Q. Marcus Adams (yEnc proxy inventor), what's your take on yEnc?
A. 8-bit yEncoding (yEnc) uses less bandwidth and less disk space than 6-bit encoding methods (UUE, MIME, and Base64). In that way, yEnc is advantageous. We're talking faster downloads because yEnc is smaller. However, yEnc will never be GUARANTEED to work until they change the standards to say that ALL Internet messaging peers MUST support 8-bit character sets. Yet, yEnc seems to work, doesn't it? For now, yEnc seems pretty good.

There are a lot of people still complaining about yEnc. Sure, there were better ways to implement an 8-bit encoding method, and even I have complained about the disregard for stream support in yEnc, which UUE, the so-called "standard" encoding method, provides. Others complain that yEnc is not an official Internet standard. Well, UUE is not an official Internet standard either. UUE was widedly adopted due to its popularity.

yEnc Popularity

yEnc has been going strong for over five years. There is a lot to be said for the large adoption of yEnc on Usenet. yEnc has been adopted because it works and it's simple. There is a good chance that eventually every newsreader will support yEnc, just like they support UUE. Unfortunately, right now it just seems that a lot of people are holding their breath for something better.

An encoding method does not need to be an Internet standard as long as the encoding method meets the Internet standard for sending messages on the Internet. The only rule that yEnc is breaking is its use of characters beyond 6-bit ASCII. If the standard for sending messages were updated to allow a, more modern, 8-bit extended ASCII character set, yEnc would instantly be as legitimate as UUE and other encoding methods such as MIME and Base64.

yEnc Decoder for Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, and other newsreader yEnc support

The million dollar question is what do you do if you want to download yEnc attachments but your newsreader does not support yEnc (like Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Thunderbird)? The answer is simple. The most popular yEnc Decoder is yProxy. yProxy is a yEnc plugin that makes any newsreader yEnc capable and able to decode yEnc.

Most Outlook Express users download yProxy to give Outlook Express yEnc functionality.

yEnc Proxy

yProxy is a yEnc Proxy, which means that you configure it once for Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or Thunderbird, or any newsreader, and yProxy will continue to automatically decode yEnc attachments for you. You can continue to use your favorite newsreader and stop worrying about what yEnc is or whether your newsreader will ever support it.

Actually, if you wanted to, you could start worrying about the faster download speeds that yEnc provides and the built in error checking that only a yEnc compliant yEnc decoder like yProxy provides.

<< Back