Usenet Services At UC Berkeley

Usenet news services on the Berkeley campus are provided by Communication & Network Services via two servers: news.berkeley.edu (agate.berkeley.edu) provides access on campus, while authnews.berkeley.edu (geode.berkeley.edu) provides off campus access as part of a new pilot authenticated usenet service.

The campus news servers provide access to a number of traditional news hierarchies, as well as being the source for the ucb.* hierarchy. The ucb.* hierarchy includes hundreds of newsgroups whose discussions are centered around Berkeley campus events and issues. The ucb.* hierarchy includes the ucb.class.* specialized hierarchy, which is for postings related to specific UC Berkeley classes.

Information on Usenet Services at Berkeley

• Usenet Services at Berkeley
  A description of Usenet Services at Berkeley, including the ucb.* hierarchy and spam filtering.
• Authenticated Usenet Service
  Information on the new pilot service, including status updates and client configuration guides.
• Available Newsgroups
  An overview of the traditional Usenet hierarchies.
• Creating Newsgroups
  Procedures for requesting the creation of a new newsgroup in the ucb.* hierarchy.
• Usenet Spam Policy and Filtering
  A draft policy on the filtering methods currently in use on campus news servers.
• News Administrator's PGP Public Key
  This key may be used to encrypt messages sent to the administrator or for verification of control messages by other Usenet administrators.
• Computer Use Policy
  Campus guidelines and information on appropriate use of computer resources, including Usenet services.

General Information on Usenet

• What is Usenet?
  A brief summary.
• Creating Newsgroups in Usenet
  The official document on the newsgroup creation process for traditional Usenet hierarchies.
• So, You'd Like an alt.* Group?
  An FAQ on the newsgroup creation process for the alt.* hierarchy.
• news.admin.net-abuse FAQ
  The FAQ of the news.admin.net-abuse newsgroup, which addresses acts that interfere with the use of the Internet by a large number of people.
• Top Spamming Usenet Sites According to Zippo
  A ranking and compendium of Usenet servers originating large amounts of Spam.

Operational Statistics for Berkeley Usenet Servers

• Trouble Reporting: Report trouble with the Agate or the Authnews service to trouble@berkeley.edu.

Send comments to usenet@agate.berkeley.edu.