REPORT

ON

“NEWSGROUPS”

SUBMITTED TO:-

MS. AMANDEEP KAUR

SUBMITTED BY:-

AMANDEEP SAHI

SHIVANI BEDI

PRIYANKA BANSAL

What is a Newsgroup?

A newsgroup is a repository usually within the UseNet system, for messages posted from many

users in different locations because it is usually a discussion group.Newsgroups are technically

distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web.

Types of newsgroups

Binary newsgroups

Text newsgroups

Moderated newsgroups

Binary newsgroups

Binary newsgroups are only able to function reliably if there is sufficient storage allocated to a

group to allow readers enough time to download all parts of a binary posting before it is flushed

out of the group's storage allocation.

Each newsgroup is generally allocated a certain amount of storage space for post content. When

this storage has been filled, each time a new post arrives; old posts are deleted to make room for

the new content. If the network bandwidth available to a server is high but the storage allocation

is small, it is possible for a huge flood of incoming content to overflow the allocation and push

out everything that was in the group before it. If the flood is large enough, the beginning of the

flood will begin to be deleted even before the last part of the flood has been posted.

Text Newsgroups

Usenet was originally created to distribute text content encoded in the 7-bit ASCII character set.

With the help of programs that encode 8-bit values into ASCII, it became practical to distribute

binary files as content. Binary posts, due to their size and often-dubious copyright status, were in

time restricted to specific newsgroups, making it easier for administrators to allow or disallow

the traffic.

Moderated

A minority of newsgroups are moderated. That means that messages submitted by readers are not

distributed to Usenet, but instead are emailed to the moderators of the newsgroup, for approval.

Historically, a mod.* hierarchy existed before Usenet reorganization.

All newsgroups are created by proposals called charters. Moderators are persons whose job is to

ensure that messages that the readers see in newsgroups conform to the charter of the newsgroup.

Typically, moderators are appointed in the proposal for the newsgroup, and changes of

moderators follow a succession plan.

The job of the moderator is to receive submitted articles, review them, and inject approved

articles so that they can be properly propagated worldwide.

Unmoderated Newsgroups

Unmoderated newsgroups form the majority of Usenet newsgroups, and messages submitted by

readers for unmoderated newsgroups are immediately propagated for everyone to see.

Organization of newsgroups

comp.* – computer-related discussions (comp.software, comp.sys.amiga)

humanities.* – fine arts, literature, and philosophy (humanities.classics,

humanities.design.misc)

misc.* – miscellaneous topics (misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids)

news.* – discussions and announcements about news (meaning Usenet, not current

events) (news.groups, news.admin)

rec.* – recreation and entertainment (rec.music, rec.arts.movies)

sci.* – science related discussions (sci.psychology, sci.research)

soc.* – social discussions (soc.college.org, soc.culture.african)

talk.* – talk about various controversial topics (talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.origins)

How newsgroups work

Newsgroups are a lot like mailing lists, but the mechanics are a bit different. There are

thousands of lists in the newsgroup system. When your system administrator sets up your

account, he subscribes to a number of lists. You can read and submit messages to any

group that your site is subscribed to. Every so often, (usually late in the night) all the

newsgroups are exchanged and compiled. If you send a message to a newsgroup, the

message will be stored on your system computer until the next exchange occurs, then it

will be distributed to every other system in the world which subscribes to that particular

newsgroup.

Generally you need a special news reader program to read and write to newsgroups, but

most web browsers have this capability, so many people read email through them. Many

email programs are also capable of reading newsgroups, so they are commonly used as

well

Newsreader clients

Newsgroups are typically accessed with special client software that connects to a news server.

Newsreader clients are available for all major operating systems. Mail clients or "communication

suites" commonly also have an integrated newsreader. Google Groups is one of the most popular

web based front ends and web browsers can access Google Groups via news: protocol links

directly.

A diagram of some newsgroup servers and clients

.

The blue, green, and red dots on the servers represent which groups they carry. Arrows between

servers indicate that the servers are sharing the articles from the groups. Arrows between

computers and servers indicate that the user is subscribed to a certain group, and uploads and

downloads articles to and from that server.

Newsgroup Hierarchies

Big Eight hierarchy

Addition/deletion of newsgroups in “the big eight” hierarchies controlled by this.

“Big Eight” are comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, & talk.

Carried by most news servers.

Alt” hierarchy

The “alt” hierarchy established because some people didn’t like the USENET Cabal

Other hierarchies are “private” but propagated

Currently there are

– 460 newsgroup hierarchies

– 28,948 newsgroups

• Top hierarchies are:

– alt 33.97%

– fido7 7.21%

– microsoft 3.34%

– comp 3.31%

– rec 2.49%

Sites providing Newsgroups

www.alt.family

www.giganews.com

www.thunderbirdnews.com

www.dejanews.com

www.googlegroup.com

ISPs, news servers, and newsfeeds

Many Internet service providers, and many other Internet sites, operate news servers for their

users to access. ISPs that do not operate their own servers directly will often offer their users an

account from another provider that specifically operates newsfeeds. In early news

implementations, the server and newsreader were a single program suite, running on the same

system. Today, one uses separate newsreader client software, a program that resembles an email

client but accesses Usenet servers instead.

Not all ISPs run news servers. A news server is one of the most difficult Internet services to

administer well because of the large amount of data involved, small customer base (compared to

mainstream Internet services such as email and web access), and a disproportionately high

volume of customer support incidents (frequently complaining of missing news articles that are

not the ISP's fault).

Advantages of newsgroups

Newsgroups are generally a bit more structured,so they are likely to be around longer.

They are also easier to find, and more likely to have a moderator (person or program in

charge, who keeps the group civil and on - track).

Newsgroups often have a FAQ document. FAQ stands for Frequently asked Questions.

In any newsgroup, there are usually a number of questions that are asked all the time

Disadvantages

All of the disadvantages of mailing lists

If you post to newsgroups your email address will almost certainly be harvested and

you'll receive Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or Spam as it is often called

You'll find that a lot of messages are off-topic and will invite you to make money fast, or

to visit pornographic sites

Most of the pornography on the Internet is published using alt. groups, so you may need

to restrict access if you have public workstations

Flaming and rows are much more common on newsgroups than in mailing lists .

Setting Up Newsgroups

If the links above do not work, here's how to set up Microsoft Outlook Express to read the PowerPoint

newsgroups. Setting up other mail and newsreading software is similar. Netscape and some other web

browsers may also be able to read newsgroups.

1. Start Outlook Express and choose Tools | Accounts.

2. Click the Add button to activate a flyout menu. Choose the News option within this flyout menu.

3. This will open a series of wizard screens. Type your name in the first of these screens and click

Next.

4. The next screen asks you for your email address. It's a good idea to include some anti-spam

measures while entering your email address. For example, you might want to type

mynameREMOVESPAM@server.com or mynameREMOVECAPS@server.com, so that automatic

spam-harvesters cannot reap your actual mail address. Click Next.

5. In the Internet News Server Name field, type "msnews.microsoft.com" without the quotes.

Remember not to place a check mark next to "My news server requires me to log in". Click Next.

6. When prompted, click the Finish button. Then click the Close button.

7. Outlook Express will prompt you with "Would you like to download newsgroups from the news

account you added?". Choose Yes. Since Microsoft's news servers host a large number of

newsgroups.

Sometimes, you may also get a warning that the server was not found. In that case, make sure you

are connected online before you attempt to access the newsgroups. Also, verify exact wording to

ensure that one or more of the setting options are not incorrect.

8. You'll next be presented the Newsgroup Subscriptions dialog box - you'll want to choose

microsoft.public.powerpoint if you are using PowerPoint for Windows. Mac users may want to

choose microsoft.public.mac.office.microsoft - apart from these two newsgroups, you'll find many

other PowerPoint newsgroups that cater to a particular language version of PowerPoint, such as

French, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, etc. Choose the ones you want to subscribe to.

9. Choose the newsgroup you want to subscribe within the list and click the Subscribe button. Click

OK.

10. You'll find a listing called msnews.microsoft.com in your Outlook Express folder list - click the (+)

sign next to this listing to view the names of your subscribed newsgroup.

11. Click the name of your newsgroup and Outlook Express will show (or download and show) a listing

of messages that seem not unlike your regular email messages. Click any message to read it

within the preview pane. You can read and respond to these newsgroup messages like regular

mail.

12. If you want to post your question, press Ctrl + N to open a new message - type in your question

and click Send to make your question available to hundreds of experts who will respond to your

question in a few hours. Sometimes, people receive answers in minutes. Do visit the newsgroup

often to check for answers, learn more and ask questions.

Future of the Internet Newsgroups?

The future of the newsgroups will be for inherently user-friendly multi-media news systems and

software that do not discriminate between race, creed, colour, religion - and the computer

illiterate.

This implies news systems and software where users neither need to type or read/write/speak

English. In the network news systems of the future, users should be able to speak into a computer

microphone, talk into a computer video camera, scribble on an electronic note pad (all in their

native languages!) and the news software will take care of the rest - translation and presentation

world wide in an efficient and equally user-friendly manner.