Usenet

The original Internet functioned solely as a peer-to-peer system.
While FTP and Telnet were client/server all machines had the server running.
Usenet is a system that copies files between computers without any central control
Originally it used UUCP to exchange messages between student in UNC and Duke.
Later, the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) was designed. It uses TCP/IP.
Usenet works by:
- Each site joins Usenet by setting a news exchange connection with one other Usenet site.
- Users communicate with one site.
- The site asks the other one for any new news and gives it any news it has received from its users or any other sites.
- New newsgroups are added by a voting mechanism. Announcements for votes are posted on news.admin.
- Anyone can add a group to the alt. hierarchy. Sites can choose not to carry those news.
- Each message contains a history of the sites its been on. This way a site knows not to send it to another site which has already seen it.
Because of its openness, Usenet suffers from a lot of spam.