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Offline Reader

An offline reader is software that downloads email, web pages, or newsgroup posts to a computer so they can be accessed when the computer is not connected to a server. Offline readers are useful for portable computers and dial-up access. Website mirroring software allows users to download an entire copy of a website for offline browsing. Offline mail and news readers allow users to read messages with minimal connection time by downloading messages in compressed files from bulletin boards or servers. Common examples of offline readers included programs for Compuserve, BBS readers, and internet mail and news readers.

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Offline Reader

An offline reader is software that downloads email, web pages, or newsgroup posts to a computer so they can be accessed when the computer is not connected to a server. Offline readers are useful for portable computers and dial-up access. Website mirroring software allows users to download an entire copy of a website for offline browsing. Offline mail and news readers allow users to read messages with minimal connection time by downloading messages in compressed files from bulletin boards or servers. Common examples of offline readers included programs for Compuserve, BBS readers, and internet mail and news readers.

Uploaded by

linda976
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Offline reader

An offline reader (sometimes called an offline browser or offline navigator) is computer software that
downloads e-mail, newsgroup posts or web pages, making them available when the computer is offline: not
connected to a server.[a] Offline readers are useful for portable computers and dial-up access.

Variations

Website-mirroring software

Website mirroring software is software that allows for the download of a copy of an entire website to the
local hard disk for offline browsing. In effect, the downloaded copy serves as a mirror of the original site.
Web crawler software such as Wget can be used to generate a site mirror.

Offline mail and news readers

Offline mail readers are computer programs that allow users to read electronic mail or other messages (for
example, those on bulletin board systems) with a minimum of connection time to the server storing the
messages. BBS servers accomplished this by packaging up multiple messages into a compressed file, e.g., a
QWK packet, for the user to download using, e.g., Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, and then disconnect.
The user reads and replies to the messages locally and packages up and uploads any replies or new
messages back to the server upon the next connection. Internet mail servers using POP3 or IMAP4 send the
messages uncompressed as part of the protocol, and outbound messages using SMTP are also
uncompressed. Offline news readers using NNTP are similar, but the messages are organized into news
groups.

Most e-mail protocols, like the common POP3 and IMAP4 used for internet mail, need be on-line only
during message transfer; the same applies to the NNTP protocol used by Usenet (Network news). Most
end-user mailers, such as Outlook Express and AOL, can be used offline even if they are mainly intended
to be used online, but some mailers such as Juno are mainly intended to be used offline.

Off-line mail readers are generally considered to be those systems that did not originally offer such
functionality, notably on bulletin board systems where toll charges and tying up telephone lines were a
major concern. Users of large networks such as FidoNet regularly used offline mail readers, and it was also
used for UseNet messages on the internet, which is also an on-line system. The two most common formats
for FidoNet BBS's were Blue Wave and QWK. Less well-known examples include Silver Xpress's OPX,
XRS, OMEM, SOUP and ZipMail.

List
Name Publisher License Platform

Golden CommPass Creative Systems Programming [b]


Paid OS/2
(GCP) Corporation
Free Windows, Linux, OS X, [1]
Hamster Mathias Dolidon
software Unix

Free Windows, Linux, OS X, [2]


HTTrack HTTrack.com
software Unix

Leech Universal Commerce, Issaquah Shareware Windows [3]

MR/2 Knight Writer Software Company Shareware OS/2 [c]

MR/2 PM Knight Writer Software Company Shareware OS/2 [c]

Secant OS/2 [d]


MR/2 ICE Shareware
Alphacat Windows

Off Line Xpress Mustang Softwre, Inc. Paid DOS [e]

ScrapBook Mozilla Add-ons Freeware Cross-platform [4]

CompuServe Information Service [b]


TapCIS Shareware DOS
(CIS)

Offline Explorer Metaproducts Paid Windows [5]

See also
Online and offline
Cache manifest in HTML5 (deprecated in favor of service workers)
Progressive web application
Kiwix, Wikipedia offline reader
WebWhacker
Comparison of software saving Web pages for offline use

Notes
a. This includes the user not being connected to a dialup server, not having Internet access
and a server on the Internet that is unavailable.
b. Mail reader for Compuserve
c. BBS reader
d. Internet mail and news reader
e. The free test subset of OLX is called Off Line Xpress - Test Drive (OLX-TD)

References
1. "Hamster : hoard the web" (https://github.com/mdolidon/hamster). github.com. 2018-01-04.
Retrieved 2018-01-04.
2. "HTTrack Website Copier - Free Software Offline Browser (GNU GPL)" (http://www.httrack.c
om/). Httrack.com. 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
3. "Aeria Leech" (http://www.aeria.com:80/). www.aeria.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/19991116060314/http://www.aeria.com/) from the original on 16 November 1999.
Retrieved 5 June 2020. "Leech is a high-speed offline web browser for Windows 95/98/NT
that downloads web site content to your hard drive."
4. Gomita (2012-04-03). "ScrapBook :: Add-ons for Firefox" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120
501205048/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scrapbook/). Addons.mozilla.org.
Archived from the original (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scrapbook/) on
2012-05-01. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
5. "Offline Explorer Enterprise - MetaProducts" (https://metaproducts.com/products/offline-explo
rer-enterprise). metaproducts.com. Retrieved 2021-06-20.

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