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What is usenet and newsgroups?

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No Lifer
What is usenet anyway? Not kidding here. And newsgroups? What are those. I know it's sad but I've always managed to avoid learning about these things.
 
*blink* Are you serious? </me looks at calendar to make sure it's not Apr 1>

Basically, they're kinda like these forums, but with the added ability to post binaries, music files, vcds, text, etc. There is a newsgroup for just about every topic under the sun....it's where I look first to find out who won what big bike race in europe before the story hits any of the websites. Your ISP should allow you access to newsgroups....for example I have ATT broadband so I plug "netnews.attbi.com" into a newsgroup browser such as Free Agent, it will retrieve all of the newsgroups for you, you subscribe to the ones that look interesting, and update messages in these every time you log on. Make sense?

Fausto
 
yeah, definitely pron city....

but you can also find stuff like alt.tv.simpsons and stuff like that

sorta like an old school forum or BBS....
 


<< LOL, I know what Skoob is looking for and newsgroups is not the best way to get it. 😀 >>

Actually I'm not cause it is preordered 😀 If I wanted that I'd first look on grokster and then when that failed me spend a couple hours playing around on IRC. What a pain in the big ass though!

So where is a good place to get a list of newsgroups - would freeagent have one built in? If somebody posts a 50 meg music video (you porn guys need help!!) where is it actually residing? There can't be massive servers holding all the info...
 


<< So where is a good place to get a list of newsgroups - would freeagent have one built in? If somebody posts a 50 meg music video (you porn guys need help!!) where is it actually residing? There can't be massive servers holding all the info... >>


When you plug your ISPs news server name into a program like Free Agent for the first time, it will automatically retrieve a list of all the newsgroups (there are like 35000) of them. Then you just go through and select the ones that look interesting and subscribe to them (right click- "subscribe"). Then you can dl all the headers in the ones you subscribed to instead of every newsgroup. Sort through the headers that look interesting (mp3's for example) and save the bodies of the marked headers to your HDD. I like it for music as folks will often post entire albums at once and usually at high bitrates (192 or higher).

Fausto
 


<<

<< So where is a good place to get a list of newsgroups - would freeagent have one built in? If somebody posts a 50 meg music video (you porn guys need help!!) where is it actually residing? There can't be massive servers holding all the info... >>


When you plug your ISPs news server name into a program like Free Agent for the first time, it will automatically retrieve a list of all the newsgroups (there are like 35000) of them. Then you just go through and select the ones that look interesting and subscribe to them (right click- "subscribe"). Then you can dl all the headers in the ones you subscribed to instead of every newsgroup. Sort through the headers that look interesting (mp3's for example) and save the bodies of the marked headers to your HDD. I like it for music as folks will often post entire albums at once and usually at high bitrates (192 or higher).

Fausto >>

Cool 😀 Lastly though where are these things hosted? On that user's computer - cause if so what when they leave? There must be a centra repository holding the data...? I gotta get in on this.
 


<< So where is a good place to get a list of newsgroups - would freeagent have one built in? If somebody posts a 50 meg music video (you porn guys need help!!) where is it actually residing? There can't be massive servers holding all the info... >>



Exactly. That's why in order to access binaries, more often than not you'll need to pay for that access. I use Easynews.com, which is $10/month or $10/6 gigs(whichever comes first) but it works ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. It's speed, ease of use, and ability to retain files is unparalled, IMHO. I highly recommend using it.

Also, look at Google's usenet archive to look at the past 20 years of posts. It's awesome! 🙂
 
What is usenet and newsgroups?


You know its funny, I was thinking the same thing just the other day....in 1996...when I got my first internet account! I stumbled upon it when using Netscape one day. First it was alt.test and the rest as they say is history 🙂
 


<< What is usenet and newsgroups?


You know its funny, I was thinking the same thing just the other day....in 1996...when I got my first internet account. Actually I stumbled upon it when using Netscape one day. First it was alt.test and the rest as they say is history 🙂 >>

Funny thing is I've been on the net since 1995 and generally far more savvy than most of the people I know but I stumbled on a newsgroup playing in outlook about 2-3 years ago and though "holy sh*t this is awesome!" and I coudln't get it to work properly so just stopped and haven't looked back since. Sad how such a major gap of the internet was unknown to me.
 
Outlook express contains a simple news client...but my personal favorite is Newsbin Pro

It combines all the headers of like posts together so that you can d/l entire movies w/out really thinking about which posts to combine....

(this will make more sense once you try using outlook for a few minutes!)
 


<<

<< What is usenet and newsgroups?


You know its funny, I was thinking the same thing just the other day....in 1996...when I got my first internet account. Actually I stumbled upon it when using Netscape one day. First it was alt.test and the rest as they say is history 🙂 >>

Funny thing is I've been on the net since 1995 and generally far more savvy than most of the people I know but I stumbled on a newsgroup playing in outlook about 2-3 years ago and though "holy sh*t this is awesome!" and I coudln't get it to work properly so just stopped and haven't looked back since. Sad how such a major gap of the internet was unknown to me. >>



Same here. Always heard about newsgroups, usenet, and IRC but never been able to get into them.

amish
 


<<

<< newsgroups = free prOn =P >>



basically, yes. 🙂 >>




Basically for every pr0n it's muddled inside a thousand commercial pr0n site spams.
 


<< (this will make more sense once you try using outlook for a few minutes!) >>



Oh yes, outlook express and outlook are AWFUL for binaries. :disgust:

/edit stupid grammar. 😱
 
Skoorb, you are not along - I have been using the Internet since about 1996 and have never visited a newsgroup or usenet 😱

Perhaps tonight will be the night 😉
 

The files reside on whatever newsserver you are accessing...

Usually your ISP

However, each newssever has different retention periods for holding files...
ISP newsservers usually delete files rather quicky.
Pay newsservers like easynews.com or giganews.com hold files for a much longer time.

As for the best newsreader client..
I prefer Xnews but I think most people like Free Agent.

 
You're not really missing all that much. I personally haven't used newsgroups in years. They used to be very big. 🙂



<< I'm glad a couple of other people piped up admitting their shortcomings so that I'm not alone 😀 >>

 


<< Oh yes, outlook express and outlook are AWFUL for binaries. >>


Yup, they're totally worthless for anything other than text messages.



<< Cool Lastly though where are these things hosted? On that user's computer - cause if so what when they leave? There must be a centra repository holding the data...? I gotta get in on this. >>


Um, not sure exactly how this works, but I think everything is hosted/stored on whatever news server you're accessing and then you store stuff selectively on your rig. IE- You first download only a list of the groups available, then you download the headers (essentially message titles) contained in the groups that are of interest to you. Then you scroll through the headers and download the bodies (the actual mp3, text, binary, whatever) of the ones you want. Each time you refresh the list of headers, the ones no longer on the news server get deleted off the list on your rig and new ones added.....retention varies depending on what server you're using. This is why some folks recommended Easynews and similar services...much better retention (usu. only a few days on your ISP servers). I'll usually check my groups every couple days, highlight all the stuff that looks interesting, hit "save all messages" and go do something else for a while. You're pretty much at the mercy of whatever gets posted so selection isn't like any of the PtP programs where you can search and find almost anything....but I've noticed that most of the .MP3 groups kinda function on a quid pro quo system.....post something and include "REQ: "album X I would like to have" in the title and someone will usually post it for you.

BTW- please tell Mrs Skoorb not to drive over to GA and kill me for having told you all this.😉

Fausto
 


<< yeah, definitely pron city....

but you can also find stuff like alt.tv.simpsons and stuff like that

sorta like an old school forum or BBS.... >>



Pron city??? I LOVE tiger prons! MMmmmmm...shrimp.....
 


<< The files reside on whatever newsserver you are accessing...

Usually your ISP

However, each newssever has different retention periods for holding files...
ISP newsservers usually delete files rather quicky.
Pay newsservers like easynews.com or giganews.com hold files for a much longer time.

As for the best newsreader client..
I prefer Xnews but I think most people like Free Agent. >>



Unless you're Earthlink or SBC, most ISP's either have a limited news server or (more common) subscribe to a commercial news server. A full news feed will transfer 9GB or more a day, so most ISP's don't want that anywhere near their network. A limited news feed will result in missing articles and a lack of groups.
 
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