Usenet Explained: How It Works?

The Internet is more than just the World Wide Web and e-mail. One widely forgotten network is Usenet, which existed before the World Wide Web and still does. Basically Usenet provides many different technical discussion forums in text format, called newsgroups, numbering in the thousands. The discussion forums are organized by topic and are open to almost everyone. Before the World Wide Web and the forums, there was intense discussion here.

Anyone who wants to use or try Usenet must have access to Usenet. usenet.nl is especially fast and, most importantly, it gives access to the entire Usenet. You can try this service for free for 14 days. At the end of the trial period, you will have to pay for the service. During this 14-day period, you must decide if Usenet is useful to you or not. However, the test is free and without obligation.

Usenet is an inexhaustible source of information

Usenet has been an important collection of knowledge since the late 1980s. You can easily search all or selected forums and still participate in discussions. For example, developers still discuss technical topics intensively on Usenet.

There is also Binary Usenet, where you can post binary files. You can post photos, videos, music, MP3 files, and even software here. This binary Usenet is still heavily used. This is where public domain content such as documents, ebooks, and music are distributed. However, there is also illegal content on this network.

A list of available providers can be found under the link: art-of-usenet

How Usenet Works

If you want to use Usenet, you need to think again. Usenet works differently than the Web. Wikipedia's description uses this way.

Someone writes an article (news or story) for a newspaper (newsgroup).
A reader links to that article, writes a letter to the editor (a follow-up post), and sends it to the newspaper. By publishing this letter, the article becomes available to other readers, creating a two-way communication.

Usenet is different, however, in that it does not have an editorial board that pre-selects articles and letters for publication. The exception is the relatively small number of newsgroups that have moderators, but these moderators tend to be democratically elected and bound by majority decisions.

Access to Usenet

There is a lot of information and content on Usenet. There are several ways to access Usenet for free, but they often have restrictions. usenet.nl is very fast, requires payment after a 14-day beta period, and is a good option for those who want to use Usenet intensively.