Usenet Newsgroups

Usenet offers it’s users around the world  the opportunity to offer everyone  their experience and knowledge and in return opportunity to benefit from others expertise and advise. Usenet is older than the internet. Originally set up to allow academics and others in specialized fields to engage in group discussions with their peers across the globe. Usenet functions a lot like email. Except that instead of addressing messages to an individual, they are addressed to a group. And anyone wishing to read or post messages in a particular group, does so by connecting to a Usenet server across a network connection. Special newsreader software is needed on the user’s computer to read articles. You “subscribe” to a group by telling the software in your own computer to check the messages addressed to a particular group. The term “subscribe” is used in reference to how you set up your computer and software. Only you and your computer know which groups you have “subscribed” to

There is no “central” Usenet server. Rather there are thousands of servers chained and crosslinked together known as peering in order to exchange articles between them, and to keep the articles available for their own users to read for a period of time ranging from hours to weeks to years.

Usenet News is a world-wide service where users share information and files on a wide variety of topics. The information is organized by topic into newsgroups. Users post messages and data or read responses within the individual groups and get files and feedback from others with similar interests.

Newsgroups also provide users a forum where they can exchange files and information such as pictures, software, and media.

Things to consider when looking for a Usenet Provider.

  • What are Days of Full Binary Retention – There is  extensive amounts of data being added to Usenet servers every day, which is very resource intensive for the Usenet Proviers. Retention is the number of days you will have access to a file after its original posting date. Most providers offer something around 900 days, and in most cases that’s enough, but there will be circumstances in which you may need access to older data. A year is usually sufficient for most people, but some Usenet Providers  offer very high retention rates as high as two years. It’s important to check the type of retention the Usenet Provider advertises.
  • What are Monthly Transfer – This is the the allowace of data you can download for the month which is measured in GB. In most cases you’re going to want a plan that offers unlimited transfer, but most Usenet service providers offer plans with data caps generally ranging from 5 to 50 GB.
  • What are Connections – Every Usenet service provider caps the number of simultaneous connections you can make at a single time through your account.  Most of the files you’ll download are split into parts and you may want to download those parts concurrently, as this can often be faster than downloading one file at a time. The number of connections you pay for is directly related to the number of files you can download at a given time. Also, if you want to use your account from different locations at the same time or share your account with someone else, you can split up the number of connections between locations so only one account is needed.
  • What about Security –  If you want  to encrypt the data moving between your Usenet service provider and you, make sure you take a look at what each provider offers you, as various security options are available with most. In most cases SSL and other security options cost are available for extra costs. You can also consider a VPN Provider for additional security.

 

Web Browser Access 

If you are new to Usenet Newsgroups you may want to use Browser access instead of a news reader. There is no configuration needed. Web Browser access is web-based interface to Usenet Newsgroups. You can use the Usenet Web Browser for viewing and posting text articles. http://www.bargainnewsfeeds.com/

Usenet Providers TOS

Service is available only to persons 18 years of age or older  people under 18 are unable to enter into a binding agreement.

No spamming, trolling or flooding.

Spamming is posting commercial advertising or off-topic posts in a newsgroup, or substantially identical posts made to different newsgroups.

Trolling includes such things as impostering other usenet users, or  posting under multiple identities in order to defeat PLONK fliters of other users or to carry on  conversations with yourself.

Flooding is posting an excessive volume of posts in any group, or any significant quantity of posts which are clearly unwanted by the group due to their content, size, or even their encoding method).