subject: Choosing Usenet Service Providers [print this page] Usenet has seen something of a rebirth in popularity due to the many third-party providers on the Internet. Most ISPs used to provide this service as a standard offering, and the Usenet newsgroups were among the most popular places to be during the early days of the Internet. While it was temporarily displaced in popularity by the emergent social networking and file sharing technologies of the early 2000s, many users have rediscovered this protocol and have found that, despite the bells and whistles of competitors, it still outperforms much of the new. Choosing the right provider is key.
If youre new to Usenet, you may want to choose a modest plan. Look for a provider that offers several different levels of service. That way, you can explore what the Usenet has to offer and decide if its for you or not before you commit a lot of money to the service. If you find yourself running out of bandwidth due to downloading a lot of material, youll know that its time for an upgrade to your service. Remember that theres more to the Usenet than file sharing, however. Its a great social networking medium.
The Usenet has an incredible amount of different topics available to its users. There are advanced scientific newsgroups, newsgroups for political debate and newsgroups for simple networking. Pretty much every interest is represented on these newsgroups and, likely, youll have no trouble finding an interesting one in which to participate. If youre confused by the procedure for participating, there are even newsgroups that will show you the ropes. The users of the Usenet tend to put some value in fostering interest in the service and are usually more than willing to help users out.
Find a service that offers multiple connections for downloads. This is the key to blazing speeds when you find a file you want on the newsgroups. You can likely find Usenet services that offer more bandwidth than your connection can handle, so dont worry about speed; theres plenty to go around. Remember, however, that any file should always be checked for viruses before you open it. There are some compression types that are used on the Usenet more than they are in other places. Theyre very easy to learn and, of course, learning them does carry with it the bragging rights of being in a very savvy group of Internet users.
