Newsgroup

A newsgroup is a repository, usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. The term is somewhat confusing, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to read newsgroups.

Binary newsgroups

While Newsgroups were not created with the intention of distributing binary files, they have proven to be quite effective for this. Due to the way they work, a file uploaded once will be spread and can then be downloaded by an unlimited number of users. More useful is the fact that every user is drawing on the bandwidth of their own news server. This fact means that opposed to a P2P technology, the user's download speed is under their own control, as opposed to under the willingness of other people to share files. In fact this is another benefit of Newsgroups: it is usually not expected that users share. If every user makes uploads then the servers would be flooded; thus it is acceptable and often encouraged for users to just leech.

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There were originally a number of obstacles to the transmission of binary files over Usenet. Firstly, Usenet was designed with the transmission of text in mind. Due to this, for a long period of time, it was impossible to send binary data as it was. So, a workaround, Uuencode, was developed which mapped the binary data from the files to be transmitted (e.g. sound or video files) to text characters which would survive transmission over Usenet. At the receiver's end, the data needed to be decoded by the user's Newsreader. Additionally, there was a limit on the size of individual posts such that large files could not be sent as single posts. To get around this, Newsreaders were developed which were able to split long files into several posts. Intelligent newsreaders at the other end could then automatically group such split files into single files, allowing the user to easily retrieve the file. These advances have meant that Usenet is used to send and receive many Gigabytes of files per day.

Related Topics:
Uuencode - Newsreader - Gigabytes

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There are two main issues that pose problems for transmitting binary files over Newsgroups. The first is completion rates and the other is Retention Rates. The business of premium News Servers is generated primarily on their ability to offer superior Completion and Retention Rates, as well as their ability to offer very fast connections to users. Completion rates are significant when users wish to download large files that are split into pieces; if any one piece is missing, it is impossible to successfully download and reassemble the desired file.

Related Topics:
Completion rate - Retention Rates - News Server

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A number of websites exist for the purpose of keeping an index of the files posted to binary Newsgroups.

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