They may be friendlier than Unix shell accounts, but these five front ends have some rough edges and problems handling quirky connections
Scott Higgs
Why, when some of the most popular Internet access programs are free, would anyone want to pay for one? The answer lies in the generally superior integration offered by the five commercial programs included in this month's roundup.
Each program follows one of two completely different interface strategies. Spry's Internet In A Box, Net Manage's Internet Chameleon, and Frontier Technologies' Super Highway Access are really collections of applications that must be run individually to perform routine Internet procedures. This modular approach reflects the Unix heritage of Internet use.
Netcom's NetCruiser and PSINet/ Pipeline's Internaut Software for Window
s, by comparison, present integrated interfaces, with all program functions accessible from the main menu. Modular programs demand awkward maneuvering; it's a bit like running a word processor that requires separate modules for block editing and printing. The integrated interfaces, however, limit you to specific service providers: PSINet/Pipeline for Internaut Software for Windows and Netcom for NetCruiser.
NSTL selected packages that include a full set of tools for all standard Internet functions, including dialers and scripts for establishing connections. All the programs run under Microsoft Windows and include support for Web browsing (with and without graphics), E-mail (with full-screen editing), newsreaders, and FTP, Gopher, and Telnet connections.
With the explosion of interest in Internet access, many vendors market products that provide some, but not all, of the functions in the reviewed packages. You are likely to have heard about Netscape, Mosaic, the Internet Membership Kit, and sever
al others, as well as Web access through Prodigy. In most cases, these products offer a significant subset of the tools needed for dial-up Internet access, but they leave gaps.
Look, Ma, No Hands
If you're one of the few people who still read manuals, you might be disappointed in these products.
Internaut Software for Windows
offers no manual, and the "free" version of
NetCruiser
($25 start-up fee, plus $19.95 per month for connect time) comes without documentation (a $49.95 retail version comes with two books). Even for the modular programs, most manuals offer help primarily with installation and configuration, not with general program procedures.
We had trouble learning some procedures but generally made good headway through trial and error. NetCruiser and
Internet In A Box
were the easiest to learn overall. The help screens in
Internet Chameleon
and Internaut Software for Windo
ws were--well--unhelpful.
Super Highway Access
offers the best help of the five programs, but you'll need more help to learn it--a trade-off of sorts.
Cruising Speed
The helpful features that make programs easy to learn sometimes bog down experienced Internet surfers. NetCruiser, while easy to use overall, offers an awkward metaphor for Gopher and FTP access. Once you mark files for downloading, NetCruiser assumes that the primary factor in choosing a server is its geographic location and presents a map for selecting a site. Although such an approach encourages considerate use of Internet bandwidth, it isn't convenient for routine use.
Internaut Software for Windows, the other integrated program, creates a new window for each step you take, quickly cluttering your desktop with inactive windows. The clutter is distracting and inefficient, and it gets worse. You can't even resize the windows, making it that much harder to organize your work space.
Among the modular programs, fewer idiosyncrasies appear, although all would be more usable if they had integrated interfaces. Super Highway Access suffers from a mild variation of the problem Internaut Software for Windows has: In many circumstances, windows are inappropriately sized, obscuring key information. We also weren't thrilled by the lack of information provided by Internet Chameleon during Web downloads. Internet In A Box merits guarded praise: It succeeds better than the other modular programs in providing useful shortcuts and keeping relevant functions at your fingertips.
Overall, despite faults in FTP and Gopher, we recommend NetCruiser as the best choice to get up and running quickly and easily. Among the more capable modular programs, Internet In A Box stands out for its combination of clean interface and logical structure. We regard it as the easiest full-featured program to work with on a daily basis.
Web Browsing
Although the programs share most ba
sic features, they vary considerably in the breadth and depth of individual modules. Some mail modules include extensive sorting and filtering capabilities, and others include utilities for handling binary file attachments. Some newsreaders include a full array of saving, posting, and updating options; others offer only the most basic choices.
Excitement about the WWW (World Wide Web) has been a major factor in public interest in the Internet. All these programs support Web navigation aids, graphics viewing options, and automatic caching to speed access. Every program also allows some customization of Web page displays and adapts to handle Gopher and FTP servers.
Internet In A Box and NetCruiser can search a page for text and provide useful status information during downloading. Along with Super Highway Access, these programs feature built-in support for more graphics formats than are supported by Internaut Software for Windows and Internet Chameleon.
Only Internet In A Box and Internet C
hameleon let you print a Web page, although Internaut Software for Windows has a crude print-screen option. All the programs except Internaut Software for Windows let you save a page to disk for later importing into other applications.
Uneven E-Mail
Of the key program elements, E-mail receives the most uneven support. All the programs provide full-screen editing, create reply headers, and can attach a signature automatically to messages. Handling of incoming mail, attached files, and address books varies considerably.
Internet Chameleon, Internaut Software for Windows, and Super Highway Access have the best features for handling this flow, letting you establish rules for forwarding, deleting, and filing messages based on predetermined criteria. All the programs except NetCruiser at least permit easy sorting of headers. Only Internet In A Box, Internaut Software for Windows, and Super Highway Access let you search for specified text.
Support for file attachments al
so varies widely. Only Internet Chameleon and Super Highway Access support MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) for attaching binary files (e.g., executable files, spreadsheets, and graphics) to messages, although other vendors plan to add such support soon.
In the meantime, the classic workaround for this challenge has been to convert binary files into ASCII text. The resulting data looks like gibberish, but it can be sent as a text message and then translated into its original form by the message recipient. Internet Chameleon, Internet In A Box, and Internaut Software for Windows offer built-in encoding and decoding of binary files. NetCruiser provides neither MIME nor encoding functions. It further compounds mediocre handling of incoming mail with a lack of support for attachments as well as weak addressing.
Newsreaders
With any of these programs, you can access Usenet newsgroups when connected to an appropriate server. Internaut Software for Windows provides
the most impressive help with managing newsgroups. Its newsreader module can automatically download, refile, or delete articles based on date, subject, sender, or length before you even look at the list of titles.
The other programs would do well to imitate this feature. On an ad hoc basis, both Internet In A Box and Internaut Software for Windows let you search for text in article headers to identify messages of interest. The remaining programs offer limited functions for managing the volume of articles, although all (with the exception of Super Highway Access) let you sort titles by subject, sender, or date.
NetCruiser's newsreader is by far the weakest of the group. As with the program's E-mail module, there's no option to name files saved to disk, so you must hunt for the saved text after exiting the program. And NetCruiser won't let you remove previously read articles from the title list.
Because of the wide range of system types used to store and read newsgroups, almost all binary f
ile attachments to news articles are encoded into ASCII form. Internet In A Box and Internet Chameleon are the only programs that include the necessary utility programs to encode and decode such attachments.
FTP Functions
FTP functions let you transfer files from any corner of the world to a local computer in a remarkably short time. The magical Unix FTP commands can be baffling, but most of the reviewed programs design FTP functions along the lines of the Windows File Manager--with hierarchical listings of files and directories and point-and-click directory changes.
The file transfer process does not entail much interaction. Reaching the remote host and locating desired files can be more challenging, and it sometimes works better when a few basic file-manipulation capabilities are built into the process.
With varying degrees of difficulty, you can use any of these products to search Archie listings to locate desired files. Once the site has been located and the c
onnection made, Internet In A Box, Internet Chameleon, and Super Highway Access let you save the address, log-in, and profile information for future use, which can save time in future sessions. Internaut Software for Windows saves only the address of the remote host.
Assorted Tools
All the programs handle Gopher and Telnet sessions with relatively little variation in their capabilities. Internet Chameleon and Internet In A Box provide custom keyboard remapping and macros to save time for users who run frequent Telnet sessions. Internet Chameleon also offers more terminal emulations than the other programs to accommodate different types of Telnet hosts.
Three handy capabilities offered by some programs make it easier to connect with other Internet users. Internet Chameleon, NetCruiser, and Internaut Software for Windows offer the Finger program, which identifies users on other systems. Internaut Software for Windows and NetCruiser provide easy access to IRC (Internet Rela
y Chat), a utility that lets users "talk" with each other across the Internet. To determine whether a connection to another Internet site is "live," Super Highway Access, Internaut Software for Windows, and Internet Chameleon include the Ping utility, which sends a standard signal across the Internet that is echoed by the remote site if the connection is good. Such utilities can be invaluable when troubleshooting connection problems.
Sorting Out Features
The
feature tables
provide a detailed breakdown of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each program. Overall, Internet Chameleon is unmatched for sheer depth of features, although many of these (e.g., extensive terminal emulations and protocol support) won't matter to most users.
Internet In A Box provides the richest functionality in modules that see regular use: Web browser, newsreader, and FTP. Internaut falls short of average in its Web browser and FTP functions. Super Highway Access has a
weak newsreader. With the exception of its strong Web browser and Gopher elements, NetCruiser offers only the most basic Internet functions. In particular, its newsreader and its support for E-mail are significantly weaker than those of the other programs.
Performance Matters
If you log in to the Internet via a dial-up connection, be prepared for slow performance. Despite variables such as network traffic and modem speeds, our tests indicate that some programs and service providers consistently complete tasks faster than others. We tested the three modular programs using a local service provider. We tested the two integrated programs, Internaut Software for Windows and NetCruiser, using local access numbers to connect to their proprietary services.
For browsing Web sites, Internet Chameleon and Internet In A Box load pages slightly faster than Super Highway Access and 10 percent to 250 percent faster than the integrated programs, depending on the specific test. The minor
differences among the modular programs indicate slight variations in the way they handle downloads. The big performance gap between these programs and the integrated packages suggests that the service provider can create major bottlenecks.
NetCruiser's Web browser, with graphics toggled off, runs almost as fast as those of the modular programs. With graphics switched on, NetCruiser is much slower. It's the only program that doesn't support text streaming: displaying Web text while graphics download in the background. In practice, NetCruiser requires a wait of over 20 seconds before presenting information that most of the other programs display in less than 5 seconds. Even without text streaming, downloading the full page with graphics takes 30 percent less time in the modular programs.
Internaut Software for Windows implements text streaming but seems to run all processes in slow motion. Direct connection to Web sites with no graphics takes twice as long as with the next-slowest program. With g
raphics enabled, Internaut Software for Windows still takes twice as long to display text as any of the other text-streaming programs.
Results for FTP and newsreader performance follow the same general trends. The three modular programs run fastest, with Internet Chameleon completing tasks slightly ahead of the others.
Error Handling
Dealing with problems is part of everyday life on the Internet. A remote host may go off-line, a server may be overloaded, or an entry error may transpose an address digit. How the Internet client programs handle such pitfalls is a measure of their maturity. Unfortunately, our tests produced many situations with misleading prompts, loss of data, and unrecoverable program lockups.
If a phone line is connected improperly or offers no dial tone, the three modular programs alert users with a warning message. NetCruiser and Internaut Software for Windows simply dial and attempt vainly (for minutes at a stretch) to connect, offering no usef
ul information or troubleshooting suggestions.
If a telephone line loses its connection while the program is on-line, Internaut Software for Windows and Internet In A Box simply identify the problem and suggest redialing. Super Highway Access and Internet Chameleon give no indication that anything is wrong, behaving as if the link were still active and giving misleading error messages. Internet Chameleon provides a help option that turns out to be inactive. NetCruiser accurately identifies the connection loss and tries to exit but fails. An hourglass sits on-screen, and no menu commands or keystrokes can break through the jam.
Incorrect addressing can cause additional problems. Super Highway Access offers the most informative error messages, and Internet Chameleon and NetCruiser are better than average. Internaut Software for Windows offers little of use, but at least it handles capitalization errors gracefully. Internet In A Box gives almost no prompts that could help in recovering from address
ing problems.
File management can be a problem while you're trying to recover from transmission problems. Only Internet In A Box, NetCruiser, and Internet Chameleon give clear warnings to prevent accidental overwriting of files.
The Net Effect
Weeks of testing left us lukewarm about most of the programs. With occasional exceptions, they are quirky to set up, intolerant of user or network errors, and uneven in the depth of their support for Internet activities. On the bright side, any of them can provide a successful Internet connection, and all represent a huge step forward in usability from Unix shell accounts.
These products are the first generation of all-in-one Internet connection packages. It will take time for standards to evolve and for rough edges to wear off.
That said, our
top recommendations
go to Internet In A Box and NetCruiser. Internet In A Box stands apart from the field. Although it ranks first only in error handling
, it finishes second in every other area, exhibiting consistent strength across almost all applications.
NetCruiser's strength lies in its interface: We loved the program's integrated approach, finding it easy to learn and use. Furthermore, its low price ($44.95) makes it our second recommended program, even though its evaluation total was slightly lower than that of the $199 Internet Chameleon. However, below-average speed and limited functionality (it's by far the least feature-rich package of the group) make NetCruiser less appealing than Internet In A Box.
Inc.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Internaut Software for Windows 2.0.7....$15-$35
(monthly PSINet subscription)
PSINet/Pipeline
New York, NY
(212) 267-3636
Internet Chameleon 4.1..................$199
Net Manage, Inc.
Cupertino, CA
(408) 973-7171
Internet In A Box 1.0...................$99
Spry, Inc.
Seattle, WA
(800) 557-9614
NetCruiser 1.5..........................$44.95
(includes first $19.95 monthly service fee)
Netcom On-Line Communications Services, Inc.
San Jose, CA
(800) 353-6600
Super Highway Access 4.0................$125
Frontier Technologies Corp.
Mequon, WI 53092
(800) 929-3054
HIGHLIGHTS
INTERNAUT SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS
Strengths Limitations
-- Filters news articles by subject -- Cannot save Web page to disk
or sender
-- Includes Finger utility -- Slow performance
-- Program elements integrated in a -- Allows accidental file over-
single interface writing with FTP
INTERNET CHAMELEON
Strengths Limitations
-- Built-in uuencode/decode utility -- No text searching in Web pages
or article headers
-- ISDN support -- Cannot search mail headers by
sender or subject
-- Fastest program overall -- Program elements scattered in
subapplications
INTERNET IN A BOX
Strengths Limitations
-- Text searching in pages and
-- No Finger utility
headers
-- Built-in uuencode/decode utility -- Program elements scattered in
subapplications
-- Custom keyboard remapping and macros
NETCRUISER
Strengths Limitations
-- Text searching in Web pages -- No text searching in headers
-- Must be on-line to read or compose -- Program elements integrated in a
mail single interface
-- Top-rated for usability -- Minimal connection diagnostics
SUPER HIGHWAY ACCESS
Strengths Limitations
-- Supports MIME mail attachments -- Limited news searching and
sorting
-- Can limit distribution scope when -- Allows accidental file over-
posting to newsgroups
writing with FTP
-- Can search mail headers by sender -- Program elements scattered
or subject in subapplications
NSTL EASE OF
RATING VERSION PERFORMANCE VERSATILITY USE
============================================================================
**** Internet In A Box 1.0 X X X
*** Internet Chameleon 4.1 X X X
*** NetCruiser 1.5 X X O
*** Super Highway Access 4.0 X O O
** Internaut Software
for Windows 2.0.7 XX O X
NSTL EASE OF ERROR
RATING VERSION LEARNING HANDLING PRICE
=============
==============================================================
**** Internet In A Box 1.0 X X $99+
*** Internet Chameleon 4.1 X X $199
*** NetCruiser 1.5 X X $44.95+
*** Super Highway Access 4.0 X X $125+
** Internaut Software
for Windows 2.0.7 X X $15-35++
KEY
***** Outstanding X Good
**** Excellent O Fair
*** Average XX Unacceptable
** Below average
* Poor
+ Includes first monthly service fee of $19.95.
++ Free with subscription to PSINet; monthly plan ranges from $15 to $35.
BROWSING AND MAIL FEATURES
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CONNECTION PROTOCOLS AND UTILITIES
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Internaut Software for Windows has one of the best E-mail filters of the five programs tested.
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Internet Chameleon's FTP client was the third-most reliable at safely transferring files, behind Internet In A Box and NetCruiser.
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Internet In A Box comes with Spyglass's NCSA Enhanced Mosaic, the only one of the five packages to include a Mosaic browser.
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NetCruiser (shown) and Internaut Software for Windows both support IRC (Internet Relay Chat) for real-time, on-line conversations.
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The tabbed organizer in Super Highway Access is the easiest-to-use browsing interface.
Windows to the Internet
