NEWSGROUP RETENTION

Defined
So why are we talking about newsgroup retention? Well, it's another important aspect to consider if you're a *binaries* newsgroup downloader. Retention refers to the "length of time" (usually measured in "days") postings are available on newsgroup providers' newsservers. The newsgroup service providers listed here have retention rates over 20 days.

Retention rates for providers vary greatly, but for the most part anything over 20+ days is what you'll be looking for.

Expiration of postings
Retention rates exist because there aren't any newsservers that retain every posting ever made to Usenet; the amount of disk space required to archive every post would be well over thousands of terabytes, as the amount of Usenet traffic circulating the Internet every day is hundreds of Gigabytes!

Newsservers only have a finite amount of disk space, so the NNTP software copes by "expiring" older posts to make room for the new posts. Binary type postings take up more room than text-only so binary files have a tendency to disappear sooner.

What you need to do
Dealing with article retention is not difficult; if you go with the right newsgroup provider you'll find you won't have to log into Usenet every day to keep up. And with many newsreader applications allowing automation of downloading, keeping up with your favorite newsgroups has never been easier.

> Click here for a list of Usenet providers with over 20+ days retention rates