As a result of a recent review of the current usage and hardware/software maintenance requirements of hosting an in-house USENET service via news.tufts.edu, UIT will discontinue USENET service on November 1, 2006.
As an alternative, UIT is advocating that members of the Tufts community use a third-party provider due to their ability to focus resources on maintaining hardware and updating available USENET services.
There are several third-party USENET providers and we are currently recommending that users explore Google Groups as an alternative.
USENET is an online discussion system which operates much like a bulletin board. Users can post and read messages that all relate to a specific subject area. A more detailed explanation of USENET can be found at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet.
