Re: Newsgroups - was Interested in joining the Masons...

Mudge wrote:

Speaking of Newsgroups - "Rogers" in Canada is apparently killing its
Newsgroup server at the end of December as "Newsgroups are an obsolete
communication tool" or words to that effect - is this happening
elsewhere ??

When I worked for an Internet provider some years ago, the cost of providing newsgroups was significant. One needed to peer with other servers, which isn't free, there was a need for massive storage (in the days when 500 MB was a lot, it was minuscule in a news server) as well as bandwidth to handle an incoming and outgoing stream.

Popularity of newsgroups began to wane when the web started to attract attention. And as use of the Internet became more commonplace, newsgroups took a back seat to instant messaging, web-based forums and other graphics-laden discussion systems.

But even though there are fewer people on Usenet, it has always been used to transfer binary files. And binary file sizes have literally exploded with whole CDs and DVDs being transferred. And with the 35% overhead needed to transmit a binary file on a text-only system, you're talking about files as big as 10 gigs. There are hundreds of binary newsgroups, and each one probably holds a couple terrabytes.

So Rogers is likely getting out of the money pit. Comcast did that a couple years ago and contracts with Giganews, providing Comcast users with a "free" account.

.

Relevant Pages

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