CompuServe Messages

Well, lets see. For all my net access _except_ the WEB, I use "Internet in a box". Nice email, about as good a newsreader as I've seen except you can't read offline. FWIW, I also bought and extensiuvely tried "Chameleon", and my summary opinion of that software is it couldn't be much worse and still be called "software". The news reader is purest, absolute unmitigated junk, the mail is crippled, and the low level connect software seems to be designed to drive you directly out of your mind. Don't buy it. Ever. 🙂 For the WEB, I use "NetScape". This I downloaded from the appropriate ftp site, which I no longer have any idea where was, sorry – but net denizens should be able to direct you to it, it's popular as all get out – that's how I heard about it. The web software that comes with IIAB in a box isn't nearly as nice as the netscape product, and it all works together seamlessly, so there you go. For the low level connection underneath IIAB, I use "Trumpet", which works _extremely_ well. Got this off a net site in Ireland. 🙂 The only problem with the IIAB setup was that the underlying dialer ASSumes you will be using the selected set of service providers in the box; I wasn't, and don't plan to. You can't write scripts worth snot in the IIAB low level connect manager (it makes too many assumptions), so I couldn't make it work with my provider. I then went on an oddessy I *really* didn't want to have to do in order to learn exactly what bizzare and peculiar protocols I'd have to handle with Trumpet to get to my provider – I managed to get it all going (I'm very stubborn.. 🙂 and at this point everything is going very well. I now know more than I ever wanted to about Trumpet and the IBM provider I use, but with a great deal of directed effort, I'm forgetting it as fast as I can. 🙂 All of this runs _very_ well on my 486 dx4/75 laptop under windows 3.1. We have a complete Internet site running; "blackbelt.com" We have set up WEB services, ftp, and various email channels and so internetting is quite important at this point. Only CIS compares in volume to the internet at this time, and the trend is clear – CIS will soon be behind. The noise level on the net is nothing less than horrible, but we've methods in place to help deal with it that are working well for us. Me, I prefer CIS for a number of reasons, but this is business, so I've not got a great deal of choice. Anyway, hope that all helps. –Ben …via AutoPilot