USENET
USENET is a global discussion system on the Internet that allows users to post messages and download files, organized into various categories known as newsgroups. Developed in 1979 by graduate students at Duke University, it was initially designed to facilitate communication within the university and later expanded to connect users across different institutions. Unlike the World Wide Web, which accesses information through web pages, USENET relies on special software called newsreaders to display content. It features millions of messages within its newsgroups, covering a wide array of topics, and users can download binary files, such as images and videos, from dedicated binaries newsgroups. Accessing USENET requires a subscription to a Usenet provider, with popular options including UseNeXT, Usenet.nl, and Giganews, each offering varying retention times for messages. USENET has historically influenced online communication, coining terms like "flame wars" and abbreviations like "LOL," which continue to be widely used in social media today. Its decentralized nature allows each server to operate independently, contributing to its broad and diverse user base.
USENET
Usenet is a worldwide discussion system on the Internet that allows users to post messages and download files, which are distributed through servers. The messages and files are organized into categories called newsgroups. Each newsgroup is devoted to a specific topic. Usenet, which was developed in 1979, includes thousands of newsgroups covering numerous topics. Providers such as UseNeXT, Usenet.nl, and Giganews offer access to Usenet.
Origins
Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, two graduate students at Duke University, conceived the idea for Usenet in 1979. They wanted to replace outdated local announcement software in the university's computer science department. Truscott and Ellis hoped to develop a network that would enable members of the department to message one another. They also wanted the network to provide a connection between Duke and other universities. Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), assisted Truscott and Ellis by writing scripts. The three created software named netnews—later renamed A News—and the first Usenet hosts, Duke and UNC, were soon in operation. In 1980, they launched A News to the public, and Usenet was in full swing. It quickly became popular and needed new software to handle Usenet's traffic. The following year, the new software, known as B News, was released.
How It Works
To understand how Usenet works, one must first understand the difference between Usenet and the World Wide Web (also called Web or WWW). The World Wide Web is a part of the Internet, which is a worldwide system of networks that connects billions of devices and allows them to exchange information. The World Wide Web gives access to the information on the Internet and relies on web pages to display this information. These web pages, which are the pages that make up websites, are accessed through a web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Usenet relies on a program called a newsreader to display its content.
Usenet is similar to an Internet forum, also called a discussion board or discussion group. An internet forum is a website that allows people to have a discussion with others about a specific topic.
Usenet allows the distribution of millions of messages, all organized into newsgroups. When a person posts a message in a Usenet newsgroup, servers distribute the message. Usenet users can then view the new message and reply to it. Any reply messages are distributed through the servers. Messages, however, are only available for a certain amount of time, which is called retention time.
A user also can download files called binary files, or binaries, from Usenet. Binary files include image files, audio files, video files, and any other file that is not a text file. Binary files are typically found in binary newsgroups and are downloaded via a newsreader.
To find a particular topic on Usenet, a user can search for the topic. The user then has access to all the messages and files related to the topic.
Usenet is decentralized, which means it does not have a central authority, (a person or entity) that runs it. Instead, each Usenet server has its own authority.
Usenet Providers
To access Usenet, users need a newsreader and a subscription to a Usenet provider. Many Usenet providers exist, and many offer access plans starting at about $10 a month. Some providers are available at no charge; however, these providers generally have very small retention times. UseNeXT, Usenet.nl, and Giganews are examples of popular Usenet providers. Other providers include Eweka, Easynews, Newshosting, and UsenetServer.
Most Usenet providers offer users approximately one hundred thousand newsgroups. Providers differ in retention time, support, and payment methods. UseNeXT offers a retention time of about 10.5 years, while Giganews provides a retention time of 8.5 years. Giganews has support available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, while UseNeXT and Usenet.nl do not offer support on Sundays.
Influence
When the Internet was first released to the public, it was expensive to acquire a connection. In addition, a research contract with a federal agency known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network was needed. When Usenet was released, it offered people a less expensive way to connect to one another and exchange information, and it did not require a contract.
In addition, Usenet was responsible for the creation and popularization of many popular social networking terms. These include terms and phrases such as flame wars, arguments between two people online that results in the people attacking each other through online forms of communication; and emoticons, which are representations of facial expressions to convey feeling when online. Usenet also introduced many popular slang acronyms such as LOL (laughing out loud) and ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) used for communicating via social media sites or texts.
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