Usenet

Usenet

A screenshot of the slrn newsreader, a popular client for accessing Usenet.

Diagram showing the relationship between Usenet servers and clients.

Usenet is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Usenet was conceived in 1979 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis at Duke University, and it was publicly established in 1980. Users read and post messages (called "articles" or "posts", and collectively termed "news") to one or more categories, known as "newsgroups". Usenet resembles a bulletin board in many respects and is the precursor to the various Internet forums that are widely used today.

History

Usenet was originally implemented in the C programming language under the Unix operating system. The first version of Usenet was developed at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The system was designed to allow users to exchange messages and files over a network of computers using the UUCP protocol.

In the early 1980s, Usenet expanded rapidly, and by the mid-1980s, it had become a major part of the Internet. The introduction of the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) in 1986 allowed Usenet to be accessed over the Internet using TCP/IP, which further increased its popularity.

Structure

Usenet is organized into a large number of "newsgroups". Each newsgroup is a collection of articles on a particular topic. Newsgroups are organized into a hierarchy, with the top-level categories being the "Big Eight" hierarchies: comp.*, news.*, sci.*, rec.*, soc.*, talk.*, misc.*, and humanities.*.

The Big Nine hierarchies of Usenet.

Articles are posted to newsgroups by users, and these articles are then propagated to other servers in the Usenet network. Each server stores a copy of the articles and makes them available to its users.

Usenet Providers

Usenet access is provided by a variety of ISPs and dedicated Usenet providers. These providers maintain servers that store and distribute Usenet articles. Some providers offer free access, while others charge a subscription fee for access to their servers.

Diagram of Usenet providers and backbones.

Binaries

In addition to text-based discussions, Usenet is also used to distribute binary files, such as images, videos, and software. These files are typically encoded in a text format, such as uuencode or yEnc, to allow them to be transmitted over Usenet.

The process of uploading binaries to Usenet.

Usage and Traffic

Usenet usage has declined since the rise of the World Wide Web and modern social media platforms, but it remains popular for certain types of content, particularly binary files. Usenet traffic is measured in terms of the number of articles posted and the volume of data transferred.

Usenet traffic per day.

Storage

Usenet servers require significant storage capacity to maintain the large volume of articles and binary files. The total storage capacity of Usenet servers has increased dramatically over the years.

Total storage capacity of Usenet servers.

Related Pages

• Internet
• Bulletin board system
• Network News Transfer Protocol
• Unix

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