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For those of you who are scratching your heads right now, let me explain...

NNTP is the "tech-name" for usenet or the discussion groups that are behind Google's excellent Google Groups service.

Back in "the olden days" when only "real men" were to be found hunched over the keyboards of computers connected to the internet, usenet was hot and accounted for many wasted hours and computer cycles.

Through the years, the number of different newsgroups grew at an amazing rate, covering everything from embroidery to nuclear physics -- with a fair bit of porn and warez thrown in for good measure.

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Until recently, every ISP offered access to their own nntp server so that users could access many of these groups without using the valuable real-time bandwidth that was better allocated to web-surfing and other activities.

Unfortunately, as the years have ground on, the profile of the average net-user has changed significantly and that seems to have meant the demise of nntp as a key component of Xtra's offering.

Now, a multitude of web-based discussion forums and chat-rooms seem to have taken over the role of many usenet newsgroups, providing a place where like-minded (or those with widely differing opinions) can air their views and discuss issues of interest to them. In fact, a growing number of Net-users have never used an nntp client and don't have a clue what usenet is.

This, claims Xtra, is why they're pulling the plug on their nntp server. Just a few hundred people (out of the hundreds of thousands of Xtra customers) actually use this service so there's no commercial rationale for allocating resources to keep it running.

If you still want a usenet-like experience, they claim, just use Google Groups or one of the services provided by MSN.

Well I guess I can see their point -- but it's a shame that NZ's largest ISP is dropping one of the foundation cornerstones of the Net. It seems that the webification of online content is almost complete (soon to be followed by the videoification of its content).

The other problem (and perhaps the *real* reason for this move by Xtra) is the liabilities associated with some usenet content. Since this service is largely unpoliced, there have been numerous reported incidents where illegal material such as child-porn being posted to completely unrelated newsgroups. Obviously no ISP wants to offend its customers and face possible censure in the event that they're found to be hosting such material on their nntp server and the only way to be sure is to keep up a high level of monitoring -- way expensive.

I've not used Xtra's nntp server for a long, long time so the move won't affect me. When I was using it I found many of the key newsgroups I read (rec.aviation.military, rec.crafts.metalworking, sci.engr.joining.welding, etc) to be incomplete or just plain slow -- so I now subscribe to a paid service in the USA which is far better.

Unfortunately for Telecom's "cheaper, faster broadband" plans, I suspect that a few more people will do likewise -- perhaps to get access to some of those binary newsgroups which carry large files consisting of videos, software, music and other media. Now, instead of these files being brought in just once and served up from a local machine, each individual user will be importing their own copy -- consuming valuable international bandwidth.

Is Xtra's nixing its nntp server a big deal?

Not to most people -- but to those of us who still use usenet, enjoy its "wild west" freedom of speech, and consider that it should be a "free" service provided as part of an ISP account, well it's kind of a worry. Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come.

What next?

Will someone decide that it's a good idea to close the nntp ports on Xtra connections because there's obviously no need for them to be open any longer?

Do you still use usenet newsgroups and if so, how do you access this service?

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