Top Dog wrote:for those of us not in the big city or those of us not overly technically inclined....what in the hell does the last post mean?
A little history... along time ago in cyberspace, before there was the world wide web, many computer users had a university or military connection to a network called DARPA. The pre internet. University profs/researchers would share information they found/discovered etc.
Local users of micro computers would connect to bulletin board systems via a modem and dialup phone line. One network that was popular for BBS's was called FIDO, and it continues to exist today.
In the 80's when I ran a bbs, there were twenty five thousand FIDO bbs's scattered around the world, and all connected via a phone line to share a variety of things... similar to how the internet is today.
The internet runs on broadband... news people know what broadband is, because radio stations used it for news voice reports etc.
Usenet was a message base, that covered a variety of topics that expanded as time passed. Universities would connect to central servers to access these message bases.
The BBS operator would dialup to a central server, and download what ever message bases he/she wanted to carry on the BBS. The BBS operator did not have to have a Usenet message base, there were similar others and FIDO had their own as example.
Usenet continues to exist today, some of it is very good and some of it, is now pure garbage.
You can access Usenet via your Internet Service Provider. As example if you have Telus or Shaw as an ISP, each provides a connection to Usenet as part of your internet package.
You can connect to Usenet with most e-mail software that supports Usenet... Microsoft's Outlook Express is one, Mozilla's Thunderbird is another. There are also separate Usenet software products that have some extra bells and whistles if you seriously get into Usenet.
I suggest that you give it a try, get an understanding of it, but be cautious of the information that is read/supplied. Don't believe everything, don't be offended, and don't offend, probably sums it up.
For a full detailed explaination click this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet