Forté Agent : Java Glossary

The Good

• Starting with version 3.0 you can configure multiple newsservers.
• It is fast
• It has filtering to get rid of various twits.
• It lets you sort the messages many different ways.
• It is cheap only $29.00 USD and comes is a free version too.
• You can configure a different email address for private email for each public newsgroup posting. You give your true email address in tools subscribed newsgroup ⇒ default properties ⇒ posting messages ⇒ fields ⇒ from and reply-to. You can set multiple groups at once, but trying to set them all with subscribed newsgroups will not work because that sets the master email id.
• When I switched ISPs and hence newsservers, all worked without a hitch. It did not throw away all the old postings or load all kinds of messages I had already read.

The Bad

• It cannot handle HTML formatted posts.
• It cannot handle attached binary images.
• It is quite complicated to configure and use in off-line/dialup mode.
• I have not found a way to configure a different signature for different newsgroups.

Gotchas

• If your three panel layout disappears, untick Zoom in View ⇒ Zoom. All it takes to loose it is accidentally hit the Z key.
• It does not remember your window settings unless you hit Options ⇒ save as default window layout.
• If you want Agent to display HTTP references with your browser when you double click them, you need to configure Agent both under mime types and under URLs.
• I have asked them to display the name of the current newsgroup more prominently either over the list of messages or over the message you are responding too. It is posted on one of the tabs and in small print over the message you are composing. It it quite easy to post to a different newsgroup than you intend.

It stores its data in F:\Program Files\Agent\Data. This is what you need to backup if you want to be able restore your message base after a crash, particularly your collection of your own posts.

It stores its spell check exceptions file in C:\users\userid\AppData\Roaming\Forte\Agent\custenu5.tlx

You configure the maximum number of simultaneous connections under Tools ⇒ Servers and Accounts.