![[news.ks]](/usenet/pics/news-full.jpg)
Usenet@UIUC is a campus Registered Organization that runs a Usenet news server for UIUC students, staff, and faculty. The server holds approximately 4,300 newsgroups (public discussion forums), all of which are accessible either through a news reader or a web interface.
Any Registered Organization can have a newsgroup in uiuc.org.* space, such as uiuc.org.usenet. These groups can then be accessed online, either like a web board or through a regular news reader, by anyone with a UIUC account. For example:
http://news.ks.uiuc.edu/news/index.cgi?group=uiuc.org.usenet
Historically, these newsgroups were offered by CITES to any RSO that wanted them. The web access method, however, is new, and was written specifically to help Registered Organizations.
If you would like to create a newsgroup for your organization, please contact news@ks.uiuc.edu.
More information on accessing the server is available from the server's web page, at http://news.ks.uiuc.edu/.
The short version: you can read with either a web browser, the newsreader built into your existing software, or a text-based newsreader. Access is restricted to University computers and users; UIUC users can get a password to allow them to access the server from outside of the University (ie from home).
This page is available at http://www.killfile.org/usenet/rso.html. Our main page, http://www.killfile.org/usenet/, offers additional information about the organization; the main server page, http://news.ks.uiuc.edu/, has additional technical information.
Essentially, follow campus usage
policies
(http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/cam/CAM/viii/viii-1.1.html) and
you'll be okay.
A few specific policies: No morphing. No spamming. No harassing people. No abusing the network. This is basic stuff; I don't have to remind you.
| Hierarchy | Feed Info | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| uiuc.* | Organizers | uiuc.* contains newsgroups for the University specifically - student organizations, classifieds groups, general discussion fora, etc. It is run by Usenet @ UIUC. news.ks is its primary home, and it is intended for current UIUC students, staff, and faculty only. |
| cmi.* | Primary Participant | cmi.* is a collection of community newsgroups for Central Illinois. More information about the hierarchy is available at http://www.prairienet.org/discussion/aboutnews.phtml. |
| illini.* | illini.* is a new hierarchy being put together by Tim Skirvin to be used to discuss UIUC issues by both current University affiliates and alumni. More information is available here. | |
| Big-8, bionet.*, chi.*, linux.*, gnu.* | Full Feed | One of our primary missions is to carry all of the formally created newsgroups in the Big-8 hierarchies (comp.*, rec.*, soc.*, sci.*, news.*, misc.*, talk.*, and humanities.*), which are generally considered the "meat" of Usenet. Other hierarchies are added as requested (and pending availability). |
| alt.* | By Request | We currently have multiple feeds of these hierarchies, except for the binary distribution newsgroups, but only carry groups that have been requested by users. If anybody wishes to add a group, please contact news@ks.uiuc.edu; a single request should, in most cases, be adequate to add a group. |
| free.* | ||
| unihigh.* | Organizers | At the request of Uni High, we're going to keep these newsgroups alive for another couple of semesters, with future discussions to determine their final fate. |
For more information on Usenet, please read news.announce.newusers, specifically these FAQs:
Much more information regarding Usenet (and everything else) can be found at the Usenet FAQ Archive, at http://www.faqs.org/usenet/.
For help in setting up your newsreader, you may want to check Prairienet's Newsgroup Access page, at http://www.prairienet.org/discussion/newsgroups.phtml, substituting news.ks.uiuc.edu for news.prairienet.org where necessary.