It is a collection of user-submitted
notes or messages on various subjects that are posted to servers on a worldwide network.
Each subject collection of posted notes is known as a newsgroups.
There are thousands of newsgroups and it is possible for you to form a new one. Most
groups are hosted on Internet-connected servers, but they can also be hosted from servers
that are not part of the Internet. The original protocol was UNIX-to-UNIX Copy (UUCP),
but today the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
is used.
Usenet is mostly accessed via newsgroup readers, such as
Outlook Express, that run as separate programs.