Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!husc6!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf
From: wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Questions about USENET (/bitnet)
Message-ID: <1164@psuhcx.psu.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 89 23:36:26 GMT
References: <1466@cc.helsinki.fi> <3047@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Reply-To: wcf@psuhcx (Bill Fenner)
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 49

In article <3047@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
|From article <1466@cc.helsinki.fi>, by harmo@cc.helsinki.fi (Timo Harmo (Valt. tiet. tdk)):
|" 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,
There have been programs written for VMS and VM/CMS sites, here at PSU we
have both on USENET.

|" 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
No, USENET is all the sites that get NetNews.  My BBS is part of USENET.
Why?  Because it gets NetNews.

|" Should BIT-
|" NET sites that distibute news be counted in?
|
|Bitnet sites are generally not counted in, because they are connected
BITNET sites that receive news are just like any other site that receives
news-- part of USENET.  You could get a news feed over a ham radio
repeater (I know, it's illegal, but...) and be part of USENET.

|" 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.
They are often gatewayed locally.  For example, locally we have psuvm.psu.edu
gatewaying lots of listserv's to netnews.  Our equivalent of his
bitnet.listserv.history seems to be bit.listserv.hist-l .

|" 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.
The question as stated is pretty ambiguous.  Do you mean what networks are
used to transport news messages?  In that case, the answer is UUCP, BITNET,
the Internet, FidoNet, and probably many others.

  Bill Fenner
-- 
   Bitnet: wcf@psuhcx.bitnet     Bill Fenner       | "You are the angel of
  Internet: wcf@hcx.psu.edu                        |  death, and I am the
 UUCP: {gatech,rutgers}!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf         |  dead man's son."
Fido: Sysop at 1:129/87 (814/238 9633) \hogbbs!wcf |       -- Pink Floyd