>I've been using Yarn for a while, too...but I've stuck with the DOS version,
>which I run in a DOS box under Win95. It's hard to get me to try
>something new when what I'm using is working.
You should stick with whatever works for you. That's what I do.
>BTW...I'm new here...and I wanted to thank Debra and Steve Colleti for
>posting the .BAT files they use with Souper95. They were a great help in
>getting me up and running with Souper95.
Speaking for myself... You're welcome.
>Mine still provides shell access, but they aren't real happy about it,
>some days. They barely even want to support it, it seems like.
That's too bad. If you feel strongly about this, it might be time to
check out the other ISP competition in your area, eh?
>I know you're using Souper95...but, my ISP has a product created by Ken
>Gresham installed, called OLMENU. Provides a nice little interface for
I have heard of OLMENU. I haven't checked to see if my ISP has it
installed, but, out of curiosity, I will look into it. In the
meantime, the scripts that I run work just fine, and I like sticking
with the tried and true stuff sometimes.
>Question for you, then... I've noticed that Souper95 does well in marking
>e-mail as "read", and deleting it...but it doesn't seem to update the
>.newsrc file on my account. How do you manage to not get a bunch of
>stuff you already had on those occasions where you go back to getting
>your SOUP packet via shell and UQWK?
Are you referring to the .newsrc file in the home directory of your
shell account? If so, then, you are right. Souper95 does not update
that file. Souper95 works with the .newsrc file that you have on your
PC.
In answer to your question, when Yarn imports the articles, it rejects
any duplicates.
>> 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.
>
>You're actually taking an extra step there. First you have to get the
>file to your ISP, and then download it to your machine. This is the one
>time that firing up Internet Explorer, or an FTP client under a SLIP/PPP
>session can be a bit faster, since you're downloading the file directly
I see your point. And, yes, firing up Netscape or WS_FTP with a DUN
connection should be faster. But, in my experience, this is not the
case, most of the time. And, I have informally experimented with each
method by timing them. I just don't have any data recorded.
The seemingly slower transmission times with a PPP connection could be
attributable to many factors. I am not sure why it happens this way,
though. Like I said, I am not a real technically-oriented user, in
regards to computer systems, and their operations.
>No question in my mind that using UQWK to collect a packet and using the
>ISP to do the zipping, and then Zmodeming the packet to your PC is faster
>than Souper95. But, as you say, sometimes providers have PPP trouble.
Yes... In my case, I have periodic problems with PPP connects.
>is *much* easier. Would have taken me less time if I'd gone straight to
>the November archive...Now, I have a couple of items in my Start menu.
>One click, a little mouse movement, and another click, and I'm either
>uploading or downloading. I thought about having it all be in one .BAT
>file, but I tend to download a new packet in the morning, and upload
>replies in the afternoon. Easier for me to have the two processes split.
Souper95 can be set up in various ways, depending on what you want it
to do during a session. That is one feature that I like about the
program.
BTW, if I don't find OLMENU installed on my ISP, would you email me
with info regarding how to set it up as a standalone program in the
shell? I might want to try using it, to see how it works. Thanks.
>I'd like to see what you did to get Souper95 to go look at a different news
>server. The one at my ISP is not the best in the world, even given that
>they claim to get three separate feeds. It appears, from some AltaVista
>digging I did, that they only get 50-60% of the posts in a given newsgroup.
>And, yes, I've raised hell with them about it, too.
First, I set up a new user in Yarn (me), specifing a different home
directory and reply upload packet directory path/name. Then, I created
new .newsrc, score, and BAT files (one of each) for connecting to and
processing news articles from that server. In the BAT file, I set the
HOME and NNTPSERVER variables to point to the alternative home
directory and news server, respectively. I also used the Souper95
command line options to point to the appropriate .newsrc and score
files. If you like, I can either post or email the BAT file for you,
or anyone else who is interested.
Now, there may be a different, simpler way to do all of this. If so, I
would be glad to hear about it. However, my method is working for me.
>I tried Souper for Windows as you did a while back, when my ISP was
>having another spate of problems with shell accounts, but switched back
>to UQWK with OLMENU interface as soon as their troubles were mostly resolved.
>Can you believe they *still* don't have man pages working yet?
With the problems that you are having with your ISP, you might want to
consider shopping around for a new provider, if your current one is not
responding to suggestions or complaints.
>Well, using shell and UQWK is definitely faster than Souper. Or, so it
>appears, with my limited experience.
This does seem to be true. However, since I invested so much time in
learning how to use Souper95, and it seems to work so well, I am now
running it everyday. I do like it, and it is fun, looking at all of
the output from my kill/score files, too. But, the "old-fashioned" way
will remain as an alternative for me, for those times when I have
problems with PPP connects. I think it is nice to be able to have it
both ways, so to speak.
Debra Walker
-- Debra Walker debraw@wwa.com Chicago, IL