yountm@gtephx.UUCP (Marvin Yount) (02/07/91)
I'm sure this is an age old question, and one that's probably been asked
many times before, but here goes again.
What exactly is NNTP? We're currently running bnews (2.11) and we are
considering converting to C News. I've seen discussions on NNTP, but
nowhere have I been able to find out what NNTP does and what it's
benefits and advantages are. If anyone can shed some light on this
I'd appreciate it.
Thanks.
--
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Marv Yount (yountm@gtephx)
UUCP: {ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc}!gtephx!yountm
AG Communication Systems, Phoenixhenry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (02/07/91)
In article <187@numenor.gtephx.UUCP> yountm@gtephx.UUCP (Marvin Yount) writes: >What exactly is NNTP? ... Summed up very briefly, NNTP is the (main) protocol used to exchange news over TCP/IP networks like the Internet. Such networks are typically, although not invariably, based on permanent connections at relatively high speeds, rather than autodialing modems and phone calls. If all your connections to the outside world go via UUCP, NNTP is probably of no interest to you. >... We're currently running bnews (2.11) and we are >considering converting to C News. ... This is an entirely independent issue. B and C News are storage and distribution systems; NNTP is one of the protocols potentially used in the actual transmission. (This is a slight oversimplification, but the general point remains valid.) -- "Maybe we should tell the truth?" | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology "Surely we aren't that desperate yet." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
jerry@olivey.olivetti.com (Jerry Aguirre) (02/07/91)
In article <1991Feb6.223942.13388@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >high speeds, rather than autodialing modems and phone calls. If all >your connections to the outside world go via UUCP, NNTP is probably of >no interest to you. Recent discussion about NNTP transmission of news has pushed its other function out of the mainstream of discussion. I was using NNTP a long time before I ever had an internet connection. NNTP can also be used for remote reading of news. If one has a LAN with users spread out on several hosts then it may make sense to run NNTP on one server and use NNTP modified versions of the news readers on the other systems. In this way the overhead of processing and storing is only on a single system. If the LAN suppors access to remote file systems (NFS and others) then that is also an alternative though even with NFS NNTP is useful for handling posting. When I first started running news I installed it on 5 systems and they fed each other via UUCP over RS-232 cables. Of course back then the storage for 2 weeks of news wasn't what it is today but the effort to maintain all those systems was a real pain. Jerry Aguirre