Binary newsgroup readers/downloaders????

[mark page]

Can anyone vouch for any good newsgroup binary downloaders/readers? Here's my situation: With a new electrical substation being built in my area, I lose power almost every other day, even if just a glitch. I have been using powergrab, which is an older program, but I love the way it merges all the headers. But every time the power glitches during a download of headers, I lose stored info, and the program will restart and load/sort/merge all of the headers of an individual group. Some of my groups have over 80 million stored headers. This constitutes into over 4 days processor time to recompute. I can't keep power on that long. I may have to resort to using a UPS but do not have one at this time. I also have been using forte agent, but with latest version cannot download from scratch the massive numbers of headers, plus this program will not compile the headers like powergrab does. Both programs have their advantages and disadvantages. Does anyone know of a dedicated reader/downloader program for newsgroups that has the power of being custom tailored to possibly downloading something like the last two days of entries in a group, and not the total of a years retention. Long group retention is great, but it's killing me in this respect. And don't bother recommending outlook express or something similiar to that. I am looking for a powerful dedicated program that can be custom tailored beyond these two programs. Any help will be appreciated.

[Lon Schleining]

Do you know of Leo Laporte?

http://techguylabs.com/radio/

[Mike Henderson]

If you're having that much trouble with power, I'd definitely get an UPS.

Mike

[Tom Veatch]

... Here's my situation: With a new electrical substation being built in my area, I lose power almost every other day, even if just a glitch. ...

If you're satisfied with your existing program except for the way it responds to sudden power outages, the very first thing I would do is install an Untinterruptable Power Supply (UPS). There are a number on the market and are cheap compared to the risk of data and hardware loss.

They would give you time to do an orderly shut down if the power outage lasts for a significant time and would bridge across those "blips" that cause so many problems. That way, you could use the programs that you like and wouldn't have to worry about power outages or learning/configuring new applications.

After losing both data and hardware and having to spend a couple of days reloading and reconfiguring the system after a single blip that lasted less than a second, I wouldn't dare to be without some sort of UPS. I have three of the various "Back-UPS" models from APC supporting my home network. Thankfully, I had good, recent backups of my important information.

As far as your direct question goes, I can't recommend anything you're not already familiar with. I use Forte Agent and if I'm not mistaken, one of the header download options is to only download headers from the last X days. Never used that feature, so can't comment on the performance.

93662

[Jim Becker]

Yea, I went the UPS route when I moved into our addition. 'Have three of them...one on the router and switch off the demark in the original house; one at the distribution point in the attic of the addition and one in my office to handle the PCs, phones, etc. (Stuff like printers, etc., do not have their power backed up) This allows for both an orderly shut down as well as being able to continue online for a bit when the general power is out.

'Can't help you with the reader question...never have used "newsgroups" in my entire history of being a computer-geek-addict. Really...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I was real happy with News Rover.
(It has native support for yEnc decoding.)

You can download a trial version of it to play around with for 30 days from Newsrover.com.

I found it a lot more user friendly than Forte Agent or Free Agent.