ISP or NSP? IMHO...
NewsAdmin Staff Writer

Neck muscles straining, fingers flailing, you put your personal safety on the back burner and lurch forward one more time to tie your shoes. The waistband digging into your midsection, you briefly make eye contact with the your Keds, before the tension in the unbendable canvas pant legs snaps your body backwards into the sofa. Fire resistant & bulletproof, your cranberry Toughskins are sure to catch the attention of your classmates, providing that you can extract yourself from the sofa and walk two stiff-legged blocks to the bus stop. At first glance they look like any other pair of dungarees... zipper, two legs, pockets... but midway through your two block journey it becomes painfully obvious that they don't offer the same fit and functionality as a pair of Levis.

In some respects the newsgroup access offered by your Internet service provider (ISP) isn't all that different from a pair of cranberry Toughskins. They appears to have all the basic components, but once you've tried their news servers on for size, you begin to wonder if a dedicated newsgroup service provider (NSP) wouldn't be a better fit.

Retention is the number of days that a news server will archive content within their newsgroups, and it's not uncommon to find ISP news servers that retain binary content (photos, video, music, etc.) for 1-7 days. This arrangement does not offer the average user enough time to download content, and the limited retention cycle often leads to a high percentage of incomplete content as file parts expire as quickly as they're posted. In comparison NSPs will offer over 100 days retention, giving the most casual of Usenet users enough breathing room to grab content from their favorite newsgroups.

Some ISPs may offer extended retention periods, but the majority of their newsgroup content is incomplete, rendering the additional retention and files useless. There is nothing more frustrating than preparing to download an episode of "Joni Loves Chachi" from a multimedia newsgroup only to find out that your ISP's news server is missing 2 of the required 200 file parts. Usenet is essentially a large grid of independent news servers that connect to one another via reciprocal content feeds. As a Usenet service establishes more feed exchanges they're able to acquire more newsgroup content, which in turn improves the percentage of complete files on their news servers. While the best NSPs maintain 100's of feeds and a 99% completion rate, ISPs generally do not have the time to arrange extensive feed relationships, which ultimately has a negative impact on their content completion.

Toughskins were available in every conceivable print and color except for a natural denim, so you had your choice of looking like a giant cranberry or praying mantis as opposed to a normal human being. ISP news servers are similar in that they will often provide access to a partial list of newsgroups, excluding some or all of the popular binary groups. Various excuses are thrown around to justify the exclusion, but it usually comes down to ISPs not wanting to expend the storage & bandwidth resources required to support these data heavy newsgroups. NSPs on the other hand carry a full list of groups on their news servers and will add just about anything they may have overlooked.

The trauma that one incurs as a result of wearing Toughskins through their formative years, is often tucked away in the deep folds of their psyche. The daily operation of a Usenet service is not an easy task and can be quite traumatic in its own right, which is why ISP admins frequently repress any thoughts associated with their news servers. This does not bode well for end users when it comes to receiving basic technical assistance with their Usenet questions. In contrast, most NSP staff are easily reached by email or phone to assist newsgroup users with tech inquiries.

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