Voyager

Select an option:

• a newer, nicer !NewsAgent usenet client
• a dialler that doesn't need half a meg of memory!    Version 0.39 (2001-05-09)
• a news preprocessor to remove boring stuff    Version 0.03 (2001-06-06)
• a way of extracting my email from within Posty.
• a little toolbar with useful utilities.
• something to help me reduce spam as a result of newsgroup postings.
• something to tell me more about my copy of Voyager.
• an easy way to convert my website so I can test it on a PC.
• a nifty little CD player, so I can listen to my favourite tracks while dealing with news and email.
   
  
• a way to remove signal() calls from JavaScript Fresco.

Can you tell me...

• how to find out my login details?
• how to access email via telnet?
• how to access email via the web?

• NewsAgent (check page for latest version)
  The standard usenet client as supplied with Voyager, with some fixes and additions.
  If you're interested, visit this page to find out more...

• QuickVoy (latest version 0.39)
  A nice Voyager dialler with features but no fancy graphics. Unlike Argo's dialler, this one requires a mere 128K so will be of benefit to lower-memory machines. Also, unlike Argo's dialler, it is highly configurable with a script-based system...
  Includes phone bill creator, email writer, and web cache scanner, and more.
  Supplied also is version 0.16b (QuickVoy small) which requires a mere 32K to get you on-line...
  If you are a disbelieving PC user, click here!

• PreNews (latest version 0.03)
  A nice simple news preprocessor that scans exclusively (ie, anything you do not want is dumped, opposite to a 'killfile' facility).
  PreNews can also whizz through your incoming news file and show you a list of subjects, sorted under the newsgroup to which they belong.
   
  Sadly, this project has ceased due to the sources being lost in a recent disc crash. I'm sure y'all know how I feel about that, 'cos I quite like PreNews. Grrr Argh!

• FetchMail (latest version 1.41)
  FetchMail provides a simple way of extracting your email from Posty in clear-text form. Simply select the required user, then choose which mailbox(es) to extract, enter the password (if the user has one), and finally drag the directory icon to your harddisc. It is as easy as that.

• Foxy (latest version 1.20)
  Foxy provides a toolbar that can calculate call costs, strip unwanted URLs from the web browser history (like local pages and Altavista), archive files, compact news postings ready for archival, and a host of other features.

Foxy's splash window

• NewsFudge (latest version 1.17)
  NewsFudge lets you 'fudge' the headers of your outgoing news. It can add commands to prevent archival of your postings to dejanews, it can change your email address to a spam-trapped (possibly fake?) address for non-Argonet postings (including crossposts), it can add time of uploading, a ZFC sequence counter, countdown to Y2K (either 2000 or 2001) and it can even add taglines!!!
  The source code for this software is available.

• VoyInfo (latest version 0.05b)
  Ever wanted to know something about your Voyager setup? This program will tell you your username, login password, domain name, and POP3 ident. Then it can tell you a little bit about your modem settings with an exclusive feature - a modem command string interpeter, to change "AT&F1&Q5N1ViX4Y0\G0S95=0S0=0" into something more intelligible!
  As if that isn't enough there is a report generator for testers, and a rather interesting Info window too!
  Strictly unofficial - and the result of several late nights hacking. ;^)
  

  NOTE:

  If you are using my QuickVoy, then it includes user information reporting, so you do not need to download this application.

• PCifySite (latest version 0.02 SW)
  Will convert a website into something a PC can load and deal with. Great for converting your sites to test with MSIE or NetScape, or any other non-RISC OS browser.
  ShareWare (registered version 0.12)

• Mewzyck (latest version 0.12)
  A simple little CD player.

• Login details
  In order to view the details necessary to log into something such as the pop3 server, or to program into another Internet suite such as ANT or BTclick, you can use VoyInfo.
  
  • Load VoyInfo, click on the iconbar icon.
  • In the window that opens, click on "UserInfo".
  • The next window to open will contain a lot of information (including your main password - so don't do this in a public place).
    The things you need:
    1 - POP3 identification
    2 - Password
  If you are accessing the pop3 server, use the ID as given. If, however, you are programming it into an alternative Internet suite, you will need to prefix "UKARG/", thus if your ID is "aa00", your login name would become "UKARG/aa00".
  The password is a sequence of eight randomly generated lowercase characters.

• Accessing email via telnet
  Those people not using Calypso might think something is wrong when the mail fetcher seems to hang up. So you give it a minute, then kill it. But it keeps 'acting up'. Actually, the fetcher is only doing its job. It is trying to fetch a large email (I have had attachments up to 1.4Mb!), and you will keep aborting it.
  Wouldn't it be better to look and see what emails you have? This document will describe what you need to do in order to check on your mailbox.
  Argo's pop3 server will ONLY allow access to those connecting from the Argo system. You cannot telnet to the pop3 server from other ISPs (such as Demon). If you wish to read your email from non-Argo systems or abroad - use the WebMail service.

• Accessing email via the web
  Argo offer web-based access to your mailbox, so you can easily and quickly check your mailbox from practically anywhere. You can send emails too!
  Simply connect to http://email.argonet.co.uk/, use the newer script (if it offers you an option, don't choose the older one), log in with your POP3 identification and password (refer to Login details) and follow the obvious options.
  Just to clarify, in order to delete emails, tick the boxes on the right for each mail you wish to have erased and then click the Delete option.
  Mail read will still be downloaded with the mail fetcher - nothing is deleted unless you request it be so.
  VERY IMPORTANT: NEVER access your mailbox from an untrusted system such as a 'CyberCafé'; and if you must - ensure that you clear the cache and any residual information. Some browsers (such as MSIE5) will try to remember details that you type into forms in order to 'make things easier'. Ensure that this feature is switched off before you begin your session.

• Removing signal() calls from JavaScript Fresco
  This is a little code hack to rip out the signal() calls, so a backtrace will be generated which can be spooled to a file. Basically makes B/BL into an NV op.
  If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't download this software!
  For Fresco 2.13 (as supplied with betatest Voyager 2.06 and the official Voyager 2.07). The archive is an ArcFS file, so most things should unpack it.
  Click to download fhack.zip (8K)

More to be added, watch this space!

For the disbelieving PC user...

What's a low-end PC these days? P-3 running around 850MHz, 64Mb RAM, and an 26Gb harddisc? That sound about right?

Meet my system. It is a 25MHz RISC processor, coupled to 4Mb of RAM with *NO* (repeat, NO) virtual memory, and a 2Gb harddisc. When the system is booted, and all the patches are loaded, I have around 2Mb free memory. My HTML 3.2 compliant web browser, Fresco 1.72, is currently fully loaded and operational in around 1Mb. Add another 320K and I can load up the JavaScript version. Add another 200K and I can have several different types of SLL, including the semi-restricted SSL-128.

Actually, as of January 2001, it is now a 40MHz (forty, not a typo...) processor, 32Mb RAM and no VM - and I have 26Mb free with dialler/browser/image editor and some other bits loaded. I could still get away with 4Mb, but you see the RiscPC came with 16Mb fitted, and I had another 16Mb SIMM in an old PC so I figured, 'why not'?
At time of original writing, the above was true. And if I swap harddiscs, it would still be true. So it still holds.

The machine is supplied with a nifty and comprehensive BASIC (which is nothing like the Q-BASIC you might have come across, and it is not like VisualBasic either - VB seems to me like a Windows scripting language based loosely on C++). The BASIC interpreter includes a full assembler.
Coupling all of this with the simplicity and versatility of the system, and good old fashioned tight code, it is possible to get on-line with a 32K program, and have some features. The bigger version does loads of stuff, and only needs 128K!

This isn't the state of the Acorn/RISC OS technology. I know people with way-fast Kinetic processors and around ~256Mb of memory. Sadly, though, I'm not one of them...

PS: ALL of my software is for RISC OS. If you're on the hunt for new stuff, you'll find no warez here. :-)