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Anyone here use Usenet?

Nucular

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I've only just really heard of it (it's lurked in the 'no attached concept' drawer of my vocabulary for a while), but recently I've been hearing good things about its discussion groups and filesharing capability (Linux etc.). Also I like new things, and in some sense it seems to be like an alternative the the internet, which is a strange concept to me.

But I can't find a good introduction to exactly what/how/why yet. All the 'introduction to Usenet' pages I've googled up seem to assume I'm more knowledgeable than I am (anyone posting in the "What's wrong with my computer??" thread will know I'm not that great at anything outside 'normal PC operation' stuff).

Also it seems you have to pay to subscribe to Usenet groups, and I'm unsure about what's reasonable, who a UK-based person like me should be paying, and so forth.

And software. What do you need?

And - is it good?
 
Nucular said:
I've only just really heard of it (it's lurked in the 'no attached concept' drawer of my vocabulary for a while), but recently I've been hearing good things about its discussion groups and filesharing capability (Linux etc.). Also I like new things, and in some sense it seems to be like an alternative the the internet, which is a strange concept to me.

But I can't find a good introduction to exactly what/how/why yet. All the 'introduction to Usenet' pages I've googled up seem to assume I'm more knowledgeable than I am (anyone posting in the "What's wrong with my computer??" thread will know I'm not that great at anything outside 'normal PC operation' stuff).
Click to expand...
Try http://www.slyck.com/ng.php

Nucular said:
Also it seems you have to pay to subscribe to Usenet groups, and I'm unsure about what's reasonable, who a UK-based person like me should be paying, and so forth.
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i use http://newshosting.com/ it gives unlimited bandwith usage(speed limited), if you care about speed you can buy gigabytes instead, which will give you way way WAY faster access.. but you will end up paying more per gb you download, imo.


Nucular said:
And software. What do you need?
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slyck again.

Nucular said:
And - is it good?
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Depends on what you want or need.
Yeah, it is good, for some things, but don't use a shovel like a hammer.

One big problem with usenet is spam and trolls. Most groups aren't moderated, and any and all messages are posted there.. a few are moderated, which means your messages may be delayed till they pass verification.

Personally, it fills my needs.
 
If you are on dial-up and want fast download speeds and you are not too picky on what you want to download (since things on usenet stay online for a month or so, depending on your provider) and don't mind paying $5-10 per month, then it's good. If you have broadband then eMule has usually everything you'll find on Usenet and much much much more.
 
Great, thanks for the links Tobias. :)

So it's okay for me to be paying dollars to an American site even though I live in England?

And dumb question #743 - do you access the services through your existing ISP? Or would my modem unplug me and send me somewhere else?
 
El Greco said:
If you are on dial-up and want fast download speeds and you are not too picky on what you want to download (since things on usenet stay online for a month or so, depending on your provider) and don't mind paying $5-10 per month, then it's good. If you have broadband then eMule has usually everything you'll find on Usenet and much much much more.
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eMule, indeed? I'll get onto Google again, thanks EG.

I'm on broadband.
 
Thanks anti_hypeman - it slung me back to Google Groups Beta, is it supposed to do that?

So if I can access Usenet via Google, why do people pay for access?

It's confusing!!
 
Nucular said:
Great, thanks for the links Tobias. :)

So it's okay for me to be paying dollars to an American site even though I live in England?
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Yeah, that is ok

Nucular said:
And dumb question #743 - do you access the services through your existing ISP? Or would my modem unplug me and send me somewhere else?
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Just through your isp, just as wehn you connect here.. no difference.
 
Nucular said:
Thanks anti_hypeman - it slung me back to Google Groups Beta, is it supposed to do that?

So if I can access Usenet via Google, why do people pay for access?

It's confusing!!
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1) i'm not sure if you can post through google, if you can, a real application is much nicer than web interface.

2) google don't have access to all the groups. Especially not the binary groups which you need if you want to download stuff, not just write. Or to play with images(like some people did with pictures from NASA/ESA probes).

Also, your ISP MAY have some small usenet server you can use for free.. it should work fine for normal message passing, but for binary it (most likely) won't work.
 
Nucular said:
Thanks anti_hypeman - it slung me back to Google Groups Beta, is it supposed to do that?

So if I can access Usenet via Google, why do people pay for access?

It's confusing!!
Click to expand...

Yes it used to be deja news before google bought it I still type in deja.com out of habit.

You cant download or post binaries using the google interface. USENET is a haven for pirate activity as it has been long before napster. I wonder why the RIAA never raises a stink about it.
 
Just think of it like a bunch of message boards. If you are going to be a regular its worth using a USENET program. Never post a real email address on USENET in any form spam bots harvest the groups as a main source of victims. Any email address you use will be eventually rendered useless.
 
There is a bit of a terminology problem here, Usenet is/was a huge web of servers that hold text messages, you can leech files through them by using the Newsgroups.

When you just say Usenet most people will remember back to the pre-WWW days where all of the messages have been indexed at deja.com.

The Links Tobias posted are great if you want if you want to start using Newsgroups for your file needs, but ElGreco is right when he says that Emule will better serve you with a LOT less hassle.

If you are going to use Newsgroups, before you buy anything check your own ISP's news servers service out at the boards at www.dslreports.com. People will generaly know there if you can just use your own ISP's instead of having to buy someone elses.
 
Thanks Tobias, Hypeman & Thrombus :)

That clears stuff up quite nicely, I almost get it now! Even the "Usenet For Absolute Fools" types of websites assume at least some knowledge of what Usenet is, and my little terminology problem pointed out by thrombus meant the little knowledge I did have was jumbled.

Great, I'll have a look round on the Google interface for a while, and do some reading, and figure out what type of thing I want.
 
Most ISP's offer usenet servers... generally it's NNTP.whatever.net or .com... or news.whatever.net or .com... with the same password as your email.

Pick a free newsreader you like, if you intend to download files you'll need one that can combine multi-part messages. Be careful with mass downloaders though--viruses or suspicious files are easy to spot looking at the messages themselves... but mass downloaders will pull everything down (and viruses are commonly posted).

Individually picking files to download is easy enough, just avoid anythig with .com or .exe ... or, of course, "Anna Kournikova's Boobs.jpg____________________.exe"
 
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gnome said:
Individually picking files to download is easy enough, just avoid anythig with .com or .exe ... or, of course, "Anna Kournikova's Boobs.jpg____________________.exe"
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Ahh that takes me back... :)

If I can make an off-topic post here just for a sec...

The Windows operating system by default does not show file extensions when viewing file names in Windows Explorer. It does this by finding the rightmost 'dot' and not displaying it and not displaying the characters to its right. For example, a filename foo.bar would be displayed simply as foo.

It also means that annakournikovanaked.jpg.exe would be displayed as annakournikovanaked.jpg, tricking you into thinking that the file is an image file and not a virus. Sneaky, huh?

One of the things I always do when setting up a Windows PC is changing the setting so that extensions are always shown. Here's how (in XP):

Launch the Windows Explorer application (right-click the Start menu and select 'Explore')

Select 'Tools/Folder Options' from the menu.

Select the 'View' tab from the window that pops up.

In the 'Advanced settings' box, uncheck the 'Hide extensions for kown file types' option.

Click 'OK'

Now all your file extensions will be shown and when you get an e-mail that has an attachment you'll see the name as cutekitten.jpg.vbs instead of just cutekitten.jpg.
 
Does your PC have outlook or outlook express? That's got a newsreader on it. Or check out http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/network/fwusenet.html
News groups are organized in hierarchies. The ones that start comp. are computer related, ones starting rec. are recreation related etc. It's a while since I used a windows newsreader (I use pan on unix) but I remember that the free version of forte agent was quite good.
Who's your ISP?
 
Wudang said:
Does your PC have outlook or outlook express? That's got a newsreader on it. Or check out http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/network/fwusenet.html
News groups are organized in hierarchies. The ones that start comp. are computer related, ones starting rec. are recreation related etc. It's a while since I used a windows newsreader (I use pan on unix) but I remember that the free version of forte agent was quite good.
Who's your ISP?
Click to expand...

Here is the terminology thing again, the outlook Newsreader is great for reading the Newsgroups on the Usenet, but near useless for Leeching files.
 
Some of us Internet "oldies" pretty much live in Usenet. Usenet (or Usenet News) is based upon a simple protocol NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol), which "floods" postings out to peered NNTP servers. This way, a News posting gets round the world pretty quickly. Contrast this with the way e.g. this forum works, where the individual postings are held on a single server. Each model has advantages and disadvantages (just remember when the JREF machine was down for days).

Your ISP will provide you with access to the collection of newsgroups (which will number up to many tens of thousands). My access is through the UK-based ISP Demon, and there is no censorship whatsoever imposed by the ISP (read: a "Good Thing"). This should not cost you anything extra.

I use the same program for accessing Usenet as I do for reading web-pages and e-mail. Namely Mozilla. I like this feature.

The newsgroups I tend to live in most of all are news://comp.os.vms , news://comp.sys.dec and news://comp.arch
 
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