joec@Morgan.COM (Joe Collins) (08/28/89)
First, let me apologize if this has been asked 1 million times before. I myself asked this question a year ago and was unable to resolve it then so maybe there is better news this time out. I have an IBM PC at home with modem, harddisk, etc. I wish to be able to use this PC to connect to this news network. I suspect I need software and a subscription agreement of some sort. Can anybody shed some light and tell me how to proceed? I have found this network invaluable and have also made many contributions myself - someday I may just lose my usual access and I want to be very prepared. Kindly email me directly as I do not normally read these mail groups. many thanks, joec@morgan.com
epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/30/89)
In article <356@ringwood.Morgan.COM> joec@Morgan.COM (Joe Collins) writes: >I have an IBM PC at home with modem, harddisk, etc. >I wish to be able to use this PC to connect to this news >network. [ I've also mailed a copy of this as per request ] Standard answer: you either receive news on your machine, or you read it on someone else's. Second part first: There are a fair number of machines that are "public access." A list of Public UNIX sites ("NIXPUB") appears in the pubnet.nixpub, comp.misc, and alt.bbs newsgroups. Many of those provide usenet access. Can you get news at home? The answer to this is a qualified "maybe." The software is available (for free). But there are a few things you have to consider: How much disk space are we talking about? Our site receives a full usenet feed, and most of the alternative groups. We expire news after 2 weeks. Our last weekly report showed 107 megabytes of disk space consumed by news articles. That does not include the incoming news spool, history database, the news software itself, or individual users' .newsrc and KILL files. => Can your PC devote 150 megabytes to news? How long does it take to transfer news by modem? At 2400 baud, about 7 hours per day using compressed batches and uucp-g protocol [effectively 219 characters/second.] While this is happening your phone line can't be used for anything else. Neither can the one on the other side. This is why many sites use Telebit 19200 baud modems to exchange news. LZW decompress isn't the fastest thing in the world, either. It takes significant time, even on a 80386. Expire takes time too. Single-tasking environments like MS-DOS won't give you a lot of time to actually READ the news you're getting. => Does your PC have a 9600 baud (or faster) modem that is compatible with those used on sites that can feed you news? [PEP or V.32] How many people will read news on your machine? Usenet is a mass-distribution mechanism--it's designed so many people can share a single copy of news articles, and the "cost" is measured per-capita. It's cost-effective to feed a machine that serves 300 users. It's not cost-effective to feed a machine that serves one. That's why "personal computers" aren't that common on usenet. What does this mean? In practice, it means you arrange to receive only those newsgroups that you feel you "must" read. You have to be very careful how you choose: if you ask for sources or binaries but not bugs or .d groups, you're asking for trouble. If you don't receive news groups you'll miss important information (challenges to the importance of news.newusers.questions notwithstanding). If followups are directed to a newsgroup you don't subscribe to, you lose the thread, etc. If you use a short expire threshold, you save disk space but can't backtrack as far. IF your machine is big enough/fast enough to handle news IF an existing usenet site will give you a feed THEN yes, it's possible. But for most PC users, it's just not practical. -=EPS=-