newsgroups guide

Usenet is a network where people talk about specific subjects inside of specific "Newsgroups": there is an huge collection of messages in these groups. Messages travel by means of the UUCP and NNTP protocols (Unix to Unix Copy Program, and Network News Transport Protocol, respectively). The messages of many mailing lists are also distributed in Usenet.

There are more than 16,000 newsgroups, each containing messages on a particular subject. There are newsgroups on subjects ranging from astronomy to computer virus and from bonsai to recreational subjects.

Often, users who need help about a subject send questions to a newsgroup, and often someone from somewhere in the world answer to that question. Lists of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are available periodically in some newsgroups. Inside of these FAQs there are the most frequent questions and respective answers. So, before sending questions to a newsgroup, you should read the FAQ about that topic.

The messages may contain both plain text, and encoded binary information and, usually, they are stored inside news servers for less than a week.

Newsgroups structure (go top)

Usenet has a tree structure: newsgroups are categorized into seven main large branches, each of which is broken down into more and more specific topical sub-branches, sub-sub-branches, etc. The different parts of a newsgroup name are always separated by '.' symbol. Within each newsgroup are postings (called 'articles') available for anyone in the world with Usenet access.

How read news (go top)

You can read news with Web browsers like Netscape or news readers like FreeAgent. FreeAgent is the most known news reader. You can download it free at: http://www.forteinc.com.

However, first of all you have to configure your browser or news reader: they have to know the name of your NEWS SERVER. Put into the 'News Server' field that name. If you have not a NEWS SERVER, you have to use a PUBLIC NEWS SERVER. This is a list of some NEWS PUBLIC SERVERS:

Server	Groups	Speed	Posting
mail.tempe.gov	1749	35 k/sec	yes
delphi.bc.edu	3829	28 k/sec	yes
news.knox.edu	3042	22 k/sec	yes
news.unitel.co.kr	7890	18 k/sec	yes
igate.wvdp.com	1573	17 k/sec	no
tomcat.msrcnavo.navy.mil	5187	16 k/sec	yes
discovery.sel-rtp.com	1782	13 k/sec	yes
cherub.sewanee.edu	4268	12 k/sec	yes
cnn.ksu.ksu.edu	4095	10 k/sec	no
annette.rdn.com	8158	9 k/sec	yes
eon.odyssey.com.au	5802	8 k/sec	yes
ns.health.gov.sk.ca	2075	7 k/sec	yes
newsfeed.pnl.gov	1772	7 k/sec	yes
siena.siena.edu	2995	5 k/sec	yes
siena.edu	2995	2 k/sec	yes

What's Usenet (go top)

Newsgroups structure (go top)

How read news (go top)

Server

Groups

Speed

Posting

Helpful links