Usenet is set of software protocols designed to set up virtual bulletin boards via the Internet. These virtual bulletin boards are usually referred to as newsgroups.
Usenet newsgroups are one of the oldest ways of communicating on electronic networks; it even preceeded the Internet and the World Wide Web. While E-mail is normally used for communication between two people, Usenet newsgroups are used for online discussions involving many participants, publishing works, and distributing materials via the network.
Usenet is akin to a global bulletin board system and organizes discussions in newsgroups, with each newsgroup having its own topic apparent from its name (such as sci.math.research). Once a message (known as a "news article" and resembling an E-mail message) has been posted to a newsgroup, it is circulated around the world and others can reply to it.
How to access Usenet newsgroups
Most ISPs (Internet service providers) provide a newsfeed that their users can access. One does not access the newsgroups with a web browser; rather, one opens up program called a newsreader. The two most popular Internet browsers, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer have buttons one can click on to access these newsreaders. Today newsreaders are usually combined with e-mail reading programs.
Not all ISP's run news servers; some do but omit the newsgroups in the alt.binaries.* hierarchy which carry images, software and other binaries.
For those who have access to the Internet, but do not have access to an ISP that provides a newsfeed, Google groups is a free, reliable, and popular way to access UseNet newsgroups. Google allows anyone to access most newsgroups with a Web browser via the World Wide Web. Generally, it is not quite as easy to read discussion threads in this method as with one of the above programs, but the software is relatively simple to use.
It is possible to obtain usenet access separately; see http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/providers/providers.html for a comprehensive list of usenet providers. And if you are a heavy bandwidth user, you may also want to check some of the discussion at alt.binaries.news-server-comparison.
Technical details
Usenet is a set of protocols for generating, storing and retrieving news "articles" (which resemble Internet mail messages) and for exchanging them among a readership which is potentially widely distributed. These protocols most commonly use a flooding algorithm which propagates copies throughout a network of participating servers. Whenever a message reaches a server, that server forwards the message to all its network neighbors that haven't yet seen the article. Only one copy of a message is stored per server, and each server makes it available on demand to the (typically local) readers able to access that server. Usenet was thus one of the first peer-to-peer applications.
Internet Jargons
A bulk of Internet Jargons are invented in the Usenet among prominent users or hackers. Such are backbone cabal, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), flaming and flame war (heated debate) kill file, Great Renaming, Kibo, Mark V Shaney, rec.music.white-power newsgroup vote, Scientology vs. the Internet, Serdar Argic, spamming (unsolicited posting), There is no Cabal, Usenet cabal, Your mileage may vary and Trolling.
History
Usenet was invented in 1979 as one application of the UUCP protocol which allowed Unix machines to exchange data over telephone lines. Nowadays, most Usenet articles are distributed using the NNTP protocol which works on top of the Internet's TCP/IP protocol.
Early versions of Usenet used the B-News server software, and then later C-News. In the mid-1990s, INN was developed to take advantage of the way the Internet worked versus the store-and-forward design of UUCP. Since that time INN development has continued, and other news server software has also been developed.
Users typically use software called newsreaders to read and write Usenet articles. (Many Web browsers can be used as newsreaders, though they often lack some of the functionality of software designed specifically to read netnews.)
In December 2001, the World Wide Web-based search engine Google added a searchable archive of Usenet postings going back to the very beginnings. These archives are incomplete, but very extensive. It is also possible to post to and read Usenet on Google's web site.
Prior to Google's acquisition of the Usenet archives, DejaNews originated the searchable archive of Usenet postings. DejaNews' Usenet archives were acquired by Google in 12 February 2001.
See also: List of newsgroups, Newsservers
External Links
- To learn all about it, visit http://www.smr-usenet.com.
- An excellent resource on finding files on the newsgroups, http://www.slyck.com/newsgroups.html
- Google Usenet archive: http://groups.google.com
- Everything2 (online forum) write up about Usenet: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1187779
This article is partly based on the infoAnarchy wiki.