Baud Bandit
I just picked up a new copy of Baud Bandit, released by Progressive
Peripherals, and thought I'd share my first thoughts. I'm not sure where this
program 'came' from – I've heard of it before and thought perhaps it's been in
the Shareware market for a bit and has made the plunge into commercial – maybe
someone could enlighten me.
I've been on the Great TeleComm hunt for a couple of years now. I had some
bad experiences with two major contenders, Diga! and ATalkIII, and bought Baud
Bandit on an impulse. The single biggest trouble with Diga! was the fear of
doing too much that would cause a crash, while ATalkIII had similar problems,
plus was a bit of a pain interface&protocol wise. The beauty of Baud Bandit is
that it's small, clean and very functional. There is lots of well thought out
interface issues that makes it 'fall' nicely under the mouse. Now I can call
up the capture screen while online while not feeling that I'm on the verge of a
crash, also it's nice and fast. It's got a nice cross-section of
protocols(including Compuserve-B), and a small but effective script language.
In addition, it has a nice ARexx port – the language of the future(well, mebbe
not quite)! There's even a small ARexx program included that turns it into a
mini BBS! There are no terminal emulations per se, although it seems to
support the standard 'VT' set that I have setup on my account here.
Anyhow, I love this program(I'm using it now)! The only drawback for me is a
non-standard Amiga interface(i.e. no pull down menus), but this interface works
nicely. The best part is the price – I've spent about $200 prior to this
package on TeleComm – this only cost $40 Canadian! Would like to hear any
other comments. Meanwhile, I'm packing ATalkIII away for those rare days I
need a Tectronix emulation!
J.C.