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Network News Transfer Protocol
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<p>The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is an application <a href="/facts/Protocol_(computing)/5uady7cB">protocol</a> used for transporting <a href="/facts/Usenet/lYJWFBR6">Usenet</a> news articles (<i>netnews</i>) between <a href="/facts/News_server/mdg0Ib76">news servers</a>, and for reading/posting articles by the end user client applications. <a href="/facts/Brian_Kantor/bF8o3XHz">Brian Kantor</a> of the <a href="/facts/University_of_California,_San_Diego/srMClpNv">University of California, San Diego</a>, and <a href="/facts/Phil_Lapsley/I5UI4J7f">Phil Lapsley</a> of the <a href="/facts/University_of_California,_Berkeley/MXVEjklr">University of California, Berkeley</a>, wrote <a href="/facts/RFC_(identifier)/esftTvE7">RFC</a> <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc977">977</a>, the specification for the Network News Transfer Protocol, in March 1986. Other contributors included Stan O. Barber from the <a href="/facts/Baylor_College_of_Medicine/grDvYCb7">Baylor College of Medicine</a> and Erik Fair of <a href="/facts/Apple_Computer/oTJYta3k">Apple Computer</a>. </p><p>Usenet was originally designed based on the <a href="/facts/UUCP/dQ055F7b">UUCP</a> network, with most article transfers taking place over direct <a href="/facts/Point-to-point_(telecommunications)/RmGgN1Pj">point-to-point</a> telephone links between news servers, which were powerful <a href="/facts/Time-sharing_system/LE5XT9Go">time-sharing systems</a>. Readers and posters logged into these computers reading the articles directly from the local disk. </p><p>As <a href="/facts/Local_area_network/edUDxJ6J">local area networks</a> and <a href="/facts/Internet/Xw1rVvJU">Internet</a> participation proliferated, it became desirable to allow <a href="/facts/News_client/Xn8FS66Q">newsreaders</a> to be run on personal computers connected to local networks. The resulting protocol was NNTP, which resembled the <a href="/facts/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol/TeCRKDpJ">Simple Mail Transfer Protocol</a> (SMTP) but was tailored for exchanging <a href="/facts/Usenet_newsgroup/282rotmp">newsgroup</a> articles. </p><p>A newsreader, also known as a news client, is a software application that reads articles on Usenet, either directly from the news server's disks or via the NNTP. </p><p>The <a href="/facts/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers/c30Xg4d4">well-known TCP port</a> 119 is reserved for NNTP. Well-known TCP port 433 (NNSP) may be used when doing a bulk transfer of articles from one server to another. When clients connect to a news server with <a href="/facts/Transport_Layer_Security/pGy16TnA">Transport Layer Security</a> (TLS), TCP port 563 is often used. This is sometimes referred to as NNTPS. Alternatively, a plain-text connection over port 119 may be changed to use TLS via the STARTTLS command. </p><p>In October 2006, the IETF released <a href="/facts/RFC_(identifier)/esftTvE7">RFC</a> <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3977">3977</a>, which updates NNTP and codifies many of the additions made over the years since RFC 977. At the same time, the IETF also released <a href="/facts/RFC_(identifier)/esftTvE7">RFC</a> <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4642">4642</a>, which specifies the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) via NNTP over <a href="/facts/STARTTLS/CwwGf2KT">STARTTLS</a>. </p>