The TCP/IP Guide  9  TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols, Services and Applications (OSI Layers 5, 6 and 7)       9  TCP/IP Key Applications and Application Protocols            9  TCP/IP File and Message Transfer Applications and Protocols (FTP, TFTP, Electronic Mail, USENET, HTTP/WWW, Gopher)                 9  Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)

Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) 1 Usenet Overview, History and Standards

Where electronic mail is the modern equivalent of the hand-written letter or the inter-office memo, Usenet is the updated version of the company newsletter, the cafeteria bulletin board, the coffee break chat, and the water cooler gossip session, all rolled into one. Spread worldwide over the Internet, Usenet newsgroup messages provide a means for people with common interests to form online communities, to discuss happenings, solve problems, and provide support to each other—as well as facilitating plain old socializing and entertainment.

In this section I discuss Usenet as a whole and how it operates. I begin with an overview and history of Usenet. I then provide a high-level look at the model of communication employed by Usenet, discussing how messages are created, propagated, stored and read. I discuss the Usenet addressing mechanism, which takes the form of a hierarchical set of newsgroups. I also explain how Usenet messages are formatted and discuss the special headers that provide information about a message and control how it is displayed and communicated.

Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) 1 Usenet Overview, History and Standards