About the Usenet: what it is and how it began

What is the Usenet?

The Usenet is a global discussion platform with several million users which has a similar structure to the forums commonly found on the Internet. In the so-called newsgroups, users can not only discuss various topics, they can also download files (binaries) saved on the newsservers at full speeds.

The group "alt.*" is particularly important and is generally the most popular. This is the platform for all possible topics and for exchanging all manner of files, so-called binaries. This is where the diversity of the Usenet really becomes apparent, as "alt*" truly offers a completely free exchange of all information and content.

Access software (a newsreader also called a newsclient) is required for easy access to the Usenet.

The Usenet was established by American students in 1979, making it older than the Internet. Originally, the Usenet was founded as an alternative to the Arpanet (a predecessor to the modern Internet). Although Arpanet played a decisive role in the development of the Internet, today most users are more aware of the Internet than its "older brother" - the Usenet. The name Usenet is an abbreviation for Unix User Network.

Currently, the Usenet has more than 200,000 newsgroups containing 30,000+ terabytes of data and discussions from all over the globe; numbers which only hint at the sheer immensity of the Usenet!

How that idea from 1979 grew into the largest and oldest community online is covered further down this page.

The history of the Usenet: from two UNIX machines to the largest and oldest community

In 1979 the Usenet was established as a connection between two UNIX computers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University (USA). Three students (Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin and Jim Ellis) paved the way for a data exchange using the UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy) protocol and succeeded in creating an alternative to the Arpanet, which was controlled by the US military and various research facilities.

The growth of the Usenet community

In 1980 just 15 computers were connected and exchanged around ten messages per day, however from this point on the number of users grew significantly. In 1985, as many as 1,300 computers were connected to the network. Today, the Usenet has developed parallel to the Internet into a global web connecting many thousands of newsservers.

Although the Usenet was developed long before the Internet, it has stood in its shadow for a long time since the WWW (World Wide Web) established itself. The great advantage of the Internet was the user-friendly presentation via HTML, the links as well as the simpler control of the interface via the mouse.

Due to the hierarchical structure, the Usenet and its control features seemed to be too complex for many users for a long time, with only a few people truly understanding how to use it. However, in an effort to simplify access to the Usenet, various programmers and companies developed software just after the millennium (the newsreaders). Since then the popularity of the Usenet has been growing continuously as newsreaders now make the Usenet accessible for all Internet users today. Finding content as well as downloading text and binary files is made substantially easier by these programs. You can keep your finger on the mouse and start using the Usenet simply and easily with USENEXT today!

Usenet founder Tom Truscott is now a software developer at the SAS Institute in Cary (USA). He has stated that he still surfs the Usenet every day and searches for interesting topics and content. Follow in the footsteps of Tom Truscott and experience the fascinating world of Usenet with USENEXT for 14 days free of charge:

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You can only reach the Usenet through an access provider — and USENEXT is an excellent choice for that: on the market since 2004, with the longest retention worldwide and, as the only provider, two backbones of its own. What sets USENEXT apart

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