Newsreader
Your usenet access software
Access to the Usenet works through what is called a newsreader, also known as a client. For the Usenet it is what the browser is for the web: the program that establishes the connection, fetches the content and makes it readable for you. Without it the data sits on the newsservers, but you cannot get at it.
Why the Usenet needs a program of its own
The Usenet is not part of the web but a network of its own, with its own servers, its own protocol and its own structure. Your browser cannot do anything with it — not because it is too weak, but because it speaks a different language.
A different protocol
A browser speaks HTTP and uses it to fetch web pages. The Usenet speaks NNTP, the Network News Transfer Protocol. Two different languages — and the browser only knows one of them.
No pages, but articles
On the web a page sits on the server as a finished document and is delivered as a whole. In the Usenet there are articles, many thousands of them for large content, and only once reassembled do they add up to something usable.
No clicking, but fetching
There are no links from one piece of content to the next and no address bar to type into. A program has to ask the newsserver what is in a newsgroup and fetch precisely what you want.
Same purpose, different technology
What the browser is for the web, the newsreader is for the Usenet: the program without which the data on the servers stays unreadable for you.
What a newsreader takes care of for you
From the outside it looks like a single click on “download”. Behind it sit several steps of work, all of which the newsreader handles itself.
Establishing the connection
It logs in to the newsserver with your credentials — usually over several connections at once and encrypted via SSL.
Browsing newsgroups
It fetches the list of newsgroups and the articles they contain and makes them searchable for you.
Downloading articles in parallel
Instead of fetching one article after another, it downloads many at the same time. Only that way does a fast line actually get filled.
More about speedDecoding
The Usenet transports text. Files are converted into text for that purpose, usually with yEnc. The newsreader converts them back.
Reassembling
Thousands of articles become a file again. The newsreader knows the correct order and puts the parts back together.
Repairing and unpacking
If individual parts are missing, it draws on the par files that come with the posting and reconstructs them. If the content is an archive, it unpacks it afterwards.
What you need in order to set it up
A newsreader needs to know where to connect to. Every program requires these four details, no matter which one you decide on.
Server address and port
The address of the newsserver and the port the connection runs over. A separate port is provided for encrypted connections.
Credentials
The username and password from your USENEXT account. That is how the newsreader identifies itself to the server.
Number of connections
How many connections may be open at the same time. With USENEXT up to 100 are possible.
Switching on SSL
Encryption is a setting in the newsreader. With USENEXT it is included in every package and costs no speed.
More about securityTry USENEXT for free
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