NavCIS

NavCIS was <a href="/facts/CompuServe/Pjpdcf2a">CompuServe Information Service</a>'s <a href="/facts/Client_(computing)/u0wlVsWI">client program</a> for automated connections to the <a href="/facts/CompuServe/Pjpdcf2a">CompuServe Information Service</a>, at a time when online use was priced per minute. It was largely an <a href="/facts/Offline_reader/gBowpqk9">offline reader</a>, downloading both <a href="/facts/Email/6pD9GLtI">email</a> and new messages from selected <a href="/facts/Internet_forum/bRuqfQfN">forums</a>, and then disconnecting. The user could then read and reply to these messages offline, and send all of their replies back in a similarly quick connection. Unlike most offline readers, NavCIS also allowed the user to select files for upload and download, and included a system for scripting the session.
Originally called ForCIS, it was based on the host computer's interface. NavCIS was the first email or forum client to feature <a href="/facts/WYSIWYG/aGmcHWpX">WYSIWYG</a> in the early 1990s. It was available as a <a href="/facts/Graphical_user_interface/wBlQFWDP">GUI</a> on both <a href="/facts/MS-DOS/fVrrz1uN">MS-DOS</a> and <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Windows/bwhAhuSL">Microsoft Windows</a>. The very similar CompuServe Navigator was a similar system for the <a href="/facts/Macintosh/8GhnXTK0">Macintosh</a>.
Support for NavCIS lagged the interactive <a href="/facts/CompuServe_Information_Manager/qvJX7zg7">CompuServe Information Manager</a> (CIM), which kept users online but allowed GUI access to most of CompuServe's more popular features like chat and (some) online games. NavCIS stopped working when the original CompuServe interface was shut down around 2001.

NavCIS open-in-new

NavCIS