Over the last couple of months I’ve been emailing instructions on how to use newsgroups to friends and colleagues, which I’ve decided to tidy up and post on my blog.What are Newsgroups?

Newsgroups, are very similar to forums where users post text messages to discussion threads, or ‘binaries’ which are media files like mp3s, videos, pictures etc.

There are literally thousands and thousands of newsgroups, where each newsgroup is about one particular topic or features one particular type of content e.g Xbox games, or html tips, or the latest episodes of Lost.

There is a standard naming structure for newsgroups, so that each newsgroup provider will run servers for the same groups. Each newsgroup provider then checks on a frequent basis with other providers to see if they have any new posts in the groups that they run, and if there is then they will make a copy of that post and add it to their own server.

What this means it that no matter where in the world a post is made or with which newsgroup provider, it will eventually appear on the servers of each newsgroup provider. These files can then be downloaded from the server by any newsgroup user.

To give you an idea of how much content is posted daily, my company runs a fairly modest newsgroup service and only keeps copies of a fraction of the total number of groups, but still downloads about 2TB of new posts everyday from other newsgroup providers. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of 0.5m new mp3s or 500 DVDs - every day.

What makes Newsgroups special?

P2P services like Kazaa, eDonkey etc work by allowing you to search for and download content from other user’s machines. However, this has several limitations:

(i) You need to find a user with the file that you want
(ii) They need to be online for you to download from them
(iii) Most importantly, the download speed you get is usually quite poor as it is dependant on how fast the other user’s machine is, and the quality of the connection between the two machines.

Newsgroups don’t suffer from any of these problems:

(i) You need to find a user with the file that you want

Because newsgroup providers keep a copy of all posts from other newsgroup providers, if someone has posted a particular file once anywhere or at any time, it will be available for download from the server.

(ii) They need to be online for you to download from them

Because all posts are downloaded from the server, not from the user’s PC, you can download these files at any time, whenever you want. You can even pause downloads, go away, and come back and resume later - whenever it is convenient.

(iii) The download speed you get is usually quite poor with P2P

With newsgroups, files are downloaded directly from your provider’s server rather than from a user’s PC. Because newsgroup providers transfer so much data they have tonnes of bandwidth available which means that you will get virtually your full potential download speed at all times, rather than the pitiful speeds achieved with P2P. To put this in perspective with a 2 or 10Mb connection:

• 5 MB mp3: P2P will take around 2 mins to download (if you are lucky enough to find the one you want!), with newsgroups this will take 20secs with a 2Mb line and 4 seconds with a 10Mb
• 350MB 45 minute TV episode: P2P will take around 2.5 hours to download (if the other user stays online long enough!), with newsgroups this will take 23/5 minutes
• 4GB DVD: P2P will take around 1.2 days (virtually impossible), with newsgroups this will take 4.5/1 hour

How do I use Newsgroups?

In Part 2 of this guide which I will post soon, I will explain how to easily access this content and much more.

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