So, you wanna know about Net Connect version 2.

Before it had chance to hit the door mat I had ripped open the jiffy bag and thrown the CD into my CD Rom.
The excitement had overcome me.
< foolishness >
I clicked install and installed NC2 onto my HD. The first thing I noticed was that NC2 was no small affair, it requires about 12MB of free disk space. Oh well I have a spare 1.2 GB on there.
<click> off we go !
I decided to go for the suggested settings, choosing not to install MUI3.8 but rather just to compare the libraries and install newer versions.
It took about 5 minutes to go through the install. It offered to run the Genesis Wizard and Genesis Prefs, Like a fool I ignored these and re-booted instead, thinking I would be smart enough to do it in a few minutes time.
After making myself a fresh cup of coffee (thought I would be on-line for a while so I wanted to be prepared), I dived into the Genesis Prefs, totally forgetting about the Wizard !
Hmm... nothing like NC1.1 I thought. After some playing around and setting up the settings as best I could from memory, I clicked "on-line", erk.. appp.device cannot be put on-line !
< /foolishness >
To cut a very long story short, I finally decided to read the "read_first" file on the CD.
/me slaps himself :/
What a fool ! after 1½hrs of messing around, I could have copied the NC1.1 setup directly across ! and even worse, I'd totally forgotten about the Wizard !!
I switched off my computer, counted to 10 and re-booted.
Ok, lets start over (I had played around with the NC2 drawer too much to even try to run it now.
DELETE Netconnect2:#? all
I reinstalled. Fired up Genesis and went to the menu "Import NC1 config". clicked on-line, and 30 seconds later I was !

Whats on the NCv2 CD then

  • Net Connect Doc bar.
  • AmiTCP 4.6 Genesis including Genesis Wizard.
  • MUI 3.8
  • Voyager-NC v2.96.7
  • MicroDot-II-NC v1.0
  • AmIRC-NC 2.0.14
  • ContactManager 1.0
  • X-Arc 1.1
  • NetInfo-NC 1.4
  • AmFTP-NC 1.92
  • AmTelnet-NC 1.10
  • AmTerm-NC 1.5
  • AmTALK-NC 1.9
  • MIME types including the following viewers / players.
  • An extras drawer containing the following.
    [ Verdict ] [ Overall Score] [ Summary ]




    Net Connect Doc Bar

    Now onto version 1.5.1 (8-7-98). Visually there appears to be very little difference between this and the NC1.1 1.02 (24-2-97) version.
    This is the "backbone" of the Net Connect package, bringing all the NCv2 apps together into one doc bar. It does not stop here though, you may add any program you wish as either a menu or as an Icon, directly into the NC doc bar !
    The doc bar is highly configurative, and gives easy access to all the NCv2 programs (although you do not need to run this doc bar, I strongly suggest you do).

    Doc Bar
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    AmiTCP 4.6 Genesis including Genesis Wizard.

    The new AmiTCP 4.6 Genesis. This program has had a number of updates since the NC1.1 AmiTCP 4.5. The most noticable additions being the Wizard, the AmiTCP prefs and the Main interface.

    If you are a first time Net Connect user then this is the first thing you should run after installing the NCv2 package. You only need to provide a few basic details such as which serial device your modem is connected to, the make of your modem, your modem initiation strings (all well documented in the NCv2 docs), your user name, password and ISP telephone number. Once this is added, (most of which your ISP should have told you) you just click "dial" and let the wizard do all the hard work of setting up AmiTCP for you.

    Wizard

    The Main interface gives information on your current time on-line, wheather or not you are connected to the network, WAN and LAN are both well supported in AmiTCP 4.6 genesis. Which provider you have currently selected, which user is selected, and the status information window.

    Doc Bar

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    MicroDot-II-NC v1.0.

    The new MicroDot-II-NC v1.0 comes with an all new list of fetures, too many to mention here, the most noticable of which being the use of multi-mail and multi- user accounts. Via Genesis, MD2 recognised which user is logged in and uses their default mail account. This is not a limitation though, as the user can also set up more mail accounts from within MD2. I have now configured MD2 to recognise and use my three mail accounts.
    MD2 can be set to check your mail at intervals while you are online, and even pass the information into the main windows of apps like AmIRC. A message will be sent to the app via the Arexx port and will inform you on new mail as it arrives.
    Although I've played with all the settings, I see no way to check all your mail accounts automatically, although this is only a simple matter of changing account and clicking on check for mail for each of the accounts.
    Active has acknowlages that there are a few bugs (although I havent found anything too drastic) in this version of MD2 and I think we can expect an update in the not to distant future. In the mean time, I have now moved back from YAM and will be using this new MD2 for the foreseeable future.
    If Oliver Wagner were to implament a way to check of all a users accounts automaticaly, as Yam does, then this would run rings around the current version of Yam. As it stands, I think it has the edge over Yam for the moment, and I look forward to future bug fixes.


    MD2

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    ContactManager 1.0

    This is a very handy piece of software. It has allowed me to import bookmarks from both Voyager-NC 9.5 and IBrowse1.2 AmiNET CD edition, to one centeral place, that I can now access from both V and IB !
    I have also moved all e-mail addresses from Yam and an old version of MD2 into the same location, together with my AmFTP and DopusFTP settings and AmIRC server and channel details.
    This saves a lot of bother as far as I am concerned, as all I`m required to do now is fire up the app I want to use and double click on the relavent entry in the contact manager for it to be sent across to the app for use.
    Sound confusing ? Ok, here is the simplistic explanation.

    Imagine having a file that contains all the details you`ll ever need for any net application you care to run. No more having to run two different e-mail clients just to hunt down that e-mail address you know you have somewhere.
    Never again having to fire up two browsers because you`re not sure which one you stored that book mark in.
    Export FTP addresses to either AmFTP or DopusFTP module.

    MD2

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    X-Arc 1.1

    Fully integreted into NC2, X-Arc is an archive manipulation application. It enables you to automaticaly dearchive files recieved via AmFTP, Voyager, AmIRC or MD II.
    You can create, unpack or even edit the contence of an archive from within this program.
    There are far too many fetures to mention here. This is the WinZip for the Amiga.
    X-Arc can also be used to create and manipulate your own archives independantly of the other NC applications.
    A top class product that combines the power of many individual archivers.


    X-Arc



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    1. GENESIS
    TCP/IP 96% Miami now has to catch up with Genesis.
    2. VOYAGER Web Browser 77% Still behind the other major Amiga browsers
    3. MicroDotII E-mail news client 92% Now better than Yam in all but one area. Let down by a few silly bugs.
    4. AmFTP FTP client 91% An easy to setup and use FTP client with many fetures.
    5. AmIRC IRC client 99% The best IRC client, on any platform, just got better !
    6. AmTalk Chat client 78% Almost obsolite with the ICQ hacks around. But a lot more secure with no known backdoors.
    7. AmTelnet Telnet 81% Has it`s uses by "net heads", but probabuly never used by the average Amigan.
    8. NetInfo Net information 89% Will display information on a user or server, such as finger,Whois, ping responses and services.
    9. AmTERM Terminal 86% For direct computer-computer networking, wether LAN or WAN.
    10. X-Arc Arc handler 89% Fully intergrated into NCv2.
    11. Contact Manager Net Prefs Database 88% Seamless integation.
    12. NC doc bar . 91% More stable than tools deamon
    13. MIME prefs . 93% This is the Contact manager for MIME.

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    Overall Netconnect v2.0 Score




    94%










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    Summary

    Unfortunatly, I am unable to cover the whole package in any detail here. The package is so big, that a full review wouldn`t be finished until after the launch of the "Super Amiga" anyway ;)
    I have attempted to point out the main changes from the NCv1.1 package, and I think that if you are able to read this review then you, possibly, already know the other applications well enough to make a review of them pointless.

    If you are looking for an internet package that has it all, then this is deffinatly it.
    If you have unregistered versions of software and think it will be too expensive to register then, your wrong ! Take a look at the
    products included in this package, then work out what it would cost to register these programs individually.

    In all honesty, this package does have a few bugs in various programs, but I have encountered nothing that has caused a GURU, or frozen the screen.
    Any bugs that are present here, I can`t help feeling it is partly our fault. We have forced Active Technologies to produce this package as quick as they could.
    Given a month or two more and I honestly think this would have been a bug free package. As it stands, I can hand on heart say that this package ROCKS :)


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    All Images © 1997-98 Active Technologies.
    Taken from the Net Connect on-line Documentation.
    I would like to thank Active for permission to use these images in this review.

    Written and © 1998
    Gus Haines
    aka DrJekyl
    Gus@the-awa.u- net.com
    AmigaUni Team Member.
    AWA Team Member.
    Team Amiga.