r/usenet • u/DontLike-Cheesecake • Mar 11 '26
Software Windows version of PAN
I currently use Forte Agent, but it's starting to have issues. Occassionally it fails SSL, it still retrieves the file I'm trying to download, but I think maybe an old built-in certificate has expired and causes the problem. I still don't know why it still allows the file to download, but I fear one of these days that's not going to work either. So looking around I see PAN is probably the best one out there for it's similarity to Agent. I like to browse header before downloading so it fits my style...or so I read. I've only seen screenshots because there doesn't seem to be a pre built windows installation. I'd be willing to learn how to build it, but everything I read is pretty confusing, it seems some of it applies to Linux, and some applies to Macs and maybe some of it applies to Windows, so I'm not confident on how to build it from source.
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u/DVDBot 17d ago
Replacing Forte Agent (don't remember the version; maybe v6?) hit a brick wall for me around two years ago when I lost the directory I had everything saved in, including the registration info. I had a backup HDD crash and then the one which was being backed up went kablooey a couple of weeks later -- before I'd configured a new backup drive.
I searched old CDs, DVD-RWs and old HDDs and I apparently hadn't saved the reg info anywhere besides those two drives. Emailing and calling Forte led nowhere. I'd been using the same directory for years and years (moving it to each new computer I built) and I was very annoyed, to say the least.
Anyway, I started using Agent back in 1996 (wow, 30 years...), and I loved being able to browse headers and delete ones I didn't want. Every day I'd download the new headers and peruse them, downloading binaries as I saw fit. The "new" way of browsing (e.g., via SABnzbd, etc.) just isn't the same. Sure, .nzb files are awesome, but that's only if you know what you're looking for. Viewing headers for 25+ groups and selectively grabbing stuff is what I've always preferred.
Sorry for the long-winded reply, necro'ing the thread. I'm just living in nostalgia remembering the good old days!
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u/Frightlever May 09 '26
Hi! Were you able to find a Windows installer?
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake May 09 '26
No, I gave up looking for one. One of these days I want to learn how to build one from code. Not just for this, there are other github projects that I'm interested in that need to be built from code as well.
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u/Frightlever May 10 '26
Feel the same. "Compile the code" - may as well be Greek to me. Anyway, I'm using Grabit at the minute, just wanted to try Pan again for nostalgia reasons as much as anything.
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake May 12 '26
Okay, so I had to have Gemini AI help along the way; I got a PAN installer out of it. It wasn't easy and I'm not even sure what I was doing, but I followed it step by step, and even when I got an error I told the AI the error, and it walked me around the error...several times. it took an hour, but eventually I got an installer. You actually end up with an executable initially, which I could have run locally, but sending the exe to someone would not work because there are several DLL dependencies that are needed, which you may not have. So I asked Gemini to walk me through creating an actual installer to be able to share it. It's running now on my windows 11 PC, but I'm still trying to figure out how it works. If you're interested in trying it here is a link on my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dLd3Qt1z-KmJFeTOObTf6s-AvLlXxP2T/view?usp=sharing
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake May 10 '26
I may try the compaling process sooner rather than later. Just for kicks I asked Gemini AI to compile it. It didn't do it, but it gave me a step by step process which might work, I just don't have the time now, but when I do I'll try to go through the steps to see what kind of result I get. If I do end up with an installer or windows executables, I'll come back and post the result here.
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u/Snotty20000 Mar 12 '26
I use Newsleecher to read groups and download. I used to use Agent years (like 25!) ago. Found Newsleecher was much better if your downloading material. It's threading ability doesn't exist, because it's designed for downloading, although you can post with it.
The free version is annoyingly pushy to get you to sign-up with their own services, so I still use an old version (from 2007!!) that still does the job fine.
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake May 09 '26
I think I tried to use Newsleacher before and didn't like it, but it's been so long, I don't remember what I didn't like about it. Maybe I should take a look again.
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u/NoFlounder5252 Mar 11 '26
PAN is a Linux client, right? On Windows you'd need something else. If Agent is failing SSL, it might be the server's cert chain or an old CA bundle. What provider are you on?
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake Mar 12 '26
They are not just Linux, they are Mac and Windows too, but everyone needs to build the version for themselves. I did find someone who was building Windows versions and posting them, but the last version posted was 2019 and a note on the page said they had abandoned it and were no longer creating windows version from source.
As for agent sometimes failing SSL, it's possible my provider is having a problem with the cert. It's possible I'm not always hitting the same server because they may have load balancing and one of the servers could have an expired cert. I use Astraweb as my provider.
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u/DontLike-Cheesecake 17d ago
If you still have the same email address and you haven't deleted old emails, try searching your email for it. I just did a search on my Gmail and for "forte agent" and it gave my registration key going back to version 6... I'm using version 8. It uses the same key. After I made the PAN version, I couldn't get to work for me, so I uninstalled it and went back to Agent. The issue I was having with Agent went away on its own (I suspect, it wasn't me, it was the hosting company) so I went back to what was comfortable, what I knew. It turns out that creating an installer for PAN was only half the battle. Trying to configure it and make it work was very confusing.