Iain Lang wrote:
>
> 2 - My newsreader is Agent (v1.5/32.451) and I often become dis-connected
> from my ISP during long downloads.  Is this a failing in Agent (I'd rather
> not change!) or a hiccough in DUN processes?

I use the same news reader, and my ISP uses Supernews as their newsfeed.
I routinely see the same problem you described above, in addition to
just general delays in receiving the news that are so long that they
cause Agent to time out, and my solution is to run a couple of small
utilities to take care of this situation. I use NetLaunch to
automatically redial my ISP if/when I get disconnected. NetLaunch is
freeware, and can be found at the major shareware sites, along with the
author's homepage, http://www.blackcastlesoft.com/netlaunch/index.html.
NetLaunch can do so much more than redial your ISP, though. It's an
excellent little program, made all the better by its (free) price.

As for getting Agent to automatically resume downloads (or uploads) when
I reconnect, I use another small utility called Agent Task. I don't have
a URL for it right now, sorry. Agent Task waits in the background for
any Agent dialogs to pop up, and when they do, it looks to see if the
word 'error' is included in the dialog. If so, Agent Task "presses the
buttons" in order to make the down/upload resume. That sounds simplistic
and full of potential problems, but I have about a 95% success rate with
it. I routinely come home after being gone for 10-12+ hours and see
Agent merrily plucking away at a large download I've previously queued
up, and my ISP has a 4-hour connect limit, so I know my system has
redialed at least 3 times in that period.


Jeff Delzer

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