A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

Gordon Shumway wrote:
A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they
number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0 has been
very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was
before their change. Agent support says as long as I have certain
settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader.
What recommendations do you have?

Try Mozilla Thunderbird . Pretty simple to set up and it has adaptive
filtering . It "learns" what you delete , plus has a regular killfile IIRC .
If you're running WinXP , you might try OE , I use it and like it .

--
Snag

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:46 -0600, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

If you only want or need text groups, you might try another NNTP
provider - free.

http://www.eternal-september.org/

Agent has always been my choice for a reader. I run an older version
YMMV.

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 12:57:40 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:46 -0600, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

If you only want or need text groups, you might try another NNTP
provider - free.

http://www.eternal-september.org/

Agent has always been my choice for a reader. I run an older version
YMMV.

BTW. In Agent you can empty trash, purge and compact folders. Curious
if you have tried that to enhance speed...

Thunderbird is standard. I've also seen
people whose opinion I value recommend
something called Mesnews. But I've never
used anything other than OE6, and I don't
want all the fancy colorcoding or other
extra features, so I can't offer an informed
opinion.

Mayayana explained on 8/02/2016 :
Thunderbird is standard. I've also seen
people whose opinion I value recommend
something called Mesnews. But I've never
used anything other than OE6, and I don't
want all the fancy colorcoding or other
extra features, so I can't offer an informed
opinion.

I have found MESNews similar to the old OE6 and it seems to work just
fine. :-)

--
John G Sydney.

On 2/7/2016 3:25 PM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?


I use Agent on my main computer, but Mozilla Thunderbird Portable on a
stick to carry to work or other computers. I like it a lot. My news
provider is Giganews for $3 a month. They have been reliable.

On Sun, 7 Feb 2016 19:13:07 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I use Agent on my main computer, but Mozilla Thunderbird Portable on a
stick to carry to work or other computers. I like it a lot. My news
provider is Giganews for $3 a month. They have been reliable.

Agent is also portable, in early versions. Can' speak for the latter
ones. Copy the folder to some place and run it.

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 13:08:14 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 12:57:40 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:46 -0600, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

If you only want or need text groups, you might try another NNTP
provider - free.

http://www.eternal-september.org/

Agent has always been my choice for a reader. I run an older version
YMMV.

BTW. In Agent you can empty trash, purge and compact folders. Curious
if you have tried that to enhance speed...

Yeah, I've done all of the ordinary stuff. In response to my support question Agent support said:

There are several configuration settings that can be used to speed up
downloading.

1. If any of these two settings are turned on, turn them both off and
try again. In particular the first can make it appear that Agent is frozen
immediately after the task begins.

Always get complete list of server's available messages which is at
Folder | Default Properties | Purging Messages | What to Purge

Not checked & never has been.

The server creates messages out of order which is at Tools | Servers and
Accounts | News Servers | (*select news server*) | Advanced Settings

Not checked & never has been.

2. The way in which then message list is sorted can affect the time to
update headers. The two sorting methods that will cause the longest delay
in updating groups are sorted by Subject and by Author. The fastest is
sorted by Date Ascending Threaded.

That is the way I sort my subscribed, non-binary groups.

3. Make sure your AntiVirus software is not real-time scanning Agent's
data folder. (Your AV should still scan attachments as they are saved,
which means the folder for saving attachments should not be in the data
folder.)

Nothing changed there with my AV and I don't use Avast.

In particular, Avast Antivirus does not scan compressed headers correctly
so any attempt to download headers will be unsuccessful. The fix is easy.
In Avast go to your Mail Shield settings and uncheck the box "Scan
newsgroup messages (NNTP)". If you're using SSL then you also may want to
uncheck the box "Scan SSL connections". The same goes for Kaspersky
Antivirus. Make sure that it allows port 119 (no SSL) and port 563 (SSL).

I am trying thunderbird now but it's so different from Agent that it's apples and oranges. I'm going to try some free trial
period on another news server using Agent and see how that works.

I am trying thunderbird now but it's so different from Agent that it's apples and oranges.
I'm going to try some free trial period on another news server using Agent and see how that works.

Here's one example of a free newsgroup provider no binary
freenews.netfront.net
Perhaps better than the bother of registering for free trials ..
I've been using it for several years, since my ISP dropped usenet.
John T.


--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On 2/7/2016 3:45 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Gordon Shumway wrote:
A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they
number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0 has been
very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was
before their change. Agent support says as long as I have certain
settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader.
What recommendations do you have?

Try Mozilla Thunderbird . Pretty simple to set up and it has adaptive
filtering . It "learns" what you delete , plus has a regular killfile IIRC .
If you're running WinXP , you might try OE , I use it and like it .

I'm a Thunderbird fan too. Also use it as email client. Very easy to
set up.

Gordon Shumway writes:
A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

Try 'pan'.

http://pan.rebelbase.com/download/

Gordon Shumway wrote in
:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they
number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0 has been
very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was
before their change. Agent support says as long as I have certain
settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader.
What recommendations do you have?

I've used Xnews for a very long time. Love it. However, You should know
that it may no longer be supported - better check in case you are
interested.


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:46 -0600, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

I had that problem with v1.93. OnlineCatch Up With Selected Groups
fixed it. You have to do that every couple week or so.
Think I purged newsgroups too.
It resets a couple files keeping track of header numbers.
Funny thing is with my new computer I don't have to do it.
Probably something to do with how it handles memory.
Don't know if v6.0 uses the same scheme as v1.93, but it's a good bet
it does.

On Mon, 08 Feb 2016 15:16:59 +0000, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Gordon Shumway writes:
A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they
number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0 has been very
slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before
their change. Agent support says as long as I have certain settings set
the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What
recommendations do you have?

Try 'pan'.

http://pan.rebelbase.com/download/

I love Pan. It's my go too reader on Linux and Windows. Pan+e_s=win!

KenK wrote in news:XnsA5A86D53CF6CBinvalidcom@
130.133.4.11:

Gordon Shumway wrote in
:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they
number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0 has been
very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was
before their change. Agent support says as long as I have certain
settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader.
What recommendations do you have?

I've used Xnews for a very long time. Love it. However, You should know
that it may no longer be supported - better check in case you are
interested.


I've used Xnews for a long time also. I have never had any problems.

On Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:25:46 -0600, Gordon Shumway wrote:

A couple months ago my news provider, NewsGuy, changed the way they number the articles. Since then my news reader, Agent 6.0
has been very slow in retrieving new headers.

NewsGuy support says I should be getting headers as fast as I was before their change. Agent support says as long as I have
certain settings set the way I do then it isn't Agent's fault.

So the only way to sort this out is to try a different news reader. What recommendations do you have?

I found the problem!!!

Well, sort of. I have a corrupt filter or filters causing the slowdown. I thought it was my provider because the slowdown
started roughly the same time as their numbering change took place. Now all I have to do is figure out which one(s) is(are
the problem.

Thanks to all who responded.