








                  Usenet: The Network News


                       Mark R. Horton






What is the Network News?

     Usenet (Users' Network)  is  a  bulletin  board  shared
among  many computer systems in the computer science commun-
ity, around the United  States,  Canada,  Europe,  and  Aus-
tralia.  There are currently around 500 machines on the net-
work.  Usenet is  a  logical  network,  sitting  on  top  of
several  physical  networks,  including UUCP, BLICN, BITNET,
various Berknets and Ethernets, and the ARPANET.   Sites  on
Usenet  include  many  universities,  private  companies and
research organizations.  Most of the members of  Usenet  are
either university Computer Science departments, private com-
panies, or part of Bell Telephone Laboratories.   Currently,
most Usenet sites run the UNIX* operating  system,  although
there  are  Usenet  sites running VMS, IBM's OS/360, and the
Z80 MARC system.

     The network news, or simply netnews, is the set of pro-
grams  that provide access to the news, and transfer it from
one machine to the next.  Netnews was originally written  at
Duke  University,  and  has been modified extensively by the
University of California at Berkeley.  Netnews allows  arti-
cles  to  be  posted  for limited or very wide distribution.
This document contains a list of newsgroups that were active
at the time it was written, to assist you in determining the
newsgroups to which you may want to subscribe.  When  creat-
ing  a  new article, the level of distribution is controlled
by specifying the newsgroup.

     Any user can post an articles that will be sent out  to
the  network to be read by persons interested in that topic.
Users can specify which topics they are interested in via  a
subscription  list.   Then,  whenever they ask to read news,
they will be presented with all articles  of  interest  that
have  not  yet  been  read.   There  are also facilities for
browsing through old news, posting follow-up  articles,  and
sending  direct  electronic mail replies to the author of an
article.
__________________________
*UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.




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Why Usenet?

     Usenet is useful in a number of ways.  Someone  wishing
to  announce a new program or product can reach a wide audi-
ence of interested people.  A user  can  ask  ``Does  anyone
have an x?'' and will usually get several responses within a
day or two.  Bug reports and their fixes can be made quickly
available  without  the  usual  overhead of sending out mass
mailings.  Discussions involving many  people  at  different
locations  can  take  place  without  having to get everyone
together.

     Another facility with similar capabilities  to  netnews
is the electronic mailing list.  A mailing list is a collec-
tion of  electronic  mailing  addresses  of  users  who  are
interested  in  a  particular  topic.  By sending electronic
mail to the list, all users on the list receive  a  copy  of
the  article.  While the mailing list facility is quite use-
ful, Usenet offers a number of  advantages  not  present  in
mailing  lists.   Getting  yourself on a mailing list is not
always easy.  You have to figure out who maintains the  list
and  ask  them to put you on it.  Often these people are out
of town or busy, and don't put you on the list  for  several
days.  Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing
list, hoping that one of the readers will tell you who main-
tains  the  list.   Once you are on the list, you often find
yourself in the middle of a discussion.  Netnews  keeps  old
articles  around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
so you can browse through old news to catch up on  what  you
missed.   Similarly,  referring  to  an old article is easy,
without having to keep a personal file of all old mail.

     Another advantage is appreciated by the  users  of  the
system.   There  is less overhead in having only one copy of
each  message  sent  to  each  machine,  instead  of  having
separate  copies  sent  to each of several users on the same
machine.  This cuts down on computer  time  to  process  the
messages,  and on line costs for telephone calls to transfer
messages from one machine to another (when phone  lines  are
used).   Another  advantage  is  in the disk space consumed.
When only one message is sent to each system, only one  copy
of  the message is kept on disk.  In a mailing list environ-
ment, each user has a copy in their own mailbox.

     Another similar system is called Notesfiles.  This sys-
tem originated on CDC's Plato system, and a UNIX implementa-
tion exists.  Some Usenet sites run Notesfiles instead of or
in  addition  to  Netnews.  Notesfiles is best known for its
screen oriented user interface.

How do I Read News?

     In the Usenet jargon, topics are called newsgroups.   A
partial list of current newsgroups appears in figure 1.  You



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have your own subscription list of newsgroups to  which  you
are said to subscribe.

     There are different  classes  of  newsgroups.   Network
newsgroups,  e.g., net.misc, are sent to the entire network.
Geographic areas and organizations can have local  newsgroup
classes,  too.   The  newsgroup  nj.general  is only sent to
machines in New Jersey.  The company newsgroup  bell.all  is
sent  to all Bell System machines.  Local newsgroups such as
general stay on the local machine.   For  example,  general-
might  of interest to the local users.  ``From the Arpanet''
(fa) newsgroups are used to gateway  arpanet  mailing  lists
into USENET.

     To read news, type the command

        readnews

Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented, one
article  at  a time.  As each article is presented, you will
be shown the header (containing the name of the author,  the
subject,  and  the  length  of  the article) and you will be
asked if you want more.  There  are  a  number  of  possible
choices  you can make at this point.  You can type ``y'' for
``yes'' (or simply hit return) and the rest of  the  message
will be displayed.  Another choice you can make is ``n'' for
``no''.  This means you are not interested in the message  -
it will not be offered to you again.

     Among the other commands you can type after seeing  the
header of an article are:

q            Quit.  The articles you have  read  or  ignored
             are recorded and you are returned to the shell.

s filename   The article is saved in a disk  file  with  the
             given name.

r            Reply to the author of the message.   You  will
             be  placed in the editor, with a set of headers
             derived from the message you are  replying  to.
             Type in your message, and exit the editor.  The
             reply will be sent  off  via  electronic  mail.
             You are then returned to readnews.

f            Post a follow-up message to the same newsgroup.
             This  posts  an  article on this newsgroup with
             the same title as the  original  article.   You
             will  be placed in the editor - enter your mes-
             sage and exit.

U            Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.

     Variants of many commands use a ``-'' to refer  to  the



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previous  message, e.g., ``r-'' replies to the previous mes-
sage, whose complete contents you have now seen.

Submitting Articles

     To submit a new news article type

        postnews

You will be prompted for the newsgroup, title, and distribu-
tion  on your terminal.  Then you will be placed in the edi-
tor.  Enter the text of your article, and then exit the edi-
tor.   The  article  will be posted to the newsgroups speci-
fied, and distributed to the appropriate machines across the
network.

Joining Usenet

     Admission to Usenet is open to anyone  interested.   An
interested  site  administrator  should  first find a nearby
Usenet site that is willing to feed them news.  Then the two
administrators  set  up  a  UUCP  connection between the two
sites, and transfer the Usenet software over the link.  (The
``B  news'' software is in the public domain, and comes with
full documentation and installation instructions.) Next they
set up the news connection.  Test articles are sent over the
link, and then the new site announces itself  to  the  news-
group  net.news.newsite.   (The  list of Usenet sites, their
Usenet neighbors, and who the contact persons are,  is  pub-
lished  monthly  in  net.news.map.) Once you have accepted a
link from a site, unless there are good reasons not to,  you
should  be  willing  to  feed two or three more new sites in
turn.  No money is  charged  for  the  news  itself  or  the
software, but it is up to the two sites to make arrangements
for any phone bills involved.  There  are  Usenet  sites  in
nearly  every  major  metropolitan area in the United States
and Canada, with especially heavy concentrations in New Jer-
sey,  Illinois, and Silicon Valley.  If you know of a nearby
Usenet site, you can either connect to  them  (if  they  are
willing),  or ask them to look in net.news.map to find you a
nearby site.  If you don't know of  a  nearby  Usenet  site,
call me at (614) 860-4276 and I'll refer you to one.















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        This is a list of some major USENET newsgroups as of May 24, 1983.
        The full list is maintained by Adam Buchsbaum (research!alb)
        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Newsgroup           Description
        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
        net.announce        Moderated newsgroup for important announcements.
        net.auto            Automobiles and automotive products and laws.
        net.bugs            General bug reports and fixes.
           net.bugs.4bsd       Subgroup for UNIX version 4BSD related bugs.
           net.bugs.uucp       Subgroup for UUCP related bugs.
        net.columbia        The space shuttle and the STS program.
        net.cse             Computer science education.
        net.eunice          The SRI Eunice system.
        net.games           Games and computer games.
        net.garden          Gardening, methods and results.
        net.graphics        Computer graphics, art, and animation.
        net.jobs            Job announcements, requests, etc.
        net.jokes           Jokes and the like.  May be slightly offensive.
        net.lan                Local area network hardware and software.
        net.lang            Different computer languages.
           net.lang.c          Subgroup for C.
        net.mail            Proposed new mail/network standards.
        net.med             Medicine and its related products and regulations.
        net.micro           Micro computers of all kinds.
           net.micro.68k       Subgroup for 68k's.
           net.micro.atari     Subgroup for Atari's.
        net.misc            Discussions too short lived for their own groups.
        net.movies          Reviews and discussions of movies.
        net.news            Discussions of USENET itself.
           net.news.group      Subgroup for discussions and lists of newsgroups.
           net.news.map        Subgroup for maps.
           net.news.newsite Subgroup for new site announcements.
        net.pets            Pets, pet care, and household animals in general.
        net.politics        Political discussions.  Could get hot.
        net.rec             Recreational/participant sports.
        net.religion        Religious, ethical, and moral implications of actions.
        net.research        Research and computer research.
        net.sf-lovers       Science fiction lovers' newsgroup.
        net.sources         For the posting of software packages.
        net.sport           Spectator sports.
        net.taxes           Tax laws and advice.
        net.unix-wizards    Discussions, bug reports, and fixes on and
                            for UNIX.  Not for the weak of heart.
        net.usenix          USENIX Association events and announcements.
        net.wanted          Requests for things that are needed, e.g. device
                            drivers, pointers to people, etc.
        net.women           Women's rights, discrimination, etc.
        net.works           Assorted workstations.
        fa.human-nets       Computer aided communications.
        fa.info-vax         DEC's VAX line of computers.
        fa.tcp-ip           TCP and IP network protocols.
        fa.telecom          Telecommunications digest.

           Figure 1 - Partial Newsgroup List



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