Using Free Agent

Free Agent is a powerful and easy-to-use Usenet newsgroup reader. It allows you to browse newsgroups both online and offline.

Launching Free Agent

Click the Agent icon on the PipeLine+ Access Panel to start Free Agent and the Free Agent main screen appears.

Getting Started

The following sections explain how to do the basic newsgroup activities, such as:

  • Setting online preferences
  • Subscribing to newsgroups
  • Retrieving articles
  • Decoding binaries
  • Posting to newsgroups

    • Setting Preferences and Subscribing To Newsgroups

    Follow these steps to set your preferences and newsgroups:

    Step Action
    1 Setting your online preferences.
    • First, choose Preferences from the Options menu.
    • Next, select the Online Operation tab.
    • Then, choose one of the following:
      • The Use Online Defaults button if you wish to stay online while using Agent.
      • The Use Offline Defaults button if you wish to minimize your time online.
    2 Getting a list of groups.

    To retrieve the list of groups, select Refresh Group List from the Online menu. Once the groups are retrieved, Agent will display them in the Group Pane (See Free Agent Help).

    Note: There are currently over 20,000 newsgroups. The refresh operation will take several minutes.

    3 Subscribing to groups.
    • Choose Find from the Edit menu to find a particular group.
    • Scan the list of groups for ones you want to follow regularly.
      • When you find a group that may be of interest, double-click on it.
      • If you want to get a feel for the group before subscribing, press the Sample 50 Article Headers button.
      • If you know you're interested in the group, press the Subscribe to Group button.
    4 View only subscribed groups.
    • From the Group menu, choose Show Only Subscribed Groups. Now your group pane is filtered to show only the groups you're interested in.
    • To view all groups again, select Show All Groups from the Group menu.

    Retrieving Articles

    Follow these steps to retrieve articles:

    Step Action
    1 Retrieve article headers in your subscribed groups.

    Choose Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups from the Online menu to download all the article headers in all your subscribed groups.

    2 Browse the article headers.

    Once the article headers are retrieved, browse them to see which ones interest you.

    3 Retrieve marked articles.

    If you're using the offline defaults, you marked several articles when you subscribed to groups previously.

    To retrieve the full text of all marked articles, select Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu. See How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader in the Free Agent Help for more information.

    Posting To Newsgroups

    Follow these steps to post to newsgroups:

    Step Action
    1 Select the group to which you wish to post.

    A group is selected when it is highlighted in the Group pane or when you are viewing articles for it in the Article pane.

    2 Select the article to which you are responding (optional step).

    If your article is a follow up to another posting, select that article first so that your posting is properly formatted.

    3 Open a new Posting window.
    • From the Post menu, choose New Article or Follow Up Article, depending on the type of posting you want.
    • Fill in the Posting window's fields.
    4 Send the article.
    • If you use Agent online, press Send Now to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.
    • If you use Agent offline and you have other messages you want to send, press Send Later. Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.

    Note: Please review MindSpring's Statement of Policy regarding inappropriate activities.

    Decoding Binaries

    Free Agent takes the sometimes mystical art of decoding binaries from the newsgroups, and simplifies the process. Follow these steps to decode a binary:

    Step Action
    1 To decode a binary, simply highlight it as you would any other message, then press the Camera button located on the menu bar. Free Agent automatically decodes all UUEncoded binaries, the most common coding format, and place them in a download directory.
    2 If the binary is a graphic in one of the common graphics formats, Free Agent automatically launches LView Pro,LView Pro a graphics viewer, and displays it for you. For information about LView Pro, turn to
    page 122.
    3 If the binary is an archived file, Free Agent automatically launches WinZipWinZip and allows you to extract the parts from it. For information about WinZip, turn to page 126.

    Finding Help and Reference Information

    Free Agent has Help files included in the program. Choose Help from the Free Agent menu bar and then select Topics. Next, select Contents, Index or Find as needed.