
Upcoming Release Announcement!

ALTAIR v1.00

The first native 32-bit Fidonet mail tosser for
Windows NT / Windows 95


Introducing ALTAIR for Windows NT / Windows 95.  ALTAIR is the first 
Fidonet Technology Network compatable mail processor written from the 
ground up as a full Windows NT / Win95 native 32-bit application.

ALTAIR's major features include -

   Completely written as a Windows NT/Win95 32bit application.  This is not a 
      port of an older DOS application.
   BinkleyTerm and FrontDoor style front end mailer support.
   Supports FTSC spec .PKTs for importing messages.
   Supports both JAM and *.MSG formats for BBS and Local message bases.  
      Squish support will be included in the next release.
   Includes support to create a Bluewave mail packet on an area by area 
      basis for message reading by a Sysop or ideally as a point site.
   Full downlink support for hubs and will process mail in a multinode 
      environment.
   Average processing speed of 20-25 messages/second.
   Unlimited archiver support.
   Full GUI setup application for configuration.

ALTAIR is a shareware product.  Use beyond the 30 day trial period is strictly 
prohibited.  The shareware version is full featured except for a delay upon
startup.

ALTAIR is expected to be released mid-August 1995.  While this is not a
guaranteed ship date, we will make all attempts to release on or around that
date.  You can expect to see release announcements in the echos that this
announcement was originally posted with information on availability.




Pricing and Release Information*

ALTAIR's shareware release will always be designated as a x.00 release.  Any 
necessary bug fixes to the shareware release will carry the designation of
x.00a, x.00b, etc.

Any enhancements between shareware releases will be designated as x.x1, x.x2,
etc. releases and will only be available to registered users who purchased
such versions.  These releases are known as minor version releases.

Major versions will be designated as 1.xx, 2.xx, etc.

Pricing is as follows

	$5	Single release version.  Single Registration.

		This entitles the user to the most current registered release
                and any bug fixes of that release.  Any version number changes
                are not included with this package.

	$10	Release version registration.  Standard Registration.

		This entitles the user to all minor version releases of the
                current version.  This would include 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, etc.
                including v1.10 but no other releases.

	$20	Subscription release.  

		This entitles the user to a single major version including all
                minor and bug fix releases of that version.  This would include
                v1.xx but not version 2.00

	$50	Lifetime Registration

		This entitles the user to all releases of ALTAIR for the life
                of the product.

	$10	Printed Documentation

		Printed documentation may be purchased for any registration
                category and will be shipped to you.


You can register ALTAIR by completing the REGISTER.TXT found in the ALTAIR 
package and returning it via netmail (at the address found in the Support
Section) or via US mail to the address on the form.

* Pricing is subject to change without notice.



Product Benchmarks


ALTAIR does not promise to be the fastest or best mail processor.  We believe
that ALTAIR is the first step in the development of fast, 32bit, Fidonet
compatable applications.  We hope to lead that change.

We have found that ALTAIR performs on par with other popular DOS based 
applications.  Being a v1.00 release, we expect to make significant
enchancements to ALTAIR to improve performance in all areas.

The follwing chart compares four popular mail processors with ALTAIR on
tossing messages into a *.MSG message base.

[ graph ]

You will notice that ALTAIR consistently performs better than Squish in all
cases but does fall behind GEcho (which I believe was written primarily in
assembler) and InterEcho.  We believe that this performance will be acceptable
for most users especially considering the advantage of using a native
application on Windows NT and Windows 95.  Being able to exploit new features
of both operating systems in future versions is a prime example of ALTAIRs
advantage over DOS based applications.




Future Plans for ALTAIR

Here is a brief list of possible future enhancements for ALTAIR -

  Squish and PCBoard 14.5 message base format support.
  Area manager support
  Support for the SHUTTLE Windows based front end mailer.
  Multiple user support for Bluewave packets.  This would allow ALTAIR to 
   create multiple Bluewave packets for individual users on a Windows NT or 
   Windows 95 system for use by co-sysops, family members, or even in a 
   business environment.
  Remote configuration via Windows NT and Win95 built in networking.
  Faster processing.
  Hooks for third party applications developers to expand ALTAIR's support of 
   different message base formats outside of the released package.
  Support for multiple netmail areas, secure tossing and scanning.
  Twit filters on an area by area basis.
  Censoring ability for individual sysops to determine the content of messages 
   being imported and exported into ALTAIR.
  Packing of JAM bases internally.
  Statistics generation.
  Improved logging capabilities.




Support

ALTAIR support will mainly be provided via netmail from the author.  I can be
reached at 1:115/583.1 and will contact users by voice if necessary for
technical support.

ALTAIR does provide a support BBS for downloading products and for minimal 
technical support.  This service is provided by PCsource BBS:

Node 1 (14.4)    (312) 583-2271
Node 2 (28.8)    (312) 583-1745

Fidonet:   1:115/583
IVnet  :   411:411/0

You may also connect to the ALTAIR support echo via 1:115/583.0.  FREQ the
magic name IVNET for information on connecting to this echo.

I will try to make myself available to all users as often as possible.  We
expect to have a Web page by the end of the year and a dedicated BBS and fax
line sometime in 1996.  

Thank you for your interest in ALTAIR and I hope to hear from you soon.

Kevin Kuphal
Author of ALTAIR
