What is the Usenet?

The Unix User Network is a separate, independent service of the Internet, founded in 1979, which exists alongside the World Wide Web. It was intended as a discussion platform through which users could exchange information quickly and easily. In the beginning, only text files were exchanged. In the meantime, however, other file formats such as music, image or video files are also exchanged via this platform. The sharing of these files takes place in so-called newsgroups. The files are then retrieved via a newsreader, which is provided by a Usenet provider.

The Usenet is decentralized, i.e. there is no central server, but only many independent news servers. The data itself is only ever stored on the news servers participating in the Usenet. Thus, Usenet only serves to distribute the data and is therefore less vulnerable to attack.

There is basically no monitoring on Usenet. Only you know what you download there, since downloads are not logged. Of course, a Usenet provider through which you connect to the Usenet can store header information about your downloads. However, many providers advertise that they do not collect this metadata.

What is a News Server?

A news server is a computer that forwards, stores or makes available Usenet messages. The NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) or UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Protocol) protocol is used to retrieve/transmit Usenet messages. It is a protocol for transferring data between different Unix computers. The owner of the news server determines how long the messages remain on the server. This is called the retention time. This is rather short with most of the offered news servers of the Usenet providers and also the selection of the newsgroups is rather small. However, there are still the paid newsgroup providers (called payservers). You need these if you want to upload and download something to the Usenet without any problems.

Download in Usenet forums

Furthermore, as a member of a Usenet forum, it is possible to easily access Usenet content. You can find a forum using the search term "Usenet Board Deutsch" or "Usenet Forum Deutsch". In these forums, the content is published and is therefore only available to forum members. Each forum has its own admission requirements and does not accept just any request.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Internet does not consist exclusively of the World Wide Web, which we all know. There are a lot of other interesting facets, like the Tor network, the Darknet, or as described here the Usenet. So it's definitely worthwhile to think outside the box and try something new.

For further information please follow the link: Usenet providers