since I was running Win95, by
that time. Perhaps, some other user(s) on this list can assist you, in
that regard.
>For those of us *still* using a comm program (Telix, ProComm, et.
>al.) to drive uqwk at the Unix command line, what does a program
>like Souper buy us?
I think that, if one can set up Souper properly with whatever OS one
employs, then it just buys you an alternative method of gathering
mail/news for reading/replying via Yarn. I use Souper95 everyday
because I like it, and I am used to it (now). But, I see no major
advantages, in terms of speed, efficiency, etc.
>Although I plan to stick with the uqwk method for now, it would
>be good to know how to setup the PPP/Winsock/Souper method more
>elegantly than I achieved in my trial. It also appears that ISP
>shell access is disappearing from the landscape; if this is true
>I'd like to be in a position to quickly switch collection
>methods.
Well, if my experiences are any indication, then I am sure that you
will find some assistance from posting to this list. I don't believe
that I would have mastered what I do know about Yarn or Souper
(whatever versions), if it were not for the helpful responses that I
have received from other users here, and elsewhere.
Good luck.
Debra Walker
-- Debra Walker debraw@wwa.com Chicago, IL