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Re: Usenet through PPP
On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Or Sagi wrote:
> > A newsfeed, while a little fun to initially set up can totally KILL your
> > connection if you open it up to a full feed. Suggestion, if your ISP has
> > a News Server, you "may" just want to use a software package to read and
> > select things from them instead.
>
> Hey,
> Anyway, how *DO* i get a newsfeed ?
> bye.
>
I _was_ running a newsfeed into here from netvision's news server
using suck to feed INN. It works fine using only a 386-40mhz computer
with a 1 gig HD. Suck pretends to be a regular newsreader such as
tin or netscape. It selects newsgroups and downloads the contents into
a file. That file is then handed off to INN. INN is an NNTP _server_.
The local users can call on the INN software with thier own newsreader.
INN can also directly retrieve a newsfeed without the need for suck.
However, the server news feed exchanges do not allow as fine a degree
of control over the newsfeed as suck does. Also, suck can be used to
create a newsfeed if you have only permissions to use a newsreader.
The problem with any news feed is the bandwidth and disk space that is
required. A survey of my users tells me that about 5% read usenet. I have
the choice of providing a local newsfeed, or letting them point thier
news reader at Netvision. Since the newsfeed uses expensive bandwidth
whether there are readers or not, I have decided to turn off my newsfeed
until there is greater interest in usenet. Our users are mostly still
brand new to the internet and most have not even heard of usenet. We
are giving some introductory courses over the next few weeks. That
might create a greater demand for usenet. All I have to do is to
uncomment a crontab entry in order to restart suck.
There are certain other advantage to having a news feed.. one can
create news groups and hierarchies of newsgroups. I have some
schools to feed, which require a news feed that is some what free
of pornography. Usenet contains the largest quantity of the hardest
core pornography. Suck allows the news master to select the newsfeed
in such a way that the pornographic content can be either eliminated
(or emphasiszed if desired).
--randy
Randy Wright randy@ramat-negev.org.il
System Administrator - Ramat-Negev FreeNet
http://www.ramat-negev.org.il/
07-6572671 voice-telephone
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