Usenet Newsgroups - What are They?

Newsgroups are Internet discussion forums where groups of users with the same interests gather to talk about everything from software to comic books to politics. These forums can be read by anyone who views the group unlike e-mail messages which are only for the recipient to see. Newsgroups are worldwide with users from all corners of the Internet.

In order to view messages in newsgroups, you will need a newsreader program. The newsreader lets you download messages from a news server. Internet service providers (ISPs) offer access to news servers for use by their customers with a variety of packages. These servers will contain thousands of groups covering a wide variety of topics. Some news servers have specialized topics, such as news about specific technologies or information related to particular industries or organizations.

Users read and post messages to one or more newsgroup categories. Usenet was created in a time when the bandwidth of the Internet was very limited, and newsgroups were designed to be text only. More recently, users were able to attach images and other files to postings, but in general, newsgroups remain more text-based than binary.

Messages are posted to newsgroups, which look like folders in newsreader software. When a user connects to a particular newsgroup, all the messages posted to this newsgroup are downloaded to the newsreader software.

There are thousands of different newsgroups, each of the groups has a folder with messages shown in the order that they were posted. Dedicated newsreader software provides more options to search and filter postings. 

Newsgroups remain very popular for a number of reasons. First, it is very easy to participate and contribute to newsgroups or even to create your own. Second, the information contained in newsgroups is not located on a central server or controlled by one particular organization or company - for some people, they don't want to be controlled when surfing the internet.

Uncensored Newsgroups

How to Pick A Usenet Provider

Usenet has a huge base of data and documents. There are many different things to look for when choosing a provider.

1. Are you going to be downloading text files or binary files (audio, video, etc.)? 

Binary files are much bigger and take longer to download than text files. If you are going to be downloading text files then your speed available by a provider and the number of connections is not significant. But if you will be downloading binary files then speeds and connections are essential. Some Usenet providers offer packages with limit downloading speeds and offer only a few connections. Other providers offer packages with unlimited speeds and more connections.

2. Completion and retention rates the Usenet providers provide you with. As above when you are only downloading text files, completion rates will not likely matter because text files are posted as a single file. Many of the providers deliver high retention rates for text files because they don’t demand a substantial amount of server room to store. You will need more completion rates if you are downloading binary files. Because binary files are much larger in size, they’re split into smaller files when posted on the Usenet. Once downloading, your newsreader reassembles the binary file into its initial state. Completion rates are what portion of the binary files are recovered. You want the highest completion rate anything to low will likely be ineffective, considering the fact that an imperfect binary file can’t be reassembled. In the last year, a retention rate "war" was fought among the top Usenet providers. Usenet users benefited as retention rates of binary files has grown with some providers to over a year and a half!!

3. As you are deciding on a provider, you should also make a decision of what volume of data you may be downloading over what period. Some Usenet providers have available block accounts in which you buy a “block” of bytes you could download, most over any period of time. Most Usenet providers sell monthly plans, where you have a set measure of bytes to download each month. At the beginning of each month, your bytes reset to whatever package you purchased. If you are not sure of the amount of bytes you need, start with a block plan and pay for more as required. Once you know your downloading patterns, you can change to a monthly subscription.

Available Block Packages

What is Usenet?

Usenet is a worldwide collection of discussion groups, each has a name and a collection of articles. These articles which are posted by users who have access to Usenet servers where they will be stored.

Usenet is more convenient than online discussion groups and mailing lists because the articles get replicated to your local Usenet server, allowing you to read and post articles without accessing the Internet. Usenet articles conserve bandwidth because they do not come and sit in each member's mailbox. Email based mailing lists will have twenty members in one office and will have twenty copies of each message copied to their mailboxes. With Usenet discussion group and a Usenet server, there's just one copy of each article, and it does not fill up anyone's mailbox.

Another nice feature of having your own Usenet server is that articles stay on the server even after you've read them. You can't accidentally delete a Usenet articles the way you can delete a message from your mailbox. This way users are able to archive articles of a group discussion on a server without having to have one member do this. This makes Usenet servers very valuable as archives of internal discussion messages within corporate Intranets.

A user then selects a Usenet newsgroup from the hundreds or thousands of newsgroups which are hosted by a server, and accesses all unread articles. These articles are displayed. You can then decide to respond to some of them.

When a user writes an article, either in response to an existing one or starts a brand-new thread of discussion, software will post this article to the Usenet server. The article contains a list of newsgroups into which it is to be posted. Once it is accepted by the server, it becomes available for other users to read and respond to.

A Usenet server does not work on its own. It is part of a collection of servers, which automatically exchange articles with each other. The flow of articles from one server to another is called a newsfeed. Imagine a worldwide network of servers, all working to replicate articles with each other, busily passing along copies across the network as soon as one of them receives a new articles posted by a human reader. This gives the Usenet network its power. Your Usenet server has a copy of all current articles in all relevant newsgroups.

If you are unsure try a block packages - one time fee- no rebill 

http://www.uncensorednewsfeed.com/block-prices/