View source for Network News Transfer Protocol

{{short description|Computer network protocol}}
{{distinguish|text=[[Network Time Protocol]] (NTP)}}
{{IPstack}}
{{No footnotes|date=January 2021}}
The '''Network News Transfer Protocol''' ('''NNTP''') is an application [[Protocol (computing)|protocol]] used for transporting [[Usenet]] news articles (''netnews'') between [[news server]]s, and for reading/posting articles by the end user client applications. [[Brian Kantor]] of the [[University of California, San Diego]], and [[Phil Lapsley]] of the [[University of California, Berkeley]], wrote {{IETF RFC|977}}, the specification for the Network News Transfer Protocol, in March 1986. Other contributors included [[Stan O. Barber]] from the [[Baylor College of Medicine]] and [[Erik Fair]] of [[Apple Computer]].

Usenet was originally designed based on the [[UUCP]] network, with most article transfers taking place over direct [[Point-to-point (telecommunications)|point-to-point]] telephone links between news servers, which were powerful [[time-sharing system]]s. Readers and posters logged into these computers reading the articles directly from the local disk.

As [[local area network]]s and [[Internet]] participation proliferated, it became desirable to allow [[News client|newsreader]]s to be run on personal computers connected to local networks. The resulting protocol was NNTP, which resembled the [[Simple Mail Transfer Protocol]] (SMTP) but was tailored for exchanging [[Usenet newsgroup|newsgroup]] articles.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-10-04 |title=Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) |url=https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-news-transfer-protocol-nntp/ |access-date=2024-11-09 |website=GeeksforGeeks |language=en-US}}</ref>

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.

{{anchor|NNSP|NNTPS}}The [[List of TCP and UDP port numbers|well-known TCP port]] 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 [[Transport Layer Security]] (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 <code>STARTTLS</code> command.

In October 2006, the IETF released {{IETF RFC|3977}}, which updates NNTP and codifies many of the additions made over the years since RFC 977. At the same time, the IETF also released {{IETF RFC|4642}}, which specifies the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) via NNTP over [[STARTTLS]].

=={{anchor|NNRP}}Network News Reader Protocol==
During an abortive attempt to update the NNTP standard in the early 1990s, a specialized form of NNTP intended specifically for use by clients, NNRP,{{Clarify|reason=Network News Reader Protocol|date=August 2019}} was proposed.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}} This protocol was never completed or fully implemented, but the name persisted in [[InterNetNews]]'s (INN) ''nnrpd'' program. As a result, the subset of standard NNTP commands useful to clients is sometimes still referred to as "NNRP".

=={{anchor|NNTP}}NNTP server software==

* [[Leafnode]]
* [[InterNetNews]]
* [[C News]]
* [[Apache James]]
* [[Synchronet]]
* [[yProxy]]
* DIABLO, a backbone news transit system, designed to replace INND on backbone machines.

==See also==
* [[List of Usenet newsreaders]]

== References ==
[[Category:Application layer protocols]]
[[Category:Internet Standards]]
[[Category:Usenet]]
<references />
==External links==
* [[Brian Kantor|Kantor, Brian]] and [[Phil Lapsley]]. {{IETF RFC|977}} "Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News." 1986.
* [[Mary Ann Horton|Horton, Mark]], and R. Adams. {{IETF RFC|1036}} "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages." 1987.
* Barber, Stan, et al. {{IETF RFC|2980}} "Common NNTP Extensions." 2000
* [http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/nntp/ietf.html IETF nntpext Working Group]
* Feather, Clive. {{IETF RFC|3977}} "Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)." 2006
* Murchison, K., J. Vinocur, and C. Newman. {{IETF RFC|4642}} "Using Transport Layer Security (TLS) with Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)" 2006

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