RISQ's Usenet (news) service is world-class, and among the best in Canada. Bulk news handled by RISQ is complete; that is, it includes all categories and over 60,000 newsgroups. Service can also be customized, notably by the creation of custom server names and by filtering categories.
The RISQ bulk news server is a Sun E450 equipped with three processors and three GB of RAM. It receives more than 14 million postings daily (or more than 600 gigabytes) and sends more than double that amount upstream (between one and two terabytes daily!). Administering this server is a delicate task whose success depends on the two main measures of Usenet server performance: retention and completeness.
RISQ news service
The bulk news server feeds a second server that receives requests from users and allows them to read and post news. This second machine is a Sun V880 with four processors and eight GB of RAM.
Usenet service is offered to members on a first-priotity, special-rate basis, but it is also available to non-members. Rates are set according to the maximum number of simultaneous connections allowed.
As well, the service can be customized in several ways:
- Customized server
- Users on a member's institutional network, or to that of a RISQ Usenet customer, access the RISQ news server but the server appears as a local machine thanks to a special DNS configuration.
- Category filtering
- News can be filtered by category or sub-category. In this way, it is possible either to exclude certain categories or, conversely, to include only selected categories. For example, a set of filters can be used to make all *.binaries.* or *.mp3.* groups invisible to the user. Or, only the ca.*, soc.* or news.software.* hierarchies could be made available.
- Permissions management
- As needed, a more detailed configuration can be implemented in order to permit read-only access to certain groups.
- Private newsgroups
- RISQ can host and maintain private newsgroups for members and clients. Articles posted to such groups are visible only from within the client institution, although they can be fed selectively to specific outside news servers in order, for example, to facilitate access for an international partner.