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I don't understand why I need a provider to get into Usenet. Whenever I read about it, it seems like in the old times it was part of the service ISPs would give

I don't understand why I need a provider to get into Usenet. Whenever I read about it, it seems like in the old times it was part of the service ISPs would give, but now I need to pay someone to get in. Can't I set up my own provider for myself?

hbosch 11y ago
I believe you can browse Usenet for free. The "providers", as far as I know, charge for indexing and guaranteed retention - not just pure access.
joekrill 11y ago
My sense has always been that it's a LOT of data to be moving around. I have Comcast, and they used to provide Usenet access with their internet access. But your average internet user doesn't really have an interest in Usenet. I think it's a very niche thing, even for "advanced internet users", whatever that may mean. And these days it seems to me (I may be totally off base here, though) that it's used primarily for pirating media. So it's likely just not worth the cost for ISPs to continue to provide the storage space and bandwidth to maintain support for this.
dingaling 11y ago
> but now I need to pay someone to get in There are free text-only gateways ( eternal-september.org being one that I used to use ). You generally only have to pay if you want to access the binary groups, due to the TB of data invovled. You can still, in theory, set up your own server to peer with other Usenet servers but it's very rare nowadays. Centralisation isn't unique to the Web.
pjc50 11y ago
USENET is about "peering" and always has been. You certainly can set up your own server - organisations used to have their own internal ones - but if you want a particular set of newsgroups you have to persuade someone to send them to you. This is usually a lot of bandwidth. Also, because there is no security in USENET, there's a disincentive to peer with sites that don't effectively remove spammers and other forms of abuse.

hbosch 11y ago

I believe you can browse Usenet for free. The "providers", as far as I know, charge for indexing and guaranteed retention - not just pure access.

joekrill 11y ago

My sense has always been that it's a LOT of data to be moving around. I have Comcast, and they used to provide Usenet access with their internet access. But your average internet user doesn't really have an interest in Usenet. I think it's a very niche thing, even for "advanced internet users", whatever that may mean. And these days it seems to me (I may be totally off base here, though) that it's used primarily for pirating media. So it's likely just not worth the cost for ISPs to continue to provide the storage space and bandwidth to maintain support for this.

dingaling 11y ago

> but now I need to pay someone to get in There are free text-only gateways ( eternal-september.org being one that I used to use ). You generally only have to pay if you want to access the binary groups, due to the TB of data invovled. You can still, in theory, set up your own server to peer with other Usenet servers but it's very rare nowadays. Centralisation isn't unique to the Web.

pjc50 11y ago

USENET is about "peering" and always has been. You certainly can set up your own server - organisations used to have their own internal ones - but if you want a particular set of newsgroups you have to persuade someone to send them to you. This is usually a lot of bandwidth. Also, because there is no security in USENET, there's a disincentive to peer with sites that don't effectively remove spammers and other forms of abuse.