
 
 
Archive-name: off-line-readers/usenet/intro
Alt-usenet-offline-reader-archive-name: intro
Original-Author: Rhys Weatherly
 
========================================================================
====
 
part 01/02 intro
 
1 Credits and Disclaimer
2 Overview
3 Newsgroups of interest to offline readers
4 What is an offline reader?
5 What is the difference from getting a news feed?
6 What are QWK and BlueWave?
7 What is SOUP?
8 What is ZipNews?
 
part 02/02 software
 
100 Where can I get the software?
200 Where are the QWK readers?
300 common sites, template
400 author contacts
500 ftp sites
600 miscellaneous
700 packers
800 readers
 
========================================================================
====
 
------------------------------
 
 
using QWK for Internet mail or Usenet is like using wax crayons for all
your business correspondence. it'll get your message across, but only
to those people who don't throw it away without opening it.
 
------------------------------
 
 
This FAQ is based in part on one by Dave Cheung 
<Dave.Cheung@infocom.co.uk>,
 
It was updated and posted by Rhys Weatherly for a while.
 
It was then digestified and hardly (if at all) modified by Russell 
Schulz
<auofaq@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>
 
Whilst every effort has been taken to ensure the information contained
herein is correct, neither the current author, the current poster, nor
any previous author or previous poster can accept ANY LIABILITY 
WHATSOEVER
for errors, ommissions or damage howsoever caused.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
A common question on netnews these days is "how do I package up my
mail and news to be read offline?". This FAQ attempts to answer
this question for e-mail and netnews, to point the reader at
relevant software, and to describe some of the ongoing efforts in
this area. Other networks such as FidoNet, CompuServe, etc. are not
covered.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
for netnews in general. This includes the installation and use of
offline systems, and the discussion of "packet formats" to
facilitate offline activities.
 
comp.os.msdos.mail-news is for the discussion of any aspect of
managing RFC-compliant mail and news on MS-DOS machines, and is
not limited to the discussion of offline activities.
 
------------------------------
 
 
==begin FAQ caption==
 
Suppose I have a high-powered Sun machine that gets, oh, 6 incoming
newsfeeds totalling a couple of hundred megs a day. If I read or
post news on it, am I reading or posting offline? (Probably not, you
might say.)
 
What if I cut it down to, say 2 incoming news feeds and 50 megs a day?
 
One incoming newsfeed and 3 megs a day? A sporadic incoming newsfeed
that's rather selective based on my tastes, a couple of hundred
kbytes a day?
 
Just what is meant by offline news reading?
==end FAQ caption==
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
The concept of offline reading comes from BBS world where a user
connects via a modem to the bbs, and downloads a file (usually
called a packet) containing all unread messages since the last
connection. Then a program is used, to extract the messages from the
packet, read them and reply to them, creating a reply packet to be
uploaded at the next connection. This saves time (the bbs lines are
less engaged) and money (on phone bills). It also means that the
user can make use of much friendlier reading tools than can be made
available in an interactive login environment.
 
For the purposes of this FAQ, "offline" is defined to mean the
following: "transferring mail and news in some form from an existing
interactive account to a user's machine, usually via a modem, so
that the messages may be read while the user is not connected to the
account, and so that replies may be composed to be uploaded to the
account at some later time to be injected into the network".
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
Another definition of "offline" pertains to the system administrator of
a mail and news site (usually a UUCP site) who reads mail and news while
the machine is not physically connected to the network, usually with
some friendly third-party utility. This usage is common in the Waffle
community.
 
It is often the case that your server can provide you with an automatic
can be received by modem using the UUCP protocol (among other methods).
 
There is no big difference with the "offline reading" concept except
that it is a little more automated. If your home machine runs on a
multi-tasking system, or you can dedicate it to mail and news all
night long (when you're asleep -- probably easy to do) you can even
set it to call the server regularly. You can also start feeding other
machines if you wish.
 
The disadvantage is that traditionally, getting a feed has been a lot
more complicated, needlessly so, than using an offline reader. Another
disadvantage is that some providers charge more for a uucp connection
on top of a shell connection or slip connection.
 
One advantage of the uucp approach is that uucp is designed to only
transfer files. You don't have to worry about your ProComm script
accidentally leaving you logged in for nine hours on a long-distance
connection until you find it in the morning, waiting for you to press
`Enter'. If a uucp connection is idle, the other system will 
disconnect,
since it's not expecting anyone to be there to press `Enter'. You can
also more confidently set your machine to dial up at 3:00 am when system
response is quickest, the phone lines to your provider are never busy,
and any long-distance charges drop as low as they go.
 
Also, it is almost always easier to get a free uucp connection than a
free shell account with offline-friendly capabilities (for instance,
most FreeNet sites don't).
 
SNUUPM is a package designed to allow simple installation of the full
UUPC, SNews, and PMail (Pegasus Mail) packages.
 
uufree is another such installation and configuration suite, but none
of the included packages is shareware, and the installation time has
been kept to an absolute minimum -- and it can easily be done by the
site giving you the uucp feed.
 
At the start, especially if you want few newsgroups, you may want
to begin with an offline news reader and then maybe move to a
feed when you feel more confident.
 
------------------------------
 
 
QWK and BlueWave are the names of popular packet formats in the BBS
community. QWK was originally created to get messages for PC-Board
bulletin boards and FidoNet "mail areas" (the equivalent of netnews
newsgroups). It became a de-facto standard since more and more QWK
readers are available not only on MS-DOS machines but on all
architectures.
 
However, the QWK and BlueWave formats are not capable of carrying
efforts have been made to adapt QWK to netnews, but at best the
extra information present in netnews messages has been ignored by
existing readers, and at worst the extra information is truncated
and References: headers, is very important to netnews, and the
loss of this information causes problems for other netnews
readers.
 
Some packages try to put all the RFC-compliant header information
in the bodies of the messages, which creates a lot of ugly
messages when these aren't intercepted, but also doesn't solve
the problem of creating correct headers, since the QWK programs
will just let any old garbage out, and your messages can silently
disappear, without you getting any warning until it's too late.
 
As mentioned, there are already a ton of QWK readers. if you're
looking for a programming project, see the next section. it'll be
about as much work, but a lot more fun because it's a lot less
likely to be ignored once you finish.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
SOUP == "Simple Offline USENET Packet" format. It is intended as a
replacement for QWK in the netnews community. The messages stored in
SOUP packets are completely RFC-compliant so that no critical
information is lost. Software which supports SOUP on a variety of
platforms is available. See "Where can I get the software?" later in
this FAQ for more information.
 
SOUP was originally called the "Helldiver Packet Format" or HDPF, and
was devised by Rhys Weatherley (rhys@cs.uq.oz.au) near the end of 1992.
A variant of HDPF, called the "Simple Local News Packet" format or SLNP,
was devised by Philippe Goujard (ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk) soon afterwards.
SOUP now combines the features of both HDPF and SLNP. Rhys Weatherley
currently maintains the "official copy" of the format document.
 
The SOUP format document may be found on any SimTel FTP mirror as
 
 offline/soup12.zip
 
The latest copy may also be obtained by mailing Rhys Weatherley at the
above e-mail address.
 
SOUP also has the ability to download "summaries" of message
areas. That is, downloading just the header information for the
user to peruse and then choose what messages they want to be
downloaded later. This can be useful in very large newsgroups
where a user typically only reads a few messages and wishes to
avoid downloading the rest of the "noise". This feature is not
currently widely implemented however.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
ZipNews is an offline reading system that was developed
independently by Jack Kilday (jkilday@nlbbs.com). It is primarily
intended for Waffle, PC-Board and Wildcat! systems, although the
UQWK package can generate ZipNews packets (and process ZipNews reply
packets) on Unix systems. Only one ZipNews compliant reader exists.
SOUP and ZipNews formats are superficially very similar, and it is
not inconceivable that a reader for one format could be adapted to
read the other format. The ZipNews reader can also function as a
local newsreader for Waffle system adminstrators.
 


 
 
Archive-name: off-line-readers/usenet/software
Alt-usenet-offline-reader-archive-name: software
Original-Author: Rhys Weatherly
 
========================================================================
====
 
part 01/02 intro
 
1 Credits and Disclaimer
2 Overview
3 Newsgroups of interest to offline readers
4 What is an offline reader?
5 What is the difference from getting a news feed?
6 What are QWK and BlueWave?
7 What is SOUP?
8 What is ZipNews?
 
part 02/02 software
 
100 Where can I get the software?
200 Where are the QWK readers?
300 common sites, template
400 author contacts
500 ftp sites
600 miscellaneous
700 packers
800 readers
 
========================================================================
====
 
Whilst every effort has been taken to ensure the information contained
herein is correct, neither the current author, the current poster, nor
any previous author or previous poster can accept ANY LIABILITY 
WHATSOEVER
for errors, ommissions or damage howsoever caused.
 
------------------------------
 
 
100 Where can I get the software?
 
There are two pieces of software that you will need for any offline
reading activities. A "generating program" (also known as a "packet
generator" or "door") to build the packets on the BBS or login account,
and a "reading program" (also known as a "packet reader") to read the
packets on your home machine. This section lists software that can be
used for each of these activities, together with the authors, FTP sites,
and packet formats supported.
 
In the case of interactive dial-in users, you may find that a suitable
generating program may already exist on the system you call: ask the
system administrator if you are unsure. For Waffle systems, you will
need to ask the system administrator to install the generating software.
For Unix, anyone who has access to a C compiler can compile and install
the currently available software, so no intervention from the system
administrator is required.
 
 
101 Where are the reviews?
 
not here.
 
if you are looking for reviews, post your requirements and see who
else knows what you need. please do not be vague -- no one can help
you when you just say you're looking to evaluate some `offline
software for your computer'. what kind of computer is it you're
using? what is the computer it's connecting to? what do you want to
do -- mail, news, both, more? how much are you willing to pay? what
sort of interface do you need? how sophisticated are you? etc.
 
I will not be putting any reviews in here, partly because they would be
difficult to maintain, and partly because I want to avoid any flak from
a negative review which I did not write.
 
if you want to periodically post a collection of reviews, go ahead.
you don't need my approval.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
200 Where are the QWK readers?
 
not here. I don't plan on listing any software that mangles headers
as much as QWK does. even with uqwk's +X expert mode, no QWK reader
I'm aware of will yet do simple things like generate a References:
header.
 
until they do, look elsewhere for them. if you must.
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
300 Common sites, template
 
If you know of any other products that support offline activities for
RFC-compliant mail and news, please send the following information in
mail to auofaq@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca. Also, be sure to post
your announcement, to make sure everyone knows about it.
 
 
Name: [Product name]
Author: [email address]
Location: [ftp site] [filename] *
Type: Packet Generator/Packet Reader/Both
Environment: [msdos][mac][ms-windows][os2][atari-st][unix][etc.]
Formats: [soup][zipnews]
Description/Comments:
 
* for the SimTel collection, just use `simtel' for the ftp site, and
 give the first two directories (e.g., `msdos/offline') plus filename.
 the main SimTel mirror is oak.oakland.edu:/SimTel/
 
 for the Cica ms-windows collection, just use `cica' for the ftp site,
 and give the first directory (e.g., `util') plus filename. on cica
 itself, the ms-windows files are in 
ftp.cica.indiana.edu:/pub/pc/win3/
 
 for the sumex-aim info-mac collection, just use `info-mac' for the
 ftp site. one of the main info-mac sites is sumex-aim.stanford.edu
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
400 author contacts
 
soup rhys@cs.uq.oz.au
zip zip-bugs@wkuvx1.wku.edu
unzip zip-bugs@wkuvx1.wku.edu
getnews ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk
solar kjhoule@iowegia.dsm.ia.us
uqwk seb3@gte.com
uqwkselector seb3@gte.com
zipnews jkilday@nlbbs.com
hpv rhys@cs.uq.oz.au
slnr ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk
unor rrusbasa@nyx.cs.du.edu
zipnewsreader jkilday@nlbbs.com
yarn cthuang@io.org
yarn-os2 cthuang@io.org
yarneditorsh pg@login.dknet.dk
paperboy vart@clark.net
rfdmail yon@world.std.com
toadnews jpmah@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
pronto pronto@commtouch.com, [800-63-TOUCH,+1 415 578 8580]
nnrnews hero@login.dkuug.dk
offlinepgp staalesc@ifi.uio.no
versatermlink maxwell@sales.synergy.com
soupcmd combee@prism.gatech.edu
macslurp ...
offliner ...
offline-orbit jts@krk.fi
williamsnews rwilliam@netcom.com
snuupm mlawrie@apies.frd.ac.za
uufree uufree@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca
macsoup stk@berlin.snafu.de
readmail jschipper@hut.nl
newswerthy billw@eskimo.com
newshopper laurent@mach.demon.co.uk
newsfetcher h9151382@idefix.wu-wien.ac.at
rnmac rrwood@io.org
okami wr@bara.oche.de
tetrix Johannes@tetrix.internet-eireann.ie
winyarn ?
souper cthuang@io.org
wssoup magnus@world.net
olmenu kgresham@america.net
wsomr wang@durian.usc.edu.ph
nautnews strombus@xmission.com
free-agent ...
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
500 ftp sites
 
soup simtel:msdos/offline/soup12.zip
zip ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/*
unzip ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/*
getnews ftp.adelaide.edu.au:/pub/news/readers/off-line/slnr/ ...?
solar simtel:msdos/waffle/solar094.zip
uqwk ftp.gte.com:/pub/uqwk/uqwk1.8.tar.Z
uqwkselector ftp.gte.com:/pub/uqwk/us/us1.1.tar.Z
zipnews simtel:msdos/offline/znews97g.zip
hpv simtel:msdos/offline/hpv101b.zip
slnr ftp.adelaide.edu.au:/pub/news/readers/off-line/slnr/*
unor ftp.gte.com:/pub/unor/unor0021.zip
zipnewsreader simtel:msdos/offline/znr093b.zip
yarn simtel:msdos/offline/yarn_079.zip
yarn-os2 ftp-os2.cdrom.com:/os2/2_x/bbs/yrn2_065.zip [079 
assumed...]
yarneditorsh simtel:msdos/offline/yes-018b.zip
paperboy ftp.clark.net:/pub/vart/pboy205.zip
rfdmail garbo.uwasa.fi:/windows/comm/rfdml122.zip
toadnews ftp.halcyon.com:/pub/tisk/tidbits/uucp/
pronto [retail package] eval: 
commtouch.com:/pub/commtouch/eval.exe
nnrnews simtel:msdos/offline/nnrnews2.zip
offlinepgp simtel:msdos/offline/apgp212.zip
versatermlink [retail package - nothing ftp-able]
soupcmd ftp.gte.com:/pub/soupcmd/soupcmd.tar.gz.
macslurp ...
offliner metronet.com:/pub/xfer/ol06a.zip
offline-orbit [via mail from author]
williamsnews ftp.netcom.com:/pub/rwilliam/wnnws10b.zip
snuupm simtel:msdos/uucp/snuupm26.zip
uufree 
ftp.supernet.ab.ca:/pub/msdos/uufree/uufree06.zip,uufres06.zip
macsoup info-mac:comm/term/mac-soup-*
readmail ftp.winternet.com:/pub/ReadMail/rm50b75.zip
newswerthy simtel:msdos/offline/nwrth160.zip
newshopper ftp.halcyon.com:/pub/tisk/tidbits/tcp/news-hopper-10a-
demo.hqx
newsfetcher ftp.halcyon.com:/pub/tisk/tidbits/tcp/news-fetcher-045-
hc.hqx
rnmac ftp.halcyon.com:/pub/tisk/tidbits/uucp/rn-mac-13b6.hqx
okami ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/atari/uucp/o_026.zip
tetrix ftp.internet-eireann.ie:/pub/ie_access/dos/winsock/trp*
winyarn simtel:win3/offline/winyrn71.zip
souper ftp-os2.nmsu.edu:/os2/32bit/unix/souper12.zip
wssoup http://www.ozemail.com.au/~magnus
olmenu simtel:msdos/offline/olmnu111.zip
wsomr simtel:msdos/offline/wsomr100.zip
nautnews http://www.xmission.com:80/~strombus/
free-agent ftp.forteinc.com:/agent/
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
600 miscellaneous
 
soup - Simple Offline Usenet Packet format
offlinepgp - soup-aware pgp addon
yarneditorsh - editor shell
winyarn - front-end to yarn?
olmenu - front-end to uqwk
snuupm - easy-install of snews, uupc, and pmail
uufree - free uucp/mail/news, with installation/configuration program
 
 
------------------------------
 
 
700 packers -- `name' - `function'; `platforms'; `standards'
 
701 getnews - generator; Unix; soup
702 solar - generator; msdos Waffle; soup
703 uqwk - generator; Unix NNTP, Unix spool; soup/zipnews
704 uqwkselector - generator; Unix NNTP, Unix spool; ...
705 zipnews - generator; msdos Waffle, PC-Board, Wildcat; zipnews
706 nnrnews - translator; msdos; nn save files, soup
707 soupcmd - uqwk add-on; Unix; soup commands that uqwk handles non-
souply
708 macslurp - news importer via SLIP; mac; ...
709 newsfetcher - news importer via SLIP; mac; ...
710 souper - packer of SLIP mail/news; os2; soup
711 wssoup - packer of SLIP mail/news; ms-windows; soup
 
------------------------------
 
 
800 readers -- `name' - `function'; `platforms'; `standards'
 
801 hpv (helldiver packet viewer) - reader; msdos; soup
802 slnr (simple local news reader) - reader; Unix, msdos, atari; soup
803 unor (USENET offline reader) - reader; ms-windows; soup
804 zipnewsreader - reader; msdos; zipnews
805 yarn - reader; msdos, os2; soup
806 paperboy - reader; ms-windows; soup
807 rfdmail - reader; ms-windows; proprietary
808 toadnews - reader pre-processor; mac; soup
809 pronto - reader; ms-windows; proprietary
810 versatermlink - reader; mac; proprietary
811 offliner - reader; ms-windows; soup
812 offline-orbit - reader; amiga; soup
813 williamsnews - reader; ms-windows; soup
814 macsoup - reader; mac; soup
815 readmail - reader; msdos; soup
816 newswerthy - reader; msdos; soup
817 newshopper - reader; mac; proprietary
818 rnmac - reader; mac; soup?
819 okami - reader; atari st; soup
820 tetrix - reader; msdos; slip-based soup
821 wsomr - reader; msdos; soup
822 nautnews - ?
823 free-agent - reader; msdosl soup
 

