** 1 page review / 866 words ** NEWSie v0.94 ** NEWSIE.IMG logo here (to right of title?) ** This compact newsgroup reader also offers web browsing, FTP and email facilities. Jack of all trades or master of none? Derryck Croker opens his notepad... NEWSie is STiK client so a working StiK/STinG TCP/IP stack and an account with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) are pre-requisites. Newsreading There are newsgroups covering almost any conceivable subject and, depending on your ISP, the list of groups available can be very long. Once you have downloaded a list of available newsgroups subscribing to individual newsgroups is a simple point and click operation. Selected newsgroups appear in the SubScribed Newsgroups window. Click on the Save icon to add the newsgroup to the DEFAULT.GRP file used by NEWSie to determine which newsgroups to collect articles from during the next on-line session. The Article overview window has a double function. When on-line articles you haven't read, which are currently available on your news server, are displayed and these can be manipulated using the toolbar icons. Individual articles can be read on-line by double-clicking on them or individual articles and/or threads can be marked as Read if they don't look promising - watch out for any obvious spam headers which plague Usenet newsgroups. The Read for offline option downloads all unread articles to your local disk for off-line reading. This release features improved download handling. Individual messages, threads or just a single newsgroup can be selected for retrieval and it's now also possible to fetch previously downloaded messages (previously this was only possible by hand editing DEFAULT.GRP). Replying to and posting articles is straightforward, however I find the Post/Followup article dialog offers a confusing range of options. For example, the only way I can find to send a private email in reply to a public article is to use Reply email from the Mail drop down menu. NEWSie offers a choice of encoding methods and these Encode selections are used to send binary file attachments (anything other than plain ASCII) over the Internet. Please bear in mind binary files should only be posted to binary-newsgroups otherwise you will become very unpopular! NEWSie's built-in decoding of file attachments works well and makes a welcome change from unfriendly TTP utilities. I have read reports from users reporting disk or file corruption when downloading articles. I've never experienced this but do read and follow the advice in NEWSIE.DOC. Even better set aside a partition specifically for NEWSie if you have the hard disk space. Web browsing Text only browsing has been integrated into the article reading window where clicking on a quoted URL, while on-line, takes you to that page. When it works it's fine but all too often I was left looking at a blank window so some further development is needed in this area, in the meantime NEWSie can send a URL via the GEM clipboard or, under a multitasking OS, via the AV protocol to CAB. FTP Rich stores of files are just waiting to be plundered using NEWSie's FTP (File Transfer Protocol) section. It really is as simple as navigating using a file selector. Pick a server from a user-supplied list of FTP sites, double-click to connect and the rest is self explanatory. This release adds the ability to upload multiple files at once and recall the last directory used. This is also the first release which works properly with CIX - and probably other ISPs. Email In addition to the basic email features NEWSie offers some excellent extras. There's a comprehensive "killfile" feature which can be configured to reject any email which doesn't match your supplied criteria. Incoming mail can also be automatically divided into multiple off-line mailboxes - which makes it easy to keep mailing lists separate and there are many other possibilities. There's also a useful address book and nickname support and a friendly greeting from the author lurking in the incoming mailbox - a nice touch. To help avoid spam NEWSie can be configured to hide your real email address. However, if you do want to receive emails you need to make changes. There's currently no easy way to do this within NEWSie itself but I maintain a second INF file containing my real email address and load that when I want to send or receive email using NEWSie. Conclusion I started this review using NEWSie v0.90 and this release has addressed ALL of my earlier reservations so, apart from the minor niggles mentioned here, it comes recommended. ** product boxout ** NEWSie v0.94 Status: Freeware Author: John Rojewski Email: rojewski@primenet.com http://www.primenet.com/~rojewski/newsie.html System: All Ataris, 1Mb memory and ST-high resolution minimum, RAM/hard drive recommended. Pros: Freeware, reversible deletion of offline articles, active support by the author in the comp.sys.atari.st newsgroup, AV protocol support, ongoing development. Cons: Erratic web browsing feature, no Drag&Drop, DHST, OLGA, StringServer or GEMScript support, log file overwritten each time NEWSie is started. 85% ** /boxout ** ** ARTICLE.IMG ** BubbleGEM help indicates the function of the individual window toolbar icons - maybe next time the keyboard shortcuts can be included? More detailed context-sensitive help is available by pressing the [Help] key ** OVERVIEW.IMG ** Threading allows easy navigation through messages pertaining to a single subject