Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!humu!uhccux!lee From: lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Questions about USENET (/bitnet) Message-ID: <3047@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> Date: 24 Jan 89 03:36:28 GMT References: <1466@cc.helsinki.fi> Organization: University of Hawaii Lines: 65 From article <1466@cc.helsinki.fi>, by harmo@cc.helsinki.fi (Timo Harmo (Valt. tiet. tdk)): " Hi Hi. I hope you can post a summary of what you find out conerning the questions you ask. There's much I don't know -- a few others who use usenet news know less (I think). " I'm on a bitnet site and we have recently started to recieve USE- " NET news. How do you do that? I didn't know bitnet sites could. I'm interested, since some of my colleagues use an ibm mainframe here which is a bitnet node, but not a usenet/internet node. They'd like to see the news. " 1. What is USENET? I've understood it's a network of all the si- " tes that participate and distribute these newsgroups. I think this description would better fit INTERNET, of which usenet is a proper part. The terms are a bit elastic, but usenet is sometimes used to refer to an older part of the net linked mostly by ordinary phone lines within which addresses are, or were once,given as lists of site names separated by "!"s. The internet is more recent and comprehensive; sites atypically linked by high-speed data lines; addressing is domain-style (e.g. my address -- lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu). But the news is a usenet invention. " Should BIT- " NET sites that distibute news be counted in? Bitnet sites are generally not counted in, because they are connected only here and there to internet sites, because they use a different addressing scheme, because of some software incompatibilities due to bitnet sites typically being ibm non-unix and internet sites typically unix systems. And because they don't distribute news (I had thought). " 2. Do you receive any newsgroups originated in BITNET (things li- " ke Bitnet.listserv.history)? Yes. Some are "fed" into the news system, though I don't know about the one you mention. " 3. What other network are connected to the news services (FIDO- " NET,...?) I can't say. I'd guess none other than internet sites. There might be a one way connection from fidonet, since there's a newsgroup on fido stuff. " 4. I understand you have a voting system for organizing new " groups. How many votes are needed? 100 affirmative votes in excess of negative votes. But sometimes groups get created without any vote, when someone who knows how to create one just goes ahead and does it. " 5. What kind of people are you in USENET? Computer-pros, stu- " dents, ...? (are there some surveys?) Lots of kinds. Probably mostly university folk -- students and faculty -- and computer pros in private companies. Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaai.edu (bitnet: lee@uhccux)