XPost: alt.free.newsservers, news.software.nntp   
   From: eagle@eyrie.org   
      
   coyo  writes:   
      
   > One thing to keep in mind when you say "theoretically, only one peer" is   
   > that not all servers carry the same newsgroups, and if the single peer   
   > you have does not carry the newsgroup you want, you either have to ask   
   > that they add it, so they can store-and-forward it to you, or find a   
   > peer that already does.   
      
   Right, that's one of the reasons why some redundancy is a good idea.   
      
   > I have a question. Since Usenet store-and-forward peering is manual   
   > ANYWAY, is there any particular reason why the two peers can't negotiate   
   > a VPN tunnel between them?   
      
   Sure, it's just TCP.   
      
   In general, Usenet posts are public data, or at least not particularly   
   secure, so the encryption of a VPN tunnel isn't doing much for you.  But I   
   suppose using something like Tor might be interesting if you're planning   
   on using the netnews protocol for discussing something that requires   
   anonymity, or playing around with trying to develop less-traceable   
   communications.   
      
   > Since text/discussion Usenet server peering is a lot more relaxed, I   
   > suppose I don't necessarily need a fully-fledged data center to host a   
   > text-only Usenet server, I can just use a business-class Internet   
   > connection at home and pay for static IPs.   
      
   Indeed.  Data centers are complete overkill for a text Usenet feed.   
      
   --   
   Russ Allbery (eagle@eyrie.org)                 
      
             Please post questions rather than mailing me directly.   
         explains why.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)