Technical Library

Internet Services

Usenet Support

• active file
  A list of active Usenet groups. For example, if a UNIX platform was running INN, the file /usr/local/inn/lib/active lists the newsgroups that the local site receives. Each newsgroup should be listed only once. Each line specifies one group; their order in the file does not matter. Within each newsgroup, articles are assigned unique names, which are monotonically increasing numbers.
• article
  A message that has been posted to a newsgroup containing information about the newsgroup topic.
• BNEWS
  An old server software package designed for UNIX systems. This server is the predecessor to newer, faster, and more commonly used news servers like CNEWS, INN, and NNS.
• CNEWS
  A news server software package designed for use on UNIX and similar operating systems. This server was an improvement upon BNEWS in that many of the supplied programs were shell scripts instead of C programs, making the system easier for the administrator to modify. CNEWS is now becoming outdated with the appearance of faster servers such as the INN package.
• cross-posting
  When an article is posted to more than one group at a time with relevance to the subject of the news groups.
• FAQ
  Either a frequently asked question, or a list of frequently asked questions and their answers. Many Usenet newsgroups maintain FAQs so that participants don't spend lots of time answering the same question.
• flame
  Personal attacks on the author of an article.
• follow up
  A response to a Usenet posting.
• FYI
  1) A Common abbreviation in mail and news, meaning "for your information".
  2) A series of informative papers about the Internet. They're similar to RFCs, but they do not define new standards.
• hierarchy
  The broadest subject title for a news group. For example, the rec hierarchy describes the most general topic discussed in the recreational activities group.
• history file
  This file is used by a news server to keep track of news articles that it has already received. The file contains the list of message IDs. The news server compares the message IDs in the history file with what is being received. The server will reject an article that it already has and thus will prevent the server from saving duplicate articles.
• ihave/sendme
  Part of the NNTP protocol which represents the request from a news server to offer a news article (ihave), and the news client's reply to accept the article (sendme).
• IP
  Internet Protocol. The most important of the protocols on which the Internet is based. It allows a packet to traverse multiple networks on the way to its final destination.
• INN
  InterNetNews. A complete Usenet system. Also referred to as a "news server." The cornerstone of the package is innd, an NNTP server that multiplexes all I/O. It can be thought of as an nntpd merged with the BNews inews, or as a CNews relaynews that reads multiple NNTP streams. News reading is handled by a separate server, nnrpd, that is spawned for each client.
• newsgroup
  A collection of discussions about a particular topic. Users can subscribe to a newsgroup and receive the articles in that group. In return, users can respond to what they read from other subscribers in that group.
• newsreader
  Software that allows users to manage the news that is read. This is done by keeping track of what newsgroups they read, what news groups have been read, and so on.
• nn
  A newsreader. Still used among UNIX users.
• NNTP
  Network News Transfer Protocol. The protocol used to transfer Usenet news articles between computers on the Internet.
• NNS
  A news server software package designed to run on the Windows NT operating system.
• post
  The process of presenting a newly created article to a news group forum.
• posting
  An individual Usenet article or the act of sending an article to a newsgroup.
• rn
  One of the oldest news readers that was designed for UNIX systems. Rn was written before there was much news available on Usenet. It assumes that you want to read most items that come along in the groups to which you are subscribed. Now, there is so much news flowing on Usenet that it is easy to receive a multitude of articles that one may not be concerned with.
• RFC
  Request For Comments. A set of papers in which the Internet's standards and proposed standards are documented and published.
• server
  1) Software that allows a computer to offer a service to another computer.
  2) The computer on which the server software runs.
• spamming
  A mass posting of an article. Spamming shows little consideration to the relevance of the topical contents of the newsgroups.
• threads
  A feature of a newsreader that allows one to read news items in order within a topic.
• tin
  Probably the most user-friendly of UNIX newsreaders. This newsreader uses threads and is becoming one of the most popular newsreaders for UNIX systems.
• trn
  A newsreader. A descendent of rn that supports threads.
• TCP
  Transmission Control Protocol. This protocol is used to insure a reliable flow of data packets from source to destination.
• UUCP
  UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Protocol. A facility for copying files between UNIX systems, on which mail and Usenet news services were built. While UUCP is still useful, the Internet provides a better way to do the same job (TCP/IP, NNTP).