FAQ 17: Tips for advanced users

To install:
1) Unzip the files into an empty directory. Find the file named:
unimodv.inf

2) Right click on unimodv.inf and from the list of options that appear choose "install".

3) To complete the process, you may need to restart your computer.

In addition to this upgrade, I also suggest the Microsoft ISDN accelerator pack. Even if you do not use ISDN, this upgrade will benefit you because it contains a more efficient version of Winsock.

You can download the upgrade at:

You can read the description at:

I do not recommend this utility for the average person, because it requires a certain level of understanding to use properly. However, PPP-Boost allows you to modify three things:

You can get PPP-boost at:

Alternatively, you can edit these settings manually. ;)

Note: As the name implies, PPP Boost only applies to those using a PPP (Point to point) connection, which includes most TCP/IP users.

For many users, particularly those with high-speed modems, these upgrades can significantly increase modem efficiency in both latency (reaction time) and transfer rate.

This section is a condensed version of part of FAQ 6. It does not include all of the programs found in FAQ 6, only the ones that I highly recommend for advanced users. As an example, I will list ACDSee but not any other image viewer, because in my opinion it is far beter than all other image viewers (I have done very thorough tests of severl competitors).

Important: Descriptions of these programs as well as other programs not listed can be found in detail in FAQ 6. The following list is listed in order of my recommendation. The Importance Rating is only relative to me and is probably not the same as your own rating. The importance factor is determined by how often I need the program and whether or not there are better alternatives. The Efficiency Rating is not how efficient the program is; it is how efficient a human user can be when using that program. A 10 means that I will never use an alternative program for that program's main purpose. A 1 in efficiency means that the program is a wasted of time. The Recommendation Rating is how strongly I recommend the program for advanced users (which is arbitrary).

Note that while a program might not be important to me, I might still recommend it to others who find it useful. For example, I'm not too into .rm files, but other people are. So, that's why for RealPlayer I give it a 6 in importance to me but an 8 as a recommendation to the average person.

Note: In FAQ 6, I did not use clickable links for the most part because if you ever use one, the site that is being linked to will know exactly what site linked to it. Also, I don't want to encourage people to use clickable links on message boards, so it's a subtle way of a reminder. On the other hand, in this FAQ I use clickable links because I assume that if you are reading this FAQ, you already know what you're doing and can decide for yourself how to access pages.
ftp://ftp.acdsystems.com/pub/acdsee32/acdc3223.exe (1414 kb, English Win95)
ftp://ftp.servtech.com/pub/users/acdsys/acdsee32/acdc3223.exe (1414 kb, English Win95)
ftp://ftp.islandnet.com/acd/acdsee32/acdc3223.exe (1414 kb, English Win95)
ftp://ftp.acdsystems.com/pub/acdsee16/acdc1621.exe (650 kb, English Win 3.1)
ftp://ftp.servtech.com/pub/users/acdsys/acdsee16/acdc1621.exe (650 kb, English Win 3.1)
Importance: 10
Efficiency: 10
Recommendation: 10
Changename 5.0
Importance: 8
Efficiency: 9
Recommendation: 10
Powertoys (204 kb)
Importance: 10
Efficiency: 10
Recommendation: 9

Lha
Importance: 8
Efficiency: 10
Recommendation: 9

RealPlayer 5.0
Importance: 6
Efficiency: 8
Recommendation: 8

LviewPro
LviewPro
Importance: 6
Efficiency: 9
Recommendation: 7

Newspost (~950 kb)
Newspost (~950 kb)
Newspost (~950 kb)
Importance: 7
Efficiency: 9 (for the shareware version)
Recommendation: 7

http://www.martec.net/isg/flmask/bin/flmsk30e.exe
http://www.masterlynx.com/advancetrend/flmask/bin/flmsk30e.exe
ftp://ftp.vector.co.jp/pack/win95/art/graphics/edit/flmsk30e.exe

Win 3.1 English
http://www.martec.net/isg/flmask/bin/flmsk27e.exe
http://www.masterlynx.com/advancetrend/flmask/bin/flmsk27e.exe
ftp://ftp.vector.co.jp/pack/win31/art/graphics/edit/flmsk27e.exe

Win95 Japanese
http://www.martec.net/isg/flmask/bin/flmsk30j.exe
http://www.masterlynx.com/advancetrend/flmask/bin/flmsk30j.exe
ftp://ftp.vector.co.jp/pack/win95/art/graphics/edit/flmsk30j.exe

Win 3.1 Japanese
http://www.martec.net/isg/flmask/bin/flmsk27j.exe
http://www.masterlynx.com/advancetrend/flmask/bin/flmsk27j.exe
ftp://ftp.vector.co.jp/pack/win31/art/graphics/edit/flmsk27j.exe

URL for gmask
http://village.infoweb.or.jp/~furumizo/gmsk160e.lzh (English)
http://village.infoweb.or.jp/~furumizo/gmask160.lzh (Japanese)
*Note: These are lzh files, so pkunzip won't open unless you get the lha addon.

URL for CPPopup
http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~cosack/archive/cppopup102e.exe

Picaview (32 bit)
Picaview (16 bit)
Importance: 6
Efficiency: 9
Recommendation: 5

PGP 5.0
Importance: 4
Efficiency: 10
Recommendation: 5

Quality Motion 5.0
Active Movie 1.0 (required for QM)
Active Movie 1.0 (required for QM)
Importance: 3
Efficiency: 5
Recommendation: 4

D'peg
Importance: 1 (I use ACDSee instead)
Efficiency: 4 (ACDSee is much faster for me)
Recommendation: 4 (Some people prefer it instead of ACDSee)

Anawave Websnake
Importance: 1 (assuming you have access to newsgroups)
Efficiency: 3 (Better than BlackWidow ;)
Recommendation: 2 (only for those who surf websites)

XferPro (16 bit)
XferPro (16 bit)
XferPro (32 bit)
XferPro (32 bit)
Importance: 1
Efficiency: 2
Recommendation: 1 (Only for rare occasions or those who refuse to use a newsreader)

Programs left out of this list: Japanese readers, translators, zip crackers, and miscellaneous programs that most people don't have a use for.

This section clarifies and adds to many of the tips in FAQ 2. Since this is a FAQ for advanced users, I will focus primarily on SBNews and assume that you have already managed to get SBNews working.

The Headers menu
Assuming you use the recommended setup in FAQ 2B for SBNews, the next thing you should try is the headers menu. Once you have downloaded the headers for a newsgroup, you can then click on that newsgroup and hit the header button. A menu will pop up showing the headers for all the posts.

The headers menu is sorted by post #, but you can sort it by any other order you want (just click on one of the top category bars). If you see a post you don't like, you can reject it. You can also highlight multiple posts in a row to reject them (just hold down the SHIFT button). A lot of people don't seem to know about the SHIFT ability, so if you don't know what I mean, try it out.

If you see a poster that you don't like or a series of posts you want to skip, then you can hit the "reject author" button to reject all posts by that author in the header menu. This is temporary and not permanent; the next time you restart SBNews, that author's posts will not be rejected (though SBNews might have marked them as "read").

Using more than 1 server with SBNews
If you are using more than 1 news server, you should be careful with SBNews because of the pointers that it keeps. One news server will usually use a completely different set of pointers to refer to its posts, so if you change servers without resetting the pointers to 0, then SBNews might think you've already seen all the posts for the newsgroup and disconnect without downloading anything.

Another way to solve this problem is to make multiple instances of each newsgroup and section them off. Then when you use a different server, use a different section. Learn when to use this method and when to use the reset pointers method and you should eliminate the more serious problems with using multiple servers. Note that you can move a newsgroup up and down your list by holding down CTRL and using the up or down key.

Using the reset pointers method, SBNews will probably start downloading some posts that you have already seen, mainly because with the pointers reset, SBNews has no idea which posts it has already "seen" them (unless the dupe subject and file filters take care of it). So, if the dupe subject/file filter doesn't take care of this, I would start to download all the headers and take a look at the pointers. If the pointers are from "5660-7200" and I'm sure that I've seen at least the first half of posts, then I might set the pointers to around "6400", disconnect, and reconnect again. SBNews will now try to download between the pointers "6400-7200" and skip messages "5660-6399", ones that you have already seen.

Dupe Subject and File checker
The dupe subject and file checker are very important if you use multiple servers. The dupe subject checker works in the same way as Newsbin; if you go to one server and SBNews sees a post that you've already downloaded on another server, it will skip it (and notify you on the bottom log window). The dupe file checker will usually kick in only after you start to download a post, and if SBNews notices that the file you are downloading already exists in the download directory, it will quit the download and continue to the next post (depending on your setup).

By the way, you might want to increase the number of subjects that SBNews keeps track of, especially if you go through a lot of posts.

Click here

Now copy and paste this url manually:
http://www.helie.com/BrowserCheck/

See the difference? I hope this clears up some questions and concerns about the referrer variable.