Joining the JANET News Feed Service

Before joining the service

Eligibility

At present organisations with a Primary connection to JANET can be offered a single Usenet News feed without charge.

Local resources

You will need to confirm when applying that you have a server ready to accept News feeds.

If you are unsure whether your institute has a computer which is suitable and suitably configured, or if you expect to purchase new equipment for this purpose, you may find the service Information Pack helpful.

Select newsgroups

The complete hierarchy of Usenet newsgroups is vast, corresponding to data flows of tens of Gigabytes a day, and it is most unlikely that you need all those newsgroups. It is best to start with a limited feed of a few newsgroups which you know are of value to your organisation. It is not difficult to add further newsgroups later on, when you will have some feel for the demand locally and for the network, processing and storage resources needed.

Any questions?

Please contact the JANET Service Desk with any questions you have.

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Applying to join the service

Application is by e-mail to the JANET Service Desk. Use the template provided.

You need to supply management information (contacts), technical information (details of your own News server) and service information (which newsgroups you want to receive). The above template sets out the details needed.

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The connection process

  • JANET(UK) will examine your application. Provided it is in order, JANET(UK) will then choose which of the JANET News servers will be primarily responsible for delivering the service to you. The choice is at JANET(UK)'s discretion and normally depends on your location, the network path between your site and each of the JANET servers, and the capacity available at each server. JANET(UK) will let you know the outcome of this step.
  • JANET(UK) will then ask the operators of the server to contact you about configuring your own server.
  • The operators will arrange tests to confirm that interworking is possible.
  • Once your feed has started working, the operators of your primary feed will arrange with you and the operators of another JANET server for a secondary feed so that in the event of a problem with the primary server your service will degrade rather than fail.

Provided that the necessary preparations are made beforehand, a new feed should be set up and working within five working days.

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After joining the service

Change requests

For changes to your local details or the feed you expect, contact JANET Service Desk.

Problem reports

To report difficulties with your News feed, contact JANET Service Desk.

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