Picks: A Roundup of Newsgroup Readers
| Published: | Apr 23, 2008 | |||
| Author: | Michael E, Callahan | |||
| Related OS: | Windows | |||
Over the last few weeks I've gotten a lot of emails asking about newsgroup readers. So, here for your reading pleasure, is a roundup of some newsgroup software. Enjoy. -- Doc
Agent, by Forte
is a powerful, first-rate newsreader and it's gotten progressively
better over the years. Agent can handle multiple newsgroup
servers, private newsgroups, and email. It can also deal with both text
and binary newsgroups. It also comes with some impressive
filtering power so you can get exactly what you want from the newsgroups
you subscribe to. It provides the ability to have the program "pull" in
content from multiple servers so you have optimum content with a
Agent has a lot of configurable options and I always like that.
You can have different personas for different newsgroups. That
gives you a lot of flexibility. You can have an "official" personal for
business and other, more informal personas for other things. The ability
to do email makes Agent a killer package because you can have all
your email and newsgroups in one application. I personally have
run Agent from a USB drive for over 6 months with no problems at
all. Keep in mind that this is not a documented feature, but it works
for me. Take that for what it's worth. Agent is a powerful yet
easy-to-use solution for both newsgroups and email. It's loaded with
great features and lots of configurable options. You can customize it in
so many ways including filters to route your information and different
rules for different folders. The program also makes it very easy to find
information that's in the program. Search for text in email or
newsgroups and find what you're looking for! Give it a try, I recommend
it.
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
Newsman Pro, by NewsMan Pro
is another full-featured newsgroup reader that I like a lot. In
particular I really like it's clean and easy-to-use interface. You can
even customize the way it looks using its built-in "themes." For anyone
that uses a server that imposes limits on the amount you can download
this is a program you need to look at. You can set it up so it will
automatically stop the download when your limit is reached - pretty
cool. Oh, and did I mention that it will also restart when you're able
to get more? The program also has a very nice scheduler in the full or
non-freeware version. That allows you to have NewsMan Pro go get your
news
for you, while you sleep perhaps. NewsMan Pro has a number of
neat features that I haven't seen in similar programs. It's "Automation
Rules" function is cool because it will find articles you might be
interested in by using keywords or key phrases that you define. When the
program goes off to check news headers it "watches" your rules
and snags anything that might be of interest. A nice feature to have. I
found that I could gradually refine my rules based on what NewsMan Pro
brought back. NewsMan Pro can deal with both binary and text
newsgroups. The program comes with a built-in database that allows you
to store messages for as long as you like. I think that's a great
feature and it also makes it easy to find things. Another cool feature
is the way the program handles binary attachments. Supporting UUE, MIME,
and Yenc encoding, the program decodes attachments as you download them,
saving them in a folder you've assigned. Another nice feature is the
ability to support multiple news servers, which some similar products
don't allow. On top of that you can even assign a priority to each
newsgroup server. All servers with a priority go into a pool and are
treated as one server. NewsMan Pro is simply loaded with cool and
useful features and lots of configurable option. Give it a try for
yourself and see what I mean.
System Requirements: Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista
Ozum, by Oz Insight Pty Ltd
is yet another cool newsgroup reader that's loaded with neat features.
In fact, this product has so many cool features and functions that I can't
possibly cover them all here, but I will try to cover some of the high
points. Most newsgroup readers do okay with text, but they don't tend to
do well if media is involved. Trying doing things with audio, video, or
graphics and some newsgroup readers will choke. Not Ozum! It was built
to do newsgroups and do a great job working with media as well. One very
slick feature is a built-in "cross group" search capability that will
find what you're looking for if it's available. Put what you're looking
for in the search interface and Ozum snags it for you. Impressive!
Ozum is an extremely powerful program for dealing with
newsgroups. I've evaluated just about every newsgroup reader out there
and none of them have the multi-media functions I found in Ozum. One
unbelievable feature is the ability to actually preview just a part of
any multiple part audio or video clips. The program can handle a huge
range of file formats including, MP3, MPG, MPEG, AVI, ASF, WAV, and
more. And what's possibly more impressive is that it automatically pulls
in the files and decompresses them regardless of format. It can even
unpack RAR format files and allows you to "look" inside them. Some of
the power of Ozum comes from the fact that it's a true
multithreaded application. Ozum is fast and has lots of power
under-the-hood. At the same time it's easy-to-use. Give it a try, I
recommend it.
System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista
NewsWolf, by www.netwu.com is kind of unique in the realm of newsgroup readers because it actually goes out and finds free news feeds. Actually, in testing it out, I was surprised that it worked so well at sniffing out possible free news servers. Apparently the program keeps a database of potential target and then goes out to try to get you the news you want. One cool feature is that when NewsWolf does find a likely site it begins a login so it can determine if it's the real thing. Cool. If you find information you're interested in the program will gather it up for you and save it as a file, which you can easily browse. Since it's so unique I felt it was worthy of mention. If you're in search of free newsgroups, this is the program you need to look at.
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP
If you have a question on how to do something on the computer you can ask me and I'll review some software that will give you a solution to your problem. You can email me by clicking HERE You may not receive a reply, but all requests will be considered.
About Michael E, Callahan
Michael E. Callahan, known around the world by the trademarked name Dr. File Finder, is regarded as the world's leading expert on shareware. Dr. File Finder works with software programs and developers full-time, and in the average year he evaluates 10,000 programs. Since 1982 he has evaluated over 250,000 software and hardware products. Mr. Callahan began evaluating software online in 1982 and no one has been at it longer. He currently works doing online PR and marketing for software companies, and is the Senior Content Producer for Butterscotch.Com.
In the bonus episode Doc Callahan tells you of his favorite features in Safari 4.0 view it
Stacy Reed rounds up her favorite April Fools' pranks this year view it
Buying, downloading and reading books on the iPad view it
A cool feature in Picasa is the ability to add name tags to photos so Picasa can automatically find photos that include that person. view it
In this episode, we'll be looking at setting up a Bluetooth accessory, we'll offer a few power-saving tips and we'll take a quick look at how copy and paste works on the Samsung Galaxy SII 4G. view it
In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the pre-installed apps on the Galaxy SII including the Android Market, Gmail, the browser and the camera. view it
In this episode, we'll be taking a look at some of the Android tweaks that Samsung has made with its TouchWiz interface. We'll also take a look at adding widgets and app shortcuts to our homescreens, including Samsung's own specialized apps and widgets. view it
