Network News (Usenet)

What is The USENET?

The USENET is the most popular and the most extensive collection of bulletin boards in the world. People from all over the world share their ideas, words, pictures, anger, etc., at such a high level that it is difficult to visualize it unless you experience it firsthand. The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and the Usenet is a world-wide distributed discussion system which utilizes the Internet as a highway to distribute its data.

Newsgroups

The basic building block of Usenet is the newsgroup, which is a collection of messages with a related theme (on other networks, these would be called conferences, forums, bulletin boards or special-interest groups). There are thousands of newsgroups, each containing messages on a particular subject. Users sending Usenet messages must address each message to a particular newsgroup.
In a nutshell, newsgroups are a means of "public discussion". Newsgroup articles (messages) look like e-mail, but they can be read (potentially) by millions of people all over the world.

Newsgroups are not e-mail: Mail is private communication
News is public communication

The Master List of Newsgroup Hierarchies is available from http://home.magmacom.com/~leisen/master_list.html

You can search for Newsgroups using Hal Doran's
Finding Newsgroups and Mailing Lists (http://www.synapse.net/~radio/finding.htm)

Newsgroup Articles or Postings

"Articles" or "messages" are "posted" to the Usenet newsgroups by people on computers with the appropriate software. These articles are then broadcast to other interconnected computer systems via a wide variety of networks making up the Internet. Some newsgroups are moderated. In these newsgroups, the articles are first sent to a moderator for approval before appearing in the newsgroup.
How it looks like from the user point of view and in more detailes.

Spamming and Crossposting

A spam is a newsgroup article containing a subject unrelated to the subject of the newsgroup it was posted to. Spammers usually post many articles on the same subject to a number of newsgroups. Spammings often have commercial purposes. Rather than posting individual messages in each group, the Usenet allows you to post the same message in several groups at once, through a process known as cross-posting. This is a useful mechanism and cuts down on traffic especially when a large file is being posted to many groups. But spammers abuse the ability to crosspost by sending messages to newsgroups unrelated to the subject they are discussing.

What is NNTP?

NNTP is a standard specification for the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles using and a server-client model. The client and the server can be on different computers running different software and potentially even using different operating systems. In order for the client and server to be able to communicate without confusion, it is necessary for them both to agree to a standard or protocol. NNTP is the protocol used for the Usenet news system.
NNTP is described in the following RFC's:

RFC 977 [NNTP] Network News Transfer Protocol
RFC-1036 [NNTP] Standard for interchange of USENET messages

NNTP Server

The NNTP server is the central host or server which client software connects to in order to retrieve Usenet postings. The NNTP server is also known as your newsserver. NNTP is included in the basic Internet service provided by most Internet Service Providers. Your ISP can provide you with the name of your NNTP or newsserver. A common naming convention for NNTP servers is news.ISPname. For example, if your ISP is called myisp.com, they may call their newsserver news.myisp.com or if your ISP is called yourisp.net they could call their newsserver news.yourisp.net

Public NNTP Servers

Sometimes an ISP will block certain newsgroups. Some Internet sites offer free NNTP service and their servers are referred to as Public NNTP servers. Many of the public servers cater to different sets of newsgroups. Unfortunately, they can be unreliable. The following links offer updated lists of Public NNTP servers.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/3959/usenet.html
http://www.pippin.com/English/InternetCenter/News/group.htm

Subscription Based NNTP Servers

Another solution to ISP's who block newsgroups or simply offer a limited collection of articles is subscription based servers. This is where you pay a fee, usually monthly for Usenet service only. The service will provide you with a NNTP server name to connect to and a user name and password to use to log on to it. The following sites offer subscription based Usenet service.
http://www.net-link.com
http://www.zippo.com
http://www.airnews.net

News Reading Software

rn:
trn: the threaded newsreader (based on rn)
xrn: X window version of rn
nn: No News is good news (similar functionally to trn)
Netscape: You can read news using Netscape, by opening the URL news:newsgroup-name

Hints and Conventions or Again about the Netiquette (Chuq Von Rospach, Gene Spafford, Mark Moraes)

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/primer/part1/faq.html Brad Templeton http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/emily-postnews/part1/faq.html

**NOTE: this is intended to be satirical. If you do not recognize it as such, consult a doctor or professional comedian. The recommendations in this article should recognized for what they are -- admonitions about what NOT to do. (BT)

The goal is to know how to use Usenet politely, effectively and efficiently.

Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
Don't blame system admins for their users' behavior.
Never assume that a person is speaking for their organization.
Be careful what you say about others.
Be brief.
Your postings reflect upon you; be proud of them.
Use descriptive titles
Think about your audience.
Be careful with humor and sarcasm.
Only post a message once.
Please rotate material with questionable content.
Summarize what you are following up.
Use mail, don't post a follow-up.
Read all follow-ups and don't repeat what has already been said.
Check your return e-mail address and expect responses.
Double-check follow-up newsgroups and distributions.
Be careful about copyrights and licenses.
Cite appropriate references.
When summarizing, summarize.
Mark or rotate answers or spoilers.
Spelling flames considered harmful.
Don't overdo signatures.
Limit line length and avoid control characters.
Do not use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments.
Do not use Usenet as an advertising medium.
Avoid posting to multiple newsgroups.

Usefull locations related to USENET

Master List of Newsgroup Hierarchies, v5.05
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/hierarchy-list/faq.html

The Master List of Newsgroup Hierarchies is available by anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.magmacom.com/pub/misc/Master_List.txt,
and on the World Wide Web at
http://home.magmacom.com/~leisen/master_list.html

List of Active Newsgroups may be retrieved from: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/active-newsgroups/top.html

Free searches of Usenet News. Interesting statistics on Usenet users.
http://www.dejanews.com/

Newsgroup Directory - Liszt of Newsgroups
http://www.liszt.com/news/