IDEA: Preserving custom content by shooting it into Usenet

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               With Filelanet going down, there were a couple of concerned people who thought that this might affect the NWVault.  Along with the other responses in this thread, I had a chance to talk with the head file editor at Fileplanet a few years ago and he confirmed the Vault and Fileplanet are two entirely different things.

But there doesn't seem to be a shortage of worry at times like this and if people are really concerned they could just shoot the files into Usenet. 

I've been using various Usenet providers for about 25 years now and I don't forsee it going away anytime soon. 

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If you upload (whatever) to a binaries newsgroup (i.e. alt.binaries.(whatever)), it'll be retained in giant decentralized data centers all over the world for at least a few years.  Current "retention" of files posted to a binaries newsgroups for a big provider like Newshosting.com is almost 4 years.

While most Usenet services are pay (~$10-15 a month for unlimited up/downloading), there are places like this which let people have free access, albeit at slower speeds and lower retentions than paying customers.

So if you're worried that someplace like the Vault might be going away sometime in the next 2-4 years, you can always shoot another copy onto one of the thousands of usenet binaries newsgroups and it'll be in good hands.

Explaining anything more technical is beyond the scope of this post.  It's the idea I thought might be useful.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 06 juillet 2012 - 05:31 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Mr. Versipellis]

               I like this idea, but I have no clue how to use Usenet. Is there a group that we can use as our own?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               With Skydrive offering 25GB of free storage you could upload there then set sharing to "public"
               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               I've got a WebHost reseller account, which has unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage space.

I can create subAccounts with x,y and z bandwidth, space, and ftp accounts.

I dont have the time to manage it, but I am prepared to give someone the space for free, if they want to take the time to put together a community webspace of all the Community content.

The only thing I would advise everyone off, is that there are limitations in place to concurrency.
Meaning that it can only accomodate something like 15 concurrent client requests at any one time.

Arguably not an issue, as what are the chances that 15 people will be clicking on the same file, at exactly the same time.

Correction:
Limits are as follows


Memory Restriction
Our servers are hardened with a process memory restriction. A soft limit is set to 40 MB and a hard limit set to 64 MB. When a script uses over 64 MB of server RAM, it will show a 500 error. This restriction only applies for PHP and CGI scripts. Running a image file or static file shouldn't have any problem with this. After lots of analysis, we have found that, most of the scripts without any bugs works fine within the memory limit specified. If your script is not working, we highly suggest to optimize it and reduce the memory usage to run on our server. This restriction is purely applied to avoid sudden server load by a buggy php scripts.


max_user_connection Limit
In our all shared server max_user_connection for mysql has been set to 25. This is to prevent poorly coded php file injection and sql injection at certain time. This limit is a lot high comparing with shared resources. If you are receiving error says max_user_connection limit has been reached then you must be having some sql attack or injection. You should try enriching your security feature of your blog/forum/site.


allow_url_fopen limitation
allow_url_fopen() in php is disabled from all of our servers to protect abusive usage of php (Like Rapidshare premium link generator, rapidleech etc).


What is SOP (Suspension Overcome Period)?
SOP is a term we use to fix up the suspensions relating to our RAP (Resource Abuse Policy). If one of the account is suspended due to abusing the server resources (Like high load or memory), one can request to enable SOP mode for his account and fix the issue. When SOP mode is ON, that site can't be accessed through browser, while the user is able to login to Cpanel, FTP, Mysql to fix the issue up. As soon as the issue gets fixed, one can request to support to disable to SOP mode and get the account back to its old status. Please note, SOP mode is not eligible to be used for all types of account, but most of the accounts suspended for the reason of RAP, can have a resolution using SOP. In case, you need to access your site to fix the issue up, you need to let our abuse department know to enable the "SOP II" mode on your account, please note, we won't enable "SOP II" mode until you have a proper reason for that.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Baaleos, 06 juillet 2012 - 12:30 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_henesua]

               The beauty of Usenet is that it is distributed and non-proprietary storage. Essentially you'd be releasing all that stuff to the wild and tagging it with a category in which we could find the content again. It lasts a long time as well. The problem with it is that it does not last forever and not everyone knows where to find it, so you'd want to create pages for each upload at neverwinternights.info which explained what the stuff was and how to get it.
               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               The thing I hate with usenet, and other upload providers, is that they are riddled with viruses.
And usually have alot of nag screens that ask you to download some download manager, or the downloads are capped at 5 downloads per day etc.

Yes- we need a free solution,
But ideally one that doesnt have all of the trimming that people tend to get annoyed by.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I've never had those issues with usenet. It sounds like it could be related to your ISP or the software you use.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

Mr. Versipellis wrote...
I like this idea, but I have no clue how to use Usenet. Is there a group that we can use as our own?

Yes and no.  There exists, for instance, a newsgroup for discussing Neverwinter Nights: alt.games.neverwinter-nights

However, this is not a binaries group and so usenet providers probably don't store ("retain") the messages in it for very long.  One could probably post binaries (i.e. modules, haks, etc.) there, but there's no surety that they'll last as long  as if they were posted in something like "alt.binaries.neverwinter-nights".  That news group doesn't exist, and while it's possible to get a new newsgroup added, it's a fairly eldritch and difficult process to get a new newsgroup accepted among the usenet provider admins all over the planet.

So the data could be posted to existing newsgroups like alt.binaries.games.adventures, for instance.  The whole thing is a bit complicated from the planning standpoint but from a user standpoint, it would involve installing a free piece of software like Grabit, getting usenet access, and then downloading NZB files generated by content posters, double-clicking them and then basically the rest of it is taken care of for them.  Or, if they were blindly looking for NWN content, just use on of the free usenet search engines like Binsearch.info to search for NWN content.

Pstemarie wrote...
With Skydrive offering 25GB of free storage you could upload there then set sharing to "public"

That or some variation of that method (i.e a different provider) works fine currently as does the Vault.  This suggestion, although it could be used any time, is a solution to a worst-case scenario where those services are unavailable.  Usenet would be the closest thing to permanence possible.  For instance, here's a message from Trent Oster in 1996, fishing around for more artists to work on Baldur's Gate.

Baaleos wrote...
The thing I hate with usenet, and other upload providers, is that they are riddled with viruses.

I have to agree with Heneusa.  I've never encountered any of those things with usenet in 25 years.  I think maybe there are some wires crossed about exactly what we're talking about.  It's definitely not web-based storage, which is what it sounds like you're talking about.  How this would work would probably be NZB-based (see link above) so I can't think of how viruses and all that other stuff would even come into play.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               Usenet, gawd, I always hated that system.  It DOES work, IF you have a decent newsgroup server, and no, a "free" account is not going to work for long without other issues.  

My personal ISP here, blocks about 70% of the usenet traffic unless I pay them an additional fee per month, AND I still would have to pay for the usenet server.  

NZB files etc, are a pain to decrypt, it is an added extra step in managing a file.  Not really a good solution.  Also, most usenet servers only promise x number of days of retention.  Typically 1,000 days or less, which equates to just around 3 years or so.  Some will profess longer, but there are no guarantees there.

Basically, my opinion is that usenet is not a really viable solution.  Most especially for large numbers of files etc.  The larger the file, the higher the number of individual usenet messages that it gets split into, increasing the likelihood of transfer errors etc.  

Granted, most of my pain with usenet in the past, was with the large files, sent over dial-up connects etc, with the resulting xfer errors, while now with higher bandwidth might improve things a bit, but as I said, my personal ISP absolutely hates usenet users and does it's level best to limit speeds.