Glossary

Address - This is generally used to describe the location of items on a network. When referring to news servers, the address is generally in the format of news.[server_name].com. There are web sites that provide HTML gateways to news servers and these will have addresses in the familiar World Wide Web format of www.[name].com. NewsHunter will not work with web-based gateways. NewsHunter requires access to an NNTP compliant news server.

ARTICLE - This is the command used to fetch an article from the news server. An article number needs to be specified. ARTICLE 234434 will retrieve article 234434 from the news server and deliver it to your computer.

Article - Items posted to newsgroups are referred to as articles. Articles are also sometimes referred to Posts.

Authentication - This is the process of logging on to your news server. The news server asks for your username and password and then checks its database to make sure you are an authentic user of the system.

Author - Anyone who posts an article to Usenet.

Bandwidth - A term used to describe how fast information is sent from one computer to another. Not to be confused with Data Transfer which is a measure of quantity.

BODY - This is the command used to retrieve just the body of an article from the news server. No headers will be downloaded when using the BODY commands. The article number must follow the command.

Cross Post - This term is used to describe the number of other newsgroups an article has been posted to in addition to the primary newsgroup.

Data Transfer - The amount of information sent from one computer to another. Not to be confused with Bandwidth which is a measure to speed.

GROUP - This command is used to select the newsgroup that is to be read. The name of the newsgroup follows the command. GROUP alt.binaries.pictures.anime will select the newsgroup so that commands such as ARTICLE, HEAD, and BODY will know what newsgroup to look at.

HEAD - This command requests just the headers of an article. The headers contain information like the email address of the author, the subject of the article, how many lines are in the article, and more.

Headers - Headers are all the information that is not contained in the body of an article. For example, when you compose a letter, you include information such as when the letter was written, who it addressed to, where it came from, and other bits of information not related to the body of the letter where you express the thought you wish to convey.

Internet - An networked system of computers that supports many different kinds of services. The most popular of these services is called the World Wide Web, or www for short. The Internet also supports other services such and electronic mail, FTP, and Usenet news service.

News Server - A computer that maintains newsgroups and articles. This is the computer you connect to in order to read Usenet newsgroups. Not to be confused with a Web Server which delivers web pages.

NNTP - The protocol used to talk to a news server.

POST - This is the act of sending an article to a news server. It can also be used to describe the article itself. For example, one may refer to an interesting article by saying, "Hmm, now that was an interesting post."

Reply To - This is one of the headers that all articles have. It contains the email address where the author wishes to receive any correspondence.

STAT - This is the command used to check the status of an article. The article number must follow the command. The news server will send a response by letting you know if the article is available or not.

Subject - This is one of the headers that all articles have. It contains a short description of the body's content.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator. Usually used when talking about web sites. When talking about news servers the common term used is Address. You will generally not hear people asking for the URL of a news server. They will, instead, ask for the address of a news server.

Usenet - One of the most popular services on the internet. Usenet, or News Service, is akin to a gigantic bulletin board system.

World Wide Web - The most popular service on the internet today. The World Wide Web, or www, is the service that deliver web content that can be viewed using a program referred to as a browser. Popular browsers include OmniWeb and Netscape Navigator.

XOVER - Short for overview. This is the command used to retrieve a batch of headers from the news server. The XOVER is similar to a table of contents. It does not return the actual articles, just a list of articles that are available.