Usenet Newsgroup Overview There are over 50,000 Usenet newsgroups where Internet users exchange messages on specific subjects.  If you can't find something online via search tools, then try the newsgroups...  A fellow Internet user can probably lead you to the right information.

Main points:

• Usenet Newsgroups are a globally shared/distributed set of online forums where users can post messages to each other.
• Newsgroups can be subject oriented (rec.antiques) or created based on geography (dc.dining)
• Newsgroups are not chat rooms.  Chat rooms are a  more real-time event, where the text of messages are displayed back and forth between users in near real time.  Newsgroup postings are more similar to email messages that are posted into a shared area, where other users may reply back to the message over the next several days.
• Quality of content in a specific newsgroup depends on culture of that newsgroups’ following. This is an online city of over 500 million strangers.
• Children (and some spouses) should not be left alone on the Internet.
• Take the time to watch and learn the culture of a group before participating (called lurking)
• Thou Shall not SPAM the Internet!!!

Messages (articles) are “posted” to the newsgroup  Others may post their “follow-up” to the newsgroup OR may respond directly to the author via email  A series of related “articles” is called a “thread”  A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) may be posted. READ IT, to understand the purpose of the group, and to see if "your" question" is already answered in the FAQ.   A list of FAQs is also available via the web.

Usenet Newsgroup Architecture

• Newsgroups are hosted on news servers throughout the Internet.
  • News Server onsite (i.e. news.company.com)
  • Use provider’s server (i.e. news.ISP.net)
• Your local Newsreader is used to interact with this information. This can be a stand-alone Newsreader, or you web browser may also provide this capability.  Check with you local Internet provider or network administrator for the software settings.
• You read and post message to a specific new server.  New postings are  then fed to other new servers throughout the Internet, until each news server has a roughly equivalent set of messages. See How the Usenet protocol works for more information.

Searching: There are several places on the Internet where the content of the newsgroups are being archived and made available for full-text searching. The most popular resources is "google groups"

For More Information:

• How Usenet Works. (from how stuff works)
• Top 1000 Usenet Sites - Shows which news_servers are widely propagated.
• Emily Post News - great examples of what not to do in a newsgroups - a must read.
• Usenet death Penalty - See how the community can go after ISP's who permit Spam Abuse
• Free advice on Usenet news - a fairly complete overview (much longer than my web page)
• NNQLINKS - news.new user.questions contains a useful collection of information
• Usenet Topology -shows a small portion of usenet topology (in Italy)
• Usenet Newsfeeds via satellite: Cidera, ispsat.

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