How do you spread the news using NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) - Avinash Gosavi

Usenet Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It is one of the oldest communication system that is still in use at some places. It resembles the current BBS or web forums system that we see now-a-days like it had articles divided by categories know as newsgroups. The main difference between BBS or Web Forums and Usenet is that it didn’t have a central dedicated servers all data was distributed over various servers in the network.

Top hierarchies in Usenet comp.* – computer software related stuff humanities.* – arts and literature misc.* – miscellaneous topics news.* – recent events discussions rec.* – music, sports, movies, etc sci.* – researches in science soc.* – social discussions talk.* – chit chat about various topics

Main Hierarchies in usenet CREDITS: WIKIPEDIA

NNTP

What first version of protocol said? NNTP specifies a protocol for the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles using a reliable stream-based transmission of news among the ARPA-Internet community. NNTP is designed so that news articles are stored in a central database allowing a subscriber to select only those items he wishes to read. Indexing, cross- referencing, and expiration of aged messages are also provided.

Introduction For many years, the ARPA-Internet community has supported the distribution of bulletins, information, and data in a timely fashion to thousands of participants. We collectively refer to such items of information as "news". Such news provides for the rapid dissemination of items of interest such as software bug fixes, new product reviews, technical tips, and programming pointers, as well as rapid-fire discussions of matters of concern to the working computer professional. News is very popular among its readers. There are popularly two methods of distributing such news: the Internet method of direct mailing, and the USENET news system.

Specification of NNTP defined in rfc977 Internet Mailing Lists The Usenet News System Central Storage of news A Central News Server Intermediate News Server News Distribution

USENET NETWORK DIAGRAM CREDITS: nntp-traffic-via-specific-isp-with-iptables/ nntp-traffic-via-specific-isp-with-iptables/

Internet Mailing Lists So any usenet network would have its own list of users to whom it sends the “news”. This list of users is referred to as Internet Mailing List. There is also a r ing list which needs to be checked with if all have received or not. Here we send user the whole copy of the article via mail. Its sometimes difficult to keep track of people going and coming back on the list.

The USENET News System The USENET news system provides a way to reduce the amount of resources used by storing articles in a central database on the receiving host instead of in each subscriber's mailbox. There is a central repository of the news articles in one place (customarily a spool directory of some sort), and a set of programs that allow a subscriber to select those items he wishes to read. Indexing, cross-referencing, and expiration of aged messages are also provided.

Central Storage of News So we can nominate a server or group of pc’s to store the whole database at single place. Now subscribers only need to download the article they want to read rather than downloading all articles on their local machine.

A Central News Server A Central news server needs to be maintain a database which can store article and its index and manage NNTP network for receiving and sending news articles to and from server. NNTP specifies a protocol for the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles using a reliable stream (such as TCP) server-client model. NNTP is designed so that news articles need only be stored on one (presumably central) host, and subscribers on other hosts attached to the LAN may read news articles using stream connections to the news host. NNTP is modelled upon the news article specifications in RFC 850, which describes the USENET news system. However, NNTP makes few demands upon the structure, content, or storage of news articles, and thus we believe it easily can be adapted to other non-USENET news systems.

Intermediate News Servers These can be hosted on each computer in the network. This server will be responsible for maintaining local caching to keep a copy of recently retrieved news. It will also take care of retrieving articles from the master server if for any reason service is denied at news service port. For workstations or small system it might be normal to connect directly to the master server.

News Distribution NNTP has commands which provide a straightforward method of exchanging articles between cooperating hosts. Hosts which are well connected on a local area or other fast network and who wish to actually obtain copies of news articles for local storage might well find NNTP to be a more efficient way to distribute news than more traditional transfer methods (such as UUCP).

Probably a live demo if time permits

Conclusion & Thank You

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