What is Usenet NEWS?
Usenet NEWS is an international conferencing system built
on a bulletin-board model. With this model the user posts a message to a
subject area known as a newsgroup. Each newsgroup contains
postings from people interested in that subject area. The user may run a
Usenet NEWS client program to examine current postings in a newsgroup, make
their own posting to a newsgroup, or do related functions such as printing the
posting, saving the posting for later use, or forwarding the posting to another
person.
Usenet NEWS newsgroups follow a naming hierarchy that
attempts to reflect the subject of the newsgroup and, at the same time, break
high-volume newsgroups into more manageable subgroups. In the Penn State
computing environment a number of special newsgroup hierarchies have been
developed. One of these is the PSU. hierarchy, which limits distribution
to Penn State computer systems and serves for discussion related to Penn State.
Usenet NEWS is a client/server system.
Usenet NEWS works as a client/server system. The user runs
a program on their local computer (or host) known as a Usenet NEWS
client. The client handles the user interface and takes advantage of the
capabilities of the local computer. The client translates user requests into
commands for the Usenet NEWS 'server,' which follows nntp (network news
transfer protocol) rules for distributing postings.
The ITS Usenet NEWS server has the name news.psu.edu.
Clients that connect to this server will access the special Penn State
newsgroup hierarchies. They will also have access to a number of Bitnet
LISTSERV conferences that have been subscribed by the server. Clients typically
require some installation, including designation of the server address, gateway
address, client system IP number, and client system name.
Usenet NEWS clients
A number of Usenet NEWS clients are available to people in
the Penn State computing community. The choice of a client will depend on the
type of computer you are using and the method you are using to access Usenet
NEWS. Following is a list of clients available via ITS services:
-
Systems running MS-Windows
A variety of nntp clients are available for computers
running MS-Windows. For most newsgroups the Netscape News newsreader
will work. (It is part of Netscape.) For access to private Penn State
course-related newsgroups it will be necessary to acquire an nntp client that
provides kerberos authentication. Two such clients for MS-Windows are
Trumpet and NewsXpress.
-
Macintosh Systems
A variety of nntp clients are available for Macintosh
computers. For most newsgroups the Netscape News newsreader will work.
(It is part of Netscape.) For access to private Penn State
course-related newsgroups it will be necessary to acquire an nntp client that
provides kerberos authentication. One such client is InterNews.
For More Information
Additional information regarding Usenet NEWS is available
at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/news/.
