Lester,

> > never heard about off-line readers? NNTP and SMTP are really the same
> > thing in this matter.
>
> That is what I am using, but for the NNTP stuff I have to go
> and check each list? I can't see a way of telling it to scan
> them and I don't want autodial firing off because they want
> an update.

I use XNews and it has the option to check all groups in a row. It
hasn't got offline capabilities, though (but I don't need offline,
otherwise I would install Hamster together with XNews - with a local
news server you *really* can do what you want).

> I have an offline bug management system - Firebird based -
> that manages a large volumn of documents. I think I will
> just build an NNTP and SMTP front end to that and dump all
> this raw information there. Then I can do what I want <g>

Looks like you are wanting to reinvent wheels.
The world is full of doors and google is your passepartout. :-)
Ciao
--
____
_/\/ando