How Usenet Used To be?

In the Beginning there was Usenet

The World Wide Web (WWW) is the most well-known application using the Internet, but that was not always the case. Usenet is a collection of newsgroups that form a massive global network.  It pre-dates even the most primitive version of the WWW by more than a decade.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) predated Usenet by a decade.  Like the human body, the main set of connections was referred to as a “backbone.”  The term is still used to describe the main trunk lines of the Internet.  From this backbone, numerous cables reached out to connect a limited number of mainframe facilities.  Today’s Internet connects a vast network of computers.  An intricate web of cables is weaved throughout the world. 

Technology used to be extremely expensive.  The hardware was costly.  Computers occupied huge rooms and required a very cold environment in order to avoid overheating.  Connect time was charged by the minute.  Computer time was also rationed.  Those who used ARPANET had budgets that severely restricted the time they were able to make use of its capabilities.

ARPANET relied on existing telephone lines as a way to send the signals.  It was expensive to maintain a connection.  As a way to contain costs, messages would be saved until a connection was established.  Archives are single files that include one or more compressed files.  They were developed as a way to facilitated sending messages in a more cost effective manner.  

When it became clear that ARPANET was not practical for personal use, those who were intrigued by this new way to communicate saw the need for a system that would be available to more people.  Enter Usenet.

From the beginning, it has been easy to connect to Usenet.  A computer with a Unix operating system could take advantage of UUCP (unix-to-unix copy program) to access Usenet.  This meant that smaller computers could be used.  The NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) protocol was an upgrade to the limitations of UUCP.  It defined how Usenet articles were distributed.  The NNTP server functioned as the news server.

The Client/Client-Server System consisted of a client (newsreader (equivalent of a browser on the WWW)) which was the program that requested the service from the news server (equivalent of a Web server on the WWW).  The system housed those clients.  This was how communication was handled. 

At first, Usenet was not well structured.  Over time, as the number of Usenet users and newsgroups increased, the need for organization was apparent.  By the mid-1980s, The Great Renaming created a hierarchical structure that still exists.  Eight top-level (Big-8) newsgroups or hierarchies were defined:  comp.* (computer), humanities.*, misc.* (miscellaneous), news.*, rec.* (recreation), sci.* (science), soc.* (social), and talk.* (talk about controversial subjects).  A subgroup designation looked like this:  comp.hardware.  The alt.* (alternative) newsgroups was designed to be a catch-all of sorts.  It was not standardized the way the eight main newsgroups were.  It became a no-man’s land.  Bogus groups were a special type of group.  Most were found in the alt.* hierarchy.  Many had names, but either group did not exist, or it was not really used.

By now, the haphazard beginning was becoming more organized and, thus, more popular.  It was just the beginning.  The best was yet to come.