Mail Reader Frequently Asked Questions 1 November 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. I am new to the offline readers and I am looking for a very simple reader, which one do you suggest? I used to suggest SLMR (or the OLX upgrade) as a good first choice since it is fast, easy, and friendly. It does all that you need initially, and you can continue using it while you explore the others (if you really want to find something else). It does have three noteable flaws... it will not permit viewing of more than 150 lines in any one message, it maintains indexes in conventional memory so it will crash if you try reading/replying to too many messages in a session and it does have Y2K issues. More recently, I believe that MultiMail is a good choice. It is one of the few readers with an active author, it has no apparent Y2K issues, and it is multi-platform (DOS/386, Win32, OS/2, and Unix varieties) and it is multi-format (QWK, QWKE, Blue Wave, Omen, SOUP and OPX). It does not have an automatic setup, but I believe that the good outweighs the initial (one-time) hassle. 2. What is the best all around reader? Deciding what is best for you is impossible for anybody except you. You can narrow the search by deciding your prefered platform (DOS, Win, OS/2, etc). Another issue is the amount of mail you normally read, and if you require (or desire) to maintain easy access to mail from previous days. Some readers deal with only one packet at a time and at the opposite end of the spectrum are databased readers. There are quite a few that defy categorization by having some databasing features such as folders for saving special mail. 3. How is a databased reader different from the others? A databased reader is one that uses the QWK (or other kind of) packet as a transport method and then imports the messages into some other kind of storage/retrieval method. The QWK can then be deleted. Databased readers can maintain all the messages in one huge file, separate files for each BBS, or even separate files for each conference on each BBS. The primary advantage that a databased reader offers is that a history of messages can be maintained, instead of just the traffic from a single day. This makes offline reading more like staying online since you end up basically recreating the BBS's messagebase on your own machine. 4. Won't stuff just build up in a databased reader? What about messagebase and hard drive management? Databased readers use a variety of management strategies to limit the number of messages saved. Some follow the BBS model and allow purging of the messagebase based on the date or the age of a message. Others maintain a configurable number of messages per conference. Most readers permit specially marking individual (or group) messages as "keep" or "kill" to over-ride the default housekeeping action. For example, if you prefer to keep only certain messages and purge all others, then mark the ones to "keep" and set the reader to flush anything older than one day. 5. I am looking for a specific reader, do you know where I could find it? Most larger BBSs support the use of offline readers since it reduces the amount of time that users are online (permits more callers) and increases the readership of the conferences. The BBSs will usually have several readers available, so check around. I try to keep the download links on my offline reader web pages current. You can visit these pages and immediately download your choice of readers. 6. How come SLMR has not been updated for a while? Production of SLMR was halted when Greg Hewgill was hired by Mustang Software. They also purchased the code/rights to his SLMR program, and it became the basis for Mustang's OLX. 7. How come Wave Rider has not been updated for a while? Answer from Sue Crocker, wife of Wave Rider author Doug Crocker: "Doug hasn't cashed or issued any (registration) keys since 1 November 1995, which is his hire date at Datastorm. He still has full rights to the program, but it is a conflict of interest to continue development of the program." 8. What ever happened development of 1stReader for Windows (1stWin)? Answer from 1stReader author Mark (Sparky) Herring: "Actually, the programmer died, literally. Mark McCarthy and I were working on it together when he suddenly died after a heart transplant operation. I eventually got the source code, but it would have been easier to start over from scratch. Then came Windows 95, then the Internet..." 9. What's the deal with Blue Wave and registrations? After a series of setbacks which included automobile accidents, illnesses, and people pirating the Blue Wave reader by generating their own keys, George Hatchew has quit development. The reader can still be registered via the authorized European or Austrailian agents, but George has withdrawn from industry contact. 10. How do I address InterNet e-mail with a QWK based reader? That depends on the exact implementation of the QWK handler that your sysop has installed. Since these differ, you should ask your sysop for guidance. For the most part, "extended" addressing uses the first-line method where the address is specified on the first line of the text portion of your message. The mail utilities pick up that first line and insert it in the appropriate place. More and more readers are taking care of this automatically, but to use the first-line method manually, place the word "to" (with no quotes) at the beginning of text area of the message. Follow with a colon, a space, and then the "long" address. For example: to: jhanoian@kannoncom.com This work-around is due to the 25 character limit imposed by the QWK "standard" and applies to the FROM, TO, and SUBJ fields in the message header. 11. How do I add or drop message conferences with a QWK based reader? Many doors and internal QWK processors permit offline configuration of the door by addressing a message to QMAIL in the desired conference with a subject of ADD or DROP. Many doors will permit more extensive configuration such as ADD -50 (add the conference and give me the last 50 messages only) or ADD YA (add the conference and take messages that are personally addressed to you or ALL only). 12. Is it possible to import a text file into a message? Many offline mail readers use an external editor. This means that when you tell the reader that you want to make a message (enter a new one, or reply to an existing message) it goes out and fires up whatever editor you have specified in the reader's configs. In this case, importing text is a function of that editor, not the reader. If your present editor will not permit importing text, then you should have the reader use an editor that will. Quite often, editors will respond to the old WordStar command set, where Alt-R was "read in text file". 13. Where did taglines really originate? According to a source, taglines originally came from Mark "Sparky" Herring. It seems that he had some leftover space at the end of the reader ID, and one of the original beta testers (Qmail DeLuxe user #2, Charles Grisamore) suggested to use the space for witty sayings, like a Chineese fortune cookie. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mail Reader Pages ----------------- MS-DOS Readers - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-dos.htm Windows 3.x Readers - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-win.htm Windows 95 (and up) Readers - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-win32.htm OS/2 Readers - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-os2.htm *nix Readers - Unix variations - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-nix.htm Non-IBM Readers - Amiga, Atari, Mac, etc - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-oth.htm Offline Mail FAQ - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/mail-faq.htm Related Pages ------------- Mail Packet Specs - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/mail-specs.htm Mail Packet Utilities - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/util-pkt.htm Mail Packet Merging Utilities - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/mail-merge.htm Other Mail Utilities - xxx BBS Mail Doors - xxx BlueWave Products list - http://www.softwolves.pp.se/faq/bwprod.htm Readers in Year 2000 - http://www.kannoncom.com/~jhanoian/readers/read-y2k.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions or Comments? New or updated files? New or broken author links? Please help keep this list current by sending corrections or additions to me: jhanoian@kannoncom.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------