# Network News Transfer Protocol > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol > Source revision: 1269390601 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Computer network protocol Not to be confused with [Network Time Protocol](/source/Network_Time_Protocol) (NTP). Internet protocol suite Application layer BGP DHCP (v6) DNS FTP HTTP (HTTP/3) HTTPS IMAP IPP IRC LDAP MGCP MQTT NNTP NTP OSPF POP PTP ONC/RPC RTP RTSP RIP SIP SMTP SNMP SSH Telnet TLS/SSL XMPP more... Transport layer TCP UDP DCCP SCTP RSVP QUIC more... Internet layer IP v4 v6 ICMP (v6) NDP ECN L4S IGMP IPsec more... Link layer ARP Tunnels PPP MAC more... v t e This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The **Network News Transfer Protocol** (**NNTP**) is an application [protocol](/source/Protocol_(computing)) used for transporting [Usenet](/source/Usenet) news articles (*netnews*) between [news servers](/source/News_server), and for reading/posting articles by the end user client applications. [Brian Kantor](/source/Brian_Kantor) of the [University of California, San Diego](/source/University_of_California%2C_San_Diego), and [Phil Lapsley](/source/Phil_Lapsley) of the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), wrote [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [977](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc977), the specification for the Network News Transfer Protocol, in March 1986. Other contributors included [Stan O. Barber](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stan_O._Barber&action=edit&redlink=1) from the [Baylor College of Medicine](/source/Baylor_College_of_Medicine) and [Erik Fair](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erik_Fair&action=edit&redlink=1) of [Apple Computer](/source/Apple_Computer). Usenet was originally designed based on the [UUCP](/source/UUCP) network, with most article transfers taking place over direct [point-to-point](/source/Point-to-point_(telecommunications)) telephone links between news servers, which were powerful [time-sharing systems](/source/Time-sharing_system). Readers and posters logged into these computers reading the articles directly from the local disk. As [local area networks](/source/Local_area_network) and [Internet](/source/Internet) participation proliferated, it became desirable to allow [newsreaders](/source/News_client) to be run on personal computers connected to local networks. The resulting protocol was NNTP, which resembled the [Simple Mail Transfer Protocol](/source/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol) (SMTP) but was tailored for exchanging [newsgroup](/source/Usenet_newsgroup) articles.[1] 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. The [well-known TCP port](/source/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers) 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](/source/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 STARTTLS command. In October 2006, the IETF released [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [3977](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3977), which updates NNTP and codifies many of the additions made over the years since RFC 977. At the same time, the IETF also released [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [4642](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4642), which specifies the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) via NNTP over [STARTTLS](/source/STARTTLS). ## 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,[*[clarification needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify)*] was proposed.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] This protocol was never completed or fully implemented, but the name persisted in [InterNetNews](/source/InterNetNews)'s (INN) *nnrpd* program. As a result, the subset of standard NNTP commands useful to clients is sometimes still referred to as "NNRP". ## NNTP server software - [Leafnode](/source/Leafnode) - [InterNetNews](/source/InterNetNews) - [C News](/source/C_News) - [Apache James](/source/Apache_James) - [Synchronet](/source/Synchronet) - [yProxy](/source/YProxy) - DIABLO, a backbone news transit system, designed to replace INND on backbone machines. ## See also - [List of Usenet newsreaders](/source/List_of_Usenet_newsreaders) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)"](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-news-transfer-protocol-nntp/). *GeeksforGeeks*. 2019-10-04. Retrieved 2024-11-09. ## External links - [Kantor, Brian](/source/Brian_Kantor) and [Phil Lapsley](/source/Phil_Lapsley). [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [977](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc977) "Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News." 1986. - [Horton, Mark](/source/Mary_Ann_Horton), and R. Adams. [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [1036](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1036) "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages." 1987. - Barber, Stan, et al. [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [2980](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2980) "Common NNTP Extensions." 2000 - [IETF nntpext Working Group](http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/nntp/ietf.html) - Feather, Clive. [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [3977](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3977) "Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)." 2006 - Murchison, K., J. Vinocur, and C. Newman. [RFC](/source/RFC_(identifier)) [4642](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4642) "Using Transport Layer Security (TLS) with Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)" 2006 v t e Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes Official about acct crid data file ftp geo gopher http https info ldap mailto nfs nntp sip / sips tag telnet urn view-source ws / wss xmpp Unofficial coffee ed2k gemini feed finger irc / irc6 / ircs ldaps magnet rsync ymsgr Protocol list v t e Usenet History Great Renaming (1987) Eternal September (1993) Meow Wars (1996–1998) Terminology Backbone cabal Breidbart Index Cancelbot Crossposting Flaming Godwin's law Kill file Otherkin Sock puppet account Sporgery Troll Usenet Death Penalty Warnock's dilemma Web-based Usenet Filetypes NZB PAR/PAR2 Hierarchies alt.* Big 8 comp.* sci.* News server Astraweb Easynews Giganews Newsgroups (List) news.admin.net-abuse.email rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated talk.origins alt.* atheism binaries.slack religion.scientology sex sex.bondage sex.stories suicide.holiday tv.simpsons By topic Cryptography newsgroups Clients Google Groups Newsreaders (List, Comparison) GrabIt rn tin --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Network News Transfer Protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.