Brief History Of Usenet Newsreaders
In 1980’s, the World was blessed with an exciting new means to communicate. This is when Usenet was created by two young and smart Duke Graduates named Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott. This new means of communicating server to server using the NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) was designed for people within Duke University to have an open discussion forum, share files, and talk about current news. Think of Usenet as an early form of the Internet.
Since this was roughly A decade before the Internet was born, it’s amazing to realize just how advanced our computer technology really was back then. With the formation of new newsgroups sprouting up everywhere, there needed to be a means to read these news feeds.
Hence, the Usenet newsreader was created. Newsreaders allow people a means to download these NNTP feeds onto their computers and easily read and access the information contained within the newsgroups. Newsreader programs are used to connect to the global Usenet feed which allows people to post and download new content, such as articles and files that are posted by millions of people everyday.
What is a Newsgroup Program?
A newsgroup program, also known as a newsgroup browser, or a newsreader program, is a special kind of software application that you can use to access newsgroups, to participate in discussions, to download files, and to read and post messages in Usenet. There are currently many different newsreader programs available. They vary by operating system and have different features and functionality. For Windows, we recommend GrabIt (you can get a free special customized copy when you sign up with Fast Usenet) and News Bin Pro, as they are the most feature packed newsgroup programs currently available.
For the Macintosh OS, we recommend Thoth and MT Newswatcher. There are many other packages available, some of them are free, others offer a 30-day free trial, and some are paid. You can visit https://www.fastusenet.org/tutorials.html for a more comprehensive list of newsgroup programs.
Newsreaders On Different Operating Systems
Usenet newsreaders have been build for all operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. There are newsreaders built specifically for downloading and uploading binary files (audio, video, images) and newsreaders built strictly for reading and posting into text only newsgroups. Modern newsreaders such as GrabIt (provided with our service) can do both.
How To Use A Newsreader
At Fast Usenet we understand that not everyone is familiar Usenet service. All the terms such as NNTP, newsreaders, newsgroups, etc. That is why we have created step by step tutorials to help familiarize you with popular newsreaders such as SABnzbd, Newsbin Pro, Newsleecher, and GrabIt.
We offer a 14 day free trial. Sign up for our free trial and see if Usenet is right for you. If you haven’t used it before our tutorials will help you get setup quickly. We have customer service agents standing by 24 x 7 that will answer all of your questions. So give us a try and discover the amazing World that is Usenet.
Features of Newsgroup Programs
One thing to look for when selecting a newsgroup program is to pick one that supports multiple simultaneous server connections. The reason for this is that many times, you will be better off establishing connections to a few multiple servers and multiple newsgroups. This will increase your article completion rate because if you cannot find all the parts of a file that you are downloading on a given server, in a given newsgroup, it is very likely that you will be able to find the missing parts if you look for them in several other places.
As you can probably understand, it is much easier to be doing this all at the same time, rather than connecting to one server, discovering that there are missing parts, disconnecting and then having to connect again to another server to look for the missing parts. High-quality newsgroup programs such as GrabIt prevent hassles of this sort, as they automatically search for the missing parts on other servers, thus saving you a lot of time and inconvenience.
Text Groups
The primary purpose of the text groups is to carry on discussions among different people with similar interests. They can talk about anything they want, as long as they are having these discussions in the appropriate groups and they aren’t off-topic. For example, you wouldn’t want to talk about cars in a science newsgroup dedicated to chemistry or physics.
The Usenet news reader lets you browse the text newsgroups, read the posts in them, reply to them, or start your own discussions on different topics that excite you. You will be sure to find friends and supporters in Usenet as there are so many people who are part of it all over the world.
Binary Groups
Sometimes, there are thousands of users accessing the same newsgroup at the same time; it all depends on the newsgroup topic and its popularity. Some groups have become very popular in Usenet and have new content constantly posted to them. Such groups are known as binary groups because they contain binary files (as opposed to text discussions). You can access these groups as well, with the help of a newsreader such as GrabIt which is included free with your FastUsenet membership.
You can then download any files that have been posted by others, as well as upload your own files for others to download. It is a nice way to exchange files with thousands of people around the world, but you don’t have to exchange if you don’t want to. Usenet is a voluntary peer exchange community, you are never forced to provide anything if you don’t want to. You are not required to share files or folders on your computer with other users.
You can just download through your Usenet news reader and enjoy all the content that Usenet has to offer. Fastusenet.org is a Usenet Service Provider that protects your privacy and anonymity and provides you with a free Usenet News readers as well. Go ahead, sign up today and find out what it’s all about. You won’t regret it.