Mark Foster wrote:
I am interested to see whether there is an opinion that regardless of the 'how' this was done by Xtra, that this may infact have been a 'smart' idea (from a business POV). One assumes you take into account the business overheads of running a usenet server in the first place, and that there is a noticable benefit to the company by cancelling the service...
I'm interested to know which ISPs actually still run a Usenet server - and if so, how much bandwidth does it use and how many users does it have? Both raw numbers and as a percentage of the userbase... I'm guessing not very many.. Given the availability of services like GigaNews, Google Groups and the large bandwidth and support demands of running a Usenet server down under, is an ISP provided Usenet Server really something that needs to exist these days? And on another topic, Bonzi Buddy seems to think it's time for a beer. http://202.174.163.104/~blair/bonzibeer.jpg -Blair
----- Original Message -----
From: "Blair Harrison"
Mark Foster wrote:
I am interested to see whether there is an opinion that regardless of the 'how' this was done by Xtra, that this may infact have been a 'smart' idea (from a business POV). One assumes you take into account the business overheads of running a usenet server in the first place, and that there is a noticable benefit to the company by cancelling the service...
I'm interested to know which ISPs actually still run a Usenet server - and if so, how much bandwidth does it use and how many users does it have? Both raw numbers and as a percentage of the userbase... I'm guessing not very many..
I run a small highly moderated one, limited to news, sci, and some limited alt. Experiments running a full server showed too many problems to be cost effective. bandwidth-usage being the largest, with storage costs coming in close behind. That was with a 40% usage base (I have relatively tech-saavy users). No matter how techy the users, there is usually someone who wants a binary group, and then things go through the roof _fast_.
Given the availability of services like GigaNews, Google Groups and the large bandwidth and support demands of running a Usenet server down under, is an ISP provided Usenet Server really something that needs to exist these days?
FWIW, there is a middle option; Orcon tried having a third-party NSP aliased to their news.orcon.net.nz.
From the customer end of things, they had some teething problems. I'm not sure if they solved that or not, but the server works now an seems to be in-house. Anyone at orcon able to provide some details?
-- AYJ Treehouse Networks Ltd.
FWIW, there is a middle option; Orcon tried having a third-party NSP aliased to their news.orcon.net.nz.
From the customer end of things, they had some teething problems. I'm not sure if they solved that or not, but the server works now an seems to be in-house. Anyone at orcon able to provide some details?
Yes we went to an "outsourced" usenet feed for a short time in the past (newsfeeds.com) and it didn't work vey well at all. We have had our own usenet server (feeding from numerous locations) for quite a while now) and it seems to work fine and is being improved all the time (more peers/storage etc) If any other people (in NZ) are interested in NNTP Peering with us (and already have a news server), Please let me know. Thanks Craig Whitmore Orcon Internet Ltd
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