A newhie question about usenet server?

[chrainy]

I'v read a lot about usenet references through internet, but no one make me clear about what's the server of usenet??

I am about to use "pan" as my usenet news reader(simply because it was there when I installed Linux), and in the tools->news server, the popup window is like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Server
--Name:
--Address:
--Port:
Connections
--Connection Limit:
Login
--Server requires authorization
--username
--password
Newsrc
--Use .newsrc file
--File name browser
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I fill this out?

Thanks a lot in advance~~~~

[casperl]

First of all usenet server is also called as news server.

It is in fact old version of forums. Since it is not web based, it requires a client and a server.

Normally, most of email readers can connect to news servers. So you can find an email client supporting news server and you can read news server threads there. But you can also find a separate news reader (like you already did) if you think its functionality is better.

I did not use your client but normally (in my experience), a news reader client requires a username, server ip, and a password to connect to a news server. (just like your email client!). It seems that your news client needs much more than that. I suggest you a beter client which has gui support. You will need to search about it a little bit.

Normally you can not find a news server to connect easily since this is an old technology (not widespread as web or email now). When i was in undergraduate my department had such a news server (having a news server requires you to have some permissions from an established news server as far as i know (so that you clone the posts on common news groups)). So if your university does not have a news server, i think your job is difficult. In that case, i reccomend you to use google's or some other company's web interface to news servers. I am not sure that they allow posting but i guess if you open an account with them, then you should be able to post.

And for uncommon news groups: Everybody can open a news server (synchronizing common news groups is a problem!! But you can easily define your own news groups on your server). For example Eclipse project has its own news server and give username/password to eclipse users to use their server but you can not read common newsgroups (e.g. alt.computer...) there..

Good luck.

[chrainy]

Thanks^_^.

Yes, I understand what u said. but based on some websites, "Acording to Joe D'Allessandro, director of Marketing for the NewsGuy Usenet feed, Usenet moves over a million messages and postings, weighing in at aboutg 140 GB, per day, and that the volume is increasing".

I am not sure that "usenet" is old enough to be abandoned, but I just want a server ip, name, passwd to make it work for me.

[casperl]

I see The best way for you is trying it and learning yourself. Good to hear that you undertand the details.

[chrainy]

google has web interface to news servers, but how can I use it without firefox?

I mean, what's the server ip, port number? I try alt.os.linux, port number=109, but it doesn't
work!!!

Is it wired?

[casperl]

google has web interface to news servers, but how can I use it without firefox?

I mean, what's the server ip, port number? I try alt.os.linux, port number=109, but it doesn't
work!!!

Is it wired?

Google web interface: http://groups.google.com/
You will read the groups or post new posts with that web interface if you will use Google.

I mean, what's the server ip, port number? I try alt.os.linux, port number=109, but it doesn't
work!!!

If you want to specifcy server/username/pass then you will need to find a usenet server to use. Check my first post.

Is it wired?

What do you mean with wired?

[chrainy]

I go to that website just few minutes ago, and I have joint in a group. But don't u think using firefox to look through all these posts is quite tedious? How can I use other tools to achieve the same goal?

That's the issue that I want to point out. I tried "pan"(a usenet tool shipped with my linux cd), and I set "server ip" to "alt.os.linux", "port number" to "119", but that turn out to be wrong setting. Until now, I still can't find out how to set this up in "google group"

I don't know, maybe I am so newbie in Linux, so really appreciate ur kind help^_^.

[casperl]

I go to that website just few minutes ago, and I have joint in a group. But don't u think using firefox to look through all these posts is quite tedious? How can I use other tools to achieve the same goal?

That's the issue that I want to point out. I tried "pan"(a usenet tool shipped with my linux cd), and I set "server ip" to "alt.os.linux", "port number" to "119", but that turn out to be wrong setting. Until now, I still can't find out how to set this up in "google group"

I don't know, maybe I am so newbie in Linux, so really appreciate ur kind help^_^.

"alt.os.linux" is a usenet group name. IP should looks sth like this 144.127.56.76

port number should sth like that (e.g. 119) but this will be given to you with the ip address once you find a free usenet server. You can find some paid ones but i dont think you can find a free one easily, this is why i reccomnd you to use google news at least to understand how usefult it will be for you.

You can not set google groups in your news client. As i said it is a web based interface and they want you to see their ads..

[chrainy]

gotcha, since finding a free usenet server is not easy, I decide to give it up. thank u so much^_^.