** 2 page review / 1713 words ** IConnect and its clients Derryck Croker is your travel guide for this tour... Many Atarians discard IConnect (AKA PPPConnect), as supplied with CAB, in favour of STinG. Until recently there were only a couple of client programs that could be used with an IConnect connection to your ISP. Now that situation is changing so it's well worth taking another look at IConnect. The language barrier is also being broken, there are English RSC files available for download now or soon for ALL the clients reviewed here. Although IConnect itself does function under single TOS, the clients reviewed here need to be run under MagiC, together with an AVServer such as the replacement desktops jinnee, Thing or MagXDesk coupled with Alexander Barton's AVServer add-on. All these programs work fine in monochrome ST High but they really come to life displayed in colour at higher resolutions such as 800x600x256. With IConnect properly registered in the desktop, all the clients reviewed are capable of automatically dialling and logging on to your ISP if so configured. I could only get this to work if IConnect was already loaded into memory but I'm still experimenting so let's get on with the show... IConnect ** ICONF.IMG and caption here ** IConnect is the passport to all the programs covered in this article. Setting up a connection with an ISP is mostly a matter of selecting options from popups. There's some additional techie stuff tucked away under a Profi button but most users can safely ignore these options. A handy terminal option helps debugging a difficult connection by allowing a manual logon - make notes and replay with a "wait for" and "respond" sequence and finish off with the "done" button. Unlike the latest version of STinG there's no provision for the automatic negotiation of a Domain Name Server (DNS) address, so check your ISP for details. IConnect's approach of centralising proxy server details in its configuration file makes using multiple ISPs a breeze. Pick an ISP from the popup, and any client that requires those specific details such as Emailer will automatically adjust itself accordingly. Once online, a windowed timer appears - a nice touch. Status: Included with CAB2.5 and 2.7 Current UK release: v1.5 80% Fiffi ** FTPWINDW.IMG and caption here ** Despite the icon in the About window, this isn't a dog it's a well-featured ftp client. There's full Drag and Drop support - files can be up and downloaded or deleted by a simple mouse click and drag or by the traditional buttons at the side of the window, if you prefer. Couple that with the ability to open many simultaneous ftp sessions and you've got a winner. URL's can also be Drag and Dropped and support for automated sessions using Scripter too. The handling of online folders has been criticised - they can only be deleted after deleting any files inside the folder. It's only an issue if you want to use Fiffi to uploading files to maintain your own Web site. Fiffi also doesn't support variable fonts or window backgrounds and other bells and whistles but is none the worse for it. Status: Included with CAB2.7 Current UK release: v1.10 75% Emailer ** EMAILER.IMG and caption here ** ** FILTER.IMG and caption here ** ** GRPLIST.IMG and caption here ** Time spent exploring the capabilities of this combined emailer and news reader brings many rewards but you may end up frowning when you discover the re's currently no means of selecting which newsgroup articles to download for reading later. Emailer already collects news by fetching the headers and body of articles separately so hopefully this feature will be implemented soon. On the plus side Emailer can perform a range of actions online including the ability to download a user-specified number of messages which makes it easy to get the flavour of a new group before downloading hundreds of messages. Emailer's ability to decorate window backgrounds to taste with drag'n'drop of IMG format graphics helps brighten sessions, and there's plenty of options to set font size, style and colour. One cute touch is "real" smileys - Emailer can convert the usual ASCII representation of an emoticon such as :-) to a cheery bright yellow smiling face icon! Emailer uses the AVServer to handle attachments. Clicking on the paperclip symbol offers a range of options, of which View and Open require setting the desktop to recognise file extenders and launch the appropriate utilities. Naturally this works the other way too, sending a file to someone is as easy as dragging the file to the paperclip at the top of the editor window. Try to send a file to a non-binary newsgroup though, and you'll be suitably admonished - I wish more news readers had this capability, along with the warning one receives if there's a larger proportion of quoted text to reply in your message! Pros Easy to use, nice interface, newsgroup handling is slated for improvement in the next release Cons Using quoted text in replies is quirky, defaults to the Private message base on startup and on exiting functions Status: Commercial, currently only available direct from ASH in Germany. Price 69DM (around 25) Current release: v2.0 80% Teli ** TEL1.IMG and caption here ** Telnet applications enable the a remote computer to be controlled via a terminal window as if it were in front of you. Telnetting sessions won't win any prizes for ease of use but at least the Teli interface allows the background and foreground colours and fonts to be selected directly or via Drag and Drop using Holger Weet's Colors and a suitable dragfont utility. Each server accessed is displayed in its own NVT, VT52 or VT100 terminal emulations. Teli's file transfer ability offers one extremely neat touch - click on Update in the About window, and Teli can log on and check if a later version is available - and it even offers to download it for you. Users of CIX conferencing will be disappointed there's no scripting support, although that disappointment could turn to glee for overseas subscribers who can log in and interact manually with the conferencing server through a local ISP for potentially less cost than a fully scripted session from a dedicated program via a long-distance phone call. Teli is "try before you buy" the demo version is fully functional but has a 20 session limit. Teli is also keeping its options open - there's a version in the archive that runs under the Draconis stack. Status: Shareware Price: 30DM (around 11) Current release: v1.10 Author: Jrgen Koneczny 75% Chatter ** CHATR1.IMG and caption here ** ** CHATR2.IMG and caption here ** Chatter brings our roundup neatly to an end, adding IRC (Internet Relay Chat) capability to IConnect's repertoire. I'll be the first to admit IRC isn't my cup of tea, however within a couple of minutes I was holding a conversation with someone on the #atari channel and I can imagine many people will enjoy this added source of knowledge and amusement! Some knowledge of IRC would be useful before you start so its worth running a copy of GEMTrade over the German hypertext before you take the plunge and http://www.irchelp.org is also worth a look. The version tested is a time limited to 10 minute demo of a commercial application, it's fully working but it's not possible to save the hotlist or any settings. English Resource file and BubbleGEM translation is nearing completion. Status: Commercial Price: NA Current release: v1.0 Author: Jrgen Koneczny 80% English resource files? Increasingly Atari applications are only released in German or French so Dennis Vermeire and myself have launched an initiative to make at least the resource files and BubbleGEM help files available in English. Although the manuals and hypertexts remain in German most users can soon have the programs up and running. Although most of these releases are unofficial and unsupported the companies and individual programmers have given their tacit approval of our efforts. TransAction have also turned their attention to similar projects. IConnect - the future? With STiK, STinG, IConnect and the Draconis (as used by The Light of Adamas browser) stacks all competing for client applications it's good to hear about a new project called IFusion which is currently being developed as a bridge between IConnect's stack and STiK (and hence STinG), and Draconis clients. This should make it possible to make a single ISP connection using IConnect, and then being able to use any Internet client whether it be CAB or LoA, NEWSie or Emailer, Fiffi or aFTP, and AtariIRC or Chatter. Keep an eye on the MagiC support page for the most up-to-date information on this as well as downloads of the resource files for the programs reviewed above. Contact URLs ASH http://www.application-systems.de Jrgen Koneczny http://www.camelot.de/~~zulu/ MagiC support page http://bengy.atari.org TransAction: http://www.cix.co.uk/~inactive/TransAction/ ** Images and Captions ** ** CHATR1.IMG ** Opening an IRC session with Chatter - try to find a server close to home for the best results ** CHATR2.IMG ** Not too many participants on the #atari channel today. Note that the columns can be adjusted in width in the same fashion as with Emailer ** EMAILER.IMG ** Emailer's message window's icons provide complete control. Not so obvious are the dividers between the name, subject and date fields, just click on the lines and drag to adjust the column width. The four arrows pointing to the points of the compass next to the poster's name and the message subject navigate through the messages either one by one or by following a thread. This poster's spam message contains the same text appended as html code which Emailer has recognised (note the paperclip). Clicking on this and choosing View from the popup will launch CAB, if it has been correctly installed in the desktop. ** FILTER.IMG ** This (mostly) fictitious filter list has some very obvious advantages! ** FTPWINDW.IMG ** Fiffi's FTP directory window ** GROUPLST.IMG ** Browse the newsgroup list with the usual window slider gadget or by typing the name of the group that you're interested in - Emailer will start to match names as you type ** ICONF.IMG ** The popups at the left make setting up a script a breeze - this is a typical one that's worth trying with other ISPs too. The entry out of sight at the top of the scrolled window is the modem reset string ATZ ** TELI1.IMG ** Opening a session with Teli - it's not all work with Telnet!