Re: Confusion at the End of the World

[stewarte@uunet.uu.net (Buzzy the Hummingbird)]

gaffa!jsd (Jon Drukman) must have been channeling Elvis when e said:
>In article <BC44FD391EBF206372@ccmail.sunysb.edu> PBMANCHESTER@CCMAIL.SUNYSB.EDU writes:
>
>>       What is USENET?  Is it the same or other than UUNET?  What is UUNET? 
>
>Well, pretty much everything these days is the internet.  Inasmuch as
>the terms USENET and UUNET still apply, they are pretty much the same
>thing, but the lines are blurring everywhere.  Only BITNET is still
>pretty much alien.

Sorry to clutter up this forum with more unKatian babble, but this information
is not only mostly meaningless (what the heck does "pretty much everything" 
include?), it's just plain wrong.  

USENET is a virtual network consisting of all the machines that exchange 
USENET news.  The one newsgroup that everyone must carry is called 
news.announce.important -- therefore a host is part of USENET if it receives 
news.announce.important (and most likely many other groups as well).

UUNET is a commercial operation based in Falls Church, Virginia.  The
services they offer to subscribers include email and USENET news relaying.
So UUNET is a part of USENET, as well as being part of 

The Internet is a network, slightly more structured than USENET (but only
slightly).  Many Internet sites are also part of USENET.  However, the 
Internet supports more functionality than just news.  Internet sites are
connected via specific communication protocols (called TCP/IP).

Just as an example, I'm posting from the Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.,
known as sco.com in some circles.  We get USENET news, so we are part
of USENET.  We're not part of the Internet, but we do exchange mail 
with people on the Internet, thanks to another of the services provided 
by UUNET, which is to provide a gateway into & out of the Internet.  

This forum, being a combination of a USENET newsgroup and a mailing
list, has got to be one of the most heterogenous blends of computer
users around.  Hope this information was helpful to some of you.

-- Stewart
-- 
"A cold noodle is like a dog without fur...recognizable, 
 but very unpleasant."
				-- Gever Tully (cruc!gevert)
/*  uunet!sco!stewarte  -or-  stewarte@sco.COM  -or-  Stewart Evans  */