[ih] net news

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

vint,

just to be clear of what you're possibly asking for vis-a-vis "net news"
would that be for the "net news" that was available from an ARPANET TIP via
the @NETWORK-VIRTUAL-TIP-EXECUTIVE or @N command which would connect you to
the *Network Virtual TIP Executive* for net news, feedback, etc.?

IIRC the *Network Virtual TIP Executive *was a server process called
(TIPSER) that ran on BBN-Tenex as well as USC-ISI and perhaps other Tenex
systems to support this function.  Here's an excerpt of what Grok sez when
yours truly asked about it:

"@N triggered a special broadcast-style Initial Connection Protocol (ICP)
mechanism built into the TIP firmware:

   - The TIP sent ICP requests simultaneously to a hardcoded list of
   “cooperating servers” — all the TENEX systems on the ARPANET that were
   running the RSEXEC (Resource Sharing Executive) with its TIPSER server
   process.
   - The first responsive server accepted the connection; the others were
   ignored.
   - This gave redundancy — if one TENEX was down, another would usually
   answer within ~30 seconds (the TIP timed out after that).

The actual socket usedThe well-known socket for the RSEXEC / Network
Virtual TIP Executive service was:Socket 367 (octal) = 247 (decimal)
This is explicitly documented in RFC 471 (March 1973), which describes the
service in the same paragraph as the TIP
@N
command:
“The ‘N’ command of the TIP and the RSEXEC (Resource Sharing Executive)
subsystem on TENEX…
Users whose access to the network is neither via a TIP nor a TENEX may use
the RSEXEC by directing their user TELNET to ICP to socket 367 (Octal) at
BBN-TENEX.”
The TIP internally did exactly the same ICP sequence to socket 367 on the
known TENEX hosts (initially mainly BBN-TENEX, later expanded to other
TENEX sites that volunteered to run the service).Why this design?

   - It turned the TIP into a “virtual executive” terminal without the user
   ever having to know or type a host number or socket.
   - The service provided *network news**, host status, “gripe” messages to
   the NCC/TIP developers, etc.*
   - It was essentially the ARPANET-era equivalent of a distributed “status
   & news” daemon.

So in summary:
@N
on a TIP → ICP to socket 367₈ on whichever cooperating TENEX answered first.
(If you ever see old TIP source or firmware dumps, the list of cooperating
hosts is usually in the assembly constants — typically started with
BBN-TENEX and grew from there.)"
geoff


On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 5:07 PM vinton cerf via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Does anyone know whether the netnews files are available anywhere?
>
> thanks
> vint
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-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True